Five

 As of June 19th, Brynn is Five!

As always, Brynn has been looking forward to her birthday and the accompanying party for months. We had her party a few weeks early so she could celebrate with all her friends in Utah one more time before saying goodbye. Brynn's request this year was to have a princess party where we decorated cupcakes. As the party approached, Brynn was bitten by the Frozen bug and decided she wanted to dress up as Elsa for her party and slowly all the details of the party took on a subtle Frozen theme. Never once did Brynn ask for an actual Elsa costume, instead she told me, "I can wear my Cinderella dress because it is blue and Elsa's dress is blue. It doesn't really look like it, but I can just pretend." After hearing this I wanted nothing more than to surprise her with an Elsa costume for her birthday. I started looking for one and quickly learned that Frozen paraphernalia is apparently more valuable than gold and virtually impossible to get your hands on. I started finding $20 dresses listed for $150 on ebay and hearing stories about people waiting in line for hours outside of the Disney store just to get a number and then hoping their number would be called so they could purchase one of the few Frozen items that were in stock each week. I found the whole thing to be ridiculous and decided to boycott Disney and make my own costume for her. Scott was not excited when I decided to take on this project the week before our move. I think he still has PTSD from the quiet books. Honestly I was a little surprised and very relieved when it all came together flawlessly in just a couple hours one night. It turned out better than I hoped and most importantly Brynn was thrilled!

 I used a silver gymnastics leotard as the base. Then I just sewed the material for the top onto the leotard. I made a basic skirt and attached to the bottom. It is all made out of stretchy sportswear fabric so it's comfortable to play in. I attached the cape with little eyelet hooks rather than sewing it on so Brynn can take it off if she wants, which she often does when she is running around playing. Mason surprised Brynn right before her party with real Elsa shoes to finish off her costume (thanks to my friend, Heather, for seeing them and snatching them for me the morning of the party). The costume turned out perfectly.

The cake on the other hand....not so much.
Brynn wanted an Elsa cake made with an Elsa barbie doll. I searched and searched clear up until the morning of the party for an Elsa doll, but came up empty handed. Plan B was to use my old 1990s beach Barbie. The finished product was Pinterest worthy... and by that I mean it was worthy of one of the hilarious Nailed It comparisons.

 In case you weren't sure, my version is the one on the right.

 (If you don't know what I'm talking about check out more Nailed It comparisons here. This one is my absolute favorite)

Brynn was a good sport and pretended to like it.

As the party guests arrived, they were able to get their nails painted and make up applied if they wanted. I must say I've never seen a group of more beautiful princesses.

Allie, Sophie, Keyana, Karissa, Brynn, Mason, Hailey, Brooklyn, Lyndee, Lucie

 Mason didn't want to be left out so last minute, with the help of my mom, he the threw together a "Marshmallow" costume (the snow monster from Frozen) and joined the party.

 I had to get a picture of Elsa and Anna together.

 Brynn wanted to decorate cupcakes, but my mom took it one step further by making individual mini doll cakes for each of the girls to decorate. My mom gets 100% of the credit for the planning and execution of this activity. We had little baggies of colored frosting and a bag of decorative candies prepared for each of the girls and then let them loose. It was a lot like decorating gingerbread houses, only it was girly and princessy. It was a huge success!

 I failed to get a picture of each of the girls with their finished product, but here are a few I did get.

 As the girls finished decorating they went downstairs where I had turned on the Frozen soundtrack and pretty soon we had ten girls twirling around belting out Let It Go at the top of their lungs. It was pretty darn cute.

Our impromptu Frozen dance party lasted until it was time for cake, snow cones (another little Frozen touch), and presents. 

I have to mention that Brynn had been acting a bit off all day. She was more emotional than normal and while she was very excited for her party, her enthusiasm was about a quarter of what I expected it to be. I blamed it on the late night we had the night before. But, at this point in the party Brynn started whining and complaining she was cold and pretty soon her teeth were chattering and she was begging to go lay down. It was right as all the parents were picking up the kids that I realized she had a raging fever. Hopefully all the party guests didn't get an additional party favor of the plague that caused high fevers and absolute misery in all of my kids for the next week.

Even though she felt crummy, Brynn gave each of her guests a heart-felt goodbye. This ended up being the last time she saw many of her friends before our move. I'll admit I got pretty emotional as I watched her hug each of her friends one last time. Brynn has been lucky to have some pretty amazing little friends and she really loves each and every one of those girls.

