A Personal Welcome

It is late and I should probably be in bed, but the house is far too quiet for me to sleep. As I type the wind is howling outside and I am envisioning a Winters storm blowing in. This morning as we were waiting at Camilla's bus stop the air nipped the children's cheeks turning them a nice rosy red. It won't be long now until we wake up one morning to a blanket of white snow on the ground. 

We have been in our new home a whole week now. Most of the boxes have been unpacked but there is still lots to organize.  I never want to forget our first morning here. I woke up to the boys voices as they clunked around upstairs. I sleepily made my way to the living room to find them dangling from the banister that separates the dining area and the sunken living room. As they moved their hands from one rail to the next their feet would clunk against the wall. It was such a boy thing to do to scale the wall in the dim morning light. It was quite the sight.

We finally picked up a new dining table and chairs on the weekend since our last one sold with the house. We had my brother and his wife here as well as my sister over the weekend which was a huge help! Mike and I were able to escape into the city for a morning and Mike made a great pick.  I hope it's one we will hang onto forever. Even though he was tired from a long week of work he spent his Saturday afternoon assembling the table and chairs with a smile. I am one lucky lady. I got to help him a little bit between handing out snacks, changing loads of laundry and tidying the kitchen. Finley somehow managed to swipe my cell phone and make a call. I didn't realize he had done it until a lady from 911 dispatch called me back to ask if everything was okay. She took down my name, address and date of birth and passed the information along to the Strathmore dispatch service. Five minutes later the constable called to follow up and make sure everything was indeed okay. I explained that we had just moved and were putting together our dining set when our baby got a hold of the phone and accidentally hit the emergency dialer. Turns out 934 (the first digits of my phone number) is actually the prefix for the area so he dialed the 403 area code because he figured that 780 was a mistake and ended up waking somebody up. He also took down my name, address and date of birth for the record and personally welcomed me to the town before hanging up. I've only been here a week and I already have a record! I felt totally sick the rest of the day. I also laughed at how much commotion a ten month old sucking on a phone can cause. 

The kids are settling in nicely. Camilla has enjoyed a couple of days at school and is set up to take the bus (which stops two doors down) to and from each day. She is loving her class and making new friends. I am loving that the school supply list is 1/4 of the size it was in the city, bussing is free, and I don't have to pay a monthly "lunch supervision" fee. The kids all seem really great and welcoming and she even ended up with a few member boys in her class from church. Today was her first day riding the bus, so naturally I hopped in the van after she got on to meet her at the school just in case. She walked right off the bus and skipped to the school yard like it was nothing. She spotted me peeking over the fence and waved with an accomplished grin on her face. "How was it?" I asked. "Good!" she replied, hardly missing a beat as she continued on her way to the doors. I smiled as I made my way back to the van. She enjoyed her first try at choir and her physed class today. She sure is growing up!

Hyrum is really enjoying having his own bedroom in the basement next to his sister's room. He has grown up a lot in the past week and become very mature. He still gets on his one track tantrum kicks every now and then, but for the most part he is really great! Joe and him get along awesome during the day and the backyard has already had some good use. We have a nice cement pad outside our backdoor that Hyrum and Joe use to play street hockey. When they are finished they hop on their car or trike and pretend to be Zamboni drivers and clear the ice. I adore their imaginations and the things they come up with! I thought the kids might be shy attending a new primary class on Sunday but he and Camilla skipped off hand in hand to find the primary room before Daddy could follow them. I checked in on my way by to find them seated together in a random row holding hands just as a teacher walked up to guide them to their separate classes. It was the cutest.

Joseph is also growing and changing. His vocabulary gets better each day and his pronunciation is coming along nicely. I love the sentences he comes up with and the way he expresses himself. He will often glance out the window and if the sun is shining he will say, "Wet's go outside! It's a beautiful day!" I also love when I'm playing with him on the floor and he will say, "I sure love you, mom". This afternoon he helped me load the dishwasher. I rinsed and he stacked. He was eager to put the soap in and push the "on" button. Once it was running I gave him a big high five and thanked him for helping me with such a big job. He ran downstairs shouting, "Kids! Guess what? I did a BIG job for mommy!" It totally melted my heart. He is so well behaved as long as I keep him busy. 

Finley loves to be on his feet and walking is definitely on the horizon. I am exhausted and have resorted to letting him cry a little more at night. I can't wait for him to sleep through the night so that I can actually wake up feeling rested. He is still as happy-go-lucky as ever and always wears a smile. He's starting to get into things a little bit more and can crawl at mach speed if he really wants to get somewhere. 

I am looking forward to finishing all of the unpacking and organizing so that I can get back to really enjoying my kids. I can tell when I've neglected them for a few minutes too many because they get a little loopy which makes me totally frazzled. Usually a quick snack or meal can solve most problems and then we get back on track, but there have definitely been some tears this weekend. Sitting in church without our friends sharing the bench was a hard thing to do. With the stress of moving my patience has been thin and there are some hard mommy moments that have made me cry late into the night. I also miss having Mr. Stannix around as he finishes up his last week of work at his old job. 

I have never been so grateful for the church and the support system that it is. We have had people come by to introduce themselves with plates of cookies or brownies and even got "booed" with some treats anonymously left on our doorstep the other day. The entire Mia Maid Class came by to introduce themselves with a plate of goodies (I now know who to call for babysitting), and our neighbors have been great. Overall it's been a wonderful week! This weeks projects include figuring out Halloween costumes, pumpkin carving, and getting rid of the last of the boxes. I'm sure I will feel loads better when I'm not home alone at night and my house is organized (or at least as organized as it can be with four little kids)! We really do love it here. It's such a great little community. It's not everyday the constable calls to check up on you... Am I right?