Moving/Misc.

If there's one thing I've learned in life, it's that sometimes big changes are thrown at us pretty unexpectedly, and generally it's when we're comfortable with things how they are.

At the end of October we found out that Darwin's parents would be leaving in February to serve a mission for our church and they'd be gone for at least 8 months.  We've talked to them about the possibility of this happening, and if it did, we would move into their house while they're gone to help take care of the property and allow us a chance to save some money to potentially get us in a house faster that we would be able to otherwise.  So, with the news of them leaving, we started making plans to sell our condo and move into their house.  It was exciting but also sad/scary for us at the same time.  We've been in our condo for seven years, and although we felt like we were starting to burst at the seams (especially with another child coming in March) we thought we'd be there for a few more years at least.

We started moving forward with our plans to move and things have gone pretty smoothly for the most part.  It's been a little bit crazy at the same time too though.  We wanted to be settled before the baby comes in March and Darwin wanted to do our big move while he was home for Christmas break, so we did the big haul the Monday after Christmas (on December 28th).  Moving during the holidays was hard and I honestly don't recommend it, but it ended up working out really well.  Darwin came down with strep throat the day after Christmas but luckily he started on antibiotics really quickly and we nipped it before it got too bad for him.  The morning of our big move, I ended up going to the eye doctor because I somehow got an abrasion on my cornea!  How does that happen?!  My eye has never hurt that bad in my life!  In some ways I felt like we were getting signs that maybe we really weren't supposed to move, but our condo was already under contract to sell and we've felt good about the changes, even though they are hard.  We knew we wouldn't be in our condo forever when we bought it, but it's been really hard for us to leave so many people we've grown to love so much!

The girls have been troopers through all the craziness, and they've adjusted really well!  They were good helpers with packing (they got their toys taken away one day because they wouldn't clean them up, and they even helped us pack them away in boxes!).  I think they've enjoyed the excitement of the change, for the most part.  Aurora has told us several times that she misses the condo and doesn't want to leave her friends, but she also loves the chance to meet new friends and experience the fun of the changes too.  Savannah hasn't really missed a beat and has been so easy going through it all, although she told me the other day too that she also misses the condo.

The girls loved playing in the empty boxes and finding new hiding places as we cleaned things out of the condo.

We inherited a bunch of boxes from a friend I went to UVU with who moved into our ward not too long before we realized we'd be moving out, and some from our new neighbor downstairs.  You can't beat free boxes!

 Signs of moving.  Even though we are in Darwin's parents house at this point, it still doesn't quite seem completely real that we've moved on from our cute condo that we loved living in for so long.

Finding new hiding places :)

Playing in our "packing" paper :) Silly kids!

Savannah helped Daddy take all the glow-in-the-dark stars down from the ceiling in their bedroom. Our girls are good helpers!

 
Silly little goof ball :)

 Rori helped Daddy a bunch too!

Darwin and I were packing up in another room one afternoon when we heard the girls giggling from the living room.  We went to check on them and found them snuggled up together in their blankets between some totes and boxes and the couches.  Little cuties.

Being silly. Of course!


Then the day of the big move came.  My cousin's two sons, Nick and Robby, came and helped Darwin move the bulk of everything during the day.  Their sisters, Aeryka and Jessy helped take care of our girls all day at their house.  They were all troopers and a HUGE help!  I don't know what we would do without our awesome family!  That night we had help from some friends and some guys from the ward to move the big furniture.  Darwin and I went back a couple of days later to finish packing up the kitchen and then we took a couple of weeks to get all the cleaning and touch-ups done to make the place super nice for the new owner.  It was a lot of work!  Showing the condo was a little tricky, but we only had to show it seven times before we were under contract for our asking price.  Unfortunately it only appraised for the same amount we bought it for seven years ago.  We were disappointed and hoped to get a little more out of it, but there's not much we can do about it either.  We'll be closing on the condo later this month and it'll be nice to have everything wrapped up there.
Darwin and the boys drove the Uhaul and I followed in the Pilot behind them. 

Look at the beautiful mountains we get to live so close to for the next little while!

As we've been unpacking, we've found it pretty comical that probably 80% of our boxes were labeled as the room they came from with some specifics, and then "Misc."  Apparently 80% of the things we own are "miscellaneous" items. :)  Thanks for making me smile, babe!

Here's to new adventures and saving up some money to get us in a bigger place of our own.  Bring on the next 8 months! And good luck to Darwin's amazing parents on their mission! ;)

**One other little side story from moving that we don't want to forget is that one day when Darwin and I were packing up some things in the girls room, Savannah suddenly came to the door way and said, "Bwuah-ha-ha!  You'll never find a way!" and walked off.  We just looked at each other and laughed!  It was so random!  Later when Darwin asked her where she got that from she just said, "Nexflix."  Silly kiddo! :)**