The New Gig

For the past year Ben's job has been a little frustrating. We've been grateful for the job, of course, and working from home has been super. Honestly, I thought it would be hard or annoying, but really it's allowed for a lot of flexibility for our us and a lot of time for Ben to spend with the boys. Most days he comes upstairs during lunch, or I can leave and run and errand while Hudson is napping. We've all loved it. But we always knew there was a time limit on it, as Polycom kept asking us to move back East. We decided pretty firmly that we wouldn't be moving for this position, it just didn't make sense for a lot of reasons. We were open to moving for a great career opportunity, but not so that he could just do the same thing he was already doing from here (and they wanted us to move to much more expensive areas).

All through the fall we kept getting conflicting information if Polycom was going to stick to the move in January deadline or not. Mid-December it finally officially came down- move to Andover, Massachusetts by Jan 30 or be out of a job. It was a little frustrating to be going through an intense job search during Christmas time (just like last year) when we wanted to just enjoy the magic of the season. But at the same time, focusing on Christ during Christmas helped to calm our nerves and center us on what is really important in life. Ben kept looking and networking and interviewing, but it just seemed to be frustrating and to find one dead end after another.

This whole experience has been a great faith strengthening experience for us. Going into it, I decided that I wanted to make the most of this experience. I wanted to grow and learn and become better from it, not just endure it. I'd say for the most part, it worked. There were days that I felt scared, but I also felt a lot of comfort and a lot of compassion for others. Every time I would feel scared I would remember that everything that matters most was absolutely fine. 

Just two weeks shy of our January 30 deadline, Ben was offered a great opportunity with a company called Pragmatic Conferencing. After doing some research into the position and company, as well as negotiating with them, we decided to accept their offer! They have been great to work with so far and have been beyond helpful in bringing Ben on board (even paying for him to fly to LA to renew his passport, and agreeing to put us on insurance benefits day 1 instead of 90 since we have a baby due). Ben will be working as a Business Channel Manager for them, as the contact for Polycom. Polycom sells teleconferencing hardware, Pragmatic sells the cloud based hosting that makes the product work. It was the perfect opportunity Ben was hoping and praying for and we feel like it will be a great step in his career.

The job is ultimately designed to be in Austin, Texas. Pragmatic has generously given us until the end of September to move (which is a great relief to us, moving with a brand new baby sounded so daunting!). Ben will be on the road a lot for the next six months between the offices in Toronto, Andover and Austin, and hopefully home enough to keep things from completely falling apart at home! We also have a verbal agreement from them that if Ben can prove that he can continue to work the job from Utah, they'd be happy to reevaluate the need to move all together- which is what we are hoping for! 

So that's the story of what has been going on in our lives for the past month! It's been stressful, faith promoting and ultimately has a happy ending. We feel so very blessed and thankful that this opportunity came up when we needed it the most!

We took the boys out to Pizza Pie Cafe to celebrate (probably not ever Ben or my first choice, but it's one of the boys favorites- mostly because of dessert pizza).

January

January- usually the most boring, cold, uncomfortable month of the year! Thank goodness we have lots of birthdays to celebrate to make it exciting! We started off the New Year with baked french toast and church. We moved to 1:00 pm church this year- which is a little rough on all of us, but mostly Hudson, who really functions much better with his afternoon nap. It was also his first sunday in Sunbeams. His teachers (the Jones') are the sweetest, kindest people, and I'm a little worried Hudson will give them a run for their money. When I picked him up he was all out yelling at them over some type of coloring incident that didn't go as he planned it. He was definitely over-tired and unreasonable. I'm hoping we will all adjust and it won't be quite as rough all year as I am building it up to be in my head. 

 That same Sunday we had dinner at my parents house and had a little early birthday cake for Chase. He has been so excited to turn six! He was super excited to open his gifts from his Nana and Papa.

 Then we got pounded with more snow! The boys think that helping dad shovel snow is the best, which I love! All three of them have worked out there together many mornings to clear our driveway. Hudson likes to try to initiate a snowball fight, Chase is more business. Their little shovels are getting lots of use this year!

We had a birthday party for Chase on his big day! This sweet kid just has too many friends, so we drew the line at inviting 14 kids! And I was hoping at least a few wouldn't be able to come, but no, they ALL CAME! Chase had a blast. He picked a Lightning McQueen party. We watched Mater's Tall Tales, played some easy party games (pin the moustache on mater, button-button, Mater-Mater-Lightning, bean bag toss and keeping balloons in the air). We did presents, and Chase was so darling and excited for each gift he got. He gave each child a very sincere "thank you". Then we did cupcakes and I happily sent them all home. It was a really crazy 90 minutes, but Chase loved it and felt very celebrated. He's so social and he just wanted to have all his friends together for his big day.

 We ended the day with Butternut Squash soup (his favorite) and took him out to ice cream at Coldstone.  We love celebrating this sweet boy- he really has a heart of gold and is the nicest, friendliest kid I've ever met.

