Magic

I don't exactly know where the magic came from, or why it chose to strike last night, but it did. And it was amazing! It was kind of like walking through a perfect dream that you never want to wake up from.

Yesterday afternoon and evening were amazing at our house, and I'll tell you why!

All three girls came home from school and did their homework. No one complained, or fussed. They just did it, and it took them less than an hour to complete it all. 

We ate dinner, and no one scrunched up their nose in disgust. They ate it! During the meal we laughed, and joked. No one wanted to leave the table; we all just sat there and talked for longer than ever before. 

We had Family Home Evening. It was fun, and spiritual, and everyone had a good time! I didn't yell at anyone to quite running away. None of the girls complained about being touched, or looked at, or fought over who would get to conduct or anything. 

After FHE they made their lunches for school the next day. They were happy, actually happy to do it! They helped each other, and get this, they even cleaned up after themselves! 

An hour or so later at bedtime, all the girls stopped what they were doing. They put on pjs, brushed their teeth (all their teeth) and came to our room for scriptures. Then, we read them. We read our scriptures, a whole chapter. Ivy even read with very little grumbling. ( she usually chucks her book across the room on her turn.) But, she didn't this time. She read, and we were happy.

All the girls kissed us goodnight, and get this. They went to bed! All of them! 

It was the most amazing night of my life. It's the stuff movies are written about. It's a best selling novel! It's my dream come true! 

I don't know how or why it happened. Maybe because lately I've been feeling rundown, and tapped out, and Heavenly Father knew I needed it. Just this once.  He wanted me to see for myself that it is possible. Now I know. I have witnessed it with my own eyes. I lived it. Peace, harmony, love, gratitude, team work, and respect all in one night at the same house.

Magic, it was pure magic! I'm afraid it's asking too much for it to ever happen again, but a girl can hope, right?

New Year's Eve was made for Sledding!

I've been a horrifically bad blogger on here this year, so to correct the slacking, I've decided to end the year with a bang!

About a month ago my dad needed a project to keep his retired self busy. He settled his sights on the old family sleds. He sanded down the old wood, and painted it blue. He fixed up the rusty old rails, and painted them a jaunty red, and added new blue ropes. I must say, they came out rather smashing!

We've been dying to try the old girls out, and today was the day! We took the family sledding up in Lee Canyon. After much preparation, and a longer than necessary temper tantrum by Carmella (but when is a temper tantrum ever really necessary?), we headed up to the Meadows to sled. I brought giant thermoses of hot chocolate, and a huge crockpot full of chili with us, and we were ready to play the day away.

The perfect Poyfair picture. (or really, as good as it gets for us!)

Adelaide and Ivy were the funniest team of sledders. They screamed their heads off while going down. On their first run, they hit into another persons sled and took it with them! It was so funny. Emilie wussed out a bit, and only went down once with Carmella, but I have high hopes that next time we go she'll be more excited. Carmella was the most hesitant. She liked going down with me best of all, until we switched to the "baby hill" where she felt confident enough to go by herself.

The "baby hill"

Let's go mom!

I think the best thing for me (besides having a ton of fun with my family), was hearing all the comments about our sleds. They were definitely the rock-stars of the day! People were super impressed with our "old school" sleds and how fast they go.

 

Sometimes you lose your boot,







and you need Mom to put it back on.

Check out Ivy in the background (purple coat) playing teeter totter with some random little kid!

Despite the fact that we were up in the mountains, Adelaide wanted to "climb a mountain". Jason was 

happy to oblige. Of course Carmella was NOT going to be left out.

Catching up with the Poyfairs

The last few months have been a whirlwind for our family. It began with us deciding at the beginning of the new year, that is was time to look into moving back to my home town. Jason accepted a job at Valley high school in Las Vegas back in May, and we put our house up for sale June 1st. 

We worked like crazy getting our house ready to sell. Then, once listed the real crazy began. After an estimated 40 showings (I lost count around 30 but our realtor assures me it was about 40), 5 offers, and 3 contracts later, our house finally closed on August 14th. 

We packed up and headed out of Texas on July 28th. Our move back to Nevada was leaps and bounds better than our move to Texas, but 10 years later we still had a few hiccups. The most uncomfortable being sleeping in our van, because we didn't make it to Albuquerque in time for our reserved hotel rooms. And the most embarrassing being, going potty on the side of the highway during a bathroom emergency. I won't give away the who's who on that one, but I will say it was more than one of us and it wasn't just the kids!

After our exhausting, but safe arrival in Las Vegas, we promptly stuffed all our belongings in  a storage unit, and left for a weeks vacation in sunny California. 

Best idea ever! After all the stress of the preceding two months, a week at the beach was the perfect remedy. We ate, we played, we beach combed, and ate some more. We got refreshed and ready to face the next challenges, house hunting, and back to school. 

After a week of searching, and 15 walk throughs later, we've found our next home! I wish I could say I'm excited about this house, but I've had to compromise a bit more than I would have liked. I know that, much like our last house, we're buying the home we need, but not so much the home I want. I'm hopeful that one day we'll be able to get our dream home, and in the mean time, I will do my best to make this new house our refuge from the world. We close the middle of September, and until then we are bunking with my mom and dad, who have been great to us. 

After pulling my hair out for a week, I finally got the three oldest girls up to date on vaccines, and registered for school. It was no small feat, but I managed to pull it off with most of my sanity intact. It has been a little walk down memory lane for me as all three girls will for a short time, be attending three of the schools I went to as a child. 

Adelaide will be at my old elementary school Dondero, Ivy will be a Guinner Winner at Kenny Guinn junior high, and Emilie will be at Durango, where I graduated from high school. Both Emilie and Adelaide will change schools in a month when the house closes, but I think Ivy will stay. She needs more stability than the other girls, and the "happy bus" will pick her up and take her home no matter where we live. One of the few perks of special Ed! 

Jason is getting acquainted with his new job, and seems to like his school. First day is on Monday. I'm hopeful all will go well, despite our homesickness. For the time being we are in limbo, but we are making the best of things. 

Here's to our new adventure!

Carmella, four year old version.

My my my, yes it's true. Our Carmelita is a big kid now. She's got four years under her belt, and she knows just about everything. She knows how to water the flowers in the front yard. She has perfected the seat, and knee drop on the trampoline. She has a big girl carseat, and doesn't need mom to unbuckle her anymore. Her wall coloring has reached such great heights, that even her parents are amazed the skill level she has achieved. Bedroom messes are bigger and deeper than ever before, and her ability to manipulate mom and dad known no bounds.
I'm pretty sure she's peaked at the ripe old age of four. Yep, it's all down hill from here. Five is going to be such a let down next year. (well, maybe not!)

Here are a few photos from her magical Princess Birthday Party. She had a blast, and was so happy to have so many friends celebrate with her. (except for that few minutes that she hid by the side of my bed, and sang a sad little song to herself. Other than that it was perfect!)