Friendly Neighbors

When we moved in, we had SO MANY neighbors drop in to meet us and bring us a treat or gift. Southern hospitality at its finest. Ward members were also inviting us over for dinners and get togethers. Our HOA brought us this awesome fruit basket. But probably my favorite gift was from Mimi our neighbor. She brought us 3 loaves of sourdough bread...fresh from the oven. It was right before dinner and so we sliced a loaf up to eat with supper. OH MY GOODNESS! My kids INHALED it...I mean 1/2 way through dinner they wanted to go and get another loaf. But I wouldn't let them... I wanted the goodness to last. Those 2 other loaves only lasted until the next day sadly enough. So the next time I saw Mimi...I begged her for the recipe. She was very willing to share and she actually brought me some of the starter. I only make whole wheat bread...trying to use and rotate that food storage you know ;). So she gave me a few tips on how to make her recipe using whole wheat flour. Just to give you a comparison of how good her bread is: If you are related to me and you know about Granny's rolls...imagine that in bread form, just slightly sweeter. And if you are a member of the Grovecreek 10th ward...if Andrea Scheuber's and Mimi's bread were in a contest...it would be a neck and neck race! So I've since started making our bread again, because I've tried what's out there at these southern grocery stores and it all tastes like cardboard to me. If I'm going to have carbs...they better be worth it! And the whole wheat tricks that Mimi shared have worked wonderfully! I haven't had a batch fail yet. Although it does taste a little different with whole wheat...it's still pretty darn good. My kids are loving it too since every time I make a batch, I could get 4 loaves of bread out of it, but since I only have 3 bread pans I usually make cinnamon rolls or dinner rolls with the extra dough. Reminds me of the urban legend of the new bride cutting off the end of the roast to fit in the pan. I'm also learning to time it right so that I'm not baking in the middle of the day. Many nights I've stayed up to make sure that our bread comes out of the oven...good thing it only takes 30 minutes to bake, and then I'm off to bed!

Missionaries

One thing that we were anticipating in our move was being out in the mission field, away from the mother ship, helping out a ward or branch, and hopefully just being a good example of a semi-normal family! (HAHAHA) When our truck of stuff arrived 3 days after, we were amazed at how many people showed up to help us unload, and unload, and UNLOAD! (8 people have A LOT of stuff!) Ward members came, neighbors stuck around for quite some time, and the missionaries assigned to our new ward showed up. This was the first time for me and the kids to meet Elders Black and Scott, and Sisters Hernandez and Neufville. In the few weeks time, we've grown to love these young missionaries. Nate was able to go on splits with the Elders while we were still in Utah, and I believe he had met Sister Hernandez also. After our first couple of weeks of being here Nate made the comment, 'Our boys have spent more time with missionaries in these few weeks than they ever did in their lifetime in Utah.' What a great blessing it is to have them in our home. We feel their love, and it's great to see what the life of a missionary is like...both good and bad. In fact one Saturday we had both sets over for dinner, they both arrived an hour early because they wanted to do a little tracting in our neighborhood. The Sisters had a good response but it was great for us all to hear the not so nice people down the street that 'politely shut the door' on the Elders. (And as a disclaimer, I didn't know that we shouldn't have both sets over for dinner at the same time. Oops. But I did ask Elder Scott if it was okay and he said that it was every once in a while since Elder Black is the Zone Leader and can use that time to 'meet with the sisters'. Better not make that mistake again.) We were able to have the missionaries over on Mother's Day so that they could skype/talk with their families. It let me see just a little bit of what it's like to be a missionary mom. And the last picture is of the kids playing Ninja with the Elders...one of their favorites especially since every one can play, even Seth.

