About Moving

We moved two days before Thanksgiving. There is never a good time to move, but I gotta say, the timing of our move was about as good as it gets. Nils had almost the whole week off, so we were able to plow through the unpacking like bad-A's. After we moved in, we worked from sun-up til late every night unpacking, putting away, and trying to make this place feel like home. We've been here for 3 weeeks now, and we're nearly done. There are a few things that need to be hung up on walls, and of course some rooms will just evolve as time goes on, but overall we're feeling pretty settled.

Moving out of our Apple Ave. house was pretty gosh darn sad. When we had to walk out for the last time, all 4 females were sobbing and wailing, as the 2 males looked on in disbelief. We moved all of our stuff out the night before we closed. After everything was out, some neighbors and friends sat with us on our empty living room floor chatting and whatnot, and I wanted to take it all back and stay! Best neighborhood ever! Now I'm trying to recruit everyone to come down and live by us. I don't think it's working.

Sob!

We love the new house, though. It's roomy and open, and we feel like we have to yell to hear each other. (Please excuse my crappy phone pictures.)

When Nils put our kitchen table together, we laughed and laughed. It barely fit in the old house, and in this house it looks teeny tiny. We put that big bookshelf in the nook to make the table look less puny, and we love how it looks in there. Plus, everyone will think we're bookish and intelligent. Muah-hahaha!

Family Room/Kitchen

Kitchen/Dining Nook

We went from 5 bedrooms to 3 (until the basement is finished), so the kids are sharing rooms. You can see how excited they are about that, based on these representations of Addie and Aani.

Nils promised Addie that after we moved into the new house, she could get a fish. She and Aani each got one. They named them Bubble and Shadow. They lived for a day and a half due to excessive feeding. There was much sobbing. It was pretty ridiculous. Addie kept saying things like, "HE WAS SPECIAL!" regarding her fish, Bubble...that she had for one day.

I was happy that both fish died within a few hours of each other, because then the girls could commiserate with each other. They planned a funeral. Addie played the prelude music on the piano as we sat in our assigned seats. Aani conducted, starting out by saying, "Dear Shadow and Bubble have died. Please join with us in singing Away in a Manger." I probably shouldn't laugh so much when they do things like this, but the melodrama is so funny to me. The music to Away in a Manger was provided by the Little People nativity set, which just added to the hilarity of it all. I couldn't help myself.

Bubble and Shadow's memorial site- their bodies were flushed down the toilet.

This house is a spec house (new-build that we didn't build if that makes sense), so we get to put in the yard and stuff. Yaaay? Anyhoo, over the last few days we've had a cement crew here, putting in a driveway extension, RV pad (for our imaginary RV/boat, which will remain imaginary for eternity) and a shed pad for Nilsynils...for his shop/shed that he will build with his bare hands, since he didn't get a 3-car garage. Compromise, right?

We wanted to get the kids' handprints in the cement, and they had to be late to school and everything! Such a now or never moment. We really plan on being in this house for a long time, and this is proof.

So far, we're pretty happy here. We have no neighbors, which is weird. Hopefully we'll get some people by us and make some friends. We're about a 10 minute walk from the school, which has changed my life. I moved Aani to this school, so the 2-school shuffle/2 time tracks deal is a thing of the past. It's glorious. 

Halloween and Roller Skates

Halloween happened. Photos were taken, candy was hoarded... but most importantly, we introduced the children to The Goonies on Halloween night. We rented it from a service called VidAngel, which will bleep out any bad words. Let's just say that about 1/3 of the movie was silent. Aaahh, the 80's.

We let the kids eat all the candy they wanted the day after Halloween. They ate it for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks. After that day, all the leftover candy was surrendered to us, and we distribute it as we see fit. There is still so much left, and it's probably going in the trash before we move. There are no more Reese's, so what's the point?

Green morph suit man,  Mummy, Ghost Chef , Elsa

Ava started freaking out as soon as we started trick-or-treating. All the kids went with friends this year, and I think that threw her off. She was completely hysterical, took off her Elsa dress and refused to go beg for candy. She was content to hand out candy/eat it directly from our bowl.

Poor children, whose mother kept putting off getting pumpkins until it was too late. We had to get watermelons to carve instead, which incidentally, are WAY EASIER THAN PUMPKINS. And they don't smell like death. And you can eat them right away. I believe we've got ourselves a new tradition. Who knew you could get yummy watermelons on October 31?

Day after Halloween: Aani falls asleep wearing roller skates. She had been saving her money for months to buy these babies, and finally had enough. She has been wearing them everywhere like they're shoes. 

It was a happy Halloween in Harvest Hills! We're going to miss this place like CA-RAAAHHH-ZZAAHH!

