Back in CT

It's been over 2 years. I didn't think I'd ever write on here again. This blog was such an amazing journal for me from 2008-2014...  but then life got crazy, Instagram was easier. But I've just had so many emotions and thoughts for a while, I really want to write them down. And since I honestly haven't written in a physical journal for years, I guess this is the next best thing. I should be doing a catch up of moving to CA, Mason being born, But here we are. It's May 2018 and I have an 8 year old, 6 year old 3 1/2 year old, and a 13 month old.

I was not thrilled about moving back to CT to say the least. I loved living out west where we could see family so much more frequently. Although no family was in Carlsbad, we had Carol in San Diego. Travis' family in Yucaipa for the first year, then just a few hours away in Visalia. Jamie's family in Corona, just an hour away! My family in AZ could drive over in less than 6 hours, or fly in an hour. All the rest of the family is in Utah, which is a drive in a day or a flight in less than 2 hours. We saw Troy's family a lot since Tammy's lives in Encinitas, etc etc.

After 6 years living back east, it was nice to know that we lived out west again. And then Tyler's role at worked changed, and changed again, and then they wanted him to potentially move to the St. Louis metro area, in rural Illinois to run a factory there. I tried to look into it, to see if it could work, but I just couldn't get behind it, so we started looking for other options. There was a chance to do a couple different start ups in Utah, just didn't feel right. There was an offer to be a COO of a great upcoming company in La Jolla. We thought that was going to be it, he was moving forward with accepting that job. And then he told his company (legrand) he would be leaving. And that's when it got crazy... Oh this is all while I'm 8 months pregnant.

Legrand offered him a job back in CT. I did not want to go. I couldn't even talk about it or think about it. The thought of moving back to the same place seemed unimaginable to me. I had been pretty happy to leave that place! I did have fond memories of some aspects of CT, (friends, fall, and spring, proximity to NYC, Boston, etc) But I also hated the winters and how old everything was to name a couple.

So Tyler said No, he would not accept that job in CT, we were taking the job in La Jolla. But then Legrand came back again, with more money, stock options, which were all great, but the real deal was - the promise of being able to run their biggest division in a couple years. That would be a huge opportunity, a huge resume builder and something he didn't think he could turn down. I was in tears. Several times. I couldn't do it. But as the La Jolla company started to seem a little more uncertain - this was our best and only viable option at the time. I started thinking about Abbie and her friends from joy school out in CT. She wouldn't have known any girls her grade at Carrillo. But in Simsbury, she had 3 friends all going to the same school. That was honestly the only reason I was able to get excited about it enough to start thinking this could really happen again.

So we did it. We moved across the country when Mason was just 2 months old. Finding a house was tricky. We knew the area we wanted to be in, but it was hard to find something new enough and big enough for our large family in the tiny window of time we had to buy something. We needed to be out there in July and it was April. We looked at so many houses online, and finally found one and made an offer on it before it was officially listed.

It's a great house in a great little neighborhood, right where we wanted to be. It's not as big or updated or a lot of other things that we were wanting, but it's great for this phase of life. We knew we'd need to make some changes and before we moved in we had the inside walls and kitchen cabinets painted, floors refinished and new carpet in basement. After moving in we added a bedroom and bathroom in the basement. This is way more work than we've ever done on another house. I would still like to do a few more changes but nothing as major as what we've done so far.

There have been some lows with the house. We've had more problems with it than any other house we've lived in, times 5. We've had problems with the heater, we came back home to a freezing house after the holidays. We've had leaking in 3 different spots, one of which has been ongoing and has caused severe damage to the floor. That is still not fully resolved. The other two luckily we caught and solved quickly. We've had lots of pest control problems and currently still dealing with carpenter ants. We live so close to the woods, that we see so much more wildlife than in Avon. Squirrels and chipmunks every day, wild turkey occasionally, foxes and bobcats a few times. We see deer pretty often, but worst of all - bears. We saw a HUGE one tonight twice within an hour. It walked right through our grass, under our slide, past the playground, and eventually back in the woods. This absolutely freaks me out. Bears normally leave people alone but what about little Mason or Kaylee? I'm so scared by that. We never saw a bear in Avon but I have seen bears on 5 or 6 occasions and we know they've been here more than that because they get into our trash.

But there have been some high points too. We love having a large basement with new soft carpet! It stays warm in the winter and cool in the summer. We have really great neighbors and the kids have friends around. The bus stop is 2 houses away, and drops off the kids in our driveway in the winter! There are some really great people here, the schools are great and small enough that you get to know each other better. Through Jackson and Abbie's school classes and sports, we've met some great people. Kaylee goes to a great preschool and has made a great friend there too. Our ward has so many of our same friends from before, but there have been so many great people move in these past 3 years too! We've traveled a lot - to the Bahamas, Florida, NYC, Boston, Vermont, & Cape Cod. None of which we would have done if we lived out West.

It's been hard but now that it's been almost a year! The house is getting it's problems fixed, and projects mostly done with... Most importantly, the kids are doing great, Mason is so much older than the little 2 month old that left CA! But yeah, wow our movers were terrible and the fact that they lost stuff, broke stuff, and packed everything so slowly and unorganized made the moving in process so much more painful.