Brynn's birthday was 2 weeks after our move and even though we had celebrated earlier, I tried to make her actual birthday a special day. Brynn wanted to go to the Children's Museum and because I would do anything for that girl, I loaded up all the kiddos and took them on our first outing with all 4 kids by myself. We all survived and I can't think of a better way we could have spent the day for Brynn.

Naturally her favorite part of the museum was the Children's Hospital part. I think we have a future doctor here.

That night when we got home our new neighbors, who have quickly become our good friends, had heard it was Brynn birthday and brought over a brithday present for her. They had watched her run around in her Elsa costume every day since we moved in so they thought she might like an Anna costume to go along with it. I was speechless. They said being in a new place on your birthday is hard and they just wanted her to feel welcome. If you couldn't tell, they are the nicest family ever and we are so grateful they are our neighbors.

 

We finished off the day with Brynn's requested birthday dinner of Pink, heart-shaped pancakes.

A little bit about 5-year-old Brynn
*She has the biggest heart and always tries to choose the right.
*She loves her brothers and sisters more than anything else in this world.
*She is the perfect balance of active/adventurous and girly girl.
*She loves learning and especially loves Math.
*She has a lot to say and likes to give a full report of everything she thinks and does (I know, she gets it from me).
*She, at times, has a darling stutter that she described herself by saying, "Sometimes I have to say the end of a word over and over until I can remember the next thing I need to say."
*She has very natural coordination and athleticism.
*She loves to sing.
*She thrives on structure, routine, and rules.
*She wakes up every morning and makes her bed and gets dressed before she leaves her room.
*She is my pickiest eater and is pretty much a vegetarian since she refuses to eat any meat. She is pretty much kept alive with pancakes and grilled cheese sandwiches.
*Still sleeps like a princess with her hands placed perfectly under her cheek.
*Has maintained the "I do myself" attitude she has had since she was a baby.
*Is the best little girl a mama could ask for.

Love you Brynnie Bug.

The Move

After months of planning and preparation the day of our big move arrived. We were fortunate enough to have a moving company pack, load, move, unload, and assemble all of our stuff as part of our relocation package from Union Pacific. This was a total life saver! We moved to my parent's house Tuesday afternoon with the few things we were taking with us and then Wednesday morning the movers came and spent the day packing up our house in hundreds of boxes. We had done a fair amount of prep in the weeks before, going through our stuff dejunking and organizing everything. I think our extra efforts definitely paid off on the unpacking end. The next day the movers took a day to load up the truck with all our boxes and then they were off to Omaha. That night I sat in our empty house for the last time. It is still weird for me to think we will never being going back to that house.

On Friday, the plan was to close on our house in Orem and then close on our house in Omaha (we had actually already signed all the papers the day before and over-nighted them to our realtor so they would be in Omaha for the closing since we wouldn't be there). Unfortunately, our buyers had a few hiccups in their financing and we weren't able to close until the very end of the day which pushed our closing for our Omaha house to Monday. This was a big problem since we were supposed to be moving in that weekend. After 24 hrs of A LOT of stress and a lot of people who were not happy with us, it worked out to sign a pre-occupancy agreement and change the closing to Monday.
Next up, it was Scott's turn to leave. On Saturday morning we packed up our Sequoia with Ellie's crib and all of her equipment along with a few things we didn't want to risk getting lost or damaged on the moving truck. Once the car was packed as tight as possible, Scott took off on his 14 hour drive to Omaha. Since I was flying alone with Ellie and was already having to take some of her equipment and supplies that she couldn't be without for 24 hrs we tried to send everything we possibly could with Scott, including her spare g-tube.  What were the chances that her g-tube would come out during those 24 hours? Well, if there is one thing I have learned it is that luck and odds are never in our favor. That night I went to put Ellie in the bathtub and her g-tube fell out. Every 4-6 months the balloon that holds it in place gets a hole in it causing it to fall out and we replace it with our spare. Well, since our spare was on it's way to Omaha we instead got to take a trip up to Primary Children's ER to say goodbye to all of our friends up there and get a new g-tube put in.