Crazy-A Week

We bought a house last week all of a sudden. It's on the same road as A1 & A2's school, and when we walked into it, it felt like it should be ours. We've been sensing impending change for awhile, so it's not totally out of the blue. It's just all happened really fast. Our purchase contract has a closing date of 60 days out, so we had to sell our current house in 30 days at most.

As luck would have it, we had gotten a wild hair the weekend before all this went down, and decided to paint the living room, kitchen, hallway, and master bedroom. We chose light grays/blues to brighten the place up. We also cleaned out our storage room, which had looked like a bomb went off in it for quite some time. Thank goodness we did those things!

We signed a contract for the new house on a Monday, spent the rest of the week getting a realtor, de-cluttering, cleaning and staging the house. We listed the house on the MLS on Saturday. On Monday we had five showings and two offers. Tuesday we had another showing and a third offer. Last night we accepted an offer for more than asking price! Unbelievable!

This is most definitely bittersweet. I feel like I could write an ode to Apple Avenue and a love letter to Harvest Hills. I know we were led here 8 years ago, and have been exceedingly happy. I feel like we have grown up here. We've become actual(ish) adults, and learned so much from our little village. We have had non-stop examples of friendship, service, parenting, and of how to be a good neighbor. We've been in amazing wards where we could serve and mature, and gain stronger testimonies of the Savior and the Gospel. I've had intermittent crying spells over the last two days- crying because I'm sad to leave all we have, and immense gratitude that we've had it. At the same time, I can see the Lord's hand in all of this, and know that it's all working out for a reason. And let's be real- we're moving 5 miles away, not across the world, but you know how it is. New neighborhood, new village, regardless of distance.

Financially, this is a blessing. We bought our house at the peak of the housing bubble, just a few months before the market tanked. As much as we've loved living here, we have been under water in our house nearly the entire time. This is our opportunity to get out of our 2007-era subprime mortgage situation. And the kids can walk to school!

I want to post the pictures that were on the MLS, mostly because I never want to forget how clean our house was for 2 days. I love a clean house, but having to pretend you don't live in your house is pretty awful! Thank heavens we only had to keep up that charade for two days.

Thank you, little house on Apple Avenue. In the words of the late Whitney Houston, "I-eeee-I will allllways looooove yoooou!"

Housekeeping items

Nils started a new job about a month ago. It's a long story. For now, the ending of that story is that he is working for the Church as a front-end developer. It's good. It's good because he gets benefits (WHAT???), a good salary (WHAT???) and can only work 40 hours a week (WHHHAAAATTT???).

So far, I think he's feeling a bit out of his element. This is his first experience working in a corporation, as opposed to small companies where he's the only one that does what he does. He also has to wear slacks, collared shirts, and dress shoes to work, which has been the biggest hardship of this transition. :) I think it would be pretty funny if he showed up to work in a tuxedo one of these days. That way, he could flip his coat tails up, sit down in his cubical and program away. Hilarious! Anyway, this is a great opportunity for him career-wise, as he's learning a whole new skill set.

When our benefits kick in in a couple of weeks, I don't know what I'm going to do with myself! Speaking of which, I just have to mention the fact that we have been unbelievably blessed over the last few years. Not having health insurance through work and having to play the individual insurance game has been one of the most aggravating issues ever. I can't talk about it too much, because steam starts coming out of my ears. Suffice it to say that individual health insurance is a joke. We have gone back and forth between having it and not having it. When Addie broke her collar bone, and it cost us more with insurance than it would have without insurance, we decided to bag it. We haven't had it for a couple of years, and I truly feel like Heavenly Father has watched over and protected us and kept us well. We've had normal sicknesses, ear infections, etc., but nothing major. We've been able to self-pay without any troubles, and we are thankful.

School is going well for the kids. Anders' teacher is a hoot, and has described him as "delicious". Addie's teacher is a dream come true. The previous 4th grade teacher (who Anders had) was pretty notorious for being really hard. After Addie's rough year last year, I was having anxiety dreams in anticipation of her 4th grade year. About a week before school started, we got a letter saying there was a new teacher for 4th grade A.L.L., and she is magnificent. Sigh. So thankful. Aani is having a bit of a challenge this year in Chinese. Her Chinese teacher is from China, so she speaks way faster than last year's teacher. I don't think it's doing much for Aani's confidence so far, but I talk to other parents and know that she's not the only one. Hopefully it will improve as the year goes on. Then there's Ava, who is obsessed with preschool. She loves it, and I'm very thankful for the awesome moms and kids in our little group.

I'm being pretty mean this year about practicing piano and doing homework right when the kids get home. The TV is hardly on, since they all want to play with friends as soon as they're done with those things. We're soaking up the fall weather and enjoying it as much as possible. I've been running outside on days that Ava goes to preschool and loving it.

