Baby #3!!!!!!!!!!

Well here's the newest news. It maybe a little early, but I am the worst at keeping a secret so I'm spilling the beans that I am pregnant with baby 3!!!! I found out last week and that's about as long as I can keep a secret so there you go! We are excited, although Claire wasn't thrilled at first. She needed sometime to think about it. She cried when I told her and she said "I'm just used to two". Poor girl. She has to get used to a lot of change lately. I guess all of us do. We are doing everything at once. New job, new state to live in, and now a new baby. Luckily, babies take 9 months to get here, so maybe we can get things a little more in order.
Will keeps saying "No Baby". I really don't think he understands. I think he thinks we are calling him a baby and he is telling us he is not a baby.
So, the baby will be due the end of July- see I told you I just barely found out. I'm about 5 weeks along. I'm feeling great right now, but I'm sure that will change in the weeks to come.
As I said, I found out last week, so to tell Shawn I went and bought Will and Claire Big Brother, Big Sister shirts and had them wear them on a day when we could take him to lunch. We met him for lunch and he noticed the shirts but didn't notice what was written on them for a few minutes. Will's shirt was the give away, so I specifically pointed out Will's shirt? He finally realized that it said Big Brother and turned to me with a big question mark on his face, and then realized what was happening. He was thrilled! We had been trying awhile, so we were both very excited!
Here are some pictures of the kids in their shirts!

Fall

We have been having fun in my parents backyard this year! They have huge trees that drop tonz and tonz of leaves each fall. This would be a pain for anyone else, but for kids this is just built in free fun. We've had dry weather too, so the leaves are nice and crunchy. We spent an afternoon raking up leaves and jumping into them! The kids and Lilly had a blast. I had fun too and I think Grandma didn't mind the leaves as much this year! And afterward they didn't even mind helping to put some of those leaves in garbage bags.

Utah

Well, I thought I'd better post something since we've been in Utah now for three weeks. Getting here was fine. We were lucky for no snow. We took two days to get here. We stopped in Boise on the first night and made the rest of the way on day two. The drive seemed to take forever, but I think that's just because Shawn and I were driving separate cars, so there wasn't really anyone to talk to on our way. We finally got to Utah on a Thursday, so we had an extended weekend to look for homes. I thought for sure we would find something, but we are still looking right now on week three. We have seen homes that we like, but the majority of homes are short sales. We've made two offers on two short sales two weeks ago, and haven't heard anything yet. We are frustrated at the process of short sales, but are hanging in there. We can't wait to find our new home and get all of our stuff back, which is in storage right now. We are lucky to be living with my parents, but I really hope a home of our own is coming soon!
Shawn is still getting used to his job. We all know what it's like to start something new, but each day it's getting better, and it's a great company!
The weather has been fabulous! This is one of the reasons we moved! I love to see the sun! Family has been great too!
The biggest thing right now is finding a home! Please...... I need a home!

Rain Rain go away...

...oh wait, we are going to go away. A couple of days before I even had a clue we were moving to Utah I had decided to embrace our Washington roots by buying the kids rain gear. In all of the time we've lived here I've never really bought rain jackets. I have bought rain boots and the random umbrella, but never the whole shebang. I thought this year it would be cute to have matching rain gear. Again this was all to show I had embraced living in Washington. So, I spent a small fortune to buy the kids rain coats, boots and umbrellas that all matched. In the pictures you can see they are very cute. So, a couple days after purchase I find out we are moving to a desert! Of course I'm happy to go back to Utah, but I wish I could have found out before I bought all of this stuff that I should now replace with snow apparel. Oh well, at least I got a cute picture, and maybe it will rain in the spring?

Proud to be an American

Happy Election Day!!! I just turned in mine and Shawn's ballots at Joes because I didn't have any stamps handy, and they gave me my cool "I Voted" sticker! I always feel so proud after I vote. So, I am proudly wearing my sticker, even if it is a little dorky. I can't wait to find out who our new President will be!!!
Happy Birthday to Trisha too!

Good-bye

Last night our great friends the Wolfe's put together a little party at their home so we could get together one last time with Washington friends. It was so nice of them to do this for us. We really appreciate them. It was great. Hopefully it's not goodbye forever. Seriously, if any of you Washington people are ever in Utah, you need to come and see us- please!
Here are some pictures of last night. I didn't bring out the camera until the end, so I missed some of the wonderful people that came to wish us well. Thank you for coming, and thank you for your friendship. It has meant so much. We will miss you!

The wonderful Wolfe's


The Hillgrove's who we've know for 7 years! Way before either of us even had kids. And who knew way back then that our two girls would become good friends too!