Pretty much once the partying was over, we all succumbed to illness! Chase and I had annoying, but regular coughs/colds. Then Hudson started with it- which resulted in many days of coughing, on again off again fevering, a runny nose, eye infection and a whole lot of grumpiness and rough nights. On day 6 when he just wasn't getting better I took him to the doctor, just in case it was something treatable. Most of that was attributed to a virus (the reason I didn't take him in earlier) but the doctor checked his ears and found that they were super infected! I was so surprised because when he's had ear infections in the past he's been beyond miserable and unconsolable. So we started on antibiotics for that and hope that our Hudson boy would mend quickly! Being housebound was getting really really old.

 By Saturday, after a whole week of staying home and Chase complaining that we didn't do anything fun we finally went out! A neighbor offered us tickets to the Weber State Basketball game and we jumped at the chance to go. Hudson started off very excited about the game, which lasted about 10 minutes. Chase stayed engaged and excited the whole game! The Wildcats were down the whole game (at one point by a LOT) and they came back to win at the last second- Chase was so excited!

We've had a lot of fun in the snow this month! By we, I mostly mean the boys, since I haven't actually been out playing with them. They love to help Ben shovel the driveway and then love to dig and play and build igloos and slide down the snowbanks Ben creates for them. Hours of fun out there! They come inside freezing, wet, exhausted and happy- and always asking for hot chocolate.

 We had a fun morning at the museum together on Chase's day off school. The boys built and created with everything they could find and it eased my mama-guilt that they had watched so much TV during all the illness earlier in the month. We love that place!

Hudson turned four! He wanted a Paw Patrol birthday party- and he got a whole bunch of Paw Patrol toys. He was so excited to have his first "friends" party. We just invited a few little friends which kept things simple and he was pretty happy! He requested muffins for breakfast, funfetti cupcakes at his party, and then we finished off the day at Chick Fil-A with the whole family (it was conveniently a fundraiser that night for my mom's school- and we all love Chick Fil-A.) It was fun to have a day to celebrate our sweet Huds!

We started our new year with a new family theme scripture. We decided this year our theme scripture would be John 13:34: A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another as I have loved you, that ye may have love one to another. The kids have it memorized already (we say it every morning after our family prayer). We are hoping to teach the kids a lot about loving others (and each other) this year.

In all the craziness of other stuff going on, I totally spaced Chinese New Year. Luckily, the rest of the world didn't, so my kids still got some fun celebrating in. Hudson had a Chinese New Year day at preschool, then the next day we showed up at the library, coincidentally during story time, which we joined. And story time was all about Chinese New Year- and the boys made these cute dragons. Hudson named his "longy-tail" and I'm not sure Chase ever named his. 

 Then for Sunday dinner we had Chinese New Year at my parent's house. My mom set the table super cute, complete with red envelopes with money (which Chase especially loved) and dragon decor and we had a delicious (Americanized) Chinese dinner!

 Ben left for Toronto for work- the first of what will probably be many trips. Chase misses his dad a lot when he's gone, and frequently asks me to photograph random things he does to send to dad. He wanted me to show dad how he made his bed this particular morning, which I kind of loved. I mean, look at that stack of dogs! And his books all propped up nicely. A kid after my own heart!

At the end of January, all the stars aligned and my two out-of-town college roommates happened to be in Utah at the same time and we all met up for dinner one night! I've seen them all at some point in the last several years, but we haven't all been together for like 7 years. It was such a blast! To think I was worried that I wouldn't like my randomly assigned roommates...

And that was January! It was a crazy month, but full of fun and snow and friends and family. 2017 is off to a great start!

Hudson is FOUR!

• At four years old, his favorite foods are grillies (what he's started calling quesedillas), blueberries, cheese, and gummy worms.
• Is recently obsessed with all things Paw Patrol. He got a bunch of Paw Patrol themed gifts for Christmas and is loving them! It's also his very favorite show to watch.
• Loves babies, and talks to his baby brother all the time. I'm so excited to see him as a big brother in a few months!
• Is totally capable of dressing himself, putting on his own shoes, and making his own bed, but much prefers to have someone do it for him. We are working on it.
• His favorite person in the world is probably Papa. 
• He's done surprisingly well with the transition to sunbeams. His teachers are the sweetest and they've won him over. 
• He has been talking for months about our neighbor who has a green pig- and we still have NO IDEA who he is talking about.
• Often tries to turn our parenting tactics around on us. When he wants something and we say no, he'll yell out "I'm going to count to three, 1....2...3.... (and then insert a consequence)" Lately that consequence has been "then I'm gonna hit ya!" He is actually getting a LOT better about not hitting/punching, but often vocalizes that he would LIKE to hit someone when he's upset. We feel like that is progress.
• He loves preschool and runs in every day with a huge smile on his face, it's the cutest thing.
• He is so creative about how he plays and the things he pretends. He's got a great imagination.

