Next time, Merry Maids can do it.

We are getting settled in from the move now, life is finding its new normal, things are good.  After packing and scrubbing for the better part of a week and a half (and I could have done more), I believe that next time I will hire someone to scrub the house from end to end and top to bottom.  Unless the kids are old enough for me to just hire them.  I did have help and I so appreciate it!  Now, I feel like I am on easy street because I only cook and clean part of the time.  One of the many blessing of sharing a home!


We managed to get Caleb into a "bitty" soccer group, for kids ages 4-6, which is mostly practicing and a sort-of game at the end.  Here's the good/funny/embarrassing part: He is by far the best kid out there.  Mind you, it has not been that way the last two years, he's been the smaller, slower, less advanced kid out there.  He is basking in the feeling of being number one.  The "funny" part comes in because after their first practice/game thing, where Caleb dominated and scored goal after goal while the others ran in circles or laid on the ground, he could not stop talking about it: "I made the most strikes for my team!  I am the best at making the strikes!  I made tons of STRIKES!"  We kept reminding him that in soccer they are called goals, but he was just so darn excited. :)  The "embarrassing" part is just that we wonder if other parents wish he would be benched - we even thought about pulling him out ourselves for a few minutes - so the others can at least have a shot.  Towards the end of practice this week, the coaches were acting as sort-of goalies and when he'd come close they'd steal it and kick it away so the others could reach it.  It made him a little mad at first, but he kept trying and eventually laughing about it, which was good.  It's fun to see him shine.

He also likes his new Kindergarten class, and the only concern his new teacher mentioned was touching people at the wrong times and being too rough, like tackling a little female classmate at recess, who told her mom, who came to the teacher to find out about the tackler new kid... doh.  All boy, that one.

Ella spends most of her time enjoying her new surroundings, playing with Gus the dog, and especially feeding the horses Ike and Tahoe extra hay.  They love her, I am sure.  The kids have gone on a ride or two and think the horses are awesome.  I might start looking for a dance class to put her in, as she didn't want to play soccer and she prances around all the time in her princess dress-ups.  We did make it to the library, which has about 1 zillion books and play area, so that was fun.

All three kids had a great time at the Fruita Easter egg hunt, which was this week.  The crowd were small, I think because of the weather, so their baskets were loaded to overflowing without even having to knock other kids down for it.  I just plopped Rachel down in front of three or four eggs, and she was happy shaking and throwing them while I kept an eye on the other two.  And bless those people, most of the eggs had little toys and only a few had candy, so it was all gone quickly and everyone was happy, including mom.

Rachel's doing great, kind of battling some stomach bug that means lots of stinky diapers and leaked-on laundry, but seems ok otherwise.  She tags along with whatever we do and absolutely loves the dog, Gus.  Everyone time she spies him out the window or sees him when we get out of the car, she squeals and kicks her legs and hollers "Ga Ga Ga!" We went to McDonald's this week and two separate people asked us about her and made googly faces with her.  Kip asked when we got home, "Does that happen all the time?"  I said, "Yes.  Every time we go anywhere."  :)  She sure is popular!

We love our kids to pieces!