Tired little kiddos

It was bound to happen. It's hard to adjust to this getting up early! Today I was on my way home from errands when Rachel called and said, 'Jace and Hannah didn't get off the bus.' Excuse me? Were they even on the bus? I stayed calm, but immediately called their school and asked if they were there or if they had gotten on the wrong bus. The front office got a little panicked and started calling their bus driver and others for their school. I decided to try neighbors' houses that I thought Jace and Hannah might go to. Just a few minutes later as I started to leave, the school called back and said the bus was bringing them back home. Apparently when the last boy got off the bus, he said to the driver, 'There's a couple of kids asleep in the back' Yup....poor Jace and Hannah had fallen asleep and no one noticed. Guess it's an early bedtime for us tonight!

Our Home

No this isn't about our home here in Alabama. I've still got boxes to unpack ;) So until that happens...I'm waiting to take pictures. We do love it, love the neighborhood, and ward that have all welcomed us with open and loving arms. But I wanted to write a bit about our home in PG. As most of you know, Nate and I poured our heart and souls into that home. We remodeled 95% of it before we left. We really did want to 'cash in' and use that money to buy a home here in Alabama free and clear, for a couple of reasons...because we did put our heart and souls into our PG home our kids and our bank account took the toll. Most Saturdays were spent on project after project, inside and out. Luckily we didn't go into any debt to fix it up, but it didn't leave a whole lot of money for trips and vacations. I don't feel like our kids ever missed out though...we did have fun in the almost 8 years we did live there. In fact with what we learned and the work ethic that I hope we installed in our kids, I hope it will pay off more than a trip to Disneyland. We had a few inquiries before we left, but nothing solid. So we decided to rent it out. After meeting with a property manager the week before we were to leave, I felt that it was the right thing to do. We could make a couple of double house payments, but not for long. As we were finishing up loading the truck on Thursday, we had a knock on our door. Jill and Mike Butt. They had tried to get ahold of our PM, but couldn't... so living close (in our stake actually) they were prompted to come up to the house. We showed them around, talked about the house, their family of 12, and what their situation was. I don't mind saying that there were a few tears shed, from both parties. Friday morning our PM called and told us more about them and the events that led them to us and to be able to rent out our house. I don't feel like I can say EVERYTHING right now, but I will say this. Heavenly Father had this plan for both our families, and sent the right people at the right time to make sure that plan followed through. It was absolutely AMAZING to sit back and discuss with Nate the events that took place in just those couple of days. Nate called Mike last night and they had a great chat about what had happened and of course talked about things pertaining to our house. I'm glad they are there...taking care of it and loving it just as much as we did. (Besides...we left 6 free chickens and a cat...what more could you want?) Here is a picture that my sweet neighbor sent to me saying: I'm super impressed with your renters...they're out there sweeping and weeding.