Life is good and we're a lucky bunch.

RARARA 2014

In July, we attended the RARARA 2014 Family Reunion at the YMCA of the Rockies near Estes Park, CO. 

RARARA=Robert A. RAsmusson Reunion Association...er sumthin'.

It was great fun, with the exception of the swimming pool. Apparently it was built on a granite foundation, which is a lightning conductor; thus, when there were thunderstorms (which there were all day every day), the pool was closed. So our plans of swimming all week were foiled. FOILED! Let's all learn from this experience, and not build our indoor (or outdoor, for the matter) swimming pools on top of granite, hey?

Nils' siblings and parents are scattered all over this great US of A, so getting together with the whole gang was something that hasn't happened in years and years. It was awesome having everyone together. Our kids love seeing their cousins, who all live far away. They are all pretty similar in age, so everyone has a buddy. It's the best!

Thanks, Saren, for the sweet pics!

GrandPar, Nana and their kids

The whole RARARA 2014 company

Fer cute!

All the grandkids!

Behold, the posterity of Par and Jenny Rasmusson. Pretty impressive!

The Money Shot

This is my big, wacky family. My mom has been wanting a family photo for years. The last one we had taken was about 15 years ago. That was 4 marriages and 3 divorces ago, and who knows how many grandkids.

This day, July 26, 2014, had been reserved for over a year to get everyone together. One nephew just got home from his mission in April, another nephew is leaving for his mission in a couple of weeks, and my brother was able to drive down from Seattle for 36 whole hours to make this picture happen. From here on out, it's going to be missions and weddings and changes galore, so the fact that this moment in time was documented is pretty neat. The fact that we're all color-coordinated is a major bonus.

Oh man, we drive each other nuts. But we love each other.

Weeping, wailing, and mild dehydration

 On the 4th of July, I woke up determined to do something adventurous. I declared that we would go on a hike to Stewart Falls. How wondrous, to spend America's birthday as a family, enjoying its natural bounty.

We thought it would be extra patriotic to take the dog. What's more American than hiking with a dog? To keep the story concise, it was 12,000 degrees that day in the mountains and there were 12,000 other people hiking to Stewart Falls with dogs. Friggin' patriots.

Much or most of the trail to the falls is single-file, so trying to walk hand-in-hand with the children, as I had so tenderly imagined, was an impossibility. We often had to pull over and let other hikers and their dogs pass us on their way back.

There are also 45,000,000 (I counted) exposed tree roots sticking out of the ground, just waiting for you to trip over. We did that a lot. All of the girls face-planted more than once. Also, the trail was amazingly dusty. We were all completely filthy. Our white dog was brown shortly after beginning. Our white dog was also a total wuss and had to be carried a lot. Pansy.

Anyway, there was copious amounts of whining from all of the children. They were talking about being tortured, and "on a scale from 1 to 10, how horrible do you think this is?" and that sort of nonsense. In their defense, the conditions were rough, and the hike is about 4 miles round trip, which takes a really, really long time with 4 whiners and a wimpy dog. We kept bribing them with gas station slushies if we could just get to the end. We made it about a week later. Just kidding. It took about 3 hours. THREE HOURS OF WHINING.

We tried! God Bless America!

See how pretty?

See how dirty?

Aah, filth.

Wow. She totally looks like an orphan, with the missing tooth and all.

What happened in June

Summer, glorious summer. How I love you. My favorite thing about summer is how I think every morning that I'll get up early to work out, but then my bed is so comfy, and the kids can get themselves breakfast so they don't bug me in the morning and I just stay in bed until it's not early anymore. I love it and hate it, but obviously I love it more than I hate it since it happens every morning.

Anyhoot, here's a wee bit of what happened in June 2014.

The kids took their report cards to Krispy Kreme and each got a half dozen donuts for free. Pretty sweet! (I'm so punny! Snort snort!)

Nils was in Chicago for a week, so I determined to do something fun with the kids every day. By myself. Who da man?

We went to Temple Square, and the kids enjoyed it a lot more than I thought they would. It was fun to walk around the temple, and to be able to go up to it and touch it. The enjoyed the Visitors' Center, and we ate lunch at the JSM Building. They couldn't get over how fancy that building is, and I had to apologize to a lot of people and explain that we don't get out much. The kids were running around like maniacs, overcome by all the fanciness.

They loved going downtown. They sat on the curb outside Baskin Robbins while eating ice cream so they could people and car watch. They all said how much they liked walking around the big city. Poor little sheltered country kids. 

