BIG EXCITING NEWS!!

A week and a half ago when Taber and I flew out to Boston, it wasn't entirely a birthday surprise. We found out last minute that he was actually being considered as a top candidate for an HR manager position at a General Mills plant in Methuen Massachusetts. We flew out to make sure it would be a good fit for Taber and our family. The visit went very well and he was offered the job, which means we'll be moving to New England in just 7 weeks!!
Boston is over 1400 miles away from where we live in Minnesota. It's going to be a long and snowy ride in the middle of January!

Taber will be at a Yoplait plant where they make Gogurts, Parfaits, Yoplait lights and a few other things. It's always fun to tell the girls that Daddy's going to work to make some Gogurts!

We're excited for this promotion and for the opportunity to live in a part of the country that is new to us.While we were there we were able to find a great house in a beautiful neighborhood in Nashua, New Hampshire. We will have plenty of room for visitors so if you've been wanting to get out so Boston, now you have an excuse!!

Settling in

We finally have all the important boxes unpacked and are starting to get settled in. This whole moving thing has been very hard on Teya and we've been very anxious to get her stuff unpacked so she could feel a little more comfortable in our new home. Our first big project after getting our beds set up was putting together her play room. We finished it during one of her naps. When she woke up and walked in her eyes popped out of her head, she flung her arms out with joy and looking at all her toys said, "MY FRIENDS!!" Having her toys out has really made a big difference, though she still misses our old house. The other day we were playing and having a good time and suddenly she stopped and said, "I wanna go home now" "I tried to explain that this is our home, but I think she's still hoping we'll change our minds and go back.

Teya happily relaxing in the playroom

Thrilled to see her"friends"

Brinley likes the playroom too, but she's pretty easy to please!

With our house getting more organzied everyday we've ventured out into the neighborhood to check out our surroundings. We're so lucky to have 2 parks within walking distance! One is literally a 5 minute walk, the other is a mile away but still super close. We're trying to go as much as possible since I know the winter will be here soon enough and then we'll be stuck indoors. On the swing at Weaver Lake Park

Jungle Gym by our house

climbing the monkey bars

Brinley is happy to be there for the ride

Also, sorry I haven't posted any pics of our place yet. It's nothing spectacular, just a little townhouse (we had to downsize because it's much more expensive up here coming from the south). I'll get some pics up when we get it all put together, but the townhouses behind Teya in this picture are what our house looks like, we're just around the corner.

That's the latest update though. Kids are settling in, we're all happy to have our stuff out of boxes, and we really, really love the location we're in. It's awesome being close to parks, not to mention a 5 minute drive in the other direction to Wal-Mart, Sams, Target and Home Depot! what more could I ask for? : )

Home Improvement 101

So when we went house hunting in Minneaplis we had orginally put in an offer on a different house but it didn't end up working out. We had spent a ton of time in that house and taken a million pictures thinking we were sure to get it. Well we didn't, so we had to pick one of our other choices that we hadn't spent much time in at all and could honestly barely remember! (How's that for scary?) But we prayed about it and felt good so we decided to go ahead and put in an offer and head out to our new home that we knew very little about.

When we got to our place I was happy to see that I liked the floorplan and LOVED the location, but I was a little freaked out because it definitely needed some work. Neither Taber nor I have much experience with home improvements so we were a little scared but ready to take on the challenge. On our first day here we headed out to Home Depot and bought a can of paint, some rollers and tape so we could paint our downstairs.

(Teya enjoyed the sweet carts at Home Depot)

After 10 hours, 3 more trips to Home Depot, and several hundred dollars spent on painting supplies, we had only managed to put up one coat on half of our living room. At that point it dawned on us that we are not painters. Meanwhile our cringe worhty paint job is stuck on our walls half finished and the movers are coming the next day to drop off our stuff. We frantically tried to recruit some help but with labor day weekend nobody was available. We finally decided that we'd just have to deal with it when the holiday was over.

