The New Place

Ok this has taken me forever to post, but here are the pictures of the outside of our new place! We really like it and are getting pretty settled in. (I only have a few more boxes to unload!!) There isn't a yard so the kids place in the street, but we live on a dead end road in a pretty quiet place. After I finish getting all the boxes unloaded and the house put in order I will add pictures of the inside too, but for now this will have to do! We are just so glad that we found a nice place in a nice area, thanks again everyone who listened to my complaining and prayed with us to find this nice place!!

New Phase, again...

It is that time again, the time to start a new phase of life. Just when I feel comfortable and happy in my life and surroundings that is when it is time to rip us up and start all over! Really, I LOVED living in Lewisburg; we had great friends, a great ward, and a great house/neighborhood/etc. We knew this time was coming, of course, but it still didn't prepare me for the actual event. Let me start by saying this move wasn't suppose to be as hard as it has turned out to be. Two of our good friends were going to be moving out this way as well. One family was going to be in a town 12 minutes away and the other was going to be about 25 minutes. Coming from where we were that was nothing!! We drove that far to church, I was so excited to have them close. Well about a month or two before the big move one of the families announced they were going to be transferring schools to one in his home town to save money, blah blah blah ;)!! Ok, I guess I understand, but then the other family, (I TOLD you Tiff I am NOT letting this go!!!!), decided like 5 days before we make the move out here that they too are transferring to their home state!!! ARE YOU KIDDING?!?! Yup, they both abandoned me out here in Hurricane, WV. I know, I know, Tiff you are pregnant with #3 and you need your mom and Amy and everyone else, but seriously I am going to miss you and Dani!!!! (And at least Dani gave us enough time to get used to the idea ;).) So here we are, moved, but not yet fully unpacked and ready to start from square one all over again. I should get used to this I guess. I am so glad to be here, I know it is where we are supposed to be, but I would be lying if I said I wasn't scared or a little sad.
But on a happy note we are closer to some friends that we haven't in ages that we were really good friends with while we were at BYU. I am hoping that we can see them and do more with them, but I know life is busy for residents!!
Well as we were packing up the truck to drive out here, Luke was attacked by wasps. Apparently he is allergic. He got bit on the lip and the arm, twice in each place. He swelled up like a balloon and his throat even swelled, thank goodness for Benedryl!! The swelling lasted for 4 days, but he is all better now!!
Here he is on day 3. (Ignore the messy face...) Here is the home we are leaving, it doesn't look like much on the outside, but it was so nice and big on the inside!! (I still need to get one of the new house, it is coming...)

Yesterday we had a special treat when the Barnards stopped by on their way driving out to Arizona. (Should have been Huntington....) The kids were excited to have one more time playing for a little while. We were able to go get ice cream together and just hang out. We sure are going to miss them!!! Gabby and Mary have been the best of friends, it will be hard not to have them close. But we know it isn't goodbye forever, we will at least all see eachother again at Lily and Logan's Wedding!!! ;)

Well that was a really all over the place post, but that is where I am at right now. Oh we had a nice Father's Day/birthday for me on Sunday; it was low key, nothing fancy but nice. I did want to say a quick I love you and thank you to my awesome husband who is a fantastic father!! He makes my life so much easier and more fun, he is the best and I am lucky to have him. Also to my dad, he is one of my heros and I love him very much. I am blessed to have these great men in my life!!
Now it really was all over the place!! I will have to be better about keeping up to date once the internet is set up and we are back into the swing of things!!

Slacker!!

I have been falling behind in my blogging lately! Most of that is due to illness, stress of finding a place, stress from other stuff and just not making the time! But I am SOOOO HAPPY to report that we FINALLY found a place to move into in less then two weeks!!! (talk about cutting it close!! ;)) We made our last trip out to Teays Valley, yesterday, completely determined to not leave until we had a place. It started in tears when one of the places, the one I was SURE we would end up in, was filled during the weekend after I called but before we could make it out to see it. Then we had a long drive with kids who didn't want to be in the car for 3+ hrs, but we ended up being directed to the right place. We do have to downsize, but it will all be worth it. We will be blocks away from the hospital and church and the elementary school!!! (Not to mention COLD STONE!!! I forgot what one of those places looked like!!!) The place is a duplex, but is almost new and has a garage!! We will be loving it I am sure! I will have to post pictures one I get some. But the whole purpose of this post, aside from thanking all those who kept us in your prayers and offered wonderful advice... Thanks!!!, is to catch up on life!!

