Moved In!

I've been meaning to post an update for a couple days but never seem to be able to find the time. Anyway, we are officially moved in to our new house! It was a ton of work getting everything moved over and I was a little unsure if moving in the middle of the school year was a good idea but I am SO glad we did it. I LOVE this house. It is absolutely perfect for us and the layout is so functional we actually use all of the house. In our old house we barely used half of the house plus the kids hated their rooms since they were upstairs and we were downstairs. In this house all the rooms are together and the kids actually like and stay in their own rooms. We've been busy trying to unpack, organize and decorate and have made the kids rooms REALLY cute. I'll have to take some pics and post them soon. The boys are sharing a room and have a transportation theme for their room. Kobe has his race car bed and we bought Kaleb a fire truck toddler bed, it is so cute. We got a ton of coordinating stuff (rug, valance, pictures, lamp, etc.) and it's coming together really nicely. Katie has a butterfly and hearts theme in her room and we ended up putting her old princess carriage bed back up, she wanted it back, and it looks so cute in there. Now I just need to tackle the guest room and our bedroom. I've been making a ton of picture collages and framing pictures to put up around the house. We've already made this house more of a home than we ever did in the last house. If it weren't for this darn dream of mine and wanting to move to LA, I could easily see us buying this house once our old house sells and staying here for many years. The house is on a cul-de-sac with super nice neighbors (one brought us dinner tonight!) and tons of kids. There is a beautiful, tree-lined walking path that runs right next the end of the cul-de-sac. The pool and playground are literally across the street and we have a huge backyard with gorgeous, mature trees. One of the trees is an apple tree that actually produces a ton of apples! There is a garden area in the yard that I'm going to plant some veggies in this spring. The weather is about 15 degrees warmer down here than in the mountains, yesterday it was actually so warm we were sitting outside in short sleeves enjoying the sun and I was so warm I was considering going in and putting on shorts...in January! Of course today a cold front blew in and it's cold and snowing. That's how Colorado is though, it is supposed to be back up to the high 40's and sunny again by the weekend. I also love the location of the house, everything is literally less than 5 min. away - even Kevin's work. Part of me just wants to stay here forever and let our kids grow up in this perfect house on this perfect street, it would be such a wonderful, stable childhood for them. But then I'd have to give up my lifelong dream, my art, my passion, the only thing I've wanted to do my entire life. Sigh. I know California would be beautiful though, the weather is even better than it is here and then there is the beach....we all love the beach. I think we could be really happy there. I hate to keep moving my family around but maybe if we moved the summer before Katie went to Middle School, which also coincides with when Kobe would be starting Elem. School, maybe then it wouldn't be so bad. It wouldn't be like pulling her out of a school she loves since she'd already be starting at a whole new school in the fall anyway. Ah, we'll see....

The boys started a new tumbling class this past Tues. and they did so great. Kobe is in his own class and Kaleb is in a parent-tot class. Their classes are at the same time so it works out really well. I'm out in the gym with Kaleb so I also get to watch Kobe close up instead of upstairs behind the glass. Kobe did amazing in his class, he is so strong, fast and flexible, the teacher was really impressed with him. They had to do this thing where they pull up on the bar and then push up and lock their arms and all the other kids needed a lot of help to get up but Kobe could do it completely by himself. The boy is freakishly strong, he can do perfect pull ups on our bar at home and can do a ton of sit-ups as well. In addition to his athletic ability, he also seems to have inherited his dad's competitiveness and lack of fear ("sure I'll do a backflip even though I've never done one before!" lol) so I think he is going to be an amazing gymnast. He has the natural ability and the right kind of personality, he doesn't mind working hard and doesn't complain at all when things are hard. I'm excited to see how he progresses in this sport.

Kaleb had a ton of fun in his class, he is the youngest in his class but held his own pretty well. He actually sat on the line and waited his turn and completely understood everything he was asked to do and did it. He was so adorable running around and his class is so freaking cute, they are all between 2-3 years old and the little girls wearing leotards with pig tails running around with their chunky legs remind me of Katie when she was that age and really make me miss having a baby girl! Ah, that darn baby itch!!!! But no, I'm ready to be done and enjoy being baby-free for a while. Maybe in couple years, depending on how things go...It's just so hard to say no more EVER. I have to keep that door open just a crack otherwise it's just too sad.

We are waiting to hear back from the coach to do an evaluation with Katie so they can place her in the right class. She's going to be doing a tumbling class and a dance class. She may or may not try out for the competitive team when they have try outs, she's on the fence as to whether she wants to do that next year. She is interested in trying some new sports out like volleyball and tennis and I think that is probably a good idea. She started at her new school on Tuesday and so far, so good! She came home really happy and said she loves the school, her teacher is really nice and she already made a couple friends. She even said she likes it better than her old school which was really surprising!

They are also all starting swimming lessons this weekend, I really want Kobe swimming well without floaties by the summer, especially since we live next door to the pool and I know they are going to want to be going every day in the summer.

So as you can tell we have been really busy and things aren't going to be slowing down anytime soon! It's great though and we are all really happy in this new house. :)