Organization

I sort of hate it when web sites change their look or ways. I got on to my blog to write a new post, and couldn't figure out for the life of me how to get a new post started. I think I just stared at it for about 15 minutes. Luckily, I figured it out and it all seems to be a little easier to manage than before. It just takes a genius to figure out how to get started is all.

We had the opportunity about a month ago to attend the open house of the new LDS Temple in Kansas City, MO. It was gorgeous. It only took us about three hours to drive there. We took Breanna out of school early so we could have time to eat lunch together, and then make it to our allotted tour time. We also had to stop at a gas station just down the street from the temple to change our clothes. I didn't want to wear a dress for three or four hours in the car. The temple was absolutely beautiful inside and out. The kids noted how tall it was. We seemed to just keep climbing stairs. All the gold, marble and crystal accents were just amazing. Not to mention the beautiful paintings and murals throughout. What a blessing to have all these temples throughout the world. (All these pictures were taken from my phone. I really need a camera camera)

Not really sure what's going on with me there. I must of thought we were between pictures.

We have done a little more work on the house. I put a few before and after pictures on here. Not sure if you can really see the difference.

Before

After

After (You have to see a previous post for the before. Plus, this is blurry)

These next pictures are the "afters" of the basement. I'm pretty sure I posted the "before"s on an earlier post. My mom and sister came into town two weeks ago, while John was out of town for a show, and helped me organize the basement and a few other things in life. We had so much fun that week playing, shopping, and organizing. Oh ya, and eating. Can't forget that one. 

We have so much space in the basement for food storage, luggage storage, and storage of all kinds, and laundry things. It's wonderful. 

We have had a lot of rain this past month. Not just rain, but thunderstorms. It seems to be that we will have a week of sun and warm weather, and then a week of cooler weather and storms everyday. Or maybe the opposite. It's nice. At least I think it is. Breanna might say otherwise. She is still very afraid of thunder. I guess the tornadoes and severe storms that were happening one weekend didn't help. We didn't get a tornado here, but we did get a severe storm that rattled the house and made us lose power for 24 hours. We are thinking a generator might be in our best interest in the future. It would have been nice in Texas too, but we heard them all over our neighborhood here in Iowa. That usually says something.

Breanna only has two weeks left of school, and John has vacation time starting in July, so maybe another road trip is in order. I guess we'll see...trips also take money...

Happy Easter...a little late

Happy Easter to all! It seemed to be the longest Easter ever. I usually forget when Easter is, but with General Conference the weekend before, I felt like Easter was late this year. It seemed to linger longer when I saw Easter festivities still going on the Monday after Easter. Unfortunately, that meant more time for me to eat candy. I love Easter candy. I am trying my very hardest to not steal it from my kids' baskets.

I asked the kids to stand together after church on Easter Sunday, to get a picture of them in their Easter attire. Breanna was mad at me and informed me that she does not like having pictures of her taken. Brett was tired, and Kaylee was watching for Daddy to come home. It all came down to these pictures. I couldn't come up with a favorite, so you take your pick.

And the Easter bunny did come to visit that morning.

My dad had a chance to come visit us last weekend. He wanted to be around for Kaylee's birthday. I think he really missed the kids and needed to come spend time with them...really never has anything to do with John and I. The kids ran him ragged, as usual. They went on walks and jumped all over him. We showed him the town, and even I got to see a street or two that I had not ventured to. I think he was a little amazed at how far Adel really is from the "Big City". We were happy to have him with us for those three days.

Updates are that Kaylee just turned three last week, and Lincoln seems to think he can stand. Does Lincoln crawl? Not really. He sort of drags his sitting body across the floor with one foot and his two hands on the floor in front of him, but he doesn't crawl. Does he know how to turn from back to front? No. Does he turn from front to back? Only when he falls forward. So he doesn't crawl, he can't get from hands and knees or floor to sitting, and he cries and cries on his back if he falls over until someone picks him up, but he can pull himself up and stand supported by furniture. What is with this backwards kid? I'm a little worried about him. ;)

Kaylee's birthday was full of fun and excitement. Or not. I actually spent the entire morning getting our cars registered in Iowa. I had to go to the DMV at the county building, then back to the house to get additional information, and back to the DMV to pay for everything. The kids were not happy about that. Lucky for them we only live two minutes from the county building. But then, as I promised them we were going straight home to eat yummy pizza rolls for lunch, I saw the store I have been meaning to stop at for the past two weeks. I made them get out of the car so I could check that store out, which led to me falling in love with a piece of furniture that fits what I have been looking for since we got here. Needless to say, the kids were starving when we got home. But, they were happy when I put the picnic blanket out on the porch and they ate and played outside at the same time.

