Our GINORMOUS Update!

Alright, so life is crazy right? My blog has taken a back seat to our hectic life these last 6 months. I can't think of a busier time in my entire life. We've been through every emotion possible and what an adventure it has been! Most of you who read our blog know all about our spastic life... but I want to document this so I can come back and read it in a year and wonder how we made it! I guess I will start with the beginning... you might want to get a drink or a snack... you could be reading this for a while!
December 2009: Just preparing for all the Christmas festivities and awaiting our exciting trip to Thailand and arrival of our baby girl in April with NO CLUE of what is about to hit us. December 24th, we decide Hayden needs to look for another job.
January 2010: Hayden finds out about a job in Junction Texas and proposes the idea to me.... um no. I'm not moving to Texas but thanks for asking.
January 8, 2010: Hayden flies to Texas just to check out this job. Falls in love with it. Oh my.
January 15, 2010: We fly to Texas together and I find Junction to be charming and so cute. We both feel so good about this move. I have a few spells of lack of oxygen as I realize that we are moving to Texas. Is this really happening?
January 18, 2010: Hayden signs a contract with his new job. We are officially moving to Texas and break the news to our families. WOW is all I can say. We put our house and farm on the market and schedule the moving truck to arrive 4 days after we get home from Thailand.
January 30, 2010: We fly FIRST CLASS (seriously amazing!) across the world to Bangkok Thailand and spend two AWESOME weeks. I was 7 months pregnant and dealt with the heat pretty well. Here are a few pics:



















February 14, 2010: I turn 29. Really? We arrive home as excited as a kid on Christmas Eve to see our Danzer man! We drive home to the farm and meet up with my parents. I have to say goodbye to my mom and dad as they leave for Hawaii for a month. Terrible.
February 17,2010: We sell our house and farm. Cash buyer. Seriously God had his hand in this transition!
February 18, 2010: The moving truck arrives. Goodbye farm house and farm. Many tears.
February 21, 2010: We say goodbye to my sister and her family and Hayden's family. One of the hardest days of my life.
February 22, 2010: We pull out of Ferron Utah at 6am. I'm 8 months pregnant. Danzer is 1 1/2 and we road trip it to Denver for a conference. I get to spend time with our cousins. Awesome. They confirm that living far away from family is really hard, but also very rewarding for your marriage. We still feel so at peace with our decision.
February 25, 2010: Still road tripping. We don't make it 20 minutes outside of Denver until both Danzer and I have puked. Yikes. We learn that evening that a dear friend from Thailand has passed away. So sad.
February 26, 2010: We roll into Junction Texas! Feels like home already! We are so excited... until we learn that our moving truck is a week behind us. Hayden threatens death upon the company. And I quote "I am going to kill you!" in which the operator responds "Sir, would you like to call back when you are calm and can talk about this." Not one of his best moments, but we laugh about it now. He has to pull the car over so that I can get out and walk around to take a breather. Seriously having a panic attack. The Best Western becomes our home! It really wasn't too bad.
March 6, 2010: We move into our new house!
March 8, 2010: Hayden starts his new job and I put the house together. Did I mention I'm 8 months pregnant and Danzer is 1 1/2? WOOSH
March 10, 2010: Finally settled. Awaiting our new baby girl's arrival and the visit of my mom and sister
March 31, 2010: Jacki, Tracy, and Uncle Brooks come for a visit! So much fun to have our first visitors. They love Texas!
April 5, 2010: The Behling crew leaves. :(
April 16, 2010: I awake at 4 am with strong gas pains. Said gas pains never subside. An hour later I realize I'm an idiot and said gas pains are CONTRACTIONS! Mom and sister are scheduled to come in 4 days. Really.
April 16, 2010: 5:20pm.... this beauty joins our eternal family:
April 17, 2010: My mom is able to change her flight and comes to save the day! YIPEE!
April 18, 2010: We go home. So nice to take our baby home!
April 20, 2010: My sister flies in. Again, YIPEE!!! Have such an amazing week with my beautiful new princess and my mom and sis.
April 26, 2010: My dad and Ollie arrive in Texas. WOOT WOOT!
April 27, 2010: My sister leaves. I kinda have a meltdown
May 1, 2010: All the family leaves. So sad to see them go. I start to wonder if I can do this staying at home thing by myself with no help.
May 3, 2010: Hayd goes back to work, first day at home. Pretty easy. I can do this!
May 22, 2010: We celebrate our 6 year anniversary and spend our first evening away from both kids and indulge in a wonderful shrimp dinner and some chocolate cake to die for!
June 3, 2010: We put an offer in on a NEW HOUSE! Offer accepted! WOW!
June 5, 2010: We fly to Utah.
June 6, 2010: We bless Ellys! (more pics on an upcoming post)
June 8, 2010: Hayden flies back to Texas for work. The kids and I get to stay in Utah until the 21st! New pics of all the Cornell cousins are taken. Look for those in a new post.
June 21, 2010: Jacki and I fly back to Utah with the kids. Sad to leave.... but good to be home
June 23, 2010: Daine, Steph, Kaicee, Grandpa Jack, and Grandma Lorraine fly to Texas! Danzer Jack, Ellys and I have checkups. All is good in the hood.
June 27, 2010: All the family except Jacki leave. :(
June 28, 2010: Jacki paints the entire new house, I pack and unpack our stuff. It was a very tiring 4 days!
July 3, 2010: Jacki goes home. So sad.
July 4, 2010: We are finally settled. Pics of the new place on the next post!
July 7, 2010: I'm exhausted just thinking about it all. What a ride! Life is so fun and adventurous with my Hayden. Wouldn't want it any other way. All I can say is that God lives, He watches out for us, this is all truly His plan and we couldn't have done it without his comfort and the AMAZING support of our wonderful families. We miss them all more than we can say. But, here we are, and Texas is our new home!