So first things first, after we got home from Utah, wow that was a while ago!!, we had some really nice weather and we pulled the sprinklers out and had some fun!

Ok so I have to explain this one!! Gabby needed to go potty, was all wet and Lily was sleeping inside so I told her to sit in the grass and go. So then she decided all on her own that she needed to "rinse" off this way! I almost died, I guess I will not have her do that again!!!

Next we had Logan's birthday party!! (For those who don't know Logan Barnard is Lily's boyfriend, and Mary Barnard is Gabby's best friend... really the Barnard's are our family out here, we love them and my kids consider them their second parents!!!) We missed you Amy!! (Tiff's sister Amy came out for a month to help out with Tiff's sick time during this pregnancy and we grew to love her too!)

Lily wasn't sure she wanted to get wet, so she stayed a safe distance from the dog sprinkler.

Yummy snacks that Tiff provided for the kids, Lily loved just sitting and eating and watching the other kids play!

Then we had Mary and Logan come over for some play time and dinner. The kids love getting together to play!!

Isn't he so handsome?! Lily is stating her claim early!! ;) They really are good friends, if one is crying the other comes over with a binky or blanket to make the other happy. Too cute!!

Then we had popsicles and more sprinklers over at the Barnard's again. (We aren't friends or anything...!!!) It was a lot of fun!

I loved the look on her face here!! She bit the popsicle for the first time and wasn't sure if she liked how cold it was...turns out she did!Ah Mary we love you!

And Finally...if you are still reading this really long boring post!!!, we had Luke's kindergarten end of the year presentation. They sang 3 songs and danced two dances. I didn't know it was a presentation they just sent home a note saying they were having a class party. But the night before during Luke's night time prayer he asked that he wouldn't be nervous the next day. AND he WASN'T!! All the parents commented that Luke knew all the words and actions the best and asked if he had practiced hours at home! I had to tell them all no, it was due to his prayer. I love this boy!! He is such a good performer, he has had solos or duets in both Primary programs out here (that may or may not have to do with the fact that his mom is the Primary Pres....) and also at the ward Christmas party; so it was no surprise to me that he did great!!Luckily he didn't get his dad's rhythm!! ;) He was a pretty good little dancer if I do say so myself!!

Gayle, this picture is for you, recognize this tongue in the cheek expression from anywhere?!And now I think we are mostly caught up!

Moving again...

Two years ago we moved out here to West Virginia so Nate could go to Med school. We didn't get a chance to come looking for houses so we picked one online and hoped it was as good as it sounded. It wasn't. So as soon as our year lease was up we were out of there!!! It was the best move we have ever made! I LOVE, LOVE ,LOVE the house we have been living in. Not only is it within bike riding distance from Nate's school, it is spacious, in a good neighborhood, has a nice big kitchen (a must!), a HUGE master bedroom with a bathroom in it, has an enormous yard and is close to everything in town. It really is a great house. I would stay here until Nate graduated if we could, but unfortunately we have to move yet again! The hospital here in Lewisburg is so small they have to farm the students out over the state for their clinical rotations 3rd and 4th years. That means we have to leave and go to Teays Valley. I think that I am a pretty adventurous person and I am willing to follow my husband wherever he takes us, so I was behind him all the way. Well he takes boards on June 17th and starts at the hospital out in Teays Valley on June 29th so we are supposed to be moving in that time; the problem?... WE DON'T HAVE A HOUSE YET!!!! We have been looking and looking since April. We have been out there, a 2 and 1/2 hr drive from here, two times and have been unable to find a house as nice, as spacious, or even remotely as nice or spacious for even close to the same price we are paying here! I am so discouraged right now! I am so worried and I am trying to just have faith and follow my husband, but we are taking about 3 weeks here!! I find places that are wonderful, just what we are looking for, then I call and they are asking more then we can afford (stupid tuition went up again!!!) or they are already rented! I really didn't think it would be this hard and I really really can't move into a 2 bedroom, 1000 sq ft place when we have 3 kids and aren't done having kids yet. Sorry this is more of a vent posting, but I have been spending hours online looking, calling and hitting dead ends for weeks now and I just can't take it! (Maybe this house has spoiled me but I don't think it is too much to ask to find a place we can actually fit in!!) For those who know me, I am a planner. I have things mapped out and prepared long in advance and I have a hard time "flying by the seat of my pants" or "going with the flow". Anyways, that is what is currently going on in the Tracey household. We hope to have a place soon, hope to move soon and hope to get settled into this next chapter of our journey.
On a side note I wanted to say how proud I am of my husband!! He finished his second year of med school with flying colors and I am sure will pass his boards the same way! He is amazing and I wouldn't be willing to do this with anyone else! Nate, you're the best, thanks for taking care of all of us and for still being a fabulous husband and father!( Now if only you could help me find a house... :)!!!)