Fast forward to today: we hired a professional painter to come and finish the job. It took him half the amount of time to do what we did and he did it a whole heck of a lot better! Moral of the story: sometimes it is worth the money to have someone else do something for you, especially if they are good at it and you are not. :)

Road Trip

Things I've learned from my road trip to Minneapolis:
-2 year olds can be scary when strapped into a seat for hours at a time
-the body can survive for a long time on cheetos and gatorade
-you can change a baby's diaper on your lap while driving if you're really, really desperate

Things we couldn't have survived without on our road trip:
-Portable dvd player (seriously, you can't put a price on how valuable this was!)
-GPS (saved us from disaster several times)
-Beef Jerkey, cheetos, & gatorade (it's truly amazing how they can sustain you for days)
-Hand sanitizer and wipes (a necesisty when using public restrooms and eating in the car)

Cardinal rules to follow when traveling with kids:
-NEVER stop when they babies are sleeping (I would rather wet my pants then stop, it's so not worth waking them up!)
-Don't let the DVD battery die!

So we survived the 2 day drive to Minneapolis with a 2 year old, newborn baby and our dog. Teya did great while plugged into her DVD player but she definitely had some rough moments. After a particularly intense meltdown we finally caved in and let her suck her binky in the car (normally it's only allowed in her bed) She was so happy when we gave her the binky. At one point Taber saw her petting it and saying, "Binky, you're my friend"

Monty did great as long as we were driving, but every time we stopped he flipped out and started barking like a maniac. The true champion of the drive was little Brinley. She slept for 4 hour stretches and harldy made a peep during the whole trip! We got in last night around 7pm and are staying at a hotel until our stuff gets here tomorrow. It's been a crazy week but we're hoping to be sleeping in our own beds and getting Teya back into a routine very soon!

At a pit stop where we let Teya run around in the grass to burn off some energy

Teya zoning out in front of her DVD player with Monty sleeping by her side

A rare moment where Teya joined Brinley and Monty in napping

Moving Day!

The movers came today, packed our stuff and hauled it away. (hey that rhymes!) Sorry, it's been a long day and my brain is fried. Well long last two days, well long last week actually. Taber started work in Minnesota on Monday leaving me behind to take care of the move. Luckily he flew my totally awesome little sister out to help, otherwise I think I would have gone insane! We made it through the week, tag teaming with the girls and cleaning and sorting in between. It was a little rough when the movers were here because Teya went into hysterics every time they packed up one of her toys. We ended up sending her to a friends house to spare her from the drama of it all. But anyway, the house is empty now and Taber will be home tonight so that is good. We'll be sleeping on blow up beds and sleeping bags for the next few days since we're not driving out till Monday. I don't mind though because an empty house means eating out! YES! I always love an excuse not to cook!

Here's the giant truck they sent to haul our stuff away

Brinley chilling in our empty living room

Liz's bed for tonight

It's been nice to have an extra set of hands around to hold the baby,
burp her, and change diapers. : )

Auntie Liz entertaining Teya at the discovery center

Moving to Minneapolis, Need Advice!

Well it's official, Taber has been offered a new position up at General Mills headquarters in Minneapolis. They want us to move at the end of August, so looks like we'll have less than a month to get our house on the market, find a new house, pack up our little family and head north! Luckily the company will buy our house if we can't sell it in 45 days (which is probably what will happen with the way the market is out here) They will also have movers come pack our stuff up and drive it out, which is a big relief because there is no way I am up to packing right now! Still, I think it's going to be a crazy month getting everything ready for the move.

We're actually flying out there tomorrow to look for a place to live. We're bringing Brinley but we're leaving Teya behind with her best friend's family. I'm a little nervous because we've never left her with anyone besides family, and even then she was too small to remember it. Yesterday I was trying to prep her for it and told her we were going on an airplane and she was going to stay and play with her friend. She started bawling and said, "Don't leave me mommy! Mommy, I come?" It broke my heart!! I know she'll be in great hands with our friends, but I hope it doesn't devastate her too much. She's had so many adjustments recently and is already feeling insecure with the new baby. If anyone has any advice on how to make this easier on her please let me know! I've been scared to bring it up again because I don't want her to freak out. At the same time I feel like I should prep her on the fact that we'll be gone for 5 days. So I know it's last minute since we're leaving tomorrow but any advice would be great! Also if you have advice on helping kids adjust to a move that would be appreciated too. : )

Update!

So now that we live way too far away from all our family I thought it would be a good idea to start a blog. I don't really know where to start so I think I'll just give a quick update. Taber graduated from MBA school at BYU in April and we moved out to Murfreesboro Tennessee in May. We bought our first home and Taber started working for General Mills as an assistant HR manager. I'm loving being a stay at home mom and exploring Tennessee with Teya. She's almost 20 months now and starting to talk up a storm. Some people even think she has a Tennessee accent! We'll just have to wait and see!