Our New House!

Well, we are buying another house! This home is about double the size of the house we live in now and will be great to accommodate all our company (hint hint). We are going to keep our little cottage home and rent it out. Hayden is going to try to get us moved while I'm in Utah... HALLELUJAH! I'm still exhausted from the last move ;). Here are some pics of the new digs...

Living Room: I love the wall of built-ins. So nice!

The dining room:

"The Office": But we are going to use it as the guest room

The Kitchen. It has gorgeous black granite counter tops.

The laundry room and half bath

The kitchen from the other angle

Danzer's cowboy room! It is so cool and has wood planks in the center of the ceiling and then metal roofing on the sides. The walls are faux painted like suede. So cute!

A closer look at the ceiling:

Ellys' new bedroom. I love the white wash wood floors and bead board. I am going to paint it a light light pink above the bead board.

The spare bath

The Master Bedroom. I love the built ins in this room too! We are going to paint it though because the green doesn't match any of our stuff

The Master from a different angle

The Master Bathroom. We are going to redo this when we get the money and time

The sun room. Can't wait to eat breakfast in here!

The back yard that we LOVE!

The front yard landscaping

I must say the pictures don't do it justice. So get down here and see it in person!

Am I the only one....

That loves this commercial, or is it just me? Hayden says I could star in one of these... apparently I dance like this when I BBQ???

Finally... everything is in its place!

Finally, we got the beds moved around! We have been meaning to get to this project for weeks but something always comes up. I don't know if I should be happy or sad to see Danzer transition into a big boy bed. But, he LOVES his "copter" bedding and is so excited for his new bed. Although we got Ellys' crib together... I can't part with her just yet. She will sleep next to our bed in her bassinet for another month or so. I love having her close to us.

And, as my favorite quote by Tiffini Davis goes.... "Nursing Sucks!" I thought we had it all figured out. But at a month old, Ellys was not gaining ANY weight. She was still a fragile 6lbs and 2oz. I knew something was wrong. I was spending a full hour nursing her about every 3 hours or so and she wasn't getting enough to eat. So we started supplementing her with a bottle and after only 4 days of supplementing her, she gained an entire pound. After a SECOND consultation with the lactation specialist... she suggested pumping in between feedings. OK, so really, nurse for an hour, supplement with a bottle (which takes about 20 min), then pump? For any of you that have a 1 1/2 yr old roaming around and a newborn... you know this is entirely impossible task to do every three hours. So, we gave up. I feel relieved, sad, mad at myself, disappointed, but at peace all at the same time. I can't believe I endured an entire month of nursing with fissures (cracks that are extremely deep and completely busted open). It was THE MOST PAINFUL thing I have EVER endured. Seriously. Worse than contractions. At our first consultations with the lactation specialist the lady gasped when she saw them and said "oh my honey!" I think she was a little taken back at how bad it was. And to top it off... Ellys has thrush now which was passed to me. So, I finally called it quits. I think Hayden is somewhat relieved. He was at his whits end watching be bawl, cringe, cry, gasp, and scream every time I nursed. I am so HAPPY that Ellys is doing better and gaining weight. I feel like a crappy mother for not noticing it sooner... but this isn't going to be the last mistake I make as a mom. So here we go, rip out all the bottles again, and get ready to pay up the yang for formula. But if it makes us all a happy family in the end... it will be worth every penny. Tiffini, thank you for putting the experience of nursing in perfect terms!

Ellys' first trip to church!

