We moved to Houston! January 2019

Well, I am a little at a loss as to what to say. It appears that I completely dropped this blog.. for a good, 3.5 YEARS! Not one entry. And, I can't really say that I know why. Just life, I guess. But today, I saw a friend's blog about her cute family and I was inspired to start again. What I really want is a great way to document my family's life and over and over again it seems that blogging is the best. Especially because you can print the blogs into a book.. at least, that is what I remember and that is what I am hoping for.

So, here we are with a fresh start! My goal is to write once per month about the "happenings".

January 2019:

We started the year out still in Utah for the Christmas til New Years holiday. We love our time in Utah with both sides of our family right in Farmington. On New Years Day we packed up all the stuff, which includes all that Santa brought, including a bike for Heber, all our winter clothes and boots, and the clothes and food that was going to make us comfortable for the road. AHHHH! It is so much stuff! Good thing Zakary built us a hitch caboose to hold even MORE STUFF.

We headed out around noon, hoping that all the drunks and crazies had made it safely off the roads and we were off to a new life. The weather was great until New Mexico. The fog plus snow plus tiny farmer roads (which were the biggest roads for our route) made for a wheel gripping good time. We made it to Alburquerque and the next morning the place was covered in a good 8 inches of snow. My kids (and I) were totally disappointed. We were all so tired of cold and snow that we thought for sure this far south we would be free. Apparently, according to several guests and a manager at the Holiday Inn Express, Alburquerque had not had this much snow in 13 years AND they only had 4 snow plows for the entire city. 2 of which were dedicated for the Airport. There was nearly no cars out. Being from Wisconsin AND from Utah, no snow was going to stop our trip to our new home, so off we went. The good old Honda Odyssey drove like a champ, blasting right through the drifts and piles. We did run out of windshield washer fluid and stopped to get some.. guess it was a popular product that day, since they were all out. We eventually did find some and then felt much safer.. at least we could see!

We drove all day and finally arrived in Houston at 10 pm. The air was mild and THAT was a welcome feeling. The kids love hotels- in fact, Gretel told me today that hotels are her favorite place. Houston hotels don't have indoor pools though, so that was a sad discovery. The next morning, Zakary left early to be to the new house before the moving trucks arrived. The kids and I slept and slept and slept. Poor things were totally exhausted after all the Christmas fun and endless road trips. By 11am, we needed to check out, but our moving trucks hadn't arrived, so Zak came back to pick us up. By the time we got back to the house, the moving trucks had come, dropped off our two trailers AND driven over the main waterline going to the neighbors house and water was going EVERYWHERE! What a way to meet the neighbors!

Sadly, Uncle Jacob Welch was very sick at Christmas, and the kids and I caught it the day we were unloading the trucks! We had fevers, coughing, crying.. and members of the Ward were trying to be kind and inviting the kids to come play while we worked, or they were coming over to help and I was struggling to keep our germs to ourselves. I can't even remember all the people who came to help us. It's sad, but true. I was so sick and trying so hard to keep my kids feeling half alive that I didn't notice much else. All the while, Zakary is having a great time meeting all the great Ward members and neighbors and making new friends. People brought us dinner, we had the painters here to patch some walls, we lived a few days without a fridge or washer and dryer til that finally arrived. The internet guy came and the security system guy...all while we were too sick to really make eye contact. Good thing it was a pretty quick illness and we were able to attend Church on the first time of the new 2 hour schedule. The ward was warm, and kind, and inviting. My kids each enjoyed primary and we took a bike ride around the neighborhood afterward. It's a great feeling to play outside, in the warm air, in JANUARY!

The broken water line from the moving truck. It was going to cost $4-5000!

Glad it wasn't our fault!

This is what we call the Lake Land. It's directly behind our house, giving us the feel a giant yard!

Riding his new bike in JANUARY!! Unheard of in his lifetime! 

In an effort to feel "normal" again, we dove right in to homeschool. 

Gretel and Moses especially miss their dear best friends from Wisconsin. We have daily tears. 

We decided to put Gretel in Dance!! She pranced around for hours in her new "gear". 

Moses is especially excited about the prospect of seeing new wildlife. 

January 21 we found out that Stapp Baby Number 5 is on the way!! 

Lydia is convinced that all her owies are "super hurting"-- she says, "I need a bandaid!" There have been boxes of bandaids used up and wrappers and used bandaids are found everywhere. This time, she might have really been hurt. 

