Good News from the Cozy Condo Dwellers

After months offline, I'm emerging from survival mode long enough to share some good news. I'm 16 weeks pregnant with number four and we just found out it's a girl. We're thrilled--we would have been equally happy with news of either gender. Our kids are so spread apart that having two girls only three and a half years apart sounds like fun. I'm nauseated, like always, and have no hope that I'll feel better before Christmas when this baby is due. It's the longest count down to Christmas ever! I'm taking maximum doses of anti-nausea meds and am functioning a lot like my pregnancy with Sarah, which is much better than my pregnancies with Anna and Michael. I'm very, very grateful for this blessing. I'm feeling good about this being our fourth and final baby. The first 5 weeks were really rough because I had to drive Anna and Michael to school and pick them up (about forty minutes for each trip). Since school ended, I have spent a lot of time in Orem with the kids (at my parents' house) while Travis holds down the fort in Ogden and keeps working very hard. Our condo is very cozy. It's good to have less to clean, but the small quarters have also been challenging while I've been sick. Anna and Michael have done a lot to wash dishes and pick up and Travis has been a wonderful help in every way. Being this close to grandparents--to be able to bounce back and forth to have help and let the kids have a real summer but still see Travis has been such a relief. We have had wonderful visits with Dastrup and Thompson Family and even old friends like Keri Beauchamp, one of my childhood best friends who drove all the way to Ogden to visit when she was visiting Utah from California.

Our second big piece of news is that we're buying a house in Ogden! We're very excited to have more space. Not that we weren't up to the design challenge of four kids in a 2-bedroom condo--we maybe could have found a few square feet for a Moses Basket in our bedroom--but I think it's one challenge I can do without. We've found a home in a lovely neighborhood that has the best schools in the area that we can find. Our kids are ecstatic. In fact, they hardly slept after we submitted the offer and all three bounced into my bed (a cardinal sin with a nauseated mom, but I overlooked it) bright and early to ask if we had heard back. They have been so plugged in to our search, it's surprised me. We've waffled back and forth so many times and put offers on several smaller homes that we didn't get. This one felt different from the start. I'm nervous about having to move while I'm sick, but at least it's a local move this time. I really can't find words for how grateful we are for this move. We've had a good year in so many ways, but I have felt very unmoored. It's time for some roots.