We Are Gonna Miss This Place!

Yesterday we hiked the "Saddle", a beautiful hike behind Tuacahn that heads up a canyon and over a saddle shaped crest down into Snow Canyon. (The boys didn't last all the way, but we had so much fun playing on the rocks!) It is free and has some of the most incredible rock formations in Southern Utah. According to us, anyway.
Kwint has dubbed this one the Dragon Head...

We found a mini "narrows" a crack we sidled through just for fun. Here, Kwint sat on top and I hoisted the boys up to him.

Me and the boys from Kwint's bird's eye view...

HOW, we asked ourselves, did a rock form itself into a perfect cube?

And, here is one of many fun rock piles we climbed on, just for fun.


We so love these red rock hikes. We will miss having it in our backyard, but we know that even after we move, we will be here for many a weekend vacation and revisit all our favorite hikes. Maybe not mid-July... but all spring and all fall we will be hitting the rocks. (All winter we will be hitting the slopes in Park City!!)

There are many, many things we will miss. We have become so rooted here that it really is with heavy hearts that we will say goodbye to this chapter in our lives. We will never say goodbye to St. George because we plan on traveling down as often as we used to travel up, and we will keep all that we hold dear close to us-- Tam, Dave and the girls, and our wonderful friends. It is interesting how much deeper our emotions are flowing now that we know how close we are to leaving.

We had three interested parties in leasing our house this week, but no offers. We are finally feeling peaceful about it, though. We have 4 plans, A,B,C, and D. We are praying and studying things out, and we trust Heavenly Father. He knows what we need and He will make the way. We are ok with whatever we have to do. It has been a rough road emotionally in this "down economy", and hearing every negative and discouraging thing possible from anyone and their neighbor hasn't helped, but we really know it will work out however He has planned it to, for our benefit, even if it doesn't feel beneficial to us at the time.

So, plan A: A miraculous, cataclysmic event occurs and we get an offer to buy our house at what we are asking within the next 4 weeks.

Plan B: We get an offer for someone to lease purchase or to purchase by seller financing.

Plan C: We keep the house and find people to go in on a time share to cut the house payment down so that we can afford it while renting in Heber. I will start working from home to offset the cost. (I got a job offer from a colleague of Kwint's who has a website business and I would read and summarize newsletters to put on her blog.) It would be a delicate balance, because I am easily over-stressed, but I could make it work.

Plan D: Rent the house out. This is not our favorite option, because we have heard too many stories of renters who trash the homes they rent (although we are planning to rent for a couple years and we are not planning on trashing whatever home we rent) and we never know if they will default on their payments and the we will be stuck in the same situation we are stuck in now. But if we have to, we will look for renters.

So, we are going to refinance this week and see if we can get our payment down a bit, because no one will pay the amount of our mortgage as rent or a lease purchase... It has been so frustrating!! The buyers all want soooo much house for sooooo little money, and because of all the foreclosures and the fact that there are literally 8,000 houses for sale in Washington County, they are pretty much able to find it. We just can't compete in this market unless we short sell, and we don't want to damage our credit. We are already kissing goodbye all of our equity, unless we keep it for awhile until the market rebounds more, and then hopefully we'd kiss a little less goodbye.

Now that I am finished with my rants and raves, we are getting ready to head up to Heber this coming weekend to look for a place to live. It will be nice to have a place to picture us living in as we pack. It has felt strange putting things in boxes, unable to imagine their next destination... We are excited for the weekend. We will DVR Saturday's General Conference to watch throughout the next week so we can house hunt, and then spend Easter Sunday with Grandpa and Grandma. Yay!!

Speaking of conference, I went to the YW broadcast last night with Tam and my nieces. I loved all of the inspired messages.... funny, how I am no longer a YW, but all of my prayers were answered as I listened. All of us could benefit by reading it in next months Ensign. Pres. Uchtdorf told his love story with his wife, which was adorable, and I came home very glad I went.

The weather has been so perfect this week! We are outside a lot with the neighbors. The boys love to play with the Evans and the Rands across the street, and they love digging in the dirt. We are getting our backyard in, which we will enjoy for the next four weeks. It looks great. (We are hoping it will help sell the house.)

I know this was a long one. Feeling talkative tonight. Stay tuned next week for Kaeleb at soccer-- he joined a city league two weeks ago and LOVES it.

Oh, the Luck of the Irish was upon us once again....
We had a festive, albeit icky looking, St. Patricks Day.
We enjoyed Green Eggs & Ham...

Green Tuna Fish Sandwiches...

And Green Shamrock Cookies....

The Pot of Gold was hiding a little surprise for the boys from a lucky leprechaun. Not that Kaeleb fell for that bit of fun.... He said "Leprechauns aren't REAL Mom. YOU dropped those things on the table." Nothin' gets past him.

This past Monday marked my 33rd birthday, which we celebrated for four days, but got no pictures... Mom usually takes them... I felt very loved and remembered, so thanks to those of you who wished me well.

We are feeling the stress of our upcoming move.... We are doing everything we can think of to sell our house and a big fat nothing is happening. We are praying for the miracle, but have a plan B and a plan C if it doesn't sell in the next couple of weeks. It is just a really crummy economic world we are living in these days and I can't think of anything positive to say about it.

I am focusing on the only thing I actually have control over, which is my strategic packing process. Empty boxes, full boxes, packing priorities, etc. Loads O' fun.

