The Six Pack's Big (first and hopefully last) Cross Country Move

Similar to not wanting to share too much around the time our house was on the market, for fear it wouldn't sell, because of our experience in Ohio where our first buyer backed out due to financing issues (which led to a whole domino effect of difficult things), it felt like Drew and I were holding our breath till the day we drove away from our home, the day we closed. We mini celebrated the night before with some Crumbl cookies, a staple of the last nearly 2 years here in Utah. We loaded the truck with the help of the sister missionaries in the pouring rain a week before we were planning on driving away, and then spent a lot of the last week in Utah sharing meals and spending time with some of our favorite people in the area. The night before we left, Becca came over with her kids to shower us with parting gifts (I think she purchased half of the Target arts and crafts section!!!). It was such a sweet and thoughtful gesture and the treats and snacks lasted through the entire three day drive, and the kids, while not perfect during the trip, did infinitely better than I expected because of all that stuff! The YW also stopped by with little notes for me and some snacks that came in handy (even veggies!). We were up cleaning and packing the car way too long for my liking but that is what I get for trying to go this whole moving thing mostly solo. I felt bad about moving and I felt worse asking for help in leaving the people who shared so much love with me.

The three day drive was snowy the first day then flat and uneventful the next two days. We were so blessed with good weather for January, We were able to stay awake for three full days of driving nonstop except for gas and bathroom breaks and occasionally food breaks too (we had a lot of snacks so we only needed to stop about twice a day for meals). It was quite an adventure. We closed on our house officially on Friday afternoon and arrived in Indiana in time on Saturday for our walkthrough and then spent two days in a (surprisingly kid friendly!) AirBnB. We closed on our Indiana home Monday afternoon and were pleasantly surprised to have three members of our congregation come to help us unload the truck (and bring us cookies!) and we ended the day having pizza (a nice sit down dinner compared to the fast food we had been eating the last few weeks!). It was crazy but filled with blessings and wonderful people at our new church, gym and school(s). The kids started school a little late (they missed a week total!!) because of crazy cold temperatures but are adjusting well.

 pre-bedtime setup at Jasmine's house in Denver. Only one of these kids ended up sleeping the night in this room! (the rest made their way up to the bedroom!)

 So so sweet of Jasmine to let us crash her house!! My kids were nuts but had so much fun playing.

 Our second night we stayed at a Mariott... we didn't end up swimming like we promised them (we got in so late and wanted to leave early so we could make it on time to our walkthrough) but we got an amazing continental breakfast and the kids agreed it was worth it to make it on time to our new house!

 especially because we got mail in our new mailbox! Also pictured: mcdonalds treats to survive one of the afternoons of driving. SO. MUCH. DRIVING.

 Okay all these pictures are out of order... this was visiting cousin Alex and his wife Gabi in Kansas City (where we stayed at the Marriott night two). They treated us to some amazing BBQ in their home and the kids (as usual) went nuts running around the place.

 Waffle at Marriott hotel and first piece of mail in our new home from our dear Ohio friends <3

 First night in our new home we had delicious pizza!

 And Graeters because when in Rome!This mirror was from the farmhouse in Indiana. I loved it!

 Comfort in the midst of some craziness

 Also I loved this setup for the laundry room... I think I could build this myself so I am leaving it here to remember to put it in my projects.

 There could not have been a more perfect hymn for the first Sunday in our new state and congregation.

 Sunday lunch... Mexican food! Luckily we did not have to go out to dinner since a family from church invited us to their house

 Monday morning....

 And monday night... all 3 boys  (that lasted about a week until today when I decided I am OVER it)

That's it! We made it from Utah to Indiana in one piece with all our stuff. Miracle of all miracles.

recapping December 2016 (up till December 22)

 more cheese from one twin and more bold faced stares from the other. I'll have you guess which one.

 we started the month strong trying to do #lighttheworld with some good deeds (don't ask me how it's going right now)... we made little cards and snacks for neighbors. Watercolor cards were darling.

 and so was the little chef A:

 (our neighbors have two golden retrievers and we are sort of obsessed with them!)

 and my terrible attempt at some sort of pumpkin bar. Horrible and all my fault. So they got cards.

 I finally vacuumed my car (HBD to me!!!) and for all of about a day I made sure NOBODY made messes in my car. So they got to color with pencils and paper. (until they started throwing them at me)

 Playroom shenanigans ^^ and then learning about our Great Great Great Grandma Annabelle, or "toots" as she was called. She was born a "blue baby" so they stuck her inside an OVEN!! Crazy!!