Family, every two weeks, Matthew and Megan's turn! June 14-18

This year we have been SO SO SO blessed and feel so so so loved!! Living out in Wisconsin has been a wonderful change for us. Our marriage is better, our children are doing awesome and Miller Electric treats Zak really well. Can't go a minute without mentioning how stellar our Ward is, too!

BUT, being away from extended family can be hard. It stinks when there are fun things going on and we won't be there. It is also tough when you know getting a babysitter is an option, but a loving Aunt or Uncle would have been an easier choice. We are learning to ask for help and loving this choice to be far away.

This spring has been abundant with family and love! Now, it is Matthew and Megan's turn to visit and they are staying five whole days! I love when Matthew and Megan visit because they are very calm and sweet and give me a new perspective on parenting and marriage. They treat each other with lots of kindness and patience. I really admire that about them. Last year when they came for Gretel's Blessing, I was able to see them just love on Gretel and it made me feel so much better about the love that I could offer her.

This year, we get to play a lot more!! Well, Gretel and I get to play a lot more! Zakary just barely arrived from his Military Training in California. I am sure his is exhausted, but he loves family so much. He jumped right in and we went for a hike up Mosquito Hill. It really is the only hill around for miles. You gotta climb it!

The kids all did great. Moses fell in love with little Lucy. He was so happy to see that she could TALK! They became fast, sweet friends. Megan amazed me that she had baby Bennett just two months ago and was out doing a road trip to visit family. Her love for family is very strong.

We took them to our favorite, Union Star Cheese Factory in Zittau, Wisconsin. (near Fremont). We arrived exactly on time to see the cheese go from shoebox shapes to door mats to curds. The process is just amazing!

I had never been up to Bay Beach Park, and I felt that our kids were finally at the right age for amusement rides. Each ride is only 25cents so it makes the day totally worthwhile! I had just been hired at Fox Valley Dental and the DDS paid me that day in cash! It was so fun to treat us all to the rides. I think the favorite was the giant slide.

I never knew how much Matthew loved strawberries til I mentioned that we got to the Cuff Farms strawberry fields and pick strawberries! He was all for it and when we got there he was beaming. The tractor ride was nice and long and the boys were in heaven. Out in the field it was hot, but the picking went really well and we ate as much as we wanted. I love the taste of sunshine in the berry!

The last day, we spent at Plamann Pond. For us, it doesn't matter that it is a landlocked manmade beach next to a tiny pond. We want beach, we want sand, we want water. We get it all at Plamann. And it was SO much fun! My boys are getting so brave in the water! Dunking their heads in, holding their breath, pushing out from the shore! Little Lucy loves water and was all giggles and teasing with her splashes. Gretel was all smiles and splashes, too! At the end of the night, we got to tell them all why we love them so much. It makes our life richer to share it with family.

Heber broke his collar bone, June 4.

Preschool is all finished. We had a really great year. I am so grateful that Kristen and Lucy allowed me the opportunity to do a preschool with them. I was able to learn so much! I was excited to see the kids learn and to hear them talk about things later. I loved when Moses told me that a can was a cylinder.

Today we had a closing ceremony to celebrate all that we had learned and to teach the kids about summer and tell them what we loved about them. It was a challenge because the kids all had extra energy cuz they had their moms with them. And each of us moms had our younger baby with us. We read stories, sang, had treats, played outside and gave them a gift. I know Moses and Heber learned so much.

After they all went home, a friend brought over her son for me to babysit. I had agreed to it earlier. The kids were getting crazy at lunch and I was starving, so I sent them upstairs to play until I finished eating. A few minutes later I heard Heber screaming. It is normal for him to be screaming. He is accident prone and highly emotionally driven. So, he was screaming pretty normal for him. I dashed upstairs faster after Moses told me that Heber had fallen from the bunk bed and couldn't get up. When I looked at Heber, I thought, BROKEN BONE. My next thought was, HEBER IS TIRED. I went with my second thought, scooped Heebs up and put him in his bed. He cried and told me he couldn't walk and that his shoulder hurt. I didn't waste any time. I left him to sleep this off. Heber is by far my best sleeper. After only 45 min of sleeping, he was screaming from his bed and I knew something was wrong. He NEVER wakes up after such a short nap. I got him to got to sleep again and I started thinking of what I could do. My dad was coming back around 6pm and I didn't dare go to the ER with three kids, two of which would need me to carry them.