Adjusting

Since our move, one of the most asked questions is, 'How are the kids adjusting?' There are a few things that we've had to adjust to. One of the biggest is rising A LOT earlier than we had to in PG. (The boys would get up at 7 or 7:30 to be to the Jr. High by 8:15, and the other 3 kids were up by 7:30 or 8 to be out to the bus by 8:45). Brady started early morning seminary the 2nd day we were here. And hasn't missed a day...guess it's still kind of new. There was even one morning that first week where he still wasn't able to start school and I was SO TIRED, and I thought...'Oh he'll sleep in' so I just laid there hoping he'd turn off his alarm. But nope I heard the shower going, and a few minutes later he was rummaging in the kitchen for cereal. Pretty proud of that boy for getting up. There was one day last week though, that we didn't hear him. He slept through his alarm, when I went to get him up, he wanted to 'sleep in'. Guess what...sleeping in isn't the best option. Even if he slept in...he'd still have to get up in 20 minutes anyways for school. And the funny thing about his bus is that it will drop him off, but doesn't have a pick up spot that is close. So we'd have to take him. The crazy thing about Birmingham, is that there are NO SIDEWALKS! Threw me off at first too. They bus EVERY SINGLE STUDENT for the most part (or parents drop them off). Even if you only live 2 blocks from the school...there is no safe way to walk to school. The youth in our ward are great...we take Brady to seminary at 6am and he catches a ride with a boy named Colby to school everyday. When Nate or I take Brady at 5:50...the other one starts rising the 4 kiddos at the same time, since the 3 younger have to be out to the bus at 6:40am, and Zack's bus picks him up at 6:50am. It is a long bus ride...just under an hour, but with traffic so bad, if we were to take them to be at school by 7:50, we'd be on the road about an hour oursleves. Hannah also had to adjust to full day kindergarten. That is a long 9 hours...when she was only gone for 3 in PG. She rarely makes it past 8pm before her eyes are closing during reading time or sciptures. Can't drive anywhere with her after school either, or else she is a gonner! But if she's out playing, all is well, and we haven't had a melt down yet. When I asked her about how school was going...she said she 'Loves it...especially since I get to eat breakfast!' Umm...that's why her lunch account is depleating quickly...I didn't know she was going to breakfast too. At this point if it's keeping her happy it's worth the $1.50. But our little Seth has been having the hardest time adjusting. Almost everyday at lunch time he asks me where Hannah is. He's used to her coming home for lunch. Now he's just got boring old mom for 9 hours. And I'm not much fun trying to unpack and organize everything. He was fully potty trained through the night, and started wetting the bed again. So back to pull ups we go... and now it's just off and on. He's always saying to me, 'I need you' and rarely wants Nate, Zack or Rachel (his favorites)...but they will do sometimes. The 1st day of Sunbeams yesterday was a complete failure...so we'll try again next week. So this morning when he only wanted me, I just laid on the couch with him and we talked after the kids left for school. That seemed to help a little. After we got him dressed upstairs he said he wanted to play with blocks. I told him that I needed to go downstairs and clean. He said something that hit me like a ton a bricks, 'Mom if you leave, I will be lost.' Broke my heart. I just held him for a minute and we talked some more about how I'd never leave him, but I'd always come back, and how this was his fun new house and bedroom. He did end up playing in his room for about 20 minutes by himself. So hopefully we are taking baby steps to feeling more at ease here. I remember when we moved from Cedar to Springville when Brady was 1 1/2. The whole time we were packing up the Uhaul, he cried and cried. He'd follow me from room to room crying as our trailer got more and more empty. I finally realized that he was feeling like we were going to leave him too...so I ended up strapping him into his car seat where he could see us loading the Uhaul. He was fine and sat there for over 2 hours, because he knew that we were going to take him with us. It's so sad how these little ones don't quite get it, no matter how much you talk to them about it. But we'll just keep loving little Seth, and he'll be my little shadow for as long as he needs.

