Carolina on my Mind

We FINALLY made it back east the first two weeks in April and had so much fun visiting friends and family. We left April 1, and were scheduled to close on the house while we were gone so things were really really crazy leading up to our long trip because we had to be moved out before we left. We were moving stuff up to the night before we left. Once we got on that airplane it was nice to know that we FINALLY had a chance to just relax, away from the moving circus.



Jacob and Katy's first time on a big airplane! They all did great, everyone around us were

so surprised how good and quiet they were, whew!

Jack had some work training in D.C., so we all flew there together and spent a couple days with our friends that we knew from Tucson. It is so nice to have such wonderful friends that even though you haven't seen them in years, things just seem to pick up right where you left off when you do see them again. When we last saw them they had two kids and we had one, now we both have 3....each 2 boys and a baby girl.


Tyler, Tyler H., Jacob, and Rob H.

After a couple days I drove to Charlotte with the kids and Jack stayed in D.C. for his training session. I had not been to Charlotte in 6 years, so it was about time! It was SO nice to spend time with my family and to be able to see a few friends while I was there. There were many more friends I wanted to see but I just didn't have time. My sister Nicole and her daughter Anna came up from Atlanta to spend a few days with us. It was nice to see them, Anna is such a cutie and is FULL of energy! I wish we could see them more often. It was so nice outside while we were visiting so we tried to spend a lot of time outside. We went to the park and played in my parents backyard. The boys loved seeing my moms chickens and getting the eggs from them. 

 

It was so nice to spend a few days with my sister Nicole and her daughter Anna-

thanks for coming up to visit!

 

Katy hanging with her Uncle Dennis-Michael.

We went to IHOP one night and the hostess said to me "I'm trying to decide who your kids look like more" to which I quickly responded, "Ummm....me, because that's my brother, not their dad"



I absolutely love this picture of Katy and Grandpa.

 

I was also able to meet up with my friend Jessica for lunch one day. Jessica and I (along with our friends Katy and Maurine) were nearly inseparable while in our high school years. I have so many great memories with those girls! It seems crazy to me that we are all married with multiple kids, crazy how life goes on isn't it?

When I was in high school I spent A LOT of time at my friend, Katy's, house. We called her mom and dad Mama and Papa Sigg. They really were like my second parents. Sadly, once I moved away to college I did a horrible job staying in touch with them. As it is with family, even though I had not seen them in 6 years, it didn't feel like it. It was SO nice to spend an evening at their home and let them meet my kids. I have missed hanging out with their fun family so much. They taught me a lot growing up and I will always be thankful for that. We were so busy catching up I forgot to take some pictures until Pam was helping me get my wild kids in the car, so this is the only one I got.

My mom's beautiful chickens- she had about twice as many as she does now until the neighbor dog attacked them, it was very sad:(

We met my friend Jessica at the mega-mall, Concord Mills, so while we were there I took the kids over to Bass Pro Shops to plan on some of the big kid toys and to see the big fish tank.

They got a little tired walking the mile around mall so we had to make a makeshift double stroller.

 (She wasn't even stinky, oh the life of a Bachelor)

All in all it was a fun trip and went by way too fast! Hopefully it will not be another 6 years before I make it back to Charlotte!

Rocky Mountain High!

We're moving!

(Okay, since this post is about 2 months behind...we've moved!...but that's okay)

In the fall, Jack heard that there would be some new job oppurtunities at his same company in Denver opening up. We had always talked about wanting to end up in Denver eventually, so we decided to go ahead and apply to some positions. It took a long time to hear back from them, but he was asked to do a phone interview and the next day got an "informal" offer over the phone! We found out just after Christmas that we'd be moving, and were told to be out there by mid February! We hustled and got the house up for sale in a week....then the day after we did so they called back and said because of budget issues we wouldn't be needed until May. Oy. So now we had to figure out what we would do if we sold the house early (more on that later).

Having a house on the market with three kids around is NOT easy. You always seem to get the call that someone is coming to see the house when you decided to not do the dishes and not make the kids put every single toy away once they finish with it and move on to the next. One time I was at physical therapy and had someone babysitting the kids. I left the house a semi-mess not thinking I'd have to worry about someone coming that morning....wrong! I got a call from my realtor while I was in therapy, she left a message saying that someone would be coming to see the house at 1:30....it was 1:15 as I was listening to that message! Needless to say I became instantly frantic and called the babysitter telling her I was on my way but I needed her to start getting the kids ready to go and to start cleaning too. I was quite the cleaning tornado when I walked in that door. Thank goodness that was the only call that really caught me off guard.

It felt like eternity, but we sold our house in about 45 days! It was really sad to leave another house that we built and loved so much, but we were thankful to be able to get it sold. We had such amazing neighbors and just pray we will be so lucky with our new home. We closed on the house April 4th. Since we had a month overlap of being out of the house and moving to Denver, Jimmy and Bekah (Jack's brother) SO GRACIOUSLY opened their home to us and let us live in their basement for a few weeks. It wasn't easy to put two different families, with 6 kids total, in the house, but it was fun to let the kids all spend time together before we moved.