remember how I mentioned that after my last dump of pics and updates I was going to try to get back to my normal routine, but things just got crazy so not likely? well clearly that didnt happen. sorry.... but as previously mentioned! we got a lot of news and had a lot going on. so mostly this will all be a picture story of the last few months. I will try to give some brief dialog along the way.
the biggest things, we continued the renovations of the house. our most common stopping time was 1 am and occasionally and often staying up will 3am. i definitely thank God for giving us the energy to get everything done. only once did we stay up till 5 am trying to hurry and get stuff done in time. but all our work time was when justin got home from work early, and then after kids went to bed. so we made the most of it. i cant describe how burnt out we are on home renovation projects, but we just kept trucking along because it all had to get done.
we listed the house on a thursday and had a showing scheduled for that day at noon and then another the next day. within 15 min of the first showing our realtor (Becky who we love so much, she was great.) told us they wanted to put an offer on the house. woohoo!!! we waited till after the second showing, but they had a few contingencies that we were worried about. by saturday we had accepted the offer. our house was pending! hurray!
And none too soon either, on easter sunday (the next day) my mom came to town to watch the kids while justin and I went to Bakersfield for a week to look for housing options. We looked at both buying and renting on both the high and low end of our price range. we saw some crazy nice houses, and some older... well used ones. We saw one that we have dubbed the crack house. it was a foreclosure, and though the pics online were beautiful and it had great potential in reality it was completely trashed and i was scared for my health just walking through it. By wed we had made a decision and talked to the realtor we had been working with. (we also loved these guys. we have had some great luck with realtors.) and we put in an offer on a house. very exciting! however, the sellers took there sweet time getting back to us, so we mostly tried to relax while in a very stressed out state of mind for 2 days while we waited for their reply. we got an answer sat morning, a few hours before we were scheduled to fly home to ND that they accepted our offer! we are going to get a house hurray!!! we were supper stressed about if they would accept or not and how would we potentially fill out rental paperwork when we no longer were in the state. mostly we thought it was going to be a nice relaxing week with a few houses thrown in, but we were so stressed the whole week. worrying about where our family was going to live took its toll. plus we also were recouping from 2 months of insane renovations. but now we have a plan!
so we made it home and now we got to enjoy our newly renovated home while we dealt with both buying and selling our home and all the paperwork that goes with it. it all went fairly smoothly. we had some major issues with the loan company in CA. mostly they were not well organized. we signed the same paperwork multiple times. they through a fit with how we did our banking and needed very detailed records of every transaction. (which was dumb. all our payments and checks go through 1 account. but they needed to see where it all went and why.) hello! we are buying and selling a house. we are going to have some major things go through. we are going through a big event! also it didnt help that our bank went through a merger literally right in the middle of all of this. so getting confirmation of that and paperwork with the right logo on the top was ridiculous and painful. long story longer we are just very not impressed with them and they have been awful to work with. plus we are trying to pack up and move! half the documents they requested are long packed. why would we keep them out 3 months later when we are trying to move. ugh. im still not happy.
the move went well. a company came to pack up our stuff and transport it for us. we took 4 days to travel across the country. wed night ryker came down with a severe ear infection. luckily we knew an ENT in the ward to come help give him a blessing, and if he happened to look in his ears and call in a prescription that would be great... which he did and we barely got it before the pharmacy closed. keep in mind we are leaving 6 am the next morning. we stopped and saw mount rushmore on the way out which was fun. long drive on friday. then sat we spent in Utah to play with family and justin wanted to look at potentials for secondary vehicles. no luck there. then sunday we finished and drove to bakersfield in time to sign papers mon morning. if only it were that easy.... the AC in our car went on the fritz and only sometimes worked while we were driving through the desert of st george and las vegas. i wanted to die. of course we were all uncomfortable. but the kids did well even given the circumstances. but we made it to CA and cranked on the AC in our hotel room for the night.
here is where it gets more fun. so we had planned on doing the final walkthrough about 830am and then going to sign papers and get keys to the house. so after the walk through we were given the address to the title company. we get there and called up our realtor wondering where she is. she asked when out apt was. um... thought you scheduled that for right after the walk through? no the loan company didnt give us any info on this. should they have? we thought it was figured out. after some calling around we discovered apparently we signed the papers wed night. a noterie came by and had us sign a huge stack of papers we were told were just loan documents they needed. keep in mind this was the night ryker was in hysterics from ear pain and we were leaving the next morning. apparently we already signed closing papers. great! where are our keys. well since this was closing day, they needed to wait for money to transfer from our old escrow account to our new escrow account. the request was in but dont excpect it will around noon or 1pm. great... glad no one told us. what are we supposed to do for 3 hrs while we wait for that? we ended up going to a park and played, rex napped, then we had lunch from our cooler. of course noon is lunch time and everyone leaves the office so we still couldnt get a hold of anyone till almost 130p. still hasnt transferred. so we go to a friends house who was nice enough to let us drop in while we wait. we get a call that it finally transfered but now we have to wait to get it recorded in the court house. should be about another hour, hour and a half. ugh. have i mentioned i hate the loan company? seriously, they are so awful. i wish we knew better. we end up finally meeting our realtor at the house about 245 and get keys to the house. dont worry! still missing the mail key. which we still dont have a week later... so now its a rush because we thought we were going to get in 6 hours ago and we wanted to clean carpets before movers get here on tues. so justin runs to do that. i clean what i can in the house. we also had an apt for an internet provider to come by around noon, we changed the time to 3pm (and were in the house thank goodness by then.) but no worries, he didnt show up till 530pm.
