On moving.

We thought we might stay in Santaquin forever, but I guess it is not meant to be!  We are moving THIS SATURDAY!!  I'm still kind of in shock, but even with all the sadness I feel overwhelming peace.  And a little bit of excitement.  So here's the picture I posted on facebook to announce this move to everyone, along with my post:

I might as well get it out there....THIS is happening!! I was feeling great about the whole thing until that sign went up--now every time I look at it my heart and gut wrench and I feel like a traitor to this community and people that I love and I want to cry thinking about leaving this place! Can you tell I haven't moved much in my life?? haha. But we are in LOVE with a house in Salem and we have to sell this one to get it. So if you know anyone looking to buy in Santaquin, send them over!

And this is my post from a week later, after only 5 days of having to keep my house clean (awful!!), jumping every time my phone rang because I was afraid it was the realtor telling me someone else had bought the house in Salem, and only 3 showings, we got an offer for our asking price minus $2,000 closing costs!

Here is my post from facebook about that:

It's for real! After less than a week on the market we have accepted a great offer for our home. And the market is slow right now people! We're getting the house we want, and all I can say is that we are feeling SO BLESSED and guided! A month ago we had the feeling we should start looking into moving, but we thought that meant maybe we'd build in the spring and move next summer. But each piece has fallen into place so quickly, and now we have to be out by the 25th!! It's crazy, but maybe it's better this way, just rip off the bandaid. Less painful than a drawn-out farewell, but still painful! So many people here have blessed my life and changed me for the better. This house is holy ground to me because of all the laughter, tears and prayers we've had here in almost 7 years. And I can't believe soon it will only be a memory. But I absolutely can't deny God's hand in this move; it must be time for us to grow and stretch some more. SO if you love me and will miss me, starting next Monday please stop by anytime to chat and help me pack a box! 

And that about sums it up.  I will cherish the memories of my babies in this house, because they are growing up so fast and soon won't be little anymore. :(  And I love the people here so much, I have learned SO much from their examples and friendships.  I will miss the trees in my yard, and all the flowers I have planted. :(  But I've already bought some bulbs that are going in the ground NEXT WEEK in our new house so I'll have tulips and my purple fluff-ball flowers next spring. And just like the new flowers, I will make new friends and find new great people to look up to and serve.    And as Eric told me the other night when I was feeling sad: "Everything that made this house good is coming with us."  :)  We are a family forever, no matter where we live.

Here are the pictures I took of the outside of the house for our realtor.  I have a million pictures of the inside of the house, so I figured I didn't need to put any of those on here!

 From this corner our backyard looks gigantic!

 I love this deck too  that Eric built, it will be sad to leave it!  That and the new bathroom we built.  I need to make sure and get a picture of that.

 Here's the exciting part though... the floor plan for our new house!!!  It's almost exactly what we would have picked if we were building, but it's already finished and has a yard put in and is in the exact perfect location.  Seriously exact.  a half mile from the school I want my kids to attend.  looking out over fields and mountains.  the basement is south facing so it gets tons of light.  Super close to Spanish Fork and the freeway, but it still feels like it's out in the country.  and the house is orange....perfect!!  I will post pictures of it next week.

 So yeah... I'm feeling a little too exhausted by packing to be too nostalgic right now, but maybe that's a good thing.  So I'll finish with these pictures that Owen took, which happen to be of 2 of my favorite parts of the house: the stairs, the lifeblood of the house.  right in the middle.  they have made my calves strong and provided a great place to sit. :)

 and this bar/countertop/bay windows in the kitchen.  I spend a lot of my time in the kitchen, so it's a good thing I like this countertop I painted and my kids eat 2/3 of their meals on.  And the light coming from those windows has made my life happy.  

I just have to say again how blessed we are.  To have our house sell so quickly, and really all we did was spruce up the yard and touch up paint and de-junk a little.  We couldn't make an offer on the Salem house until we got an offer on this one, and everything just happened so fast and perfectly. We know this is part of Heavenly Father's plan for our family.  I mean yes we chose it and we want it, but every decision has been confirmed 1000%, yes one thousand, so loudly and clearly.  Even the girls are totally okay with switching schools at Christmas Break so I only have to drive them for 2 months (YES), which I did NOT see happening.  They are so cute, they are totally confident in their ability to make new friends, they are only worried about things like where the field trip will be this year and if the new playground has swings, haha.  They are awesome.  For having never moved, I thought it would be a lot harder on them but they are doing great so far!!

So here we go!!

Celebrating a life, and Appreciating being together.