Scott pulled into Omaha in the middle of the night and early the next morning got to go see our new house for the first time. Yes, we bought a house without ever seeing it in person. Crazy? Absolutely! I could go through and list all of the reasons why we chose to do it, but really what it comes down to is after months of house hunting and loosing several other houses we were interested in, this house popped up and we just knew it was the right house for us. We knew if we waited to put in an offer we would loose it, so we took a leap of faith and put in an offer after our realtor walked through it and told us it was great. Even though we never doubted our purchase, it was impossible not to be nervous before the first time he walked through. It turned out to be even better than we expected. We have absolutely loved it and have no doubt it is exactly where our family is supposed to be right now.

Later that day I boarded a direct flight from Salt Lake City to Omaha with Ellie. We were all more than a little nervous about how she would tolerate flying. Ellie fell asleep shortly after take off and miraculously slept in my arms the entire flight.

I did not move a muscle the entire flight (I even refused a drink because I didn't dare move for fear of waking her). I had some sore and tired arms and shoulders by the end of the 2 hour flight. The flight went perfectly until it was time to land and the pilot announced we were racing a fast approaching storm. The plane was descending and the landing gear was out, we were literally seconds away from landing when the plane was hit with shearing winds that knocked the plane pretty hard. The pilot had to quickly pull the plane back up and fly away from the storm. We tried another runway, but the storm reached it before we did. All of the craziness woke Ellie and she was actually a pretty happy girl while we circled the skies for 20 minutes before being diverted to Kansas City to wait out the storm. About an hour later we were on our way back to Omaha where we landed safe and sound. Scott was waiting at the gate to help me with all of Ellie's equipment and had been following everything that had been happening with the gate attendants. I think the whole experience was more stressful for him and my mom then it was for me. It was such a relief to have made it to Omaha with Ellie and all of her equipment...well almost all of it. As we were setting up all of Ellie's machines that night I realized I had forgotten to bring any corrugated tubing which is kind of the essence of her trach mask. So we got to become acquainted with Children's hospital ER sooner than we expected when Scott went to beg for some tubing at 11pm. They were incredibly nice and made sure we had everything we needed until the moving truck arrived with all of our other supplies.
The next few days Scott and I ran around getting things ready before the moving truck to arrived. I was also able to experience my first tornado siren when we were hit with some big storms. I like to think the Midwest was welcoming me.  It was interesting how the change in climate affected Ellie. She had a rough couple days while her body was adjusting to all the different things in the air. Her secretions were different which caused a lot of coughing and discomfort for her and made us a little nervous at times, but after 4 or 5 days she seems to acclimate and has been doing great since.
 Bright and early Wednesday morning the truck pulled in and the movers got to work unloading. Later that afternoon, right as the movers were finishing, my parents flew in with Mason, Brynn, and Miles. We were so excited to see them and they were so excited to see Omaha. With the help of my parents we got right to work unpacking and getting settled. My Dad stayed through Sunday and in the 4 days he was here he and Scott stained the deck, built the play set, and built shelving and racks for storage in the garage along with many other little projects along the way. They worked from the minute they woke up until the minute they went to bed every single day. We are so grateful that my Dad would take time off work to come help us get settled. I don't know how we would have done it without him Thanks Dad!

The boys hard at work!

This was a blank wall before they created all of the shelving.

My mom stayed with us for another week after my Dad left and when Scott started work to help me finish getting unpacked and to help us get into a good routine. We also got out and explored some of the fun things to do in Omaha, but I'll be doing a separate post on those adventures soon. Without my Mom's help we would most likely still be unpacking. Having her here eased our transition and made it such a positive experience for all of us. Saying goodbye to my mom and dad was by far the hardest part of this whole move. My mom is so much more than a mom to me, she is my best friend. The kids and I miss her so much. Thank goodness for Facetime, which we do almost daily. We have been counting down the days until she comes back to visit in August (15 days in case you were wondering).

We were without any TV or Internet for 2 1/2 weeks. It turned out to be the best thing ever! It served as a wonderful detox for all of us after months of me using way too much technology to keep the kids occupied while I was getting things done for the move. It forced the kids (and myself) to stay busy exploring a new place. By the time we finally got the Internet hooked up we had a great summer routine going that didn't involve much technology and I am happy to say we have kept it up.

We had no problem finding things to keep us busy.

Notice the hotels on Boardwalk and Park Place? That is all Mason cared about the entire game. He spent every dollar he had to get them built as soon as possible. He went on to win the game because of it.

We tried not to loose this little one in all the boxes.

Brynn didn't waste any time diving into summer fun.