Back at it again

I've done this so many times...keeping up on our blog...then 'life' happens and it'll be months and sometimes years ;( between posts. I always have that little voice in my mind that says...'you need to write that down' when a special moment happens in our family. But now that we've moved to Alabama...I realize that it is more important than ever. We've only been here 2 weeks, and in that short amount of time I've found myself telling the same experience to friends or family over the phone and thinking 'I swear I've told them this story already'. And although I'M SO HAPPY to talk to ANYONE over the phone. This will help keep everyone up on the Holmes' family life, especially us for when our kids are older and we want to recall our experience here. So here we go again... Back in November 2013 Nate decided to put his resume online just to see what jobs were out there. (He would usually get random calls for jobs, but never took anything.) In December he got a job from Protective Life here in Birmingham, and after a phone interview, they immediately asked him if he'd fly down for a person to person interview. January 6, 2014 was the date...and it's been a roller coaster ride ever since. There were other companies over the U.S. that were still contacting him for jobs, but for some reason we were drawn to Alabama. Who knows, maybe it's because Nate served his mission here 20 years ago, it definitely holds a special place in both our hearts. Nate agreed to a start date of February 17, so at the end of January, he and I flew down to find a house for our family. Through an LDS realty agent website, we found Steve Chambers, who would become more than just our real estate agent. When we were scheduled to fly down, it was the weekend of the 'Snow pocalypse' here in the south. People were stranded at work, schools, the freeway overnight because of a huge ice/snow storm that shut everything down. Our flight was delayed an entire day, so we only had one day to look at houses. And honestly I didn't like anything that we saw. Homes are different here in the south. The dining room is in the front of the house, right in birds eye view from the front door. No one likes to see the garage door from the road, they are mostly always to the side of the house and in the basement. Those are two things that I've had to become accustomed to. I was bummed that we didn't find anything, but both Nate and I had received answers to our prayers that we should and will move. So something had to turn up right? While we were looking at homes with Steve, he mentioned that he needed to go to a baptism that evening. Nate was all over that, especially when he asked Steve if he knew the Mitchem family. Nate had known the Mitchem's while he was serving here and had absolutely adored their family. Steve said that they would probably be there at the baptism. It was such a fun experience to go to the baptism and see the excitement of those missionaries and of course Raven who was being baptized and also to see Sister Mitchem's face light up and she recognized who Nate was. We were done looking at houses and Sister Mitchem invited us over for dinner after the baptism. I'll never forget some of the last words from Steve. I think we could tell that we were a little frustrated at not finding anything, but he did something that we'll never forget. He told Nate that he would be welcome to come and stay with him once he started work and Nate could continue to find a home and prepare a place for our family. So we went home still second guessing our decision, but still moving forward. Nate and I looked at thousands of houses online. Even though we didn't find 'the house' there were some things that we did come to realize that we wanted in a house. First being the school district, Oak Mountain, we'd heard that is was top ranking and so we were looking in a certain area. We also didn't care if we were in a ward or a branch, we'd come here to help with the Lords' work and do whatever we were asked. We knew we didn't want a fixer-upper...our family had done that for the past 8 years and we needed a break. On a side note, this is why we wanted this adventure. We realized that we had only about 3 1/2 years until our kids started to leave. We wanted to experience something new all together and not be tied down to house and yard work EVERY SINGLE SATURDAY! Our kids paid the price with our home in Pleasant Grove, every last cent and every last free minute went into that home to make it beautiful. But we loved it, and we all learned a lot from working together. But we were all ready for a break. Our plan was to sell our PG home and buy something here so that we would have little to no mortgage. That's not how it turned out...but that is a different story for the future. Nate left for Alabama on February 14...yes Valentine's Day. Sniff. He arrived in time to go to church on Sunday, and start work Monday morning. I can't imagine what we was feeling like leaving PG alone and driving 1800 miles by himself. But he's amazing and we chatted into the night sometimes, just so he could make it a little further in his journey. After about 2 weeks of searching he finally found us a home. It is in the Shadowbrook community and we love it! There is one other member family here, just right around the corner, and of course we've become good friends. But the neighbors here are so friendly. They regularly come over to introduce themselves and bring a treat. There are quite a few kids here, and our kids always have someone to play with. Nate closed on our home March 20th, and flew home Wednesday, March 26th. Thursday was the big 'loading the truck day', Friday we finished up and we hit the road at 3pm. We had some great talks with the kids during that 3 day drive. We slept just outside of Denver Friday night, and Saturday was our big push to cover as many miles as possible. We made it to a dive of a hotel Saturday night about 1 A.M. in Mt. Vernon, IL. And what a great feeling it was to listen to 'Sweet Home Alabama' as we crossed the state line on Sunday. We drove directly to our home, and enjoyed making plans for when our stuff would come. Even though we had a few kitchen items and sleeping bags, Steve wouldn't hear of us sleeping on the floor. He and his daughter Victoria had a wonderful meal ready and waiting, southern hospitality at it's finest. Nate also received a couple of texts as we were driving with offers from ward members to have us over for dinner that night. It's like a second family was waiting for our arrival, we've never felt so loved. I'm going to stop there for now and add more of our adventures later. We are loving our neighborhood, and we are so excited to go to our ward for the first time today. Although we've met a large part of our ward already with get togethers, YM, Activity Days and Cub Scouts. I'm sure there are plenty others to meet.