so monday was so long and very stressful and it sucked because there was nothing we could do, we just wish we knew the process better and could have made better arrangements. i wish i could say its water under the bridge, but im still not ever it and we are still trying to find that dang mail key. not like there is anything important in there like.... closing paperwork, a new debit card and checks. you know nothing worth stealing like is so common here in CA. I went to the post office today and requested a new key since they still cant find the old one. they were great to work with me, but i have to wait till friday and call back to see if its ready. so 2 weeks where we cant get our mail. awesome. however our unpacking is going pretty good. slowly but surely. its a new adventure to find places for everything with the size of our house being so different from our ND house. we are trying to make the best of this house, but still miss our old one because we just got it exactly how we wanted. it was tough to give up. but we are trying to stay positive. we went to church on sunday and met some great people in the ward. we are so excited to be close to a lot of members and have that community around us.
we also celebrated rykers birthday the last week we were there in ND. we got a surprise visit from grandma and grandad reed. it was so great to show them the house and that they could spend a little time with us. the kids loved it and i did too. i will try to do a separate post for rykers birthday. this is already long and i havent even started to post the over 200 pics i have waiting. we will see how it breaks up.
our crazy nephite
enjoying some ice cream
Rex made grandad his best friend. he latched onto him so fast and they were best buds all weekend
our beautiful crown of flowers for Auntie Bomms wedding
pizza with cousins
17 weeks with the twinners
Dad had to pull out the guns one more time before packing them away
Rykers Valentine box for school
playing in the cabinets that dad built
happy valentines day!
heart pizza and calzones with chocolate covered strawberries and sweetheart drinks
plus an epicly huge Vday card. haha
some mornings he just cant hold off till nap time after lunch
playing on the bike, one pedals while the other steers
this was his new hiding spot for a bit till we got the doors and shelves in
our kitchen in the living room while dad builds the kitchen. putting the pantry into place
they really are such sweet friends
rylie in a stuffed animal sandwich
ready for church!
my apple pie variation for pi day. basically an apply pie but not in a pan. it was super good.
new fave game for a few months was twister
dad was a good sport to play with them often
even when he was super tired from working on the house
he tried right? the kids loved it
nap time for everyone in the afternoon
goobers
easter egg dying
listening to conference
sustaining the new Prophet. it was such a powerful moment. i loved it. the spirit filled my heart and i was so happy to see the kids participate
easter treats
finding and playing with our baskets
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one house we looked at in CA had a tub that was in the floor. i would trip and die getting in everyday, but it was fun to see
we did an escape room friday night with some friends. rocked it. not one of the better ones we have done, but it was decent
24 weeks
all the kiddos are laying down at the same time! unfortunately it only lasted 5 seconds
ryker practicing his family selfie skills
she is not asleep, but that still cant be comfortable. right?
one of our last mornings playing in the driveway. still cold enough to wear a winter coat
another morning where we couldnt make it till lunch. i was so sad i had to wake him up to put him in the car to get Ryker from preschool
windy but warmish day means enjoying a picnic outside
mom/son date with ryker! so fun to spend some time with him
a little warmer. sunday dinner outside
rex was very confused how to eat this corn
my Bday cake. triple chocolate fudge, with a strawberry cream cheese frosting and chocolate ganache
snow finally melted and we could enjoy our backyard
FHE activity, ryker wanted to put this puzzle together. we got a great start! we didnt ever finish. but we have this much still saved!
fun with grandad
he is always good for a storytime
more cuddles. seriously. he loved
sunday cuddles after grandma and grandad left. it was a little warm, but i love having my lap so full
all our boxes and moving stuff!!! gah!
we have so much crap. it looked like even more coming into our new house
the garage was a beast to pack apparently. so many tools!
our makeshift couch/bed to watch movies and stay out of the movers way
running around while they pack the truck
its so empty!!!
my beautiful kitchen.... so empty
also for 2 days we had literally no chairs. it was weird how much i ached to sit and not slouch. but all i had was the floor
lunch under the island
we had to get creative thursday morning for our last shower. hope they didnt mind getting into the house and seeing this. haha
last photo! goodbye house! we loved you! you were perfect! we miss you still
road tripping!!!
cool bridges around mount rushmore
double tunnel
quick car seat break while rylie goes potty in the back
we finally made it after being in the dakotas for 4 years
everyone zonked for the last 15 min of the drive
relaxing after swimming while dad goes to get pizza
uncle ethan came to visit quickly that night. Auntie bomm came to say high real quick the next morning.
enjoying treats from josie. they loved their road trip goodie bags
last night comfort of the hotel
dad learned the true value of these carts, and the kids loved to help
playing at the park while we wait for the house. justin and i tried not to be to harsh with the kids, but we were all done spending time in the car
rykers first family selfie in the new house!
i set everyone down for lunch and ran to the bathroom. less than 5 min and i came back to this. poor boy was so tired!
the next day he kept fighting me to get changed so i let him run around like this for a while. when he settled down to cuddle i looked over and he was passed out again. morning naps are still hit and miss depending on the day
we were so sad that we couldnt make it. 32 weeks pregnant with twins and traveling across country 3 days before didnt leave much room for vacation. but uncle ethan and auntie bomm got married!!! we were so happy we could see it happen and do what we could to "be there" love them. and i am so stoked to have shannon as a new sister.
one night rex and rylie were not settling down. this was rex first time with a roomate, and rylie had a nap in the afternoon so they were both not tired. i went in to get after them and couldnt find rex! i looked all over, and then in the living room. i was sure he didnt leave the room. eventually found him hiding in the dollhouse. bahahaha
baby radlee with her arm in front of her face
baby rayce
baby rayce with radlee's foot trying to push him out of the way haha.
Rylie so sleepy! her and Rex had the hardest time adjusting to the heat and time change
having fun hugging. rex now thinks that everytime we ask for a hug it means go hug rylie haha.
ring around the rosie