I'll do another post soon about how I'm entering a new phase of life now and I'm really excited for the future, but realizing my days with babies (and being pregnant and nursing) are behind. I'll update about the kids at some point too maybe :)

December in CT

Thanksgiving Fun

So this year we broke tradition and did a repeat of Thanksgiving. We had spent the previous 7 Thanksgivings in a different location, but this year we spent in in Connecticut again. We wanted to take a daytrip down to NYC on the day before, but with a big snow storm coming that day, we ended up heading down to NYC on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. It was quite cold but sunny and no snow! We enjoyed the fall leaves for the last time that season.

How Kaylee spent the whole day!

We spent the day in Central Park, the Natural History Museum, Shake Shack, Levain Bakery, Times Square, Rockefeller Square, The ToysRus & Disney & FAO Schwarz stores. Tyler pushed the big kids in our umbrella double stroller and Kaylee stayed asleep in the wrap for most of the day.

We had to get Levain Cookies!

Look closely to see Tyler and the kids on the ToysRus Ferris Wheel

Kaylee said, "seriously, you're going to just nurse me here on the floor in Toys R Us?" - yep, sorry!

Times Square with KayKay

All 5 of us!

In Rockefeller Square

The subway ride back to our car, we park in Queens

When we got back home, there was a heavy snow warning in affect and it was no joke!

Before I showered, and after :)

By Thanksgiving morning there was enough to make a snowman!

We spent Thanksgiving with some of our Avon Ward friends - With the Giffords, Morris', Swensons, and Mumfords - it was a big group! We didn't honestly contribute to much to the meal - just the green beans, fruit, and a pumpkin pie. I guess that's what happens when you coordinate with 5 families haha.

The crazy kids table!

The easy going baby, decided to cry the whole time during the meal haha

Home with grateful kids and full bellies :)

We had a great day and a yummy meal :)

November Events

On November 2nd, Kaylee Lorraine Jennings was given a blessing by her daddy. We had the blessing in our ward in Avon. She wore the same dress Abbie had worn, which was also worn by Paige and Me back in the day :)

The day after daylight savings changes in fall, is always my least favorite day - because the kids wake up way too early. On this day Jackson and Abbie were dressed and ready and Kaylee was already down for a nap at 8 am ...

Too bad they're so cute!

Sisters!

Jackson is loving his map puzzles!

The kids play at the Avon library

While Kaylee naps :)

Jackson was all smiles after his first primary program!

Kaylee is often just ready for her first nap as we're leaving for preschool. She didn't quite make it today!

She does not look amused, but this car seat snuggly sleeping bag keeps her warm as it gets colder here!

Jackson singing songs with his preschool friends before the Thanksgiving Feast

Halloween Fun

 We had a great Halloween this year! Abbie was Snow White, Jackson was Superman and Kaylee was Princess Rapunzel.

The Primary was in charge of a Trunk or Treat the Saturday before Halloween so I spent a lot of time planning and preparing for that, but sadly not a lot of picture taking. But it turned out great I think!

We had a few families over on Halloween night for dinner before trick-or-treating. It's our tradition to order pizza on Halloween but they took it up a notch and we all combined to make homemade pizzas. Our neighborhood is the perfect family friendly place for trick or treating, especially with our younger kids who don't need to do too many houses anyways!

Cute little 2 month old Kaylee in her Halloween onesie

Jackson and "Elsas" at his Field Trip

The school attended a nursing home for games and songs with the elderly.

Tyler holding his Princesses on Halloween

Carving the Pumpkins!

Abbie loved making spooky faces just like our pumpkins

The Family on Halloween

Our candy girl was in heaven!

Checking out their loot

Our Trip to Maine

After our amazing trip to Vermont the previous fall, we set our sights on a new state for 2014 - MAINE! We had initially planned to go with friends but it ended up falling through and at one point we were thinking of cancelling the trip altogether. I'm so glad we went though, because we didn't realize at the time, but this was our last fall in New England! We went the weekend of October 9-12 and so we spent the final day of our trip celebrating Tyler's birthday.

This was Kaylee's first trip and night away from home and on the drive she passed through 4 states (Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine) and luckily napped through all of them :)

Our first stop was at the lighthouse in York,

Litte did we know this was the last time Abbie wouldn't cry when we asked a stranger to take our picture...

We met up with the Simmons family at Old Orchard Beach - they were staying in a beach house with family that weekend so they actually let us stay in their house in Portland that night!

The sky and ocean looked so cool!

Sarah and I - my first time in boots at the beach :)

J&A Playing at their beach house

After our first night in Maine and some amazing doughnuts for breakfast ... we headed up the coast to continue or journey. The next two nights we stayed at a house in Camden.

On our drive up to Camden

Looking down at Camden

love these two!

The kids posing before our lobster dinner

Tyler and I had lobster, Jackson tried and liked crab and Jackson and Abbie ate fish and chips

 On Saturday we headed up to Acadia - it was a couple hours north and not the best weather but worth the trip!

And abbie won't look ...

Abbie loved this leaf and took it home with her :)

The brightest tree we found!

 
The last day was Sunday, and Tyler's birthday! We celebrated with breakfast at home before packing up and heading to church but not before picking up more donuts :) Then we headed back to Portland where the wonderful Sarah Simmons watched all 3 kids while we went out on a little birthday lunch date!

33 years old!

Oh sure, now you'll smile Abbie! Tyler was just a little bugged

Jackson the adventurer

The potential family christmas card photo ... if only Abbie wouldn't have been screaming!

We had a great trip though and were so glad we visited Maine!