Maya was really not interested in having her photo taken for her visa. Maybe I shouldn't have offered to let her watch Yo Gabba Gabba before I remembered that I needed to take the photos.
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
why, mom why?
Maya was really not interested in having her photo taken for her visa. Maybe I shouldn't have offered to let her watch Yo Gabba Gabba before I remembered that I needed to take the photos.
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
snuggle time
The babies are getting even more snugly these days, and I love it. They nuzzle their little heads into my neck and wrap their arms around my shoulders when they are upset and when they are ready to sleep.
They even have started to be snugly with each other. Sometimes when they are sitting in their booster seats, they will lean their heads towards each other and smile. They like to hold hands in their car seats, and sometimes (with a little encouragement) they will run up to each other and knock each other down with hugs.
When I came into the room a couple of days ago, I found Maya with her head on Max's shoulder. I was too late to catch it on camera, but I love that they like each other so much. Of course, they also take toys from one another and fight for Mom and Dad's attention, but they really do like to be together.
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
latest on the house
Yesterday, we finally had a sunny day, and we had professional photos taken of the house. Our realtor sent a stager over last week to help us get ready. Saturday, we had some landscaping done to clean up the yard. Everything is now in order. Finally our MLS listing is completely finished.
The stagger had us take down all personal photos and religious art. We cleared off the bookshelves and added decorations to the bathrooms. Thankfully, she loved all the Mayan weavings and used a lot of them to decorate walls that were once covered with family photos. It was fun to see how someone else (with more decorating skills) could use my things to make the house look nice.
We had our first showings on Sunday. Five families came to see the house on the first day. We feel very optimistic that the house is going to sell qucikly.
It feels pretty strange to live in the house that we are showing. My yard has never looked this nice, and there is no clutter anywhere (other than the garage which is starting to fill up with things for a future garage sale). Even my closets are clean. If only I could live this way all the time. (If I had all my brothers and sisters here, I would feel like we were the Bluth Family.)
Thankfully, the babies have been good sports about not having all their fun toys out. This is due in large part to the fact that we have taken several trips to Chick-fil-A. Max and Maya have reached the developmental milestone where they are more excited to play than eat. When we arrive at the parking lot, they start kicking their legs and squealing with joy.
The stagger had us take down all personal photos and religious art. We cleared off the bookshelves and added decorations to the bathrooms. Thankfully, she loved all the Mayan weavings and used a lot of them to decorate walls that were once covered with family photos. It was fun to see how someone else (with more decorating skills) could use my things to make the house look nice.
We had our first showings on Sunday. Five families came to see the house on the first day. We feel very optimistic that the house is going to sell qucikly.
It feels pretty strange to live in the house that we are showing. My yard has never looked this nice, and there is no clutter anywhere (other than the garage which is starting to fill up with things for a future garage sale). Even my closets are clean. If only I could live this way all the time. (If I had all my brothers and sisters here, I would feel like we were the Bluth Family.)
Thankfully, the babies have been good sports about not having all their fun toys out. This is due in large part to the fact that we have taken several trips to Chick-fil-A. Max and Maya have reached the developmental milestone where they are more excited to play than eat. When we arrive at the parking lot, they start kicking their legs and squealing with joy.
Thursday, October 8, 2009
anyone want to buy our house?
Katy, TX, Kelliwood Gardens subdivision
$240,000- 4 bedroom, 4 bath, 3000+sqf. Granite counter tops, hardwood flooring, porcelain tile, mature landscaping with koi pond and fruit trees.
Here is our current link on the MLS. By the end of the week we are going to have a professional stagger, landscaper and professional photographer out at the house and the MLS will be updated.
We have listed out house with a realtor but we get a discount if we find our own buyers....so here is our shot in the dark.
We are also open to trading houses with someone who lives in Auckland, NZ.....just in case someone in Auckland is planning on moving to Katy, TX, and happens to read our blog.....you never know. :)
nana and papa
My parents are moving to London and were kind enough to stop by Houston on their way out. My Dad was only able to come for a little over 24 hours. My mom stayed for 4 days.
The babies sure love their Nana and Papa.
The babies sure love their Nana and Papa.
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Moving to New Zealand....
We are moving to New Zealand!!! We got an offer this week, and this morning Lonnie formally accepted the offer. Lonnie will need to start work in January, so we have a lot to get done in the next couple of months. We are thrilled, scared, and overwhelmed with everything we need to do.....sell the house, move our storage to Utah, sell the cars, get visas, etc.
Neither one of us have ever been to New Zealand, but everyone we have talked to has told us great things. Thankfully, the kids are young enough that they don't get too much say in things at this point, but we think even they will love it. We are looking forward to the adventure.
We would love any contacts, congratulations, advice, etc.
Read the story of how it happened in the previous post.....
Neither one of us have ever been to New Zealand, but everyone we have talked to has told us great things. Thankfully, the kids are young enough that they don't get too much say in things at this point, but we think even they will love it. We are looking forward to the adventure.
We would love any contacts, congratulations, advice, etc.
Read the story of how it happened in the previous post.....
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
take a deep breath
So I've been meaning to give an update on our family lately, but things have been a little busy. In mid-August, we had two trips back-to-back. The first was an unexpected trip to San Diego when Alisa's grandfather passed away. He was 91 and didn't suffer much with poor health until the last couple of years, so the funeral was a chance to be with Alisa's family and show support to her grandmother.
