February was a busy month for our family. The first weekend of the month, I flew out to Denver with Bodie to meet my mom out there so we could go house hunting. With accepting the job in Denver, they wanted Kyle to start the beginning of March. So we had about 6 weeks from the time we accepted the job to find a house, move and get settled into the Denver area. February was a month full of emotions. Excitement, stress, sadness, happiness, nervousness, all mixed together with many prayers and a lot of faith knowing that we were making the right decision.
Briefly about the house hunting weekend. We stayed with my dad's high school friend Mike and Lisa Theis. We flew out late Thursday evening (my mom came from SLC and I flew in from KC). There was a HUGE snowstorm that just hit Denver that morning and so flights were delayed and it was a mess trying to get a rental car. Thankfully my mom upgraded to an SUV because we would have been in trouble if we had just a small car.
We weren't able to meet with our realtor (Tami) until late Friday evening, so my mom and I drove around just checking out areas around Denver. We spent all day Saturday and Sunday going through homes and trying to decide on the area. But after driving around and looking at areas in Parker, I knew that was the area I wanted to live in. I fell in love with the rolling hills and the small, wholesome feel of the town. I loved it all! There was a home in southern Parker that we walked through about 3 different times and it was the nicest that we had gone through but something just didn't make me want to commit. None of the 20+ homes we had gone through in those 2 days felt right.
Then Monday morning came (my mom and I were both flying out that afternoon) and Tami wanted to walk through a few more homes that might have come on the market through the night. There was a bank-owned home that I had seen during my online search that I asked to see. I can still remember driving through the neighborhood while talking to my BFF Jenny Egbert and having an excited feeling. I can still remember the feeling of walking through knee-high snow to the home on Callabra and hoping it was all worth it. I remember the feeling of walking into the home and just smiling and feeling so happy. I remember the smell of the new carpet and the fresh paint. I remember my mom crying and saying "This is the one!" I remember being so excited to get back into the car to tell Kyle all about it. (However I didn't remember the layout and wasn't very detailed on the description I was giving to Kyle. Oops!) I remember feeling grateful that we had been patient and waited even though I was so nervous that we only had about 2 more hours of looking and still had not found a home for our family even though we were moving out here in 3 short weeks. I remember how grateful I was for answers to prayers because I sure was praying a lot that weekend!
Monday we decided to put money down and make an offer on the home. (That is another long long long story but in the end, we ended up getting the home and we were so grateful and feel so blessed to be in Parker.)
But we had a hard month in February saying goodbye to friends and neighbors. We tried to fit in all our "lasts" in Kansas City and Blue Springs. Here are some pictures of the month.
Often we were able to take advantage of the warm-ish weather in February and playing at a park. There were some of the old school playground toys like teeter-totters and the merry-go-round. Kambryn and Talan had a blast.
Bodie still had clogged tear ducts that we kept hoping would clear up soon (eventually they cleared up when he was about 10 months. I was just glad we didn't have to do surgery.) He is our little sweet spirit. A complete momma's boy and so adorable. We love his hair and his unique look. So sweet!
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I volunteered at Kambryn's preschool Valentine's Day Party. She is such a social girl. She loves her friends and teachers and also has a little bit of love for learning. It is coming, slowly.
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In P.E. Jantsen learned the sport of cup-stacking. (What happened to the days of dodge ball and kickball...I think schools are moving away from the competitive sports. I guess I am okay with that, Jantsen has plenty of competitiveness in him already.) They did a end of the semester "performance" for the parents. He really loved the cup stacking. But that isn't too surprising. He loves order and directions and that is a big part of this sport I guess.
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Kambryn had her last day at her wonderful preschool just before we moved. She had two wonderful teachers Ms. Laura and Ms. Gina. Kambryn absolutely was in love with them. They were so kind and loving and sweet. I am grateful for amazing people who become teachers and care for my kids. Kambryn also sad good bye to her best friend Meghan. These girls played with each other everyday at preschool. If Meghan wasn't at school, that would be the first thing Kambryn would tell me when I picked her up. Her teachers also told me that sometimes Meghan would be sad when her mom would drop her off in the morning and the way they would cheer her up was to be sure that Kambryn and her were sitting next to each other at the tables. I am grateful for such a sweet little girl! And she also had to say goodbye to Barrett. At the beginning of preschool, she was all about girls...only wanted to play, sit by, and be around the girls. Boys were yucky to her. Well then along comes Barrett. And Barrett becomes her "boyfriend". She said she loved Barrett. She would get all giggly and smiley when she talked about him at home. Oh boy...I am not ready for this! But it is also fun to see her grow and share her thoughts and feelings with me. I love this girl!
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We said goodbye to our home on Fox Hollow Drive on February 29th. We had many wonderful ward members and the wonderful Elders who helped clean, watch kids, pack, load, cook dinner for us during the week of moving. It really was a bitter sweet time leaving our home in Blue Springs. Kyle had a great experience being in the Bishopric, I loved my beehives and ward friends, Jantsen, Kambryn and Talan had many friends we had to say goodbye to, we brought our baby Bodie home from the hospital to this home, and then we had all those crazy memories with neighbors and the Audi in this home. We will always look back at our time in Kansas City with fond memories and happy times with such wonderful people. We are so excited for our new adventure in Denver and the memories we will make there, but we sure will miss our Blue Springs family.