As always, Miles kept himself busy doing his own projects. (Some more helpful than others)

Mason is sporting quite the Jack-O-Lantern grin after knocking out his front tooth while running around playing

The only 2 things Mason cared about when we were looking at houses were if it had 3 floors and he got his own room. He got both with this house and he is loving it.

More mischief.

The finished product. Completely worth the 2 full days it took to build.

Brynn loved having sleepovers with Grandma in her new room.

We love our big backyard, but it sure can be a beast to mow!

We couldn't have asked for a better neighborhood to live in. All of our neighbors have kids in similar age ranges. We hadn't even been here a week before our kiddos were running around with all their neighborhood friends loving life.

Mason and Jack hadn't known each other more than 5 minutes before it was clear they were going to be best friends.

It took no time at all for our house to become the princess dress-up zone.

Miles was feeling a little left out so he dressed himself up to join the girls.

I have been amazed at how easy of a transition this has been for us. After living in Utah my entire life and loving everything about it, I couldn't believe how quickly I felt at home here. I know we've only been here for a couple months, but I have yet to feel extremely homesick for Utah. I think that is because Omaha has a similar feel to Utah in a lot of ways. Of course there are things about it that are completely different, as well. Here are some of my first impressions of the similarities and differences between Omaha and Utah.

Similarities

* Christian and family centered community.

*Safe and well kept neighborhoods.

*grid-like system of street names and numbers makes for easy navigating.

Neighborhood full of families with children.

*Big church ward full of great leadership.

Differences

*It is extremely humid.

*Summer thunderstorms have a completely different meaning out here. There is no such thing as sprinkling rain. It is always a torrential downpour. Thunder never stops, it just becomes a constant rumble with non-stop flashing of lightning in the sky.

*Garbage collection is not done through the city. Everyone is in charge of hiring a private garbage collection company on their own. This means everyone has different garbage cans that are collected on different days at different times. So basically there are always random garbage cans on the street and countless garbage trucks travel up and down the street each day. It drives me CRAZY! It is so inefficient! When I think about all the wasted gas and resources to drive the same route over and over and over with each truck only emptying a handful of garbage cans along the way it frustrates me. Am I the only person who can see how this drives up the cost for everyone. I guess we were just spoiled in Utah.

*Costco's kirkland milk doesn't come in a two pack box. It comes in single cartons that are rectangular with a hole on top and impossible to pour out of without spilling. Hate them. Also they don't sell Bandon cheese blocks. But they do have a really impressive liquor isle that doesn't exist in Utah. Too bad we don't drink.

*While our neighborhood is full of kids, they are all in daycare all day so the streets don't come alive until 5pm every night.

*Because all the kids are in daycare, the crowds are always really small when we go on outings, unless there happens to be a daycare having a field trip. Then they take over the place.

*Church is in reverse order with Sacrament meeting last. Whoever came up with this schedule must hate parents.

*The resources for Ellie have been easily accessible and I feel like we actually have people on our side trying to help us instead of having to navigate everything on our own like we had to in Utah.

Omaha has been a great fit for our family and we have been extremely happy here.

