E&E : December Wrap Up

The last month of 2018 ended up being one of the busiest and most stressful yet! I'm glad we've gotten a chance to spend some time in Texas the last week and a half and try to catch up on some sleep and some respite from the never-ending chores at home. We've had a rather sick December. Between two separate colds (lasting 2 weeks each and coming right on the heels of each other) that got all of us, a stomach bug that felled me and Levi for a couple of days each and another random fever day for Levi that caused another day of missed daycare, it seems sometimes like we will never be well again! It can be frustrating, especially since Emery doesn't sleep well when sick (shocker). Actually, if I'm being honest, Emery just doesn't sleep well in general and hasn't for the past two months or so ever since we introduced food it seems like. She went through this awful period of arching and grunting and crying with gas at night but at the suggestion of our pediatrician we cut back her foods to just peaches, pears, peas and plums and started her on a probiotic and that seems to be helping with the stomach discomfort a lot! Unfortunately, now she has a cough that wakes her up and keeps her up. Understandably, Eric and I are just very tired all the time. I may have had a melt-down a few nights ago in the middle of the night when Emery was coming down with cold number two that I just couldn't do this anymore! I cursed the big family and all their germs and swore I would never do Christmas in Texas again since we always end up sick! But after Eric let me take a super long nap the next day I now feel a bit saner although still tired. Anyway, in spite of everyone and their brother (literally) getting sick around here, being with the Martino clan for Christmas is fun. My favorite part has been watching Levi and Anson play together. They are so cute together and get along so well! I wish that we lived close to each other but I doubt that will ever happen as Greta and Matt intend to be full-time travelers starting in June of 2020 (theoretically). I personally would hate to be full-time travelers but it does seem like an awesome adventure if that's what you're into. Matt thinks its the best way to raise children and definitely did his best to defend it/convert us to the cause while he was here but I would rather stay in one place and put down roots.

On that note, Eric and I have been checking out neighborhoods and gone to a few open houses while we are here. I know that we can't decide where we want to live until after Eric finds a job out here because commute time is almost #1 on our priority list (must be less than half an hour!) but it's still fun to look around and see where we definitely don't want to live and where feels comfortable for us. I printed off a map of the area and marked a border of 40 min from Trey and Patty's house because we don't want to live farther away than that. I also marked out where the best school districts are and where the Targets, Costcos, Wincos, and LDS church buildings are as well as the Temple. After making the map we went and checked out Argyle, Roanoke, Savannah and the edge of Prosper and the area on the northwest of Frisco where Frisco meets Little Elm. This last area was definitely my favorite. The houses are older but the schools are good and I like the feel of it and I particularly like that there's a Costco and Target 10 minutes away and it's 30 min to Trey and Patty's, 30 min to the Temple and 30 min to the airport and only 15 min from Ikea! Location wise it's the best I've seen so far so it would be awesome if Eric could find a job in Frisco. Also, I just like that there are full-grown trees there because the area is a little more established. The new houses out by Prosper are gorgeous but I just don't know if I would like the housing development style of living. I like the idea of all the amenities these big developments offer including pools, gyms, cafes, etc but I just don't know if I could handle living off of busy 380 with all its traffic and so far from any stores except Kroger and a handful of fast food places. Anyway, the area investigation has been taking a lot of my thoughts and energy this trip and it's exciting to me. And I appreciate that Eric is also super willing to go with me and look at places and he doesn't seem to mind touring houses even though we know we aren't going to buy any of these just to get ideas of what we like and don't like and what would be deal-breakers for each of us. Ideally, we would love a 2 story, 4 bed (or 3 bedroom plus an office) with an upstairs open play area for $275k. We would love to have the master bedroom upstairs but that seems pretty unlikely based on what I've seen. I don't mind if the house is dated and needs a little updating as long as we would only need to make cosmetic changes like paint and countertops and not have to knock down any walls or change the floorplan. We are planning to talk to our financial advisor soon and see what's reasonable for us as far as how much to pull from investments to supplement our down payment and also how much would be prudent to put into the house upfront to fix it up.

Anyway, so the move has definitely been dominating my thoughts and attention this week. But we did also have fun playing games with Trey and John and Matthew and Valerie and we have a get-together planned for all the four older siblings and us tonight without kids which should be a blast. Levi has had a lot of fun playing with his cousins and exploring all of the toys here at Papi and Nona's house. We all went bowling together as a family which was fun, we did family pictures which was quite the production and included a couch that actually ended up sinking several inches into the soft ground of the pasture by the end of the shoot haha. And Christmas Eve, of course, is always a big, loud, crazy production around here with a big dinner, the nativity play (Levi was the cutest little king ever!), a visit from Santa, the cousins' gift exchange and the opening of stockings. To Levi's credit, he only got over-stimulated and had to take a break in Papi and Nona's room by himself for a few minutes once! And Emery is a little sweetheart and just loves all the attention. She will reach out to anyone and smile and at them and loves to be passed around.

In other news, Emery learned how to roll over finally! Just since we've arrived here in Texas she has suddenly become a little rolly-polly and will roll purposefully to get toys now. And she is so happy and proud of herself! She also has started to experiment with how to get out of sitting without falling over although she has only done it successfully a few times.

Another thing that has been taking a fair amount of our time lately has been finishing the Book of Mormon! It took work and sacrifice, but I did end up finishing it before the end of the year! I feel pretty accomplished about that! I wasn't sure I would be able to do it but I did! And it was definitely different than other times I have read the Book of Mormon. I have never read it that fast before! It helped me keep a bigger picture and keep track of people and places better and see the over-arching themes. I also really liked just focusing on Christ. If I doubted before how much the Book of Mormon teaches about Christ, I don't now. The whole book teaches all about Him. I look forward to going back through all my highlighted verses about Him and taking a more in-depth look! And I am looking forward to starting the Come Follow Me home study curriculum. It is still a little intimidating to me to know how responsible I am and will be for teaching my children the gospel. But as I think of it, I am reminded of my patriarchal blessing which specifically states that I will be primarily responsible for teaching my children and preparing them for life and eternal life. I am glad I will have this new tool to help me so I won't have to figure everything out on my own.

Anyway, I should probably wrap this up, but now, pictures! There's a million of them but I will try to just post the best or most memorable ones.

She just rocks that headband!

Eric and I went to an awesome white elephant party at the Nelson's house. Our gift? A Flock of Floss. We thought it up at midnight one night and I think we thought it was a lot funnier than any of our friends did! Haha.

Emery loves her daddy! She is constantly saying "Dada! Dada!"

We were shopping in Target (did that a lot this month!) and I turned around and saw Levi trying on all the sunglasses!

Emery is old enough to ride in the cart now! Yay! I've loved wearing her and snuggling her while we shop but she is getting too heavy for that to be comfortable any more.

Levi and I hosted a Christmas decorating party for his little friends before we came to Texas. Unfortunately, I was super sick that day but I had already had to reschedule the party once and I'm stubborn and didn't want to cancel it so I just tried to power through. Honestly it was a little awful but Levi had fun!

He was very proud of his cookies.

Emery had her 6 month check up! Can't believe she's been with us for over half a year already!

A typical Levi moment: watching Temple videos, no shirt with his chewy.

They are so cute together!

Levi's first meeting with Santa at the Tualatin Commons Tree Lighting Festival. He was very excited.

An attempt of a picture with Papi and Nona with all the grandkids. Silva HATES to be held by anyone but her parents so she was freaking out. And I love how Ben is cuddling Levi.