Well lets jump right in and continue where we left off in my last post and see if we can get us all caught up in this one! At the end of my last post we were finishing up with my family's reunion in Utah and were heading to Orange County to live with Nathan's parents while we looked for a place in LA.
Our time at Nathan's parents was difficult in a lot of ways, but made easier by the fact that my in-laws are awesome, and Wrenn loved playing with Grendal, the dog.
One of the things that made this time hard was being morning sick. We found out we were pregnant right after we arrived in California. We were a little suspicious during the reunion because I was late, but we decided to take a test after, and voila it was positive! We were really excited, and little overwhelmed with the changes happening all at once. I was excited about the prospect of a new little baby, but then my excitement dimmed when my morning sickness struck quicker and harder than it had with Wrenn.
I felt nauseous all the time, especially in the evenings. It was hard to get myself to eat; I would watch TV during meals because it would help my brain shut off a little to get down food. My prenatal vitamin would make me puke, and I was averaging puking every other day if not every day; where with Wrenn I puked 5 times total. I was sensitive to smells... all in all it was a rough couple months waiting for it to pass with the majority of that time being at Nathan's parents. It was a good thing being there in a lot of ways because Kristy would cook frequently which was wonderful, but mostly I just felt like a terrible house guest; lying around feeling a little sorry for myself. I am grateful to Nathan's parents for putting up with me, thank you guys.
Another hard part was just the distance of where we were from where we were looking for a place to live. Every Saturday we would drive the two hours up into LA to look at neighborhoods and places, and the two hours back. Thankfully Larry and Kristy were willing to watch Wrenn most of the Saturdays making those long days a lot less stressful.
There were fun things about living with Nathan's family for a month or so too. We played lots of games which is something I have come to love about my Tate family, and we had family dinners, and scripture study. I got to hear Kristy play the piano on Sundays and Wrenn enjoyed experimenting with the keys. Wrenn loved the dog and his cuteness of interacting with her got Nathan to consider us getting a dog.
All in all it was a time with ups and downs, but I am grateful that it was available to us so we could find our beautiful home that we have now. Here are some photos from that month.
Wrenn loves this face.
Nathan copying my selfies with baby.
We were happy to see one of Nathan's high school friends get married.
We have only made it to the beach once, kind of sad. It was a nice evening on one of our house hunting trips.
About mid-August we finally found a place that felt like a little miracle. I will elaborate. Coming out here we had no idea what area of LA we wanted to live in, or what kind of place we would be able to afford. We hoped to find a house or duplex with a yard, or maybe even a town home style apartment. We were hoping to find a place that we could grow into and stay a few years. We had our price range of what we were shooting for and so we started looking.
One of the problems we ran into was that LA is a BIG city and has lots of neighborhoods and areas you can live, and we had no idea really which area we were shooting for coming out. Before we left to LA we prayed about different areas and the feeling we got was to trust my gut reaction, that I would know when we found the right place. I had in the past, looking for places to live, been able to feel we were supposed to be there when visiting it.
So we started to look at neighborhoods hoping I would be able to feel when we had found the area we were supposed to be. It was a frustrating process as none of the neighborhoods we checked out felt right to me. Burbank? No. Pasadena? Maybe. Woodland hills? Ehhh, I guess. And so on. I began to wonder if I was looking for something that just didn't exist, or wanting too much of a confirming feeling.
On one of our trips through the San Fernando Valley we went and checked out a place in North Hills. It still didn't fit the bill, but we decided on our way to our next appointment that we would swing by a different place in Northridge that was a little out of our price range. We also decided to eat lunch at the Northridge mall during the time we had. As we drove through the area something finally felt right. The traffic wasn't too hectic, there were chain stores and restaurants I used, the mall had a toddler play area, there weren't nudey bars all over the place. It felt safe and warm to me; I told Nathan that I think this was finally it.
When we got back to Nathan's parents that night I immediately concentrated my house looking efforts on places in Northridge. I found a 3 bedroom house that was in our price range that was available. I emailed it to Nathan so he could inquire about it (we had different house hunting jobs; I looked for stuff and he set up stuff).
The landlord got back to us on Monday and said that he had had an open house on Sunday and already had a lot of interested people, but he would be willing to let us look at the place and apply if we came up that day. Nathan was unsure at first as he would have to leave work early and we would have to drive the two hours up and back when we weren't planning on it, but he felt a distinct prompting that we should make looking at this house a priority. So Nathan told him we could be there in the afternoon and came to tell me, and we got ready and headed up to check out this place.
When we got there the place was perfect. It had a beautiful yard with fruit trees, and room to plant a garden. It had a new kitchen, and wood floors. It had a master bathroom a luxury we never had before, and a garage! And it was in Northridge where I felt we were supposed to be.