Well, first of all.... thank you dear hubby for those sweet words. You will never know how flattering that was! Now, when I have a bad day and question my abilities as a mama... I can go back and read what you have written and make myself feel all better. You are an amazing dad and husband. But I will post more about that later!
So today was Ellys' first trip to her Savior's church! She was so stinkin adorable in her cute pink dress (thank you Tammy!). I had to document this occasion because I just couldn't resist!

And how could you resist this face? This kid is seriously killing us lately! He says the FUNNIEST things and is so amazingly smart. I just can't believe how much he is growing up. He is an AWESOME big brother and adores Ellys. They are just the two cutest kids in the world if I do say so myself ;)

We are getting so excited for our trip to Utah! 3 weeks from today! We can't wait to see our families and friends!! Woooo Hooo!

My babies are so lucky.....

My kids are so lucky to have Kelly as their mama. I am amazed each day as I watch her lovingly care for their every need (and most of mine too). No matter what happens during the day, she just oozes love for these kids and I am so thankful for that. She has made the transition from my sugar mama/career woman while I was in school to our babies' mama so beautifully. I KNOW it's no easy job to be home with the little ones all day every day. I do not show my gratitude enough. I thank the Lord that I found a lady who does it so willingly and well. You should see the way Danzer looks at his mom; it melts my heart. When he drives his bike off the porch or falls out of the dining room window onto the patio below (yes, both have really happened while I was watching him) mom's hugs are all it takes to make it all better (for some reason mine just don't quite cut it). Our kids will be blessed for their entire lives because of the things they learn from spending their days at home with their wonderful, beautiful, amazing mom.

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!

Eat your heart out HGTV

Most of you will find these pictures boring... but these are for our fams back in Utah that have been here to visit... we wanted to show you all the updates that my sister and parents did while they were here. Seriously.... a girl COULD NOT ASK for a better family. Thank you thank you for all your help!
Window treatments that my mom put up. Eventually the dresser in the next picture will be where the couch is:

My sister made these awesome tissue paper balls (eat your heart out Martha!) for baby Ellys. Her crib will go here soon...

The new light fixture in the bathroom. It was a chandelier and every time I would blow dry my hair my hands and round brush would smack into it. Apparently the previous owners were not 6 feet tall ;)

My mom and dad hung these curtains to block off the washer and dryer and hot water heater. Major improvement!

Ok seriously... my mom never ceases to amaze me. When we bought the house they had these ratty wooden stick like blinds in the windows that made the room so dark. She custom made these roman shades because the windows were so oddly sized. Then she hung my window treatments for me. Way to go ya ya!

We got a new book shelf and hung our Thai lotus picture. Yes, the picture frames are empty... I'm working on that. The lotus flower picture is made with real lotus flowers and then are hand painted. We shipped it home from Thailand.

My mom put this flower arrangement together for me. Once again, GO YA YA!

Yes, this is a picture of my kitchen sink. Gross to you probably. But HELLO... it now has a disposal. Poppies... you rock! One does not truly appreciate the beautiful hum of a disposal until they have lived without one!

My mom and dad also installed new track lights in the kitchen. The old ones had light bulbs that they don't make anymore. But these new ones are so much brighter and bring a special glow to our kitchen. Ha ha!

OK, you can only truly appreciate this if you had the chance to witness the DISASTER that used to reside in this closet. My mom spent a good 3 hours cleaning it out and organizing it. Say it with me folks... "GO YA YA!"

And I organized this closet. Go me!

And last but not least... Hayden painted our front door on Saturday. It used to be this ugly peach color (notice the screen door). We are going to paint the screen door the same color. Hayden also painted all the shutters on the house black. As soon as the screen door gets painted I will take pics of the outside of the house and post them.

There you have it. Home sweet home! Even sweeter when our families are inside. So ya'll get your butts back here ASAP! xoxo

Sissy and Bubba...

I thought that I would call her Elle for short... but I just end up calling her "sissy" all the time. She is so so sweet. This is her today rockin' out to oldies rock (in honor of poppies) and helping mom bake cookies....

Baking cookies is A LOT of work as you can see by this GINORMOUS yawn...

Another yawn... I wore her right out!

And who partook of the cookies? Oh yes... Danzer man (aka Bubba). HE LOVES COOKIES!

Good idea on dad's part to strip him down to let him eat it. He goes CRAZY over the chocolate!

It was so hard to say goodbye to my mom, dad, and Grandma Ollie yesterday. Our house feels empty. Reality is setting in. It's wonderful to have two babies and I love them both more than I can ever describe. I hope I can be a great mom with only two hands. Just take it one day at a time right? I wouldn't rather be any place in the WORLD than right here, in my home, with these ADORABLE kiddos!