So, as I briefly mentioned in my last post, our little family has moved! Before Sydney was born we started packing up a lot of our belongings and 3 weeks after her birth, we loaded them up into two large U-Hauls {and a small trailer} and headed out to Arizona.
We are getting to be pros at this whole moving thing {not quite as good as my friend
Jill who has moved more times than she has fingers and toes} seeing as how it was only slightly less than four years ago that we moved from Indianapolis to California. And before that? Well, I moved from Columbus up to Indianapolis. I've gotten pretty good at meeting people, making awesome friends and then saying goodbye a few years later. I'm not singing a sad song here - I am very blessed to have such great friends scattered all over the US. And, now we are here and ready to start all over and make some new friends.
But, back to our move. I remember flying out to California and moving into our house there and crying one night to David because 500 miles was a long ways away from my parents {who had, only 3 days earlier, moved from Indiana to Arizona}. I never in my wildest dreams would have imagined living that far away from them. He told me that we didn't know what the future held and that someday we may live close to them again. Well, that "someday" opportunity came for us. I like to say that all the stars aligned. And while the timing wasn't perfect {seriously, who wants to move 3 weeks after giving birth to their second baby?}, it was an opportunity that we didn't want to pass up.
Finding a house out here was kind of tough. Before Sydney was born, I couldn't fly out to Arizona to look at places and there was no way I was going to let David risk missing the birth of our new baby to scope out potential houses. My mom was in California with us helping out with Olivia {and Sydney, once she was born} so she wasn't able to look at houses for us either. So, that left things up to my dad. To say that the house hunt was stressful is pretty much an understatement {especially when you factor in a hormonal mama and the stresses of packing}. We had found several houses that looked great online, but once inside we discovered that they weren't quite living up to the pictures. After looking at several houses online and in person {via my dad}, we finally found the perfect place.
The house is less than 2 miles from my parents' house {woohoo} and is in a neighborhood filled with young children and lots of play areas! The layout of the house is perfect for David to work from home - he has a huge office in one corner of the house and the girls even have their own playroom right off of the kitchen/family room area. I love the location of the playroom because I can see Olivia playing while I am working on dinner. And, of course, this house has a gated pool. I have a love/hate relationship with the pool. I love it because it is going to be so nice during the hot months {umm, like right now} and because Olivia loves it so much. But, I hate it because it scares me to death every time Olivia is near it. The only reason we even considered this house with the pool is because it is completely gated, so she can be playing in the grass area of the back yard or on the back patio, but can't get into the pool area. This house also has about 5 different fruit trees that are already loaded with fruit -- oranges, grapefruits, pomegranates, lemons - but won't be ready until December or January.
It has been so nice being so close to my parents. I can't express enough gratitude for all that they have done for us over the last couple of months. My mom was out here searching for houses with my dad before she came to California. Once out there, she took care of a very pregnant me and a very needy 2 year old. She also helped us pack up the rest of the house that we hadn't already packed up. Once Sydney was born, she continued to be my right arm woman and helped in any and every facet imaginable.
My dad stayed out here and missed the birth of his second granddaughter so that he could physically check out the houses that we were sending him to. And, then once we secured this house, he came over multiple times to paint the girls' bedrooms and clean the place before we arrived.
And, since we've been out here? OH MY GOSH. We would be a mess without them. They have been over here every single day helping to unpack, clean, move furniture, hang pictures, stain patio furniture, make dinner, hold babies, put toddlers to sleep, and on and on and on. You name it - they've done it. And, I can't stress enough how helpful/nice/wonderful it is to have someone to run errands with. On Friday, I took Sydney to the doctor and then picked up mom and Olivia {who had her second sleepover with them the night before} to go run some errands. It was enough of a nightmare with the two adults and I can only imagine it to be impossible if I had tried to do it myself.
As much as we are going to miss our good friends back in California {a blog about that soon...}, being this close to our family is truly the best gift we could give our girls. Not only do my parents live out here, but so does my cousin {and his wife and kids}, my aunt & uncle {part-time} and my aunt's sister and her husband. Not to mention, my brother is out here all the time and so it will be so nice for him to see all of us when he comes to visit. We are really looking forward to being around family again!
After being in here for a little over a week, we are finally getting a little bit settled. I'm now working more on organizing areas instead of just focusing on unpacking. Just in time to start pulling out all of our Halloween gear...
Happy Monday from the Valley of the Sun!
