No more Trailerhausers

We were lovingly labeled as the Trailerhausers a couple years ago by some friends up here. I think it's pretty funny. But we've got big news and it's finally time to tell the tale! I have a tendency to be long winded so I'll see if I can attempt to avoid it a little.

We weren't actively looking to move back to Utah anytime super soon, but a few events occurred that landed a job opportunity in our lap that we decided to act on. I interviewed for it officially (again) in September and was given the job. It's an ER group that covers a couple hospitals in Davis county and I had interviewed with them a year before. We decided we wanted it and we'd move forward with making it happen and hope and pray pieces fell into place this time for us to end up back home. 

Before Christmas, Tanner bought a trailer so we could move some stuff home then. We emptied out the spare room and shed and took it to a storage unit in Utah. 

It was a weird feeling! Like we are committing and really doing this!! We kept it kinda hush hush at that time because we weren't quite ready to have his work find out. I told my job right before we left for Christmas.

January we listed our house for sell. We tried selling it a couple years ago when we were going to buy a house here but after 6 months nothing happened and the people sold their house to someone else and we kept living in the trailer. So I was HIGHLY skeptical of us being able to. With oil prices dropping so much the market up here is not what it used to be and people aren't moving here like they were. We had a little bit of interest but most of that ended up being nothing. Then about a week and a half ago we had a girl text me saying they were really interested. We had heard that before so tried not to get our hopes up too much. Well they ended up driving 4+ hrs from a small town in eastern Montana to check it out on Saturday. They gave us a down payment that day and we drafted a bill of sale and that was that. WHAAAATTT!? We sold our house!! We were both SOOO elated and HAPPY!! It really was a miracle and an answer to MANY prayers. We went to Sakura that night to celebrate. 

Harv calls it the fire num num and spots it from a mile away. He loves how they toss the eggs in pockets and hats and he loves their fried rice. He thinks he likes the fire till its big right in front of us and then he gets a little nervous :)

After we got home then everything started sinking in - basically all the things that needed to happen in a very short amount of time. Pack, clean, move, and sometime in there have a baby - all in a 3 week period. Yikes!! My parents are coming up for baby and will be here a week and we decided we should use their help while we have it and just get everything loaded and done and use my Mom to help me drive back to Utah with 2 kids. Tanner will have to stay up to work a bit and then he will come down for a week at Easter and then back up here for a few weeks while I enjoy my maternity leave in Utah. It's gonna suck being apart but hopefully goes by fast for both of us.

So he told his work last week finally. I had my last day last Wednesday. And we both realized how sad we are to be leaving our jobs. We have both felt so incredibly blessed with our jobs. They have been so great for us. Amazing people. Great experiences. Awesome bosses. The list goes on. But we are ready to prioritize being close to family and mountainous recreation that we have been missing so much while up here versus having the best jobs ever. And who knows - maybe we will get lucky and love our jobs there too!

Anyway - so after I finished work we spent the weekend in a mad packing and cleaning frenzy to try to get as much done as we could before baby and parents. 

Harv has obviously been a great helper ;)

And Tanner helped entertain him so he wasn't unfolding and throwing clothes all over the place. After saturday we had most everything done that we could do before parents and the house mostly  back together - so just waiting on baby!

But for real - this is so crazy to us that it's finally happening. And we are going to miss Williston so much. We have met the most amazing people and everyone that we have met has really left us a little bit better. It's the best thing Tanner and I could have done for us for a million different reasons. We are so excited to be home and with family again and have cousins and grandparents and aunts and uncles and all of those important things, but Williston will always hold a very special place in our hearts. All of our wedding anniversaries will have been celebrated up here. Two babies. So many other great memories and things we've learned and experienced. We won't miss the drive to Utah, the wind, the negative 50+ wind chills (although it sometimes is fun to brag about what insane temps we are surviving!) and I certainly won't miss our "yard" or the trailer park. Won't really miss living in a trailer but it was a blessing for us and it was home for almost 4 YEARS!! Can't believe it. There are lots of things we are going to miss! The sky, the air, the people, our jobs, the easy commute to work and there's lots about a small town that I have come to love. All of it is so bittersweet! But it's time to have some new adventures and change it up a bit. Farewell Trailerhausers, farewell Williston, ND. We love you. 

Come see us in Utah very soon!! 

Birthday boy!

I'm already excited for birthday number 3 for this kid, just because he really got excited about this one and seemed to have a clue what was going on - so I'm sure it will be even more fun next year. Probably will have to step it up a bit as far as celebrating. Tanner has been out of town all week so we gave him his presents and did cake on Sunday. After church Tanner set up the two trucks we got him and put them in our room so he walked in and saw them. See his cute reaction!? So fun!!

(He didn't wear that tie to church, FYI). Then we put his next present in the room and told him he had another birthday surprise. He got so excited and ran back in there. Again I thought his reaction was so fun.

He's definitely improved a ton in a few days. He had plenty of tips but mostly thought they were funny and then would pretend crash a lot also. 

So those things have been occupying him like crazy all week. I had his cake made after he got up from his nap and when he saw it all he wanted to do was mess with it. We held him off for as long as we could but eventually had to get after the cake before it got destroyed.

He pulled the big digger over thinking it needed to go on the cake too :) haha. He had a blast with it. And loved the fire and everything. And I guess you can't make a dirt looking cake with diggers and not expect him to get crazy with it. 

My parents sent a package too so we face timed with them while he opened it up. He scored in the movie department and got some cute vday pjs!

So cute. We watched a movie the next day and he picked Bugs Life. He wanted to watch it again the next day and I obliged. He's asked every day since but we haven't gotten to it again. I want to get him to see all the other classics!

