These four walls we have called home for 32 years..... and oh if these walls could talk. We've raised children, held countless family dinners, had long, hard conversations, decorated and redecorated. I know this house will be ingrained in my memory forever. It's part of me.
It's been quite an emotional time to pack up my life and get ready to move into a new space. Layton. It seems so far away. I've taken a lot of photos and documented so much or our time here.
Last night all of my kids and some bonus kids gathered to a "say goodbye to our house" party. We started at 10 pm-- that's the only time everyone could get together while Laila is here. Addison has rehearsal every night til 10 and Monson and Lexi leave July 24th for Michigan and don't get back til Aug. 9th..... so 10 pm worked. I had treats and a small plan of what this night would look like. We went from room to room and shared memories of each space. We told funny stories and heart-wrenching stories.
We recounted how many actually had this pizza bag room as their bedroom... Landon, Addison, Monson and Lexi.... and we went through all of the reiterations of each room. Landon has had the most bedrooms in this house..sleeping in 5 different rooms- both upstairs bedrooms, the down family room, the pizza bag room and the down bedroom. Landon got displaced when we got Laila in 2002, and bounced around after that.
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| I'm giving so many things to the DI, but I'm keeping the Unicorn head. It's priceless. |
The downstairs bedroom that Addison moved down to when he turned 10 with the jumanji-like vines growing in through the window. The water bed disaster where he was electrocuted - nearly died and had water everywhere-- the Nickls came and helped him, since Wayne and I were out of town. In this same bedroom Addiosn took paint and markers to and created an extravagant mural on one wall. We were very nice parents. This same room was used as a nursery for TAYLA for 6 months while Monson and Lexi lived with us.
The downstairs bathroom... was an epic Costume closet with racks upon racks of costumes that I lent out and the boys had fun playing in.
The basement family room that Landon, Truman, and Monson all sneaked out of through the big window at some point in their teenage years. They thought we didn't know, but there was always tell-tale signs of leaves trailing into the room. Laila never snuck out because of all of Wayne's outside cameras..and it never crossed Addison's mind to do that. Addison was a "nervous" oldest child. Always doing what's right.
The down family room is where the kids would sleep on Christmas eve...and where all of the cousin sleepovers took place. They rode a mattress down the stairs and busted the door jam...and we didn't have a door to close off the basement after that. The many gaming systems that were played on in that room.
The upstairs bedrooms brought a lot of laughs... many shared times where they "messed around" and thought they were going to get caught. Wayne and I were only ever caught one time-- we always locked our door-- but one time when Laila and friend Heather Kofford was at our home -- we did not. Wayne through a sheet over me and I played dead. It was so embarrassing. So glad Laila doesn't remember this night.
The nursery bedroom that I used for Truman, Monson and Laila...with the changing table where we sang, "Do you love me" from Fiddler on the roof while I changed diapers..and the rocking chair in the corner where I would rock my babies and create their own songs.
Laila used both upstairs bedrooms as her bedroom since she was 13.
We talked about holes in doors and walls-- and who locked who out, and chased who down with a knife...fun things like that.
The early morning scripture reading and family prayer that took place on our king sized bed for decades. We always ended with our hands in a circle and saying, "Forever" with our sleepy kids.
The stairwell...so many had memories of me sitting on the stairs with the sun on my face having my own little time out. I still do this.
Running down the stairs to the living room, or family room for Christmas morning to see if Santa had been here.
The office where we originally had our computer until it was too tempting to look up "bad" things and we had it moved out to the open family room.
The living room is where Monson and Lexi were married prior to going to the Temple. It's where all of the boys had an allergic reaction to their bouteniers and their eyes were swollen shut. It's where we met all of Laila's school dance dates. It's where we gathered for blessings and ordinations. It's where piano lessons happened-- with many a tear and a threat. It's where voice lessons happened. They recounted many of my tone-deaf students.
For 19 years the dining room was it's own room and it had a step down into it. We held good boy and girl parties at Christmas time and decorated graham cracker houses, we had family dinner and we "weeded" Haulmak stickers-- another cottage industry of ours to make some money...all the boys helped.
We talked about the OLD kitchen layout and color-- it was brown with an ameba-shaped bar, then I painted all of the cupboards red and took out the bar and had a painted table in the middle-- we remodeled in 2010 taking down walls and making everything white. Laila having her cupboard where she spoke to her imaginary friend Jarret. Monson fending for himself with all of the food...cold hotdogs, cereal, meat and cheese rollups. I made so many quesadillas in this kitchen...it was a staple when the boys were little.
The family room where the kids would all perform on the fireplace stage and where they would lead the singing for Family night with a pencil that they tapped three times before starting the song, "When the family gets together after evening work is done, and they learn to love each other popping corn and having fun, then our daddy tells a story, (insert name here) leads us in a song. And it seems like nothing in the world could possibly go wrong." (Laila sang this for us). The fireplace stage that Truman would entertain us on at 2 and 3 years old, while Addison and Landon had to go to bed. He would sing, "I was drunk last night dear mother, I was drunk the night before, but if you forgive me mother, I'll never get drunk any more." This song is from and old Judy Garland movie,"Meet me in St. Louis".
The many Christmas mornings in this room before we switched to the living room. The many animals that filled this room...particularly our guide dog Stephi.
We laughed and cried and it was funny and therapeutic. We talked about HARMONY-- it's on the wall in the dining room and has been for 13 years. It's our family motto. The letters stand for Home, Attitude, Respect, Maximize talents, Obedience, No guts no glory ( try new things) and Yippy yahoo yabba dabba do. ( have fun). We talked about this a lot when the boys were little...with Laila, not so much.
My house has been painted and decorated so many times...and furniture moved all over the map. Wayne would joke that he wouldn't know what he was going to find when he returned home on the daily..because I did it so often. I have just recently found out that's a sign of adult ADHD.
In the end, we took a picture then put all of our hands in the middle and shouted "forever" one last time. I love this home. I love my family. My kids are the greatest. I knew they would do this "say goodbye to the house" ritual even at 10 o clock at night. It's getting more and more real that we are going to be leaving this comfort zone home and venturing into the unknow.