Lindsay, Alycia, Me, and Serena


Claire and Sadie


Will and Colin


Shawn with Eric and Brian

SOLD!!! And Moving!

Yea Sold!!!!

Yea!!! Our home sold! We are soooooo lucky. Seriously in this market I can't believe it. It must be the right thing to move to Utah. We were on the market for 9 days. Wow, even in normal times that is fast. We should completely close on the 7th of November! We have had the inspection and the appraisal, so now we just need the final paper work and signatures!!! It is such a relief. Now we can start looking for homes in Utah.
This past week has also been busy with packing. Shawn and I have been packing boxes every spare moment, and I think we are done. In fact we just loaded the semi truck that is parked in front of our home. OK, I didn't load it. I more like supervised and bought doughnuts for everyone that helped. Thank you to all that helped!!!! You were a great help! Since the truck is almost all loaded our home is now pretty empty. We will be sleeping on blowup mattresses for the next 4 nights and eating the rest of our food in the fridge. We will leave on Wednesday the 5th of November!


The big truck with all of our stuff inside. We won't see it again for awhile. It will be in storage until we get our new home.

Halloween

Claire was a cowgirl and Will was a firefighter! We spent the night trick or treating and packing up the house! The kids had fun! Happy Halloween!!!

Pumpkin Patch

We went to The Farm in Snohomish with Claire's kindergarten class to pick out pumpkins. Claire rode the bus and Will and I met her there! It was a great day to go to the pumpkin patch! Here are some pictures of the kids!


Will "I want this pumpkin"!


Some of Claire's friends: Morgan, Jordan, Claire and Julia

Claire and friends hiding in the corn stalks

Will was amazed that this pumpkin was bigger than him!

For Sale!

www.johnlscott.com/92875

Our home is for sale now. The website is above. It's been up for 9 days now. It's been crazy to try to get it ready to sell. In two days we've painted 4 rooms, de-cluttered all of the cabinets and home. We've removed half of the furniture to make the rooms bigger, cleaned up the yard and really cleaned the inside. We have become obsessive compulsive about cleaning. Our poor kids are getting into the grove of not leaving anything out, and Shawn is really really obsessive about our floor. He is constantly sweeping. Our home looks so clean it's nice, but a lot of work. Another thing that has happened with all of this home stuff is that 5 year old Claire now knows "real estate talk". Shawn and I were talking about maybe buying a short sale for our next home so we can get a good deal when Claire pipes in and says "no we shouldn't buy a short sale because they take too long to close". Grandma Houston would be proud!

Disneyland!!!

We went to Disneyland September 27th-October 3rd!!! It was so much fun to go at this time because they had all of the Halloween decorations up! We met family down there and had fun! It was unusually hot and there were moments that Disneyland wasn't so magical (I kept calling it the "other side of Disneyland") with crying tired kids, but all in all I would go back in a heartbeat. I was so glad Claire and Will could be there with their cousins too!!! We had a five day hopper pass which was great. We got to do everything we wanted at both Disneyland and Disney California, and even went to the beach one day! I love Disneyland- It's the best with kids!!!


Huge candy corn at the enterance to Disney California

Tea Cups!!! Will loved this ride, but didn't seem to like picture time.

Tiki Room with Cousins!!! This was a hit with the kids too. They kept singing the song over and over "In the Tiki tiki tiki tiki room... In the tiki tiki tiki room..."

Me and Claire at Big Thunder Mountain Railroad! Claire was so brave and went on every single ride she could. After all of the "mountain rides" she said "no more mountains please". She was so brave to try them all out!

Our own Prince William!

Captain Hook!

Giant Mickey Pumpkin at the entrance to Main Street!

Pluto and the kids!

At Hunnington Beach. I think Claire is doing the Hula, or maybe trying out her surfing pose. There were SO many surfers out that day it was amazing to watch.

Claire on the nice soft sand!

Crazy Busy

I thought I'd better post something since I've gotten a few emails wondering if we are all OK. It's been almost a month since my last post. All I can say is that I am crazy busy. We went to Disneyland two weeks ago (which I still need to post pictures of) and the second day while we were there waiting for the Pixar parade to start Shawn got a call from BD Medical Systems and they offered him a job in Utah. We were in shock that they called. Of all the companies in Utah this is the one Shawn has always wanted to work for. He had applied about a month before and they had flown him out, but it was always just a dream to work for them. Luckily we didn't have to make a decision at Disneyland. When we got home we looked at every possible situation and prayed and prayed and prayed to see if this would be a good decision for our family. A week ago we decided that this career oppoutunity would be great for our family, and we decided to take the plunge and move back to Utah. I say plunge, because the job is great, but the time to move couldn't be worse, but we just couldn't pass up this opportunity to work for BD. Of course moving to Utah and being with all of our family will be awesome too! So, we are busily trying to get our home in tip top shape to sell and trying to pack things along the way too. We will be moving the first week of November (just a few days after Halloween). We are excited, but will miss Washington so much. We have a great ward and amazing friends. This has been our home for 7 years, and it will hurt to leave it. Claire is having the hardest time with all of this, but we are trying to make the best of it and make it as fun as possible for the kids. Any suggestions on how to make a move easier for kids? We should be listing our home tomorrow! Wish us luck.

