Westford Massachusetts

It's finally official! Our lease in Mass has been signed and a move in date of January 3rd has been set! We are excited to move in to this great community! You can see the town website here and the school website here. Here are a few pictures of our new place...






I haven't been there yet, but I trust Adam's judgement! He says the neighborhood is really nice and the home is on a Cul-de-Sac. This home is smaller than our current home, but it does have an unfinished basement, so we're hoping it will all even out in the end! What do you think? Can you picture our family here?

On my list today

1. Get the kids up and off to school, without any angry words- check
2. Go Jogging- check
3. Shower-
4. Finish sorting and organizing kids toys and get them in boxes to move-


We are loading up the moving truck on Saturday, Dec 6th, leaving Corpus on Monday, Dec 8th. Then the kids and I will drive to Utah to stay with family and friends for the holiday. The kids can't wait to spend Christmas in Utah!!

5. Worry about our move- check (We have signed a lease for a home in Westford, MA, paid our first and last months rent plus a security deposit equal to one months rent, but the owners have not signed it yet!!! It's been two days!!! We received an offer to lease our home here in Corpus yesterday!!! Great news, I know! My agent called this morning to tell me she was expecting their application today, but their agent told mine that our potential "tenants" are working on their credit and have been living with their parents. Once my rental agreement in MA is finalized, I will post some pictures.)

6. Tease Adam about the new dress and shoes I bought for his company party next month- check Here's a little tease of what he can expect...



7. Like a crazy teenager, I plan to meet many other crazy ladies for dinner at 9pm, followed by-



Here are a few picture highlights from my househunting trip to Boston and Philadelphia-

Autumn leaves


Holly


Independence Hall in Philadelphia where the Declaration of Independence was argued over and finally approved


The Liberty Bell

Picture Tag

Amber tagged me- It's picture tag. I am to show you the 4th picture from the 4th file on my computer... so...



This is a picture of Emma this last summer at the Harte Library in Flour Bluff, TX. She was really in to Clifford books and by the look on her face, she thought this particular book was amazing!

I tag Nicole, Taryn, Carly, and Rochelle.

Where in the World is...

This weekend has been crazy and busy and I feel like our family is spread out all over the place! My parents flew in to TX on Friday afternoon at 1:00. We hung out at the airport and talked for a litte while and then they left in my car with Emma for my house, while I stayed at the airport. My plane left at 2:30, connected through Houston, then on to Philadelphia. Adam was waiting for me when I arrived at 10pm- he had just driven up from Washington DC where he had been training all week. We loaded up in the rental car and drove to Boston! We checked in to our hotel there at 4am, grateful that the hotel was VERY comfortable! (I'll post pics when I get back home) We were up at 8:30 to get ready and meet a Realtor by 10am. By the time we finished seeing houses and meeting Realtors at about 3:30, our heads were swimming!! We went back to the hotel to nap before meeting some friends for dinner. Sunday brought church in the area we thought we wanted to live in, but after talking with many people there, our minds have shifted slightly. So we drove up to another church building where we might attend and had the blessing of seeing our old Bishop, from when we lived here before. On our way out of town, we drove though some other areas we had considered living in- very beautiful... all of it! If you have never been to the Boston area, you should really consider going. Tons to do and very beautiful! Anyway, we drove from Boston back to Adams apartment in Exton, PA (outside of Philadelphia) and made it here by about 10:30pm.
I dropped Adam off at work this morning and now I'm supposed to be getting ready to go over and have lunch at his office and meet his boss and co-workers! For some reason I feel nervous about this so I'm stalling by blogging! Now that I've given our travel log, we did find an amazing house that we would love to live in. Please pray someone will rent out my house in TX!!

A Weekend of Fun!

Halloween-
We had Tinkerbell (Emma), a Bat (Cooper), a Mummy (Bekah), and a Zombie (Brayden) who was quite camera shy!




Our Halloween festivities started with a neighborhood block party, where the highlight was bobbing for apples. The idea of apple bobbing grosses me out- sticking my head into a large bucket of water that EVERYONE ELSE, with their makeup, boogers, spit... you get the idea... is doing too. Bekah and Cooper both LOVED it and thought it was the best part of the party.






Our friends the Christensens had us over for dinner and trick or treating. Travis was kind enough to take all 4 of my kiddo's out while I got a mommy time out!

Then they kept my younger 3 while I took Brayden and his friend, Akshay, to his first PARTY. It was all boys, about 8 boys to be exact, but he had a great time! Bekah, Coop, Emma, and I then went over to Bekah's teachers house to get a treat and give her a birthday present. Then it was home to change and off to the airport to pick up DADDY!
While our 40 hours (it was supposed to be 39, but thanks to the end of Daylight Savings..) ended on Sunday afternoon, we enjoyed the time together while it lasted!

The View from Today

Alright, I admit that my post last night was a little "Blair Witch" scary! It had been a very rough day coming off a very rough weekend! Things are much better today...




Emma's pumpkin and Emma's impersonation of her pumpkin. She says her pumpkin is laughing. (She also says her pumpkin has a butt. The back of the pumpkin has a big indentation all the way up and it does look like a bum. Then when we cut it open last night, it was all brown and rotten on the inside. I heard her tell someone today that her pumpkin looked like a butt and when we cut it open, it was filled with poop! Nice one Emma! She has such great manners!)



Coop designed his own pumpkin and says it's a vampire.




Bekah worked very hard on her pumpkin, both designing and carving! She had to wear my rubber gloves though because the pumpkin insides made her hands itch! (Please also note the VERY straight front teeth and retainer! Bekah got her braces off two weeks ago and it has made our lives much simpler!)



Brayden's pumpkin has three eyes and two horns (if you couldn't already tell)





Three delicious yummies to get me through the day- pumpkin chocolate chip cookies (Thanks Taryn), roasted pumpkin seeds (my personal Halloween favorite!), and Homeade Carmel popcorn using Kelsey's recipe!


Our house is now active on the rental market and gas prices.... need I say more?



OK, one more thing to make my day great- two awesome houses in the BOSTON area that we can afford!!! If you have not already heard, we are moving to Boston as soon as our house rents out! Pray for good things! What we thought was going to be a long separation has drastically reduced and we expect to be moved sometime between Thanksgiving and Christmas.
My personal lesson for the week Ether 12:6 "....I would show unto the world that faith is things which are hoped for and not seen; wherefore, dispute not because ye see not, for ye receive no witness until after the trial of your faith."

This is what being alone with 4 kids for 9 days looks like...

I have a ton of things I need to catch up my blog on, but for tonight...

This is what it looks like after being on my own with 4 kids for 9 days. Emma was super sick and throwing up over the weekend and tonight, I helped the kids carve their pumpkins for Family Home Evening. Have you ever attempted to carve 4 pumpkins by yourself? It would have been easier that way. Pumpkin carving/"Mom, can you help me"/"Oooo, this stuff is so gross" lasted about 1 hour. The clean up time for me once I impatiently put the kids to bed lasted another hour and a half! Tomorrow will be better!