Moving

Moving! Ugh. I abhor moving. It's the worst. Probably because after 3 years I was just barely getting things decorated the way I liked, then it is time to box it all up and ship out. Ugh again. I tried as best I could to keep things organized and efficient, but my organized is probably everyone else's chaos. There were a lot of boxes, and the kids LOVED the boxes.

 

This was a regular sight for quite some time.

 

Um, Eleanor... be soft! If I had a nickel for each time I had to say that...

The kids in their room mid-pack, also know as "constant mess".

  

I know this is dorky, but I took a few pictures of my upstairs bathroom. This was one of the better transformations in the house. Broken, off-centered vanity and mirror under an off-centered light fixture... no storage or towel bars... I tried to use what the landlord had and fix what I could by moving things, re-grouting the tub and floor etc... and in the end we had an ok bathroom that I thought was kind of cute.

The kiddos snuggling on our bed while I packed up the pictures and stuff in there.

 

One last night out with a few friends. That's me, Ashley Stevens, Angela Johnson and Kim Bowles.

 And one last baby shower the week before we moved.  Sweet Ashley was having a boy! From left: Zach, Angela and Bennett Johnson, Erica Hampton, Ashley Stevens, Sarah Stradley, Kaylie Keogh and Jessica Anderson.

 

And one with me in it, thanks Jess.

One last trip to the Detroit Temple. In Michigan people go in groups to share child care while the adults go through, it's so nice.

 

And one last outdoor play time with out best friends in the best backyard we'll ever have.

That is sweet Charlie Bowles with our Winston. This was 6 months ago, Win looks like such a baby!

 I couldn't help myself.

 I just miss the Bowles and Johnsons so much right now!

 Speaking of the Johnsons and Bowles... a quick shot of us all together. Please pardon the hideous get up I am in. After church, but still packing, so I am half church clothes and half over sized t-shirt grossness. It's a testament to how much I love these guys to even post this picture.

And the Hutchinsons! They moved into the Phillips spot when they moved last summer.

 Ugh, the giant moving truck! We let the kids go nuts in it before we had to load it up.

  It's hard to see, but from left: Bridger Oliver, Eleanor (rocking a sweet onesie), Josh Hutchinson, Holland Oliver and Zach and Grant Johnson. The Olivers moved into the Seedalls place when they moved in December.

 

 This was my last view of our place. You can barely see Clayton next to the truck. His father Rex, flew in to help drive the truck back to Utah. I flew home with the kids, we didn't even get to see Rex before we left! Moving week was just a blur, everything happened so fast. A huge shout out to the Johnsons and the other neighbors for all of their help.

 

Angela and the boys drove me and the kids to the airport. This picture is honestly hard for me to look at. I know Eleanor, I know!

Did I mention they have a sweet van? 

 

 On the plane! We had a short flight to Maryland, a three hour layover and then a long non-stop flight to Utah. Winston was WIGGLY! I don't thing I have ever had a harder flight with the kids. Even the time Eleanor spent the entire night before vomiting. Piece of cake compared to this flight. E was, again, an angel, and Winston was, well, he was a 11 month old baby. As we got on the plane we found the very last row (in order to tick off the least amount of people as possible) and Win instantly got loose and found the crawlspace next to the bulkhead across from us. I wish I could have let him just hang out there for the flight, but you know, FAA regulations and all. A sweet pilot who was non-revving sat next to us and he was terribly understanding about Winston wanting to remove his epaulets, hat, pins, tie etc... I know, it sounds like I was asleep at the wheel, but he was just extra busy that day. Too much stimulation etc... The funniest part about the whole flight was one of our flight attendants: she was insanely pretty with long, wavy black hair, fair skin, big blue eyes... just so so lovely. The other flight attendants jokingly called her Snow White and they weren't wrong. Well, Winston fell deeply in love. He would be fussy or chattering or wiggling and if she came within 10 feet of us he would stop everything and just stare at her, mesmerized. He had previously only had a crush on his cousin Megan but this gal captured his heart.

 

Which was awkward for him as Megan met us at the airport. That's ok, she has Shane. So. My parents, Jenni, Megan and Allie all came to the airport to welcome us home. They even made an awesome sign! After such a ridiculously hard flight it was heaven to have so many helping hands.