We went to the park later, and I worked on Kaylee's birthday cake for most of the afternoon. Then we took the kids to McDonalds for dinner, because Kaylee's favorite meal is nuggets and fries. Then we got to eat the cake and open presents. She got lots of princesses and princess stuff, which she loved!. She and Breanna are very different that way.

This tent was given to her by her Nana and Grandad. It came with a brightly colored carpet, matching pillow, case for tent poles, and draw bag for her princess figures, all made by Nana. She loves that thing.

I tried to get a picture of Lincoln on St. Patrick's Day. He was eating green mashed potatoes and decided they were much better in his hair. Don't all babies? Anyway, I couldn't get the light right, but he had it all in his hair and all over his face. It was just cute.

We Made It!

We are here!!! We got to Adel three weeks ago. We drove straight to the house, not even stopping to get John's things from the hotel. We were too excited to get in and let the kids run around the house. Well, I take that back. We did not drive straight to the house, we drove straight to the school administrative offices to register Breanna for school. If we didn't get a few papers filled out and signed before 4:30, she wouldn't be able to start until later the next week. We got there at 3 or 3:30...I can't remember now. THEN we drove straight to the house (two minute drive from the school).

Yes, Adel is very small--population around 7,800. There is one very small, very expensive grocery store, one hardware store, one gym, three gas stations, a Subway restaurant, and two pizza places (one if which is in a gas station). There are more businesses, and all the county offices are in Adel, but I don't really want to list them all. Those businesses basically cover two blocks. We are lucky to have a library too!

The grocery store that we have deemed best to shop at is 15 minutes away. The Walmart is 25 minutes away, but it is next to the Lowe's, Costco, and mall with accompanying strip shop stores. So, when we plan to go shop, we make sure we plan to do everything that we need to do at all the major stores. We have done this every weekend so far. I need to learn how to shop for a month, and not just a week at a time.

Breanna loves loves loves living here. She jumped right in to school with no problem. She made friends with no problem. She is very happy. She has three friends that live very near us. One next door, one across the street and two houses down, and one on the corner on the next street over.

Brett has adopted Breanna's friends as well. He just had a birthday last week. The first thing he said that morning was, "Do I get to go to school today?" He was so excited to turn five and be school age. I felt so bad to have to tell him he has to wait until next school year. He got over it, but he is having a hard time being in new situation and not having his big sister around all the time.

Kaylee is still her happy go lucky self. She really likes their new play room. I do as well. The house has four bedrooms, a living room, family room, and a one room finished basement. Oh ya, and it has two bathrooms (no master though) and a tiny kitchen. It's been quite the challenge to fit all our stuff in this house. We put the three older kids together in one room, Lincoln in the smallest room with all his baby furniture, and then made the downstairs bedroom an office/guest room. The good thing is that we put all the toys in the basement and made that a play room. We put a small T.V. on the wall down there, along with a DVD player for their movies. There is also a laundry space in the basement and plenty of space behind the play room for storage. We are going to use that space for food storage and to keep the kitchen things that don't fit in the kitchen.

Our LDS church ward here is great. Our ward boundaries are huge, and yet the ward is only about the same size as our Bedford ward. John is the ward mission leader, and I don't have a calling yet. (I'm sure that will be remedied soon though.) Only one other family in the ward lives in Adel, and they live down the street. They have three kids, all the same ages as our younger three kids. We haven't been able to get together yet, but we are still busy getting settled in here.

We are getting a new roof next week, and plan to get all new carpet very soon thereafter, but after that, we are very happy with this house. We are very happy here.

Brett's birthday cake

Backyard

Laundry

Playroom

Master

Upstairs bathroom

Living room

Family room

Downstairs bathroom

It was hard to get good pictures of anything, but especially the kitchen and bedrooms. If you want to see them, come visit us!!!

SOLD!

We made some more changes to the house (mainly new carpet), and within four days of being re-listed, we had an offer. It was such a great Christmas present. Unfortunately, the lady buying the house got too overwhelmed with what was found at the inspection, and she backed out. We don't know exactly what was said in that inspection, but we think that the inspector thought we had termites...which we did have three years ago. We had them treated and a protection plan in place, but failed to fix the damaged areas in the closets. SO, my dad was good enough to spend two days at my house patching my walls. They look good as new now. Good thing, too...we got another offer the day after the project was finished. This time, the contract stuck. Everything has been gone fairly smooth, and now we are just 12 days from closing!

