Pool with a view- Half a million dollars.
Patio furniture- Twenty thousand dollars.
Having a dad that makes damn sure I don't forget where I came from- Priceless.
Archive for the ‘New house’ Category
28
Jan
Musical rooms
We have lived in this house for exactly five weeks and we are already moving kids around. This is a regular occurrence for this household, since the family dynamics are always shifting. Family members come and go, new babies arrive, sibling relationships change, and so do roommates.
Today's musical room game was not brought on by any of the above mentioned reasons. Today's juggle is courtesy of Parker and his new-found discovery of my bed. I have the world's most fabulous bed and Parker has discovered a weak link in his parents. I am usually so GOOD at crib training. At four months old I let the babies cry themselves to sleep and teach them very early on to stay in their bed all night long. I pride myself on fabulous sleepers that ALL go to their own bed and fall asleep on their own at bedtime! YAY me.
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Until Parker came into my life…..
This kid is going to be the death of me! He gets away with MURDER, and all because he is SO. DAMN. CUTE. ( Not that my other kids weren't as cute, but they may not have been so charming.) We tuck all the kids in at seven on a school night. Parker snuggles down, has his red blanket, aka "red," under his arm, and his thumb in his mouth, and we walk out the door. He doesn't make a peep. We think he is asleep, BUT by 7:20, he is sitting between us. He doesn't pitch a fit, or even cry, he just climbs quietly out of his crib, opens his door, tiptoes out of his room, dragging "red", thumb still in mouth, and climbs right on up on the couch where we are sitting. Brandon usually says, "What are you doing out of bed?" To which Parker signs, "later." And we just think he is the cats meow, so we let him hang with us for a bit and re-tuck him in "later."
Have I mentioned lately how damn cute he is?
Anyway, the past few nights this is happening at 1 am, 2 am, 4 am…. You get where I am going with this? And we are simply too tired to haul his butt back to bed, so he just snuggles in between and goes to sleep. I love sleeping with babies. The more the merrier. When I married Brandon, that all changed. Brandon came to this family with a "no kids in his bed" rule. I married him anyway. I told you all I made sacrifices, that was the ONE.
So Brandon is softening and Parker is gaining power over us very quickly.
In an effort to make Brandon's life easier, we are moving Parker into the nursery. It is attached to our room with it's own private staircase. He is going to join Ellie up there, and maybe that alone will make him think twice about leaving his crib. He will now, for the first time in his life, have a roommate.
This could end up being the biggest waste of time, or the best decision of our lives. I am not sure yet. But for now, I am off to move his crib down one flight of stairs and up another. If this move is a success, and Parker and Ellie share well together, and Parker stays in his crib, then I will probably move Ellie to Parker's room. Or, I may move Kate and Jazzi to that room and give Pickle her own room….. So many possibilities.
Stay tuned for more musical rooms as we still try and find the right place for everything and everyone in the new house.
After this morning's shuffle, this is the room situation.
Bronson and Hunter
Hadley
Jayden, Colby, and Jace
Jazzi, Kate, and Pickle
Empty room
Dalin and TY
Ellie and Parker in the nursery
Sailor Grace has fifteen more days of "up all night long, bottles when she wants them, half the night on her mom's chest because mom is too exhausted to walk ten feet to her crib," cushy life. AND then, we endure 4 days of hell, horror, and "thank God she is the last one," awful nights. But she will will come out knowing how to sleep all night long and will move upstairs to the nursery with her fellow siblings.
22
Dec
a little update
This move, combined with Brandon being gone, Christmas approaching, my dad moving in, Bronson coming home to stay, and life as a mother of fifteen, has kicked my ass this week. I have missed this place to vent, but have had zero time to be here. ZERO!
The first part of the week I was without internet. Then I was without a place to set the computer. Then I couldn’t find the camera. Then it was the camera cord……
That was when I decided to take a break.
So, I am throwing out a little update and taking the rest of the week off. I will return with Christmas pictures by the weekend. I am still not finished with my shopping. I am still not completely unpacked. I still can’t find a damn thing that has been put away. The kids want to swim 24/7. I still can’t figure out how to run half the stuff in this house….. I may never learn because it is HIGH TECH.