Fun with Grandma and Grandpa!!

Part of the fun of going to Utah is that we get to see both sides of our family!! We were able to get together with Nate's family on several different occasions and to be there for some pretty important events!! (baby blessings, graduations, etc.) I will post later about some of the fun cousin things we did, but on of Luke's favorite things that we did the whole trip was to go to the Thanksgiving Point Museum of Ancient life. (the dinosaur museum!!) Grandpa had to work, but Grandma was able to go with us and have some real fun! She helped the kids play in the erosion table, honestly who doesn't love playing in sand and water?! She patiently listened to the kids as they had to tell her all about everything they were seeing as well as what they thought about it all. It was SO nice to have an extra set of hand and ears!!!! The kids really enjoyed it and loved the Dino dig area at the end, Lily even ventured into the sand!! We were also able to go to Chuck-E-Cheese with both Grandpa and Grandma and the kids absolutely LOVED it!! You would think that they had never been taken out anywhere the way they were pulling g-ma and g-pa all over that place!! They made some really great memories with their grandparents this trip, thanks Gayle and Allen we love you both!!!

Ah Friends!!

Every time we go to Utah I always have a long list of good friends that I want to visit, people that have really meant something to me in my life. However we always go home having visited NONE of them!! This time wasn't a whole lot better, but at least I was able to see two of them. My very first roommate at BYU, or ever that wasn't a sister, was Kristin Johnson who is now Kristin Hawkins. We lived together at BYU for two years and have kept in contact ever since. Right after we got married we would get together with our other roommate, Kirsten, and her husband Ammon and have dinners once a month. It was so much fun! However everyones career choices have taken us all over the US so we haven't seen much of each other in years!! It was such a treat to be able to see her and her cute boys even if it was just for a few hours!! This awesome lady meant a lot to me during some important times in my life!!

Our kids got along pretty good for not having ever really met each other until now!!
The second friend, or I should say FRIENDS, that I got to see were my Steele girls! Kristen and I were friends in high school and had some good fun together, but after we graduated and were in college is when we really became great friends and I became good friends with her two wonderful sisters Shelby and Kodi as well!! Kristen is A HUGE part of why I am married to the man of my dreams!! I was living down at BYU and she was at our home stake singles ward. She would come down almost every Tuesday to my apt. so we could go to devotional together and she could make "goo, goo" eyes at her now husband Paul. (you know you did Kristen!!) One of those Tuesdays she said she had the PERFECT guy for me. I of course rolled my eyes at her, but she insisted that her and her sister's new home teacher, Nathan Tracey, was my future husband. So I bet you can guess the rest... but it is more then that. These girls were amazing and I LOVE them for everything they did for me!! And yes Kristen I love you for telling me what an IDIOT I was being when I broke up with Nate and helped me realize what a mistake it would be!! Seriously you girls are the best!! ( And Shelby and Kodi married two of Nate's bestest friends from Kansas, they are his "adopted" brothers for all intents and purposes) We had a nice visit until Gabby threw up all over their mom's kitchen!! SORRY again!! The sickness lasted until we left so that is why we only got to see two friends, but hey at least I made progress!!! (Besides there is always next time;)!!! )I LOVE YOU GIRLS!!!

Trip to Adam and Melissa's

One of the first things that we did when we got to Utah was go down to my brother Adam and his wife Melissa's house. They live in Springville and right by this really neat farm. Melissa had been telling us about how much fun the kids would have going down there and boy was she right!!! The kids LOVED picking grass to feed to all the different animals that they saw. Then after we fed the animals and watched them play, we went to get ice cream! It was so much fun and the kids LOVED all the animals!! Best part?! IT WAS FREE!!! I love those kinds of activities!!



This is a picture of everyone that went, except me. My brother Ben, his wife Angela, Annabelle, Tali, Alaura, Gabby, my sister Cassie, Lily, Luke, little Ben, my sister in law Melissa, my brother Adam, Sammie and my brother Nick.

These cute little goats were giving us quite the show!!





Luke feeding a goat, he was a little scared that his fingers would get eaten!!!





Gabby picked these flowers for Nana since she didn't get to come with us, so cute!!Melissa helping Gabby feed the horse (or a mule?), as you can see she wouldn't put her hand anywhere near it's mouth!!Cute kids!!