Before

After

Before

After

During that chaos, we have also been dealing with an offer of our own on a house in Adel, Iowa. The time that John has had in Iowa by himself has allowed (or forced, depending on how you look at it) him to really get to know the area and choose the best place for us to live. I had also researched Adel before he even discovered it. I was up there three weekends ago house hunting with him. We already had an idea of what house we wanted, but we needed to see it together and really get a feel for things together. We went under contract that weekend, and although we have had a lot of stress getting our information all together for the new mortgage, everything has run pretty smoothly with that as well. We are only 12 days from closing on that home as well!

Adel house

Luckily, John's company has really been kind to us and will be paying for full service movers. I theoretically don't have to lift a finger. I will be going through the house over the next week to clean things out, organize, and pack up the things we will be taking with us in the car. We will have to live in a hotel for a few days...the moving truck may not show up for anywhere from 2-5 days after we get there. I'm going to try to take as many things as I can to try to live in the house, even without all our stuff, but we'll see.

The kids are really excited. I know Breanna says she is excited, but I think she either isn't saying she's a little sad, or she doesn't quite understand the dramatic change this will bring. She says she understands that she will be changing schools and getting new friends, but she still talks about playing with her best friend, Wyatt. I am hoping to make this as fun and smooth a transition as possible for all the kids.

Now, we are just spending as much time with my family as possible, and we are looking forward to not having to be separated from John anymore. Eight months is long enough.

Keep Your Fingers Crossed

The kids are growing up fast. It's amazing how quickly babies grow and develop. But, I guess when you think about how fast they become babies during pregnancy, it's not that big of a surprise.

Lincoln is now 6 1/2 months old. He is sleeping through the night now, thank goodness. And as you can see, he is sitting up all on his own now. He loves to play with toys on the floor, as long as someone is nearby. I think he is going through a little separation anxiety.

Since it's been a few months since I last posted, I thought I would just post some pictures from those lost months.

This one is of Lincoln hanging out in the mother's room at church. I think I had just changed his diaper or something, but he's seems to be happy.

John gets to come home about every six weeks to see us. Lincoln is not too sure about daddy when he comes home, but I think it gets better every time. This was over Thanksgiving, but we do get to see John again for Christmas.

Before Lincoln could sit on his own, we discovered that he really didn't like to lay down to play on his back too much. One day, I was over at my brother's house, and they put their little one in a bumbo. (Their little one is just six weeks younger than Lincoln). I thought that was the greatest thing, so I asked Karie where she got hers, and I went out immediately to get my own. Thank you Kid to Kid.

Elise has been a great help to me over these crazy months. She helped me take the kids to the ward Christmas party. Please note Kaylee in her "Princesses" nightgown. She refused to put on a costume because she is obsessed with wearing her "Princesses".

Elise also gets along with Lincoln quite well. I have quite a few pictures of her and Lincoln looking at each other.

This is just a random picture.

This is something the kids did during the summer to keep busy. It was so hot, they couldn't go out to play. Luckily they found this big box to make a concessions stand. It provided many hours of entertainment.

Our lives are crazy and turned upside down, but we are making it through. We hope to have the house sold soon so we don't have to be separated for much longer. In the meantime, we are having fun with my family here, especially now that James just got home from his mission. We are having a little more work done to try to get more interest on the house, and we will be up and running again in MLS in a couple of days. Keep your fingers crossed.

So Many Changes

I guess I should start with the new baby. How is it that I have forgotten to post pictures of him in the last eight weeks?! He is totally adorable. He was 6 lbs. 4.5 oz. and 19 3/4 in long. Now he's 10 lbs. Here he is--

Lincoln Willem Van Horn

Newborn

2 Weeks

2 weeks

1 month

6 weeks

Now he's smiling and content for longer periods of time. His siblings adore him.

The other crazy stuff going on in our lives started the day Lincoln was born. That same afternoon, John got a phone call about a job that we have been waiting for since February. He applied for the job in January, and went through the whole interviewing process over about three weeks time, only to find that they needed to wait three months before they could hire him. We weren't sure they would actually stick to that, and so our hopes had diminished quite a bit by this time. But, the offer became official three weeks after Lincoln was born and we immediately started preparing for our move to Iowa.

Those preparations meant working on the house to get it ready to sell. We knew we had to do something with our kitchen since we destroyed it and never built it back up. It's more like we started a bunch of projects that never got finished. With the help of my mom and her mad painting skills, my dad and his wood working (plus so much more) skills, and of course the help of several professionals (for texturing, countertops, and tile floors), we got the house and kitchen looking beautiful in just three weeks.

Floors all torn up

New tile

New granite counter tops, tile, and bead board

Dinette area

John has already moved to Iowa to start his job. He has been gone for one week now. We already miss him lots, but we are doing all we can to sell our house so that we can move up there with him and save him from his cracker box living situation.