Moving Day

The night we closed on our house we picked up take-out and had a picnic on our empty living room floor. We had lots of help moving the big stuff but I still have about a million bins to unpack and organize. It still feels weird to have so much more space and different rooms for different things. It's wonderful having a yard for Clover, a play room for the girls, and pulling into a garage instead of fighting for parking at the apartment. My dear in-laws came into town and had their own place to sleep! Feeling pretty lucky. But I will say that trying to vacuum this place almost killed me. Little parts of me will miss our cozy apartment but heaven knows I could use a few more trips up and down the stairs.

Forward Motion

One night last week Rosemary suddenly figured out how to scoot forward rather than her usual turning in circles or inching backwards. It has since been perfected and she can't be stopped. Evie still prefers to roll. :)

Must Blog

The thought of blogging has been nagging at me for the past week. I have always been a big journal keeper but since starting this little blog I have completely given that up. Journaling/blogging has always been a mixed source of happiness and anxiety in my life. I love recording what we are up to because I want to preserve the memories but sometimes it weighs on me. It is almost like if I don't write it down, it never happened. So even though I really don't have anything that exciting to blog about-- I must blog. Just for my own sake. I am also recognizing a pattern that a majority of my posts are about our trips to SLC because we are always doing something that isn't in our regular routine and I normally take more pictures. But we DO do plenty of things here and I need to be better at recording our day to day life.
So what have we have been up to? think , think, think. Last week I got in a minor car accident which was the 8th alteration (yes, 8) that I have been in since I got my license. I really am a terrible driver. I hate driving. If I was a very rich lady I would have a driver before I would have a cook or a maid or a nanny. I would love to just sit in the back and be taken wherever I need to go. I have a terrible sense of direction which I undoubtedly inherited from my mother and I get really nervous if anyone else is in the car or following me. I have been in two somewhat serious accidents (one of which was in high school and I was NOT driving and the other I was by myself and slammed into the median on the freeway and then flew off the other side of the road...but that one was really my dads fault because he never explicitly taught me that you can't drive 75 miles an hour on a donut :)) The other six were all in parking lots, involved parked cars, or were fender benders going under 10 miles an hour and only 5 of these 6 were decidedly my fault. Even when nobody gets hurt and the damage is relatively little (but always SO expensive) it is a terrible rotten feeling to get into an accident. I always have the worst pit in my stomach for several days and repeatedly rewind that 30 seconds again and again wishing I could redo it. The same Friday said accident occurred, Ben had a bug or food poisoning (from one of my delicious dinners) and was violently ill. Good weekend.

We STILL have not officially closed on our condo in SLC. It has been one complication after another and I'm just trying to go with the flow. I'm starting to pack up boxes this week because we close on our house here on Friday and are supposed to start moving the next day. SO crazy. I feel like I just finished unpacking and now we are starting over. I've been doing some research online and going to stores to get some decorating ideas. The one thing I was positive about wanting to change about the new house was the sky blue living room and kitchen. But now after hearing Ben complain about how much work it will be to paint the really high ceilings...I'm trying to adjust my thinking. It is certainly not a color I would have picked but I think leaving it might push us in a new fun direction. We shall see.
The girls are doing excellent. They just turned 8 months old and are ALMOST crawling. They are scooting, pivoting, turning, rolling, planking...but don't quite have the coordination down yet. Their new favorite game is sitting next to each other and insistently trying to grab the binky out of each others mouths. This results in looks of bewilderment and then dramatic crying but it sure is cute. Recently we have been exploring in Denver,went to their first birthday party, and last night Rosie and Evie went swimming for the first time! They loved it. They are definitely water babies. It was quite the ordeal getting them suited up and de-suited in a crowded locker room but they looked so adorable it was worth it.

65 degrees today! Anxiety driven blogging over. On our way out to the park!