 Breanna made her day and gifted her a little merida to match her merida dress...she was in heaven.

 and then things slowly started to go downhill as the twins started not feeling well..

 but we still made it to the church holiday party which was fun. More fun than dealing with Lan's sky high temps later than night :(

 little merida with her big merida mommy: (this is why I love mattresses on the floor right now)

 so panda and I got a little morning date to the doctor (thank goodness ours was on call that saturday!)

 ^^"Tees!"^^

(and the mandatory doctors office selfie AKA letting him use my phone because he was miserable)

 Poor congested guy... ear infection and some sort of virus we couldn't do anything but wait to be over. Thanks to some essential oils he slept much better that day and night than he had before!

 Didn't shower that day, ran errands with the boys who were not so happy about it but I figured with all the days I was missing at the gym I needed to feel productive!

 one of our other "instead of the gym" outings, pet store! the kids loved the little animals, not so much the overly aggressive puppies ;(

 best photo series of 2016:

 i love my parents house at christmas!

 my sassy little grocery helper!

 doing her "Maui" impression (AKA how she always looks which just so happens to be similar!)

 I was so tired after taking care of Lan that at some point I just laid down and gave Lo the tablet to watch curious george while Lan and A were sleeping. It was dejavu from when I was pregnant with A!! I am grateful it was only a few days and not months of misery like pregnancy was (I am NOT pregnant, I was just tired from all the craziness of Lan being sick and Lo teething).

 Then Lo got sick. So they missed nursery at church two weeks in a row which made things interesting (and totally Loco) on sundays. We got shirts for Kron family photos which were this past week.

 and took KEvs to the vet for the first time in like 2 years. Clean bill of health!! and then he came home and everything has been coming out of both ends so he's outside till we can figure out what his problem is. Lo was the only one who wanted to come with me for the checkup.

 the babies got their first chance at painting!! And they did great!

 my blendtec blew a fuse, so we contacted them and they sent a new and improved jar! Love that 7 year warranty!!

 enjoying the last of our warm-ish days before snow and frost on the trampoline

 LOVE that wally hat.

 the babies tried playdoh for the first time with the Wilson girls and A. They were great examples!

 see? snowman!! inspired by S, who was probably inspired by prek.

 "making dinner like mommy" AKA veggie chopping

 trying out the new blender means breakfast for dinner! And everyone stealing all my smoothie.

 Lan has been super interested in building, even if all we have is little jenga blocks. He mostly loves knocking them down after.

 in case you were wondering what three kids each wanting you to read their own books is like:

 I thought the boys had super cute outfits and wanted to get little pics of them.

 some were more cooperative than others...

 Oh, Lo....

 but put him next to the cat and he's a cover model!

 so much love that boy has... I learn a lot from him!!!

 She doesn't know her days of the week yet but she knows sundays are for church and fridays are for nails!

 little d got a date night with my parents last weekend. Spoiled much? :)

 Panda got back to normal sleeping with his Panda:

 and running errands for GGJ

 and back to that #lighttheworld bit... we did manage to read scriptures and donate food and clothes

 we shoveled our neighbor's driveway, and then she gave us cookies!

 I hate driving in the snow and being cold but winter is more magical with little kids!!

 and little d was going crazy finding ways to serve his mama...I am so lucky (and who knew all I needed to do was ask for help?!)

 they do this all the time and have done it for years... i'm so glad I finally caught some of that magic on camera. I would argue that some days it seems like the bond these two have rival that of the twins. On really good days ;)

 the other night while Lo was doing this...

 Lan and D were running around the room like a bunch of crazies!! sometimes i swear kids can sleep through anything (and other times nothing!)

 more snow. babies got to go out for round two....25 minutes to bundle for 10 minutes of playing.

 Lan was happy until he realized how limited his mobility was!

 Lo hated it.

 That lasted long enough for me to snap a pic....

 and Lo was miserable a lot of this month. Teething? Momma's boy? Who knows. All I know is I ate wayyyy too much chocolate to deal with the stress and carried him a lot (not enough in the carrier which is easier than on my arm!!)

 (disclaimer: the above pic he napped for all of about 20 minutes, I didn't get to workout or shower and was feeling crummy, the next day, pictured below was completely opposite. Good nap, happy mama with her workout and shower!)

 I try to visit with my parents once a week but never remember to take pics:

 Every year he keeps getting more freckles and its so cute I can hardly contain myself. LOVE him.

 also he made this, NBD (!!!!).

 Lo eventually has been working his way to less crying and clingy and more like Lan:

 SMILES!!! AT LAST!!! THEY NEVER SMILE AT THE SAME TIME!

