Here we go again...

We are moving!  Again.

I just pulled out chocolate chip cookies from the oven for our going away party tomorrow.  We've just invited a few close friends here.  One week from tomorrow, the kids and I will fly home to the USA.  Bryce will follow once the packers, movers, cleaners, and the handover of our keys are all completed.  

It seems really crazy that we're actually moving again, even though our original contract was 18 months which would put us to right about now anyways.  The funny thing is, it came very unexpectedly.  We moved here really thinking, we'll be here for maybe 3-5 years and then move back "home" to the east coast where almost all of our family is located.  We basically settled in here, even started looking into the school situation for Maddie this past summer (just out of curiosity, but still).  In late summer, Bryce's boss began writing a new contract to extend our stay here and it sounded like they would like us to stay indefinitely.  Not even a month later, Bryce got an unexpected call from the boss of his old boss.  His old boss quit and Bryce was their first choice to replace her in the management role back in Oregon.  What?  Well, we were fairly certain it was a 'no' for us, but we gave it a few weeks to think about it.  It was such a difficult decision.  Literally every single day for almost a month, we were going back and forth.  We spent a couple hours staring at a spreadsheet of pros and cons for each place in all the different life categories (family, church, friends, environment, travel, finances, career,...).  Finally, it seemed that it just came down to career and family.  We believe it's a great opportunity for Bryce.  On top of that, we'll be only a 3 hour time difference instead of a 6 hour difference to family, which actually makes a big difference for phone calls and FaceTime calls.  The ticket price for visiting us or us visiting home will be about half the cost to come to Switzerland.  Even still, it was tough.  Would we ever have an opportunity like this again?  There's still so much we wanted to see and do!  Maddie and Carter, even though they didn't know it, were living in such an international place.  Maddie was slowly learning German and has friends literally from all around the globe speaking lots of different languages.  After living here, I just discovered how important their world view is to me.  Even things like her forest play group, her gym class, and our hiking adventures are such a big part of our life that we love.  I know, we can recreate some of these things or find different opportunities, which will be great I'm sure, but it won't be the same.  

At the same time, of course, we are really excited to get back to our church and fellowship there.  We also have a few good friends that we're very excited to catch up with, new babies to meet, and many play dates to look forward to.  

I don't think Maddie quite understands what is going on with moving.  She is very excited about having stairs in her new house.  And maybe even a swing set in the back yard.  She has requested that we paint the house pink, but we'll settle for maybe just her room.  She's also excited about having a fireplace in the new house.  Some days, she has randomly said things like, "I'm so excited to go to Oregon.  Can we go today?"  Other days, she has said, "Mommy, I'm really sad about leaving Switzerland" or "I'm worried about being sad about leaving my friends in Switzerland."  So who knows.  I wonder if she thinks it's a visit to Oregon like we visit Nana and Papa's house.

All I know is, I would love your prayers for me as I take the kids on the international 9 hour flight (plus the other small connecting flights) and travel all day Sunday, December 13th.  The kids have slight colds, but I'm hoping they fully recover before we travel.  However, our track record is pretty bad: the last 3 times we've traveled internationally, at least 2, even all 4 of us, have gotten sick.

September 2014 heading back to Switzerland from North Carolina

Uncle Aaron and Aunt Christin visit

I know what you're thinking.  Nearly 2 months without posts and now two posts in two days!  The mom life is crazy, ok?  One moment, I'm feeling overwhelmed with everything in life, the next moment, I get organized and semi-on top of things with the blog (just using one naptime break!).  And let me tell you, the nap time break is more valuable than gold.  Should I wash the dishes?  Do my second load of laundry since our washer and dryer can fit about one towel per load?  Should I meal and grocery plan?  Should I email a sweet friend back?  Dare I say, should I actually read a book?  Or shower?  Or or or...  I only get about one hour since Maddie's quiet time is one hour with her amazing traffic light alarm clock.  There's just never enough time with kids and it's still hard for me to accept even after more than 3 years experiencing it.  At the end of the day, everyone is healthy, fed, warm, sleeps in a bed, and I really love them.  Now back to the blog.

This Fall, we have had so many visitors!  I've been meaning to write all about each visit, but haven't had the chance with all that's going on right now.

To start off, back in September, Uncle Aaron and Aunt Christin stopped by for a long weekend while on an amazing European adventure.  We were so excited to have them here!  They were traveling with their good friends, Michelle and Tyler.  We had so much fun.

Waiting for them to arrive at the airport.

We took them into Zurich for an afternoon and dinner.  We just walked around, took pictures, and enjoyed a hearty dinner at our favorite place to take visitors.

Lots more (click below)!

Lately

Just had a couple funny pictures that I thought I'd share.  They are all from about a month or two ago.

Maddie, 3 years
Carter, 19 months

She hardly ever naps any more, but on this particular day, somehow they both took good naps.   Totally zoned out.

She has become such a girly girl in the last few months.  She loves anything pink and purple.  She loves the Disney show, Sophia the First.  She loves playing pretend with her little princess figurines.  During her 1 hour "quiet time" in her room every day, she pours out her bag of figurines (princesses, Doc McStuffins, Frozen characters, and Sophia characters).  We'll prop up books to create multi-level houses for these little people to live in.  They take the bus to school.  The get sick and the doctor has to give them a check up.  It's the funniest thing to secretly watch her play by herself with these little people.  She even makes them talk with a high pitched voice.

Also, any time I'm in the kitchen getting ready to make something, she immediately pushes a chair over, gets up on it, and says, "Can I make with you?"  She loves being in the kitchen with me.  Even more than that, she loves tasting what we're making and getting as many licks as she can.

 This guy and his hair!  I've trimmed the front part a couple times so it's not hanging in his eyes, but of course the back keeps growing (hello mullet!).  Although the back is pretty long, the curls/waves really keep it looking shorter.  He's got some good hair genes (thanks, Dad!).  I really think he's at the cutest age right now.  He's starting to have some minor tantrums, but mostly, he's sweet.  He is so curious and tries imitating everything that Maddie does.  He's really trying to talk more and even play pretend with Maddie.