We love this boy! He tries our patience all the time, but also has the sweetest hugs and snuggles and such a dear, soft side to him. His smile is completely contagious and he has brought so much happiness to our family. Happy Birthday Hudson!

Out of the Mouth of Hudson

While having a stern talking-to with his dad-

Ben: Hudson, why can't you listen and obey mom and dad?

Hudson: (threw up his arms exasperatedly in the air) Because I'm only THREE!

After what had been a hard morning, Hudson and I had dental appointments. So Hudson was sitting on my lap in the dentist chair when the dentist walked in and said, "how are we doing today?" I said "fine" and Hudson quickly responded "My mom is having a rough morning. She is." While nodding his head sympathetically.

Chase: I'll be six when the baby comes.
Hudson: And I'll be eleven.

He spent a good part of our trip in San Diego trying to educate Heidi that dogs say "ruff ruff" and NOT "woof woof".

 He came in one morning wearing this outfit and said "I'm ready to play soccer now!"

Me (to Heidi): Hudson had a rough night last night.
Heidi: Hudson, does that mean you kept your mom up all night?
Hudson: (thinks about it for a second) No. It means I kept my DAD up a lot last night.
(true story, in a rare turn on events, Hudson went straight for his dad that particular night and slept directly on top/next to him for most of the night. This was after several nights in a row of Hudson doing the same thing to me, and Ben waking up in the morning with absolutely no knowledge that Hudson had even been in our bed at all.)

After taking a Christmas treat to a neighbor, who is a widow, we had the following discussion:
Chase: Margo's husband must have been a lot older than her if he's already dead.
Me: I think he had a heart attack actually.
Hudson: Nope. A bear killed him.
Me: Oh really Hudson?
Hudson: Well, actually, he was stopping to help a bear, the San Diego Zoo Black Bear, and a T-Rex came by and just chomped him up. He did. He got killed by a T-Rex. But he didn't die until they got him to the hospital.(And then for the next ten minutes he continued to explain the same story over and over, absolutely certain that he was correct.)

One day when Nora got in our car, "Hey Noira, what are you today? A baby kangaroo? A baby lion? Or just 'Ora?" (Nora frequently pretends she's something else and really commits to the role)


An elderly neighbor of my parents stopped by one day and asked Hudson if he had been a good boy and could make Santa's nice list, to which Hudson responded "Well, I'm a little naughty every day."

He picked up the instructions for assembling a piece of furniture and pretended to read it:
"Instructions of how to get a baby out of mommy's tummy. Step 1: Breathe. Step 2: Heavenly Father tells you to go to the hospital. Step 6: You bring the baby home and do fun stuff with it. Like put it to bed at night."
(He hasn't even asked how they get the baby out...and we haven't volunteered the info either. I think it's hilarious/fitting how many numbers he skipped (although I don't think he realized when he said it that he'd skipped some numbers) considering all the "steps" left out.)

Chase is SIX!

• He came home from kindergarten a few weeks ago and told me, "Mom, I said my first prayer at school today." When I asked him more about it he explained that one of his little friends, Caden, who was recently diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes had eaten a gingerbread cookie in class without the teacher checking his sugar, which apparently led to a little bit of panic from his teacher, trying to reach Caden's mom. Chase said, "So I said a little prayer that Caden's blood sugar would be okay and that Mrs. Miller could get ahold of his mom." I saw Caden's mom the next day, who teared up when I told her that story. She said it was kind of a miracle because Caden's sugars were absolutely perfect, even after the cookie incident.
• He loves to build and create. He got legos for Christmas and has spent many hours creating with them.
• His favorite foods are butternuts squash soup and black bean soup, split waffles (which are waffles with a banana split on top), apples, bananas, pineapple, and anything sweet and with sprinkles.
• He says his favorite colors are red, yellow, blue, white and black.
• Absolutely loves school. His favorite parts of school are "prep times"- meaning art, PE, computer and library. But he really loves all of it and is always very excited to show me his work when he gets home.
• Tells me all the time how excited he is to get a baby brother. He really loves babies and has big plans to be my big helper when the baby comes.
• We had a hard time narrowing down a list of birthday party guests, this kid has so many little friends! I had him cap it off at 14, but he easily could have invited several more. He is the friendliest child. But for a child who is so friendly, he's terrible with names.
• We started Chase on a job chart when school started and it's been really successful. His jobs are to make his bed, clean his room, empty the upstairs trash cans and set the table at dinner. He does other jobs throughout the week when asked, but these are the ones he's expected to do every day. Our rule is that if he does all his jobs, each day, with no complaining, then he gets a dollar at the end of the week. He doesn't always get the dollar (usually because of complaining), but he's getting better all the time and has overall been very responsible about it. It's so nice to have a helper around here!

We love this boy so much! The day he was born was incredible, but I kind of wish I'd known then the amazing boy I know now! He's so smart and caring and compassionate and he is such a blessing in our family. Happy Birthday Chase!