A couple of days after returning from San Diego, we took off to Hawaii where we spent a week on the North Shore of Oahu with Alisa's family. We had a great time, even if Maya and Max weren't all that impressed with Hawaii and probably would have rather stayed home and slept a normal schedule. Max did enjoy eating a bunch of sand at the beach, which then came out the other end and ripped him a new one. It would have been nice if he learned his lesson, but he still wants to eat everything in sight. Alisa loved the trip because there were plenty of people to help watch the kids, so she felt like she got a break from full-time motherhood. I, on the other hand, was overworked with chasing two little ones and keeping them from drowning in the pool or cracking their heads on concrete stairs, but who can complain about a trip to Hawaii?
The main big ongoing update for us is that there is a really good chance we'll be moving to Auckland, New Zealand in January. I've talked with some of you about it, but I'll give some background for those I haven't talked with. Of course, you all know that we had been looking at transferring to Brazil. Early this year, the management in Brazil said they were very interested in having me transfer to Sao Paulo, but they were concerned about the effects of the economic crisis on their business. In June, they finally said they couldn't make a transfer happen this year. Alisa and I were kind of expecting that to happen, so we had talked about looking at international opportunities in other locations besides South America.
At about the same time, I was made aware of an opportunity to potentially transfer to Auckland with my company. My former supervisor had transferred from Houston to Brisbane, Australia in April, and he emailed me as soon as he knew that our office in Auckland might need help. So from June until August, I had a few phone conversations with the management of the Auckland office to discuss my interest and hear about their projects and staffing needs.
By late August, the Auckland office decided that they definitely needed to add staff, and they indicated that they needed to go through an interview and talk with my current supervisor, with whom I had already discussed the situation. We were finally able to set up the interview about 10 days ago, and it went well. They let me know last week that they just need to talk with my supervisor and then get approval to finalize the transfer. I expect we'll finalize the transfer by the early October, and I've already talked with them about a January time frame to begin work in New Zealand. That way, we'll be able to spend Christmas in Utah and maybe figure out a way to visit Tennessee before we move.
The plan is to work in Auckland for 3-4 years and then move back to the U.S., hopefully some place in the West although we'll have to see what is available at that point. Since we've been looking at Auckland, we've been excited at the thought of living there. It's definitely far from here or Utah, but we think it will be a really fun place to explore for a few years.
Anyway, I wanted to write a little update on that situation. I'll let you know when we know for sure, but right now I'd say it's 95% that it will work out.
Take care,
Lonnie
A couple of days after returning from San Diego, we took off to Hawaii where we spent a week on the North Shore of Oahu with Alisa's family. We had a great time, even if Maya and Max weren't all that impressed with Hawaii and probably would have rather stayed home and slept a normal schedule. Max did enjoy eating a bunch of sand at the beach, which then came out the other end and ripped him a new one. It would have been nice if he learned his lesson, but he still wants to eat everything in sight. Alisa loved the trip because there were plenty of people to help watch the kids, so she felt like she got a break from full-time motherhood. I, on the other hand, was overworked with chasing two little ones and keeping them from drowning in the pool or cracking their heads on concrete stairs, but who can complain about a trip to Hawaii?
The main big ongoing update for us is that there is a really good chance we'll be moving to Auckland, New Zealand in January. I've talked with some of you about it, but I'll give some background for those I haven't talked with. Of course, you all know that we had been looking at transferring to Brazil. Early this year, the management in Brazil said they were very interested in having me transfer to Sao Paulo, but they were concerned about the effects of the economic crisis on their business. In June, they finally said they couldn't make a transfer happen this year. Alisa and I were kind of expecting that to happen, so we had talked about looking at international opportunities in other locations besides South America.
At about the same time, I was made aware of an opportunity to potentially transfer to Auckland with my company. My former supervisor had transferred from Houston to Brisbane, Australia in April, and he emailed me as soon as he knew that our office in Auckland might need help. So from June until August, I had a few phone conversations with the management of the Auckland office to discuss my interest and hear about their projects and staffing needs.
By late August, the Auckland office decided that they definitely needed to add staff, and they indicated that they needed to go through an interview and talk with my current supervisor, with whom I had already discussed the situation. We were finally able to set up the interview about 10 days ago, and it went well. They let me know last week that they just need to talk with my supervisor and then get approval to finalize the transfer. I expect we'll finalize the transfer by the early October, and I've already talked with them about a January time frame to begin work in New Zealand. That way, we'll be able to spend Christmas in Utah and maybe figure out a way to visit Tennessee before we move.
The plan is to work in Auckland for 3-4 years and then move back to the U.S., hopefully some place in the West although we'll have to see what is available at that point. Since we've been looking at Auckland, we've been excited at the thought of living there. It's definitely far from here or Utah, but we think it will be a really fun place to explore for a few years.
Anyway, I wanted to write a little update on that situation. I'll let you know when we know for sure, but right now I'd say it's 95% that it will work out.
Take care,
Lonnie
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
playground fun
On Sunday afternoon, at the end of a great family weekend, we went for a relaxing drive and decided to stop and let the babies get out a move around a little bit (ok...so they demanded that we let the out).
We have had a wonderful anniversary weekend. Four years ago Lonnie and I were married. I am more in love with him today that I was then. To celebrate our anniversary we spent a night away from the kids. Our fabulous friends (who shall not be named in an effort to keep them from being over-run by other parents, but we will add that we, especially the kids, love these two fabulous women) graciously agreed to watch our sweet ones on Friday night and Saturday morning so we could get away. The kids seemed to have a great time and as far as we know didn't complain about having us gone.
Lonnie and I stayed at a great hotel in downtown Houston, right near the Theater District and went out to a nice dinner. It was a nice relaxing break knowing that the babies were being well taken care while we had a night off from our parental responsibilities. Unfortunately this was running though my head all night long. I guess I wasn't able to turn the mom-switch all the way off.
We arrived home on Saturday during the babies morning nap. They were pretty excited to see us when they work up, but didn't seem to have missed us at all.
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