Heber woke up again screaming and I did my best to get him comfortable on the couch and watching TV. My secret weapon is to never let my kids watch TV so that when I really really need them to hold still and be quiet the TV works. He stayed still for 90 min and I was able to call the pediatrician and make sure that if I waited to take him in, that he would still be ok. I suspected he had broke his collar bone. It is the number 1 broken bone for a fall like he did.

At 6pm, Dad arrived and we piled into the cars to head to the ER. The xray confirmed a broken collarbone and Dr. said there is nothing you can do for it. "If the two ends are within the same zip code, they will heal." So we went home with a sling that I vowed I would require him to wear for one week. The pain meds they gave him made him sick that first night. So, I laid on the floor on the camping pad next to his mattress in Moses' bedroom that night. Every time he needed to pee, I was there to lift him from his bed. Every time he wanted to roll over, I was there. And, every time his pain came back, I got him a new dose. 

Within three days, Heber was no longer taking pain meds and was running and playing again. There were still the moments that he would trip and fall in the grass and not be able to get back up, and the moments when he couldn't pull his pants down to pee. For the most part he was doing great. The sling was only a reminder to him to slow down, since it wasn't doing him any good just hanging off his neck behind him. At ten days we had another xray taken and apparently ZERO healing had happened. But, Heebs felt and acted better so we decided he was fine and that it would heal later.

I am forever grateful that my dad was here this week. Geez. One baby chick down and the very next day my Heber takes a fall. We were able to finally enjoy the weekend when my dad took us to the NEW Zoo in Green Bay and out to eat. Thanks, DAD!

Our baby chicks arrived! May 28th

We bought this house with the plan of one day having chickens again. At our Ogden house we had chickens for about 4 years! It was such a great experience. We LEARNED the hard way that we needed to close the chickens up really tight, but our hearts felt the unmatched love that only a chicken can offer!

In February, (I think), we placed our order with Murray McMurray Hatchery. You gotta order 15 chickens for the smallest box. So we got brave and thought we would try our hand at doing some meat chickens, too.

On May 28th we got a call from the Greenville PostOffice that our baby chicks had arrived!! Moses and Heber were thrilled! I was scared to death of how this was going to go. I told myself over and over again that I was going to have to let the boys learn and be involved. My first brave move: I let Moses carry the box of baby chicks to the van and on the way home!! AGGHH!! Next, after I opened the box, I let them each choose which chicken they were going to claim and even hold the chicks.. AGGHHHH!!!

Moses picked a darling grey and yellow one and Heber snagged a black one with a yellow spot on her head. They called it her "cheese head." They named them Chicky choo, and Lightning. I got the golden one, Orpah. Zakary was away on Military Training, but he picked the blackest one and called her Blacky Boo Boo.. Gretel was assigned a red one and I named her Winnie. The yellow one was named after our favorite chicken in Ogden, Yella. And the other black one had a white bottom, so she was named Sparkled. Yes, Sparkled.

The meat chicks were given the larger brooder out in the garage and the laying chicks only lasted one minute in the garage. Moses put an end to that right off. No way was his baby going to sleep in the garage. Moses was SO loving and caring. He asked me to let him always feed them and he wanted to make sure that they were warm.. the first night he struggled because I wouldn't put a blanket over them. He LOVED those babies! It came at a perfect time for him. He was asking me to protect his pet worms and he was leaving them out all around.

We did have one sad accident. We had our chicks for one week, I took the babies outside so I could clean out their brooder. Moses and Heber were watching the chicks play. I came back around the house with new clean bedding, and the boys were hiding the chicks under frisbees. I ran to uncover them and one baby chick had been crushed. She was still breathing, but badly hurt. It was Chicky Choo. Moses was devastated. I put her in his hands and told him to tell her all that he loved about her. I finished up cleaning and put the other chicks away. We put Chicky Choo in a small box where she later died. We literally watched her take her last breath! Moses cried and cried. I cried and cried! It was terrible. I called several hatcheries to get a replacement, but no one would sell me a single chick.

My dad arrived that night, he tried getting a replacement, too. But in the end, we buried Chicky Choo and I allowed Moses to pick a new chick. He chose Gretel's red one, and changed her name to Chicky Choo Number 2. He loved on that baby chick, perhaps a little less, but he had learned a hard lesson.