Falling into place

Last week was stressful. I tend to overreact and overstress and shut down. I don't know why I do it because experience has taught me that everything always works out and falls into place but I will continue to do it for the rest of my life I'm sure. Sorry Ben. After Lily passed away I was sad and overwhelmed about trying to get back again to SLC so soon and not wanting to go through all the motions but so wanting to be there. My sweet husband turned off the SUPERBOWL of all things, loaded me and the girls in the car in our pajamas, and we drove around for an hour and a half listening to Harry Potter.
My cute, cute little sis flew in Wednesday morning and we drove back together because Ben was stuck under a heavy deadline at work. It was so good to just have 8 hours to talk. I wish it was laying out at the pool like the old days but driving across hideous windy Wyoming will have to do.
Thursday was perfect. I forget how healing and wonderful funerals can be. Saw many dear friends and felt so thankful to be with family and to know what we know. Lily IS in heaven with Charlotte watching over us. Inspired by my older sister and her husband again and again. AMAZING.
Friday. Bangs. This is the most drastic thing I have done with my hair for um....10 years? I have pretty much had it exactly the same since my days of monthly bathroom box jobs in effort to defuse teenage angst (thank you Herbal Essences). It is a little reminiscent of an umbrella but a change was in order and I'm liking it.
Valentines Day: The celebration started Saturday with the serendipitous occasion of being in town for the Jane Austen Regency Romance Ball. That's right. My whole family was in attendance and we went all out. It was really fun to get all dressed up and do my moms hair and dance together. Ben and I have never been to a dance before having met after college so it was really fun to have that experience with him. It felt like high school (minus the trashy music and slimy boys). No one could believe that Ben agreed to go but he didn't complain once and actually really enjoyed it. Ben also brought me home a card and flowers on Monday, took me out for sushi which is my favorite, and then out to a Broadway show in Denver last night. The show was unfortunately a little risque for our taste (and I was in a decidedly bad mood) but the music was good and we loved being downtown. Ben is always a fabulous Valentine.

Dear Lily,

Thank you for coming. Thank you for staying. Thank you for bringing peace and perspective. Thank you for teaching and inspiring and listening. Thank you for those quiet, sweet moments holding you that I will never forget. Thank you for letting us love you for a few months before you had to go. We will be missing you and remembering you until we get to see you again. In the meantime, pass on a huge hug to your big sister and snuggle that big brown pooch that will surely never leave your side.
Love, Love, Love you Lily Pie.
http://booferd.blogspot.com/

New Toy

We brought home a new toy for Clover last night but she was fairly disinterested and a little terrified. In trying to coax her into liking it, we found it was an instant hit with the girls. New favorite. Sorry Clove.

Hunker Down

Well its -6 degrees outside and as my mother would say, a good time to "hunker down" and stay warm. Weather report claims the temperature may dip as low as -35 with the wind chill tonight...My, oh my. Extremely different from the very mild, sunny skies winter we have had so far. The perfect day to catch up on blogging, take a bath, and a nap, listen to my girl Celine Dion and ignore all the stinkin laundry that needs to be done.

Had a lovely birthday week with my Benny. Our birthdays are 4 days apart and we love stretching out the celebrating for as long as possible. I baked way too much junk food and we ate, and ate, and ate. We went to a very fancy dinner up in the mountains for Ben's work party. I had an amazing massage during the day and we went to a movie while my friend Brittany watched the girls that night. 28 years old feels like it's going to be a good one. I am exactly where I want to be in my life and feeling much more settled in my skin and my surroundings then I have for a long time.

We bought a house!(under contract anyway) Every weekend the past few months we have spent seeing houses and checking out neighborhoods. It was a fun but frustrating process trying to agree on what we wanted, needed, and where to buy. My dad told me when you find the house you want, you will just know. He was definitely right. I had been dragging my feet the entire time and not wanting to move forward on anything (which is SO not like me... :)). But as soon as I walked into this house I was in love. It had only been on the market for 2 days and we jumped right on it. It's a much bigger house then I imagined myself in but we are hoping to lure some guests out to see us...hint, hint.

We went to SLC last weekend for a very quick trip to close on our condo. Evie had a fever and had been projectile vomiting before we left which had me nervous but the plane ride and trip ended up being just fine. She broke out into a red bumpy rash all over her stomach, neck, face, and head right in time for their picture appointment on Saturday but has since cleared up. The girls were being little grumps so we'll see how they turn out. It is always so lovely to be with family and play with the cousins, eat dinner together, sit around talking, snuggle that darling Lily... All things I didn't appreciate near as much when they were always right at my fingertips. I still get teary eyed every time we leave and I have to hug everyone goodbye. For some reason it almost kills me when my dad kisses Rosie and Evie at the curb of the airport and we have to walk away. I imagine I'll always leave with a lump in my throat but it has certainly gotten better. I love Colorado and love the visits and how it makes life less monotonous.

We had another adventure on the way home. The plane was completely empty (which seems unheard of these days) so we each got our own row to stretch out on. The girls loved it and entertained lots of ladies with their smiles. When we left Colorado it was a sunny 63 degrees so we didn't bother bringing coats with us because we were already pretty loaded down with luggage, two car seats, two babies, and a giant diaper bag. But of course we get in around 9:30pm last night to -2 degree weather and an ice packed car that won't start. Perfect. Lesson learned. Spent a couple hours waiting for help in a toasty service vehicle and finally rolled into bed around 1 am. Home safe and sound and will continue hunkering with my baby girls until this freeze passes us by.