Spring Break

This week was Kaeleb's first "actual" Spring Break. He did have one in Preschool, too, but a kindergarten Spring Break is different. It's legit. So, since we are not-- due to the upcoming move-- in a position to take a vacation, I tried to think of fun things to do at home, for free. I had big plans... most of which were foiled by the rainy week we had, but we did get out on one hike once most of the mud dried up.
I love these little Billy Goats. They were positively bouncing along the trail. Kaeleb was trying to catch Brennan in this one, he wouldn't stand still for the picture. :)



The other fun days included a Wii tournament, in which Kaeleb schooled me on the baseball field, 8-0. Yes, I struck out every time. I blame the umpire. But I beat him at boxing. He was really mad at me for not letting him win. Ha ha!

Another rainy day activity was going to Barnes & Noble to look at books and play on the stage. We love it there. It is one of our favorite places to go when it is too cold or hot to play outside. Kaeleb always picks out a new Berenstain Bears book. He has a plan to collect ALL 50 of them. This time he chose "Moving Day". (I put the idea slyly into his head)

Our plan was to use the Berenstain Bears to help Brenny transition to Heber. Kaeleb is SUPER excited to move. He loves the snow, the cold (reminds me of my dad, he never wants to wear a coat and says he likes it that way), and is most excited to live close to his favorite cousin Talan. Brennan on the other hand, is less than excited about the idea. Every time we show our house I drag him out the door screaming "Dis is MY house!! I not dunna sell MY HOUSE!! I don't WANT dose peoples in my house!!" You wouldn't think a two year old would really understand the process, but apparently they pick up on more than we give them credit for.

I don't know if the book helped, but when Kwint went snowboarding with Sadie and Jaiden on Thursday, Brennan was quite jealous and begged to go. So, Kwint told him "When we live in Heber I will take you snowboarding all the time." That did the trick. He became excited to move... but when we get there in May and there is no snow, I have a feeling we will have one disappointed toddler, who will not forget that Heber = snowboarding.

Other than that it was Candyland and Dawn of the Dinosaurs. So, maybe it was lame as far as Spring Breaks go, but we had fun and that is all that matters.

Saturday we had planned on helping our dear friends, the Millers, with their backyard. But it was windy, cold, and hailing. So, we had lunch, and then Mary Lynne and I went shopping while the men and boys played. This is the best picture we have ever taken of McKay. He likes to tease me and run away, so I usually only get the back of his head. Little turkey. While we were gone, Brennan treated him to his first fist fight, but in the end, they are still best friends. As we were driving home Brennan said, in a dreamy voice, "I love McKay. Sooo much."

So, I feel like I am living in Seattle again. This winter, and last winter too, actually, have been long and wet. It is going to be up to 70 this week, but it has been fun for me to enjoy the rain a bit. My kids have picked up on the fact that I am always happier on rainy days. Kaeleb said once, "Hey, it's raining! Mom's favorite kind of day!" and another day Brennan looked out the car window at the clouds and said "Its a Bootiful day today." It is because every day that is cloudy is not blisteringly hot. I will miss everything about St. George except the heat.

Black is the new black

It is beginning to sink in that we are actually moving... Once March rolled around, we realized that May 1st will be upon us before we know it. So, we thought we'd better take advantage of every moment we have left in this beautiful sunny city. We went for a hike on Friday night before dinner and had a great time. The boys were hopping around like little mountain goats and we had to keep yelling "Slow down! Get away from edge! Get back here!" It was nice to see them having so much fun.

This is one thing I have always loved about Kwint... he is happier in the air than on the ground-- figuratively and literally. His motto is "Why walk when you can run, and why run when you can jump?"

I had a difficult time getting Brennan to stop moving long enough to smile, so although he is not looking at the camera, at least I captured the front of his face instead of the back of his head as he ran away from me.

Kaeleb loves crawling through caves and arches, which are plentiful in these wind eroded red cliffs.

This has been an unusual spring-- it is normally in the 70's by now with buds on the trees, but I guess the groundhog saw his shadow because there is nary a leaf out there... but this is my favorite view of the city-- with the Temple in the center, just as it should be the center of our lives.

Here are our shadows on the bluff... a poetic photographic moment for me...

This week I didn't have much on my schedule and was feeling particularly energetic (which has not happened since Brenny was born) so I decided to refinish the table and chairs. This table belonged to Grandma Ruth and although it was pretty beat up, I couldn't bear (or afford) to part with it. The edges of the table were worn to the bare wood and there were bite marks on the backs of the chairs from Brenny's teething days. (We compared him to the baby on A Series of Unfortunate Events that bites everything and hangs on with her teeth) So, three days, 100 dollars, and five trips to Home Depot later, this is the end result. I quite like it. I had to paint the picture frames on our kitchen wall and a shelf black to match, and just because I had all the stuff out, I painted an old run down bookcase that was once Tom's. Kaeleb started getting a little nervous and timidly asked, "Uh, Mom, are you going to paint EVERYTHING black?" I laughed and said "It looks that way, but I promise I will stop after this." I think he was imagining his toys and all turning black.

This was a silly moment after baths one night this week..

Kwint likes to style Kaeleb's hair this way...

And, speaking of black, I learned a valuable lesson last Sunday night. Never let the boys wrestle while sitting on my lap. This black eye I am now sporting is the unfortunate result of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. This was it on Monday.

And here it is on Thursday. All week I have creatively matched my shirt and my eyeshadow to the changing color of my black eye. I wore black one day, blue two days, purple two days, and am now getting closer to the green spectrum. I found that if I plastered it with makeup and matched the eyeshadow on the other eye to the black eye, no one even noticed it. It is only the second black eye I have ever had. The first was a gift from my big brother when I was just a toddler. I have been surrounded by strong, rowdy boys all of my life and I wouldn't change a moment of it. I have also been the victim of many a fat lip and lacerations from flying toys. Oh well.