 

 Mom and Dad even got Allie and Eleanor Princess dolls to make it special. Have I mentioned my mom is the cutest?

 

Allie and Eleanor! (Unknowingly reenacting a shot we took of them a year and a half ago at the airport.)

 

Remember?

Today and This Week in Firth Life

Today

Today Eleanor was following Clayton downstairs when it suddenly got a bit too quiet. I went to check it out and found her standing on the stairs hiding something.
Eleanor, whatcha got there?

Nothing mom. Such a little rascal. She found these M&Ms in the pocket of Clayton's hoodie that was hanging in the entryway. Who knows how many she had before I found her (and gave her four more to trade for the bag.)

This Week

Well, we have been a bit absent from the blog lately as we just moved. Last Saturday we lost our beloved neighbors, the Oversons. We miss them already, but congratulations on graduating EJay, I guess.

Boo. The stupid truck, the Oversons and EJay's parents.

Eleanor begging them not to go. All the neighborhood guys in one last shot together, except little Zach, he was busy......saying his goodbyes to Lauren, his one true love.Really saying goodbye...
...and trying to convince her to make a break for it. So romantic.
They really are the best of friends.

The Oversons lived five doors down the street and we moved into their apartment. After they departed, the other three neighbor families helped us move all of our stuff over the same day. What a bunch of hard workers! Holy cow! They had us up and out of there in just a few hours. Sunday after church I cleaned the old house and we are all done with that end of things. What a relief.

A few stow-aways during the move.

We love our new apartment! It has a much nicer feel all around and our wall-mates are soooo much better than our previous ones. No more F-bombs through the walls! No smoking or dogs! We still have a lot of boxes to unpack and a lot of organization to do, but we've got cable/internet set up, can shower with towels and can cook in the kitchen. Once those things are in place, I tend to lose steam. However, I am proud of only having four or so boxes that were still packed from our Utah move nine months ago. Go me!

But really, no. In an effort to get things in order I am posting the icky pictures. Look at our mess! My goal is to be pretty much set before our trip to Utah in two plus weeks. I'll show you my "before shots" of shame/horror and it will motivate me to post the "afters". Luckily, a lot of this already looks a lot better.

Here is the extra bedroom/office downstairs.

Eleanor's room. I will probably paint it blue, you know, her third blue room in a row.Our bedroom. Ooh, pretty. P. S. Isn't it embarrassing for people to see your pillows without cases on them? They look so gross so fast! Or do most people have really clean ones?Upstairs bathroom.Kitchen. Where's Waldo? Did you find her?But here is the magic. The backyard. Our beautiful fenced and gated back yard. Complete with red fence to take great pictures against. Love.And here is how Eleanor and I have enjoyed the back yard. Well, the one just next to ours. We spent our week (instead of unpacking) playing in the sun and water with the Phillips. We have had beautiful weather and so we got out the kiddie pools and let the kids go to town.

I don't know if there is a better sensation than holding a wet toddler who smells like sunscreen and grass, all wiggly and happy from playing outside. Just look at her!

Playing with the hose and freaking cold water. I love how kids just don't care. Aren't they just the cutest here with their little heads together? Check out her tummy!

I have a whole lot of shots from the last month to post soon, well, to post. The next few weeks should keep me pretty busy. Wish me some energy to get everything done!

Eleanor's Sweet Room

So this is what else made me cry that I referenced in my last blog post.

As we were packing up our old house, in a storm of boxes and awfulness, Clayton asked if we were ready to roll through Eleanor's room. That did it. That was when I couldn't keep it together. I had dreamed of Eleanor's nursery all through my pregnancy. With a color palette of robin's egg blue, white and red accents and with a scalloped lace trim painted around the top. Sadly and happily, once she was here I never found the time to finish it. So all her fairy tale pictures never got put up, the curtains never finished and I still need to top stitch her crib quilt. But it was almost there. So to appease my lunacy, we stopped packing, cleaned the room out a little and had a little photo shoot. Here are the shots of Eleanor's first nursery.

Come on in!

It was such a sweet little room and I hope we can recreate a bit of it here in Michigan.