So but all week when we've talked about birthdays (wished cousin Emery happy birthday, etc) he's gotten excited about his trucks. Definitely putting it all together and I think it made sense that it birthdays are a pretty cool and special thing! After a truck heavy Christmas and birthday, this is our life...

It has been tough pulling him away from this truck mecca. He can now say "play" and he says it all the time if we aren't in the room sitting with him. "Play, Mom (or Dad)!" He will grab my hand and say "play" and the way he says it is so dang cute it can not be resisted. Hence a lot of chores went undone this week.

This morning, his actually bday, we just played. He requested oatmeal and dates (one of his favs) for breakfast and then I had to work :( I did get to leave early to pick him up and then we went to Culver's. Lindy and Steve Mabeus and their girls, Lilly and Lucy joined us! 

He was absolutely adorable the whole time. Lilly was so cute and said happy birthday and gave him a hug and he just smiled and giggled! He ate like a champ (all that yummy "healthy" stuff) and was just so cute and fun!! He's getting into this "cheese" thing when we take pictures and for some reason the arms usually come up with it too. 

Oh my gosh I love this kid. He makes me laugh and smile a hundred plus times a day. Don't get me wrong - he has his unfresh moments too! He's got so many emotions that have got to be tricky to sort through. Lots of frustrations and melt downs and tantrums and "no!!" and yelling at me and some hitting and the potty training. Oh the potty training. Definitely not bringing out the best mom in me. Ugh. But there are just too many good funny happy spunky awesome things that come from this little human that it makes it unquestionably worth it. I can't believe it's been two years. Both that it's gone that fast and also that it's only been two years that we've been parents. That other life seems so far away. I love the mom and dad life. I love Harvey. Happy birthday to my absolute most favorite little pal. 

Life

Tanner keeps telling me I need to blog. And I keep asking what to blog about because no "events" have really happened. He just said "life". And life is good so I'll write a little about it.

We'll start with Harvey. He's awesome. So much fun right now.

Potty training is going ok. Depends on the day but I definitely think we are making solid advancements. Pooping on the pot is not his favorite and he needs a little reassuring while it's happening. We have a harder time when we go out and each of us get distracted. And he's not a huge fan of normal toilets. I have to sit behind him to make him sit and stay on it without freaking out. Not the most fun momming thing but we are doing good!

He has started talking so much more lately. Just in the last couple of weeks. He'll attempt to repeat our words a lot more. He knows all the main colors and can say all of them really well except red. It seemed we thought he was a little delayed in started to talk but he is a SMART boy and I love hearing his little voice try and say little words. He amazes me with his memory too. I wish I could constantly record everything he says and how he says it. Our ability to communicate has exponentially increased and it is awesome. His new word for golf sounds like "daw". Or something. And he's still obsessed with it. He loves watching it on tv and hitting his clubs anywhere he can. Tanner just got him a new driver too. 

Waiting for the golf simulator is hard work.

 

 He loves any sport really and we will range from golf to baseball to basketball to soccer to volleyball in any given time period. And he's quite coordinated. 

Why not bat from sitting on a dog??

We had a fun stretch of days while I was off work. Had some fun at the library and an indoor playground and visiting dad etc etc. 

 

Still loves the iPad and Mickey Mouse. Our morning routine involves him waking up, going pee, requesting milk and ba ba (hot dog, ie mickey mouse). Milk has to have juice in it (we've been using lots of prune juice to help with the pooping) and it has to be "woahmmm" (microwaved warm). He has been obsessed with the "boat" story of  Nephi building a boat. We started doing those "video" scripture stories from my iPad at breakfast. Haven't really been able to get past chapter 7 and 8 where he builds the boat and they cross the sea. We've slacked a bit because then he just wants to watch other stuff after on the iPad and then gets naughty if I do or don't let him. Have to figure something else out. But he loves the boat song - Nephi's Courage and helps me sing some of the parts. It's the cutest thing ever. 

Now for Greta...

She's measuring huge according to ultrasound. Head was 3 weeks ahead and body 2 weeks. Eek. The doctor has mentioned things like c section and vacuum forceps and I don't like that at all. I'm sure it will all be fine. She said I have good body type for birthing large babies...??? I'm hoping that is all being very overestimated. Except my birthing capabilities :)  But all looks well and she's moving like crazy and it's wonderful. She hugs up under my right ribs and it creates a constant discomfort vs pain almost. My back kills on a daily basis - just mid right like a bad muscle spasm but it's always worse at work and it's miserable. That's all I can say about it. We talk to Harvey about her all the time and he always responds to questions about if he's excited or if he wants a baby or if he's gonna share his toys, etc, with a definitive "no". Haha. I'm interested to see how he reacts to it all.

Some of my amazing nurse friends threw me a shower last Friday and it was so so fun. So nice to get out with some great gals. They were so incredibly generous and we got some adorable and great stuff. I feel so blessed to work with such great people that are also friends. 

I took this picture right before I left for the shower- almost 35 weeks. 

Definitely the slow moving time of pregnancy. Days are going by slow and physically I'm ready to be done and emotionally I'm just so excited to meet her! 

Williston...

Both of us love our jobs. We really have been so blessed to be up here. The ER  has definitely slowed down which has been nice. I only have 15 days left on the schedule before maternity leave! Woo hoo! And crazy! Tanner is enjoying his maintenance position. He'll be in Minot all next week for training. Winter this year has been incredibly mild which is glorious. Harv and I even made it to the park last week cause it was like 40. What the heck!?  Very few below zero days and lots above 30. I don't even know where we live anymore but we will definitely take it! 

Um. I think that might be it for the pertinent updates. For now anyway.