In the middle of the night I woke up to loud obnoxious music playing outside my bedroom. I was ready to get up and call the cops because I thought there were a bunch of teenagers parked on the vacant lot next door. I woke Brandon up. (Because he can only hear out of one ear, and in the night he sleeps with that good ear down. Do you blame him?) I had to shake him awake to tell him about the loud music out the back door. He got up to investigate. Come to find out, we have speakers in our backyard so we can pipe our music outside while we are in the pool. That was my music that woke me up. Coming from my ipod. How in the hell it got turned on and piped outside is beyond me. It took Brandon about fifteen minutes of button pushing to get it off.
The day before that, we were all lounging on the sofa when the fire alarm went off. I have no greater fear than a fire in the house, because getting all the kids out of a burning, or smoking, house would be a little mind boggling. I jumped up and ran straight to the fire panel, (Yes we have a fire panel and it would tell me where the fire was and when and if the sprinklers were going to come on.) and it says "system normal" but the piercing beep is still blaring through the house. The kids are all front and center waiting for instructions, when Hunter and Bronson meander around the corner, and calmly say, "The Wii sensor bar is running low on batteries. That’s what you hear." WHAT THE HELL? It sounded like a smoke alarm, and it’s a Wii sensor bar? What is the world coming to? It’s an emergency if the batteries are running low? I lost a few years of my life. SInce that dreaded day, that thing has run low two more times. Now, we don’t even react. We all just look at Brandon who walks upstairs to replace the batteries. I’ll tell you what’s going to happen, There will be a fire and all of us will sit on the couch and look at Brandon who will walk upstairs with his batteries and walk straight into the smoke never to be heard from again. Damn Nintendo is going to kill my husband.
The pool is heaven. The kids love it. But better than the pool is the pool net! It’s saved a few kids already. Day one at this house, Pickle walked right out into the middle of the pool net and stuck her feet through and proceeded to get stuck. She was too far for any of us to reach and the net won’t suspend anyone over eighty pounds. It will keep you from drowning, but it won’t keep you from getting wet. We were only half way moved in and had nothing to change into or dry off with. We all stood around the pool trying to figure out how to get her back to solid ground. Hunter jumped in the wagon and Bronson and I pushed him out as far as we could. He reached out and grabbed her and pulled her into the wagon and we pulled them both back to dry ground. It was an adventure. I felt like I was on the discovery channel. It was a good test of the net. I feel much better about a pool now that I have seen the power of the net.
This house is beautiful. I love it. I am so happy to be here, but it is still so loud. I may never sleep in late again. My house sounds like a cross between McDonalds playland and a public pool. Add any excitement, ie Christmas, a new house, new TV’s, a new pool and the noise level quadruples. Dear God, please let the novelty wear off quickly and send January as quickly as possible. Amen.
There are at least ten more stories I could tell you all, but I am exhausted. And I am going to sit in the hot tub with my man so I don’t have to listen to Sailor fuss herself to sleep.
I have much to be thankful for…..
Shaylee arrived home this weekend.
I have all fifteen babies in the house.
Brandon made it home from Nigeria despite staying in a hotel that was shot up and robbed by armed gangsters.
My dad is hanging out with us indefinitely. Heidi took the kids and moved home to Utah and left my Dad’s ass in Mexico. We have since convinced him to live near us in The OC.
My kids have loved having a full time Grandpa. (One more thing to squeal loudly about.)
The business is going well.
My kids are healthy and happy.
Brandon and I haven’t fought for………… for at least three days.
I am content. It feels good. I know how blessed I am. I know how lucky I am. Thank you all for being part of my life. I love my readers. (even my nasty readers bring a level of entertainment to this house.)
I wish you all the happiest of holidays!
XOXO
01
Dec
one more week
We are dragging our feet.
I wanted to net the pool before we ever occupied the house. The net comes Monday. The movers come Tuesday. Sorry I keep delaying this. Here are a few more pictures to appease you while we ALL wait for everything to fall into place.
The Great Room.
The Library.
The Laundry Room AKA- HEAVEN!
My closet.
A few negatives-
This house is SOOO loud! Every damn whisper can be heard throughout.
It echos.
It has ZERO storage space.
I still haven’t figured out where I am going to put Ellie.
*SIGH*
Other than those few problems though, it’s perfect!