When talking to the landlord we were surprised to learn that originally he wasn't planning on taking anymore applications and was going to start signing with someone Sunday night, but he had the feeling to wait one more day to see if anyone else would be interested. When he said that it felt to us like the Lord was looking out for us and had prompted this man to wait a little longer so we would have a chance to apply. That night we did just that, applied. The next day we heard from the Landlord and it seemed we were in the running with another couple of people for the place. On the phone it seemed like he was really rooting for us to get the place (he wasn't the sole owner of the place so the group of owners had to decide on a renter together). Then after a day or two they picked us to be their renters and we signed a contract the next day, and moved in the next week.
It happened so fast after a month of searching, but we were so grateful because it felt like the Lord had paved the way for us to find this beautiful place and area we call our home. It was as I said a wonderful little miracle.
We then moved in, and began to truly settle in to our new home in LA. We unpacked (although we had chaos for a couple weeks)...
Our living room area during the craziness.
We checked out a park near our house that had snow cones.
We found other fun play areas for Wrenn that were super cheap and fun...
So much fun in one place!
Wrenn loves ball pits
These car ramps were pretty awesome as well.
Not to mention the giant inflatables, we had a lot of fun.
Vroom Vroom!
Back to the ball pit :D
There are a lot of fun things to do around the San Fernando Valley with your kids. We have really enjoyed all the options available to us when we have wanted to have some family fun time. In September we went to LA County fair. It was fun for Wrenn to look at the farm animals, and fun for Nathan to look at the robots, and fun for me to look at the lit up sculptures.
Wrenn liked some of the electronic stuff too.
A bit of a sub par virtual reality.
The rest of September was nice. We started to feel settled in our new home and our new ward. Nathan was called as the Young Men's President and I was called to be a second counselor in the primary. Our home was set up, my morning sickness was dissipating, and my bump growing. We were getting in a routine and Nathan started taking a sketch writing class and started going to some open mics again. It started to really feel like home.
We went out to take belly shots but it turned into a much needed family photo.
We did manage to get a couple belly shots.
Nathan made Wrenn a basket ball hoop. He loves it.
Wrenn actually took this selfie himself. He loves our I-pads a little too much.
Then October came and things started to get a bit crazy. Nathan started doing a lot of scouting training for his calling. Wrenn and I had doctors appointments, and of course there was Halloween and the fun things associated with that. Despite the busyness I made sure to do some Halloween decorating and make lots of pumpkin flavored things. I was really excited for Halloween this year because we were in Peru for Halloween last year.
Wrenn helped with some of the decor ;)
Toilet paper roll monsters seemed appropriate for the bathroom.
And my favorite the Halloween door sign Wrenn & I made.
Also in October we got a sneak peek of our baby and found out we are having a girl! We are really excited. Our gender announcement of Wrenn with his favorite bear was to show his excitement about a little sister. At least we hope he is excited; we're pretty sure he has no clue whats going on.
And of course we made time for our Halloween fun. Like dressing up for the ward Halloween party and Wrenn's first trunk or treat...
Not sure why Nathan is ghost blurred. Oh well. Wrenn figured out to grab candy and put it in the bag. I forgot a bucket for him so we used our candy bag.
Scooby Dooby Doo!
On actual Halloween day we had pumpkin waffles for breakfast and managed to do the last Halloween activity I wanted to do with Wrenn and that was go to a pumpkin patch! Baby and I also had some time waiting for Nathan to get back from helping someone move to take selfies.
Nathan and Wrenn watching George of the Jungle Boo special while waiting for waffles.
Totally worth the wait.
Ghost blur again, my camera must have been in the Halloween spirit.
The pumpkin patch was awesome! They had pig races, corn mazes, hay stacks, wood playground trains, tractor pulled wagon rides, columbine slides, tunnels, and more! And of course pumpkins :) It was a really fun although tiring day.
Baby climbing master!
Wrenn didn't really see the appeal of picking a pumpkin this picture is actually putting down a pumpkin I picked for him.
He did think the tractors were pretty cool though (there is a tractor pulling our wagon).
After all the sun and fun we were ready for a relaxing night. We came home and ate chilli nachos for dinner, carved/painted pumpkins, and gave the few trick or treaters we had some candy.
Then baby had a bath and went to bed, while Nathan and I cuddled up and enjoyed our last scary movie of the season. It was a wonderful Halloween, a great October. We are happy in our new home in LA and excited for the adventures ahead and loving our little family. We hope everyone has a great holiday season and we will see you again in a couple months. Love you all!
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