Goodbye Utah

Shortly after Scott finished his internship for Union Pacific last summer they gave him a full time offer to come back and work for them after he graduated. We were thrilled because Union Pacific was a company Scott had decided he would really like to work for and the offer was everything we were hoping for and more.  But at the time we had just brought Ellie home with her trach and the only thing that was keeping us alive was our amazing support group of friends and family who all pitched in to help us. Even with their help we were barely staying afloat...and I mean BARELY. The idea of leaving everything and move half way across the country was a joke. It wasn't even an option. In about January, Scott and I were getting settled into a good routine with Ellie and we decided to start limiting the help we accepted from family. We started to realize that we could do this on our own. It felt so good to be taking back control of our life and I started to feel a glimmer of hope about the future. Soon we started talking about the possibility of moving again and the glimmer started to grow. In February, Union Pacific offered to fly us out to Omaha to check things out since I had not made it out during the summer. Thanks to my wonderful Mom, who agreed to watch Ellie and the rest of our kids for 5 days we were able to make the trip out there. She deserves nothing less than a metal of honor. Especially after 3 of the 4 kids got a stomach bug and were throwing up in their beds all night. This was the first time I had ever left Ellie for more than a shift at work and I was a wreck!! Our first night in Omaha I had a complete breakdown at dinner and sobbed at our table while the whole restaurant awkwardly stared at us and wondered what Scott had done to make me cry like that. After getting it all out of my system I was good to go and was able to relax and enjoy the rest of our trip.  During our trip, we visited the Union Pacific Center which was incredible and I finally got to meet all the people on the coal team that Scott worked with last summer. They are all such amazing people and have been so good to us! We logged a lot of hours with our realtor looking at areas and houses. We visited schools, wards, and even visited the children's hospital where we were able to meet with the team of doctors that would be taking over Ellie's care. We were very impressed and confident that we will have access to all of the resources we need for Ellie. Even with all the business matters we had on our agenda, and the fact we were in Omaha Nebraska in February, this felt like a luxurious vacation. Getting uninterrupted sleep four nights in a row and going on dates every night was amazing. We were able to go out with several other U.P. couples and ask them all about their experience in Omaha and working for U.P. At the end of the trip Scott and I had no doubt that Omaha would be a great fit for our family and we already knew that Union Pacific was exactly the kind of company we wanted Scott to be working for. The day after we got home Scott accepted his offer and our life turned into a whirlwind as we tried to get everything in order for our move. As we juggled selling our house, a long distance house hunt, Scott finishing his final semester of school, planning and coordinating the transfer of all of Ellie's medical care and supplies, planning and executing three birthday parties, all the end of year activities, along with all the regular craziness of day to day life we were also saying goodbye to the place we have called home our entire lives. We made a list of some of our favorite Utah activities and did our best to do them all one last time before we moved. Here were some of the things on our list.

Skiing X
Bike Ride up Provo Canyon X
Picnic up Canyon X
Bridal Veil Falls
Thanksgiving Point
Dino Museum X
Farm X
Gardens--tulip festival X
        Museum of Natural Curiosity
Mountain biking X
Discovery Gateway
Golf
  Riverside X
Hobble Creek X
Thanksgiving Point
        Gladstan X
        Talon's Cove X
        Fox Hollow X
St George Golfing Trip X
Zion House X
Hike the Y
Living Planet Aquarium X
Bean Museum
Swimming at Riverside X
Swimming at Provo Rec X
Arete Gymnastics open gym X
Zoo

We didn't get to everything on our list, but I felt like we were really able to enjoy our final few months in Utah.

Played baseball in our backyard any chance we got.

Enjoyed as many walks around our neighborhood as possible.

Miles took Ellie for her first ride in Grandma's black truck.

Tulip Festival at Thanksgiving point.

This was one of our first outings and well... you can see how happy she was about it.

Miles loved helping Daddy and Grandpa with a few projects before selling our house.

Family Home Evening at Riverside golfing 9 holes with Grandpa.

Mason practicing his approach shot.

Miles swinging his club as hard as he possibly could at anything and everything.

My girls lounging by Riverside pool.

And even more walks.

Brynn practicing her nursing skills.

Mason's first time riding solo up Provo Canyon. He was a champ.

My parents met us up the canyon with Ellie and some dinner for a picnic.

Of course Mason had to do some off-roading with Scott on the way back.

A duck laid her eggs in my parent's flowerbed. She faithfully protected her eggs for a month. A few days before we moved they hatched. The kids were enthralled with them.

One of the things we miss most in Omaha is our Saturday visits from Pooky and Papa.

I had the chance to get together with some of my best friends from High School one last time before we moved. It is crazy to think we have 18 kids between all of us. When did we get so grown up?

Me, Paige (Banks), Stacie, Gina (Ivy), Chelsy (McKay), and Tiffany

 Stacie has been by my side through thick and thin ever since Jr High. Probably 40% of the storage space in my brain is filled up with memories made with this girl. Biking to and from summer swim team, towel fashion shows, cruising around in her white Bronco aka "the Simps", sneak sleeps, triathlons both before and after we started training for them, taking an unplanned detour around Lake Tahoe together, and witnessing each other fall in love with our husbands. No matter how much time passes or how far apart we are, Stacie always shows up when I need her most. I look up to her and want to be more like her in every way. I'm going to miss her, but this move won't change any of that. Love you Stace.

 Stace, Tiff, and I were...how do I say it....well, pretty awesome when we were in High School. We decided we should recreate one of the many pictures we took together. I said let's recreate the super cute picture we took at this very park 10 years ago. They said let's recreate the one where we appear to be having an ugliest face contest. So that's what we did.

 Clearly our kids have inherited our attractiveness.

 But seriously, I love these girls! They made me who I am today.

Goodbye Utah.....for now.