We had such a fun weekend in St. George/Ivins with my family!!  Friday we went to the splash park, hiked the little slot canyon (the crack) and hung out at Katrina's house.  It was so fun to have us 4 oldest siblings with all our kids, plus Jonathan and Melissa, just hanging out and talking and getting to know all the little kids who grow and change so fast!

 It's fun to all be parents of little children together. :)

 And some kids that are growing up...

 And too involved in their ninja game to even pause and look at me for a picture. :)

 Maris enjoyed the water,

 and so did Owen and Lydia.

 The next morning we met up bright and early at Phillip's sister's farm to take pictures.  It was a really pretty place, and SO fun to finally have my parents, Jenae, and Derek and his girlfriend there!

Unfortunately Owen wasn't in the best mood...

 But Whitney was!  Love this girl.

 Here she is swinging with Jenna.  All weekend I kept finding her playing with Jenna, or Evelyn, or Ryder, or Seth.  She loves babies and toddlers!

 While I had my kids dressed cute I tried to take a couple of other pictures I've been wanting:

Their cute feet...

 And their heads all together.

 come on Whit.

 Now Owen's doing a weird smile.

 And Maris had to get the tongue out...

 ...aaaand we're done.

 cutie.

 After playing at a park for a while, it was time to go to the funeral.  Grammy chose to be cremated, so we just had a graveside service.  This is her and Pa's headstone and her ashes box!  Crazy.  The service was really uplifting and fun even-- her kids and grandkids shared fun and sweet memories and all of us on the Wallwork side sang an old hymn "The Church in the Wildwood" which she wanted sung at her funeral; it was a song she and her girlfriends used to go around to different churches on Sundays and sing.  It was a fun old-timey song and we even let Kate, Whitney, and Natalie sing one chorus on their own which was SUPER cute.  My tender-hearted Whitney even cried a couple of times during the service, when they read poems about how Grammy was gone now but would be watching over us, that kind of thing.  So I just hugged Whitney and shed my own tears. :)  I'm so grateful for my great-Grammy and everything I learned from her.  She is part of me, and I'm so glad my kids got to know her a little from all our pit-stop visits on California trips and such.

 After the funeral, we had a super fun early dinner at Golden Corral with all the extended family, it was delicious and the kids were in heaven.  We all just talked and talked, then we Wallworks went back to the park in Ivins by Katrina's house and continued the party all evening until it was time to put the kids to bed!  I was sad to miss out on some fun by staying in a hotel, but at least I got a decent amount of sleep!

Anyway, at the dinner and the park, the girls got to know Sarah Larson, my cousin Tiffany's little girl who is Katelyn's age, and she and Katelyn really hit it off!  It messed with the normal cousin dynamic, but then Whitney got to play more with Natalie and she sometimes gets left out, so I think it turned out okay.  

 It was so fun to see my grandparents and let everyone meet Maris!

 And I finally got to spend a little time with my Jenae!!!  My baby sister who is all grown up and living her own life and I hardly ever get to connect with her, the big senior in high school!  I love her.

 Stupidly my flash was turned off, so I messed up this adorable picture of Whitney playing with Lydia.

 It was also SO great to see Tiffany, who I haven't seen in years and was always one of my closest cousins, and my uncle Rodney, who has been living in Israel!

 And here's proof of Maris' ridiculously long tongue!!

 We used Katrina and Phillip's nice camera to take our family pictures-- they turned out awesome! (taken by Raycelan-Derek's girl-and edited by Phillip!)

 Then Phillip took our core family pic

 Don't we look great??? Have I mentioned Katrina's pregnant, having a GIRL in February/March?

 Then Mom was dying to have one on her phone haha

 Then we tried to take a grandchild picture...

 Remember how I said Owen was in a bad mood??

 He did NOT want to be in the picture, so I had to intervene.

 I crouched behind him, holding him in place, while everyone else made silly faces to get the kids to smile!

 My Mom and Dad!!! It was so fun to be with them.  And they brought us DELICIOUS grapes and pomegranates!

Phillip also took a few quick pictures of my family, and I love them!!  I think these will be my official family photos I was going to take this fall!  Now I just wish I'd lined up the kids and had him snap a quick individual shot of each of them so I could update the 8 x 10's on my wall... maybe next time you come up here Katrina bring your camera??

Also I had no idea at the time that Kate was doing this pose lol.

 But remember Owen's uncooperative mood again?  We managed to get him to sit for literally 30 seconds while Melissa and Jenae did crazy dances and Phillip worked his photographer magic.

Then on Sunday we all went to church together (with the Wallworks too), Katelyn and Sarah promised to be pen pals, we had an awesome Hansen Sunday School, and then lunch at Katrina's and we all went our separate ways!!  I thought it was an extremely successful get-together.  Thanks Katrina for hosting!!