Old news....

 

This is old news but I thought I would document it anyway. It's from our house hunting trip to Maryland in mid-Jan. Hailey was always very helpful with the bags. We looked at a lot of houses!! We were out here from Wed-Sun. We didn't find any houses that we really liked. That was a little depressing. Especially since we had decided to come out with Matt when he started work. We had debated staying in Utah a little longer. After getting back to Utah we had 5 days to get ready to move. That was rough but during those few days the Utah house went under contract! It's now mid-Feb and it's completely sold. That's a little sad. We liked that house and our neighborhood. It's sad that it's not a part of our lives anymore - the house anyway - the people, though, have made an impact forever.

Outgoing kids.....

The other day there was guy outside our hotel smoking. He opened the door for us on our way in and Jackson just couldn't resist....
Jackson: "You shouldn't be smoking. It will turn your lungs black."
Smoker guy: "Yeah, I know."
Jackson: "My parents taught me to never smoke. It's very bad."
Smoker guy: "They're right. It is."
Me: "Sorry if he's giving a little too much advice."
Smoker guy: "That's ok. I need to hear it."

Obviously the guy was really nice about it. This is not the first time Jackson has done this. He seems to think of it as a personal crusade to stop people from smoking.
It's an ambitious goal and a good one. I guess I should just get over worrying about what people think and let the kiddo do what's right :)

It all started this last summer when we went to WA to visit my family. There was a guy smoking outside a building and Jackson told him he should stop because it was very bad for him. The guy said "You're right. I am going to put it out right now because you told me to." and he did. So Jackson thinks he has the power to make people stop smoking.

Hmm. Where are we now?

We put our Utah house up for sale around mid Jan. We came out to Maryland for a house hunting trip, went back to Utah for 5 days then returned to the East permanently. At least for now :) We are now holed up in our temporary housing - a hotel room. I had hoped it would have some sort of mini kitchen, it is a suite after all, but it only has a small fridge and microwave. That's it. So we are getting a little creative with our meals. Matt has started work and seems to enjoy it. We only had one car until today so the kids and I have been pretty much hotel bound. There is and indoor pool literally outside our door so we have been swimming a few times. We have continued house hunting A LOT and we haven't found anything we really like. Yikes. However, after only a week and a half on the market our Utah house went under contract!! Yes! That means if we actually find a house here that we like we could buy it :) Although we are strongly considering building a brand new house. Crazy. I hate that it would take about 6 months - I would really like to move into a house tomorrow - but building prices are really good right now and here, anyway, the older home prices are extremely high. Example: we can buy a 1960 -1970 home for $200,000 or we could build a new one for $200,000-$225,000. Isn't that crazy?
So next on the list is to decide for sure if we are going to build, then find something to rent for awhile - the rest of the pregnancy actually, and finally get Jackson registered for school out here. I have put it off as long as possible so I wouldn't have to make him change schools again but I don't think we are going to be able to avoid that. He is very sad to be moving. His emotions are on a high roller coaster right now. Maggie is handling it ok but asks every once in awhile when we can go home. Hailey hates being cooped up in a hotel room. I could probably just sleep all day every day if there weren't three little ones to keep me up :) This pregnancy is still pretty rough. I'm not sick anymore but still extremely tired!!

Hint Hint

 

Here's a little hint about the baby we are expecting in June :0

Sledding

 

All of us LOVE sledding!! Maggie especially - although she probably has a skirt or dress on under those snowpants she has no problem getting right into the thick of things when sledding. She takes a sled and just goes again and again on her own. Jackson heads straight for the jumps. Hailey will ride with one of us a few times but then she only wants to go on her own. She is always missing a glove at one time or another so we got her some that go way up past her elbows - see in the picture? - but somehow she managed to get one off anyway. They do stay on a lot better though. This last time we went sledding there was quite a sheet of ice under the snow. There was one path where all the snow was scrapped off and it was just sheer ice all the way down. The kids loved it because they could go down easily without sleds. They would just jump on and start sliding.

Merry Christmas!!

 

Christmas was great. We didn't put any presents under the tree before Christmas Eve because we were sure the dog would chew them up - so on Christmas morning the kids were amazed by all the presents. Jackson's first comment was "that is a lot more presents than we had last year!!" Of course that was because John and Kami brought a ton of presents for each other..... :) We opened the stockings and played with what was in those while we waited for everyone else to get up. It was fun to watch the kids open presents. They would say things like "Santa knew I wanted this and I didn't even tell him!" and "This is my favorite present ever!" Hailey was a little unsure of all the chaos so she sucked her thumb and opened presents with other hand. We had quiche for breakfast (Matt's family tradition) and ham for dinner. It's fun to try to figure out how to mix traditions. You realize you have expectations you didn't even know you had! We always had the big dinner Christmas Eve while Matt's family did it on Christmas day. They also never opened presents on Christmas Eve. We opened presents from everyone else but the immediate family - we did those Christmas morning. We also had presents in our stockings while Matt had candy, nuts and oranges. We are so rarely home at Christmas that we haven't had to figure any of this out. It will be fun to see what happens over the next few years as we stay home more often over the holidays

Christmas program

 

Maggie had a program at her preschool just before Christmas. They sang a few songs and then did some craft activities with the parents. She loved it. It was fun to go and watch all the kids. Maggie wanted to dress up - she wants to dress up everyday - but I won't let her wear her nice dresses most of the time. She was very excited to be allowed to that day.