Brady's 13th Birthday

Wow...we finally became parents of a teenager. And all this boy wanted for his birthday was a cell phone and a Facebook account. Oh the life of a deprived teenager. We actually had B's cell phone for about 2 weeks before the big day...but we are great at keeping secrets ;-) So with the phone all charged, Nate went and planted it under his pillow at about 5am. He let it ring and ring...but no answer. He went back down and put it closer to his ear. Now for the 2nd call...I'll never forget that tired 'Hello?' and us saying 'Happy Birthday Brady!' and the sincere heartfelt 'THANK YOU!' He immediately came upstairs with a HUGE smile on his face. Then went back to bed and the texting began. His 1st text to Nate was...'How many texts do I have per month?' Nate said 200...then started texting H...A...P...P...Y...B...I...R...T...H...D...A...Y. He texted back something to the effect of 'Stop wasting my texts' Hehe...then Nate told him it was unlimited. Too funny. He still tops us every month with almost 2,000 texts. We honestly didn't have any plans for a party because he was so fixated on getting a phone and FB account...he didn't want to talk about anything else. So that morning, I told Brady to ask some friends at school if they would like to go to a movie after school (it was a minimal day thank goodness), and then come back to our house for dinner. Ryan, Ben, and Derek are some great friends of Brady's and they had a great time just hanging out eating and going to the movies.

Best Friends

Annie, Courtney's mom, made these cute skirts and purses for the girls for Valentines Day. Courtney doesn't have any sisters and gets a little jealous when she sees other sisters in matching dresses at church. So when Annie asked her who she would like to match with...of course she said Hannah. And boy did they love being twinners. It still cracks me up of how Hannah towers over Courtney, even though she's almost a year older.

Valentine Cookies 2012

I don't think we've gone a year without making Valentine cookies...because seriously...we all need a little sugar rush now and then!

Quiet Moments

I remember taking this picture of Seth one morning because of how 'Angelic' he looked and acted. He sat quietly eating his oatmeal in the chaos of the morning and it was just what I needed to keep me positive throughout the day. I'm not saying this happens often, but I'm sure thankful when it does. Here is also a picture of his curls for one last time, before I trimmed them.

Always Entertained

The great thing about having older kids with a little ones, is that there is always someone to entertain them. Rachel is by far the best and most willing to entertain Seth, and he just loves her to pieces. I can't imagine having him, without her ;-)

Hannah's 4th Birthday

Nate started the trend of 'Designing Your Own Cake' last year...and now our kids love to talk about what creations they will come up with. Hannah decided that she wanted to make her own ice cream cake. And that's exactly what we did. It actually turned out really yummy, although it might not look like much. We also had Hannah's friend party once the kids were back in school, and play group was at our house. She is such a happy girl, and would honestly be ecstatic with a stick of gum. (In fact that was one of her favorite things that she got...Bubble Tape.)

Christmas Morning 2011

Visions of Sugar Plums

Ahhhh....that moment after all the activities when they are finally asleep. Here on our bedroom floor in front of the fire.

Christmas Eve 2011

Best family tradition that we've ever come up with...frosting cookies for Santa on Christmas Eve, which gives us a dessert and checks off the cookie frosting from our list!

Gingerbread Houses

We've made a tradition of creating Gingerbread houses every year during Christmas time. We've always invited a couple of families to join us to make a party out of it. This past December 2011, I decided to send out an email to the young families in our ward and hold it at the church. (Honestly, it wasn't that big of a deal, and we still had a small but fun turnout.) The dads were able to play basketball, while we were up on the stage creating yummy houses. I think we may hold it at the church more often! Rachel and Hannah... Jake, Josh and Jace...the 3 'J's' Brady and Courtney Zack, Jordan, and Caleb All the wonderful creations!

Nate's Birthday Wish

Nate wanted to make his own birthday cake for 2011. And being the loving/supportive wife that I am...I was all for it! I bought the supplies and waited for the final outcome. I myself didn't have a piece of cake, but Nate and other people described it as a Round House Kick to the Head with Sugar! I think the frosting on the Zingers was a little too much, so next year he was thinking of Twinkies instead ;-)