We did other stuff that week, like to go The Museum of Natural Curiosity. Normally a place like that, with all of its 3,000,000 daily visitors, is a place I would not enjoy. I decided to take one for the team, however, and we braved it. So. Crowded. I didn't take any good pictures, because I couldn't find my kids most of the time. Heh-heh. Yaaaay!

We discovered the Manila Pond in Pleasant Grove. Love it! We have been twice and will go more.

Aani is our one and only summer birthday kid, and she turned 7 in June. She wanted to hike the Y for her birthday activity. I managed to talk her out of that and we decided to go to Bridal Veil Falls instead. She couldn't think of anything she wanted to do that cost money. Bless her pea pickin' heart.

The Haul. Anders gave her all his Webkinz, so it looks like a lot more than it was. :)

Bridal Veil Falls trail.

I love this picture of the Flave.

I love this one, too. Even though I had to yell at them to pretend to be happy and like each other. All fake smiles.

She wanted Birthday Pudding Pie and Jell-O instead of birthday cake. 

 June was fun!

School Year Review and 500th Post!

Holy bananas, it's my 500th post. Cray cray! I know blogging has lost its popularity, but I sure do love going back and reading posts from the last several years, and I hope my kids will appreciate it one day.

The end of the school year has come. I always get really sad the last week of school. The last 4-5 weeks of school, I can't wait for it to be over. I get pretty tired of driving all day between 2 schools and 2 different time tracks. However, the last week of school, I get quite weepy that the school year is over, which means the kids are older and will never be a 5th, 3rd, or 1st grader again. Boo-hoo!

I'm so pleased with the schools my kids go to. This year has been great for all of them. Anders loved going to school every day. His teacher made learning exciting and interesting. The kids raised tadpoles, bred plants, orchestrated their class play from the script to the set, did crazy science projects, learned all about American history and the Constitution, and on and on. He had such a great year.

Addie had a crazy year and has grown up so much. She started out the year struggling a lot. She's in the same accelerated program as Anders, and we were thinking it wasn't a good fit. She didn't do her homework, even though she acted like she did. This resulted in lots of micromanaging on my part, which resulted in lots of tears for her. Sometimes her homework would take 4 or 5 hours, when it was designed to take 30 minutes. After a couple of months we started realizing something was wrong, and that it wasn't just an attitude problem. We eventually figured out she has an attention deficit, which was why she was struggling to stay focused in class and while doing her homework. It wasn't something we ever considered with her, because she's not hyperactive at all. She's always been so easy-going. Once we started making the connection, though, it really made sense. After getting her treated for that, she's improved like crazy and has gotten all A's on her own- no micromanaging from me. Her stress and anxiety disappeared and she genuinely enjoys school and has done really well. I'm thankful for that, and proud of her for hanging in there and working so hard. Her teacher is amazing, and I'm thankful Addie got to experience her class.

Addie's class had a parent party (which was on crazy-hair day and pajama day). We got to take funny Photo Booth pictures. I'm loving my T-Rex hands.

Aani loves her school and has made good friends. She's done well in both Chinese and English, and had two fantastic teachers who were so kind and loving. The school she goes to is a very happy place to be, with a very friendly principal, which trickles down. Whenever I was there, something fun was going on. As it turns out, her Chinese teacher bought a house just few houses away from us and will be moving in soon. Aani cannot believe how lucky she is! Free Chinese tutoring?

Ava went to preschool this year at a neighbor's house and loved every second of it. A few of us in the neighborhood have decided to do a co-op preschool again for next year, so that should be super swell. I have Ava enrolled in an online preschool program as well, so she better be a genius by the time this is all said and done.

Today was the first day of summer break, and I made it to 11:00 before losing my mind on the children, with their inner pigs coming out in full force, as well as their inability to clean up after their piggy ways. Should be a great 2 1/2 months!

Beach Days are the Best Days

While we were in California, Brian took us to Zuma Beach in Malibu. We all love the beach. The kids are happy for hours digging for seashells and making sand creations. Since it was April, and the water was FA-REEZING, we were some of only a few people there that day. It was great. 

Brian is an LA native, so I'm sure he loved it when the lifeguard drove his yellow Baywatch truck past us and I exclaimed, "Is that David Hasselhoff?" Then I had to have my Baywatch moment of running on the beach, pretending to save a life. 

Brian also graduated in marine biology, so I'm sure he also loved it when we saw a seal pop its head up near the shore and we were all so excited about the "otter". 

"Look, you guys! An OTTER!" -Me

"I'm pretty sure that's a seal." -Brian, humbly

Perfect Day

We laugh when Dad flexes. Love you, honey!

Indy's first day at the beach! We're so honored!

These two are all business about seashell digging.

Played in the sand for hours. 

Thanks, Brian, for spending the day with us at the beach! We loved it!