 We celebrated 3 years at our "new house" mid-month

 with the best fastest photo shoot ever (20 seconds?)

 snuggling to watch movies in the warm house:

 reminiscing about the past

 and celebrating with pizza dinner until the oven caught fire and the fire department came and checked out my oven and it was FRIED.

 all for the sake of that delicious pesto pizza.... (more on that later)

 we recouped, had some princesses over

 Celebrated this crazy handsome boy's first solo act (a hannakah song!)

 finally got some handsome mug shots of my boys:

 and did I mention I got new glasses this year? and tried out some new lipstick (Lipsense) which is fun for us since we can scare the boys into being kissed but it doesn't matter because it doesn't come off!

 too handsome.

 no tears when we saw santa

 made cookies at santa's place

 and chased those cookies down with some late night Duck Donuts because why not!?

 Baby girl had her last sunday in nursery so she got to join us in primary for singing time!

 she was so shy...she sat in my lap the whole time! I am sad I will not be in junior primary next year, but little d will still be so hopefully he can help her transition.

 ^^ and while it seemed like an eternity to have these three in nursery at the same time (since october!) with ward changes and sickness, they were only together for less than a half dozen times.

My fav snaps from Anna this past week:

 still trying to be nice to kevs even with all the ruining of rugs and such:

 I WILL NEVER TIRE OF SMUSHING BABIES FACES. EVER.

 In my defence, Lo LOVED it. He thought it was hilarious! The day before taking the boys to see Moana...they had already seen every clip possible on youtube about the movie, loved looking at the books of Moana and fought over who got to sit closest to the TV when we played their favorite song (youre welcome).
 but before that happened... we cleaned up the house nice and good for our first gift exchange with neighbors

 snapped some pics with Lego Batman (Lan was too scared to get close to him)

 and it was movie time!! I was thinking back to the kids first movies. I took all my kids to the theter before they were 6 weeks old, and then not again till they were at least a year old.
So first movies in the theater for my kids were:
-Little d: Charlie St. Cloud (A Zac Efron movie) with Anna
-Little A: Great Gatsby (solo!! in a movie theater all to ourselves!)
-Twins: Avengers movie (with my kron family and Drew)

Little d went on to see Monsters University and Planes in the movie theater with us (I don't remember if we saw anything before that with him) as his first "real" movies he could enjoy. I also remember taking him with me on a date to see Frozen, which we both loved (he had already seen it with my parents)

Little A went on to see Lego Movie (she loved dancing to all the music) and Big Hero 6 (who could forget her obsession with Baymax?!) as her first real movies.

And the twins have seen...MOANA!

 The scene from my breakfast table every morning they win the battle over getting to have cheerios.

 3 handsome boys on their way to a photo shoot!! (more on that in the next post!)

 and for Christmas/my birthday I requested a hangout with my sibs while my mom watched the babies. Best gift ever!

 we had lunch, walked around an outdoor mall, and shopped for my kids. Also this outfit!!!!

 love my bunny girls. And these avenger tops for the boys:

 PANDA HOW ARE YOU SO CUTE WHEN YOU ARE COY!?!?!?

 "LO, DONT BOTHER LOOKING AT THE CAMERA SINCE LAN IS SMILING!!"

 figuring out their next move... (which ended up being running around the kitchen emptying everything onto the floor)

also it hit ABOVE FREEZING DEGREES the other day so I demanded we take 25 minutes to suit up and find our 324235 gloves and hats and socks and GET OUTSIDE FOR 15 MINUTES because that is what crazy mamas do when they are pent up in a house all day with kids bouncing off the walls. It was a good walk!

 and they were rewarded for their patience in sitting in the stroller by getting to try out their new shovels!

 and we ended last night by visiting with Liesen and Ryan, the former of whom is due on christmas with a sweet baby girl we can't wait to meet!!! Ahh!!

 My cousin Liesen is just darling and my mom is a total babe, right? It's those Carrera genes!

 and a sneak peek on the photo shoot we had as a Kron family!

 Lo was pretty upset that I wasn't holding him the entire time. And that people were expecting him to look happy and smile and take pictures. HOW DARE THEY.

 and today we got to see Rogue One (two movies in a week!!!) which was awesome and got a blurry picture to show for it.

 OH! Lest I forget about the oven... the fried part ended up like this: (burnt to a crisp)

 and so the day after my shenanigans when I almost burnt the house to the ground (slight exaggeration), my neighbor Justin came by, diagnosed the problem with my oven, researched the best deal for me and helped me buy the right part and then fixed our broken ice maker in our freezer. While we were at the movies today, our other neighbor Doug came by and replaced the new piece of our oven. I only had to pay $20 for the oven piece. MY NEIGHBORS ARE INCREDIBLE and I don't think we can afford to move anywhere else ever.

 We are a whole lotta crazy but we are so very blessed in many ways!!! THANK YOU!!!