Super Star!

Claire just earned her first 10 stars at school which meant she got to choose a prize out of her teacher's surprise box! Everyday Claire would come home from school and tell me how many stars she has and how many more until she would be able to choose her prize! Each child gets a star stamp on there name card if they have been good and listened to the teacher the whole day without having to be reminded. Claire got her 10 stars in 10 days! I'm very proud of her, and she is very proud of herself! She had been eyeing the surprise box everyday for awhile and had decided days ago that she really wanted a toy dinosaur, so that is what she brought home yesterday! Here she is with her stars and her dinosaur! Congratulations Claire Bear!

The Best Book Ever (for the moment)

I just finished reading the best book ever! I'm so excited about it I have to share it with someone. Since Shawn is out of town, and I don't want to sound crazy calling someone this late I am just going to have to blog about it. The book is Austenland by Shannon Hale. Here are the prerequisites to reading this book: You have to be a Jane Austen fan, but even more than that you have to have watched the BBC version of Pride and Prejudice and be a Colin Firth fan - who wouldn't/couldn't be after watching him in it?!?!. This book is pure entertainment, but such great entertainment! I can't believe I've left this sitting untouched on my bookshelf for months. I will definitely read this book again! Is that pathetic? I would love to hear if anyone else has read this book and what they think? By the way, I LOVE her inscription to Colin Firth! It made me laugh for a day! Another question. Is Colin Firth really that attractive, or is it just his character Mr. Darcy? Hmmmm, well, he does a good job playing Mr. Darcy! Here's to Mr. Darcy and Colin Firth, and my husband of course (who has loved me enough to watch Pride and Prejudice with me)!

Entering the Big World of Public School

Claire's first day of Kindergarten was yesterday! I realized yesterday, as her bus was taking her away from me, that I was sad. I really didn't think I would be. She had gone to preschool, so I was used to her being gone for a couple hours each day, but seeing her on that bus just made her seem so grownup. As the bus pulled away I swear I saw her grow bigger. I'm at least glad she's only gone for half of the day. What am I going to do next year with 1st grade? I'm also glad that Claire was so excited. There was no hesitation as she climbed on the bus. She was so excited to ride the bus and go to school!
The parents also got to go to school that first day and take pictures of the kids in the class room, so as she left on the bus I zoomed to school and met her there for some photo ops. Claire is in the afternoon kindergarten and her teacher is Ms. Sablan. I was only in her class for 5 minutes, but it was fun to see her and all of the other kids together. Later that afternoon Will, Lilly and I walked up to the bus stop to get Claire. Her favorite thing she said was playing on the playground, and that the teacher has surprises for really good kids (kids that listen and do what they are told)! She can't wait to get a surprise! What a fun, tearful, joyful day! I couldn't ask for anything more than to be here watching and helping my kids grow to be the best they can be! Yesterday was, all in all, a great day!



Claire in her unicorn outfit!

Getting on the bus!

Claire in her Kindergarten room!

Before and After

We are pretty much done painting our home! I say pretty much because we keep thinking we are done and then we see something we missed. It was a LOT of work. Shawn did the majority of it, but I helped with the trim, and it was brutal. We are SO glad it is done. Shawn says he is done too. No more projects for this home. Here are some before and after pictures.

BEFORE




AFTER

Grandma Houston and RJ visit us!

Grandma Houston and RJ came to visit us last week! We had a lot of fun going to downtown Seattle and on a tour of the Mariner's Stadium! Afterward we got to go to the Rain Forest Cafe! Later that week we also got to go to the Evergreen State Fair where we had fun looking around at the animals, riding the rides and eating some fair food! We had a great visit! We can't wait for them to come back again!

At Home Plate!!!

Look at that beautiful grass!

Will in the press box!

In the Mariner's dug out. Will is sitting right where Ichiro sits!

On a pier in Downtown Seattle!

At the Fair!

Will milking a pretend cow at the fair.

Claire and a horse of course!

Will riding a ride with Shawn!

Claire coming down the fun house slide!