my oh my

things couldnt get tougher for the bechtold family.  our house went under contract a couple weeks ago.  we found another house in bluffdale.  great neighborhood brand new home.  a few minor issues- near trax.  new construction means no landscaping, basement isn't finished, needed updated carpet and blinds.  so some costs.  PLUS out of our preferred location and not so great school district.  but inventory is low and we need to stay in a few places- lehi, draper area close to freeways, elijiahs carpool etc.  the house itself is adorable so we put money down.  however with the loss of our buyers last week- they pulled out... we aren't able to buy another house right out-so with the feeling of bluffdale being just so-so Ive started to look for houses again.  GOODNESS there is nothing for sale in our price range, desired location, with the finishes I want with NO work.  its a tough one.  what do I sacrifice?  location, school district, DRAPER? Or a house with no work?  I dunno.  However what is amazing to me is for a new house even in Lehi, that is not very big(2300 sq ft) we are talking close to 400K.  So pricy to me.

on a good note jonathan found a job! yippee! starts in Jan so we are very relieved.  hes super excited and out of the crappy situation that is the current role soo on ward.

so while there are numerous other things going on that cant be discussed its a miracle neither Jonathan or I are in the funny farm.  we are hanging in and will just keep plugging along.

Happy birthday Noellie

This lady turned 18 this month.  3 kids, all born within days...makes November a busy month.  Noel you are so important to me, and all of us.  But especially me.  LOL> Life holds lots of what ifs but thankfully ive never had to wonder if you were okay, loved, taken care of.  I see first hand just how incredible you are.  Happy birthday my first born, and only daughter.  May life be bright, happy and full of fun, and love.

xoxoxo
Mom

Jett- 1 year letter Happy birthday!!

Oh my dear jett. Jett Jett, Jetty. 1 yr old! I cant even begin to tell you have fast this year has flown by. Its not fair really. There have been quiet moments with you, when I have intentionally stayed present – knowing time is so fleeting. When I was feeding you, or rocking you. Sitting telling myself to remember this moment. Not to get up but to sit still. You weren’t little for long…about 3-4 months you hit a major growth spurt and you haven’t stopped. You’ve hit all your milestones on time, have 7 teeth, almost walking, mimicking funny things we do, trying to be bigger than you are. You have started to babble tons and have a bit of a vocab- mama, dada, elijiah, Tristan, kitty, tink, bob, baba( bottle), byebye…your schedule has been pretty much the same for months. You sleep 12 hours going to be on avg around 5:30 6 pm and sleeping till 530-6 am. You have your morning nap, and afternoon is spotty. If you don’t hit that afternoon nap sometimes your in bed by 5 pm. Makes for working mom and dad sad because we don’t get a lot of face time till the am before work. Your brothers adore you. Elijiah is in and out but hes a great helper. Showers you with lots of kisses and plays with you. Tristan and you spend every waking hour together. He is VERY protective of you. Makes sure we know what happens in the day or if someone doesn’t take care of you right lol. Hes awesome at telling us when you are in danger( starting to climb stairs, or picking something up that could harm you). He talks to you all the time and you talk right back. Its very sweet. Tristan had a hard few months when you arrived, and at times he can be a bit jealous of all the attention you get, but for the most part hes your buddy. Jett one of the many fond memories that I made sure to burn into my brain was when you must have been a month or so old. Having you fall asleep in my arms, allowing me to put you in bed with me and take a nap was precious. We have never had our children in bed with us and you are no exception. You don’t sleep anywhere well except a crib, so this was very nice. We haven’t been able to do a repeat ( falling asleep with me in bed) so it’s a good memory. Thinking back over those “firsts” food, baths, holding your bottle on your own, feeding yourself – all mean so much to me. While I do believe we are done having more kids, you being such a happy, healthy, fun baby makes me want to have more kids. I love having all boys. You just seem to fit right in…wrestling with your brothers, and giving me and daddy lots of hugs and kisses. You have an attachment to your blanket, but no real fixations like a pacifier, or stuffed animal. Your super picky with food however. You don’t like any textured food. Any lumps in it or anything. So you remain on stage 2 baby food despite our continued efforts to introduce other things…you wont eat it no matter what. You make the “puke shivers” as your dad calls it. In your mouth for a second, puke shivers occur, and then the mouth hangs open and you let it all dribble it out. You do like bananas, cheerios, yogurt drops, baby cookies/snacks…but meal time foods or other snacks…NO go. You spend your days with Grandma Cindy and she is our lifesaver. You are so loved by all, and grandma makes sure you are well taken care of while we are working. We couldn’t imagine life without her help and I know you love her so. You are happy to go to grandmas in the morning which is a huge blessing to us. Jett. … Words just cant describe the love we have for you. You make being a parent easy. That we are old pros when in reality you are just a great baby. We hope that with each year you will continue to be healthy, happy and bring joy to our home and know how wanted and loved you are. Much love – your mama

Happy 11th bday my dear Elijiah

Happy Birthday Elijiah.  11 years old.

 

My letters may seem shorter year to year, but its not my intention.  Just in the last few years life has mellowed, no major milestones, new hobbies etc.  Just a continuation of things done before and excellence in performance…

 

Lourdes 5^th grade—mmm you are happy enough.  LONG days.  Ended 4^th grade with a 4.0.  Pretty dang good accomplishment given only one other student in the school did the same.  You played Basketball, soccer, skied, and finished out with a Track and Field try.  Which you killed it as usual.  You seem to be at the fun age where you are open to trying everything and so far you enjoy it all.  You haven’t been able to focus 100% on any sport as each one brings with it a lot of things you like so Im happy to oblige.  If there does come a time where you choose one sport I know you will do great no matter what.  You got a new baby brother in the last year.  Jett hasn’t been a huge part of your life…when you are here you are rarely here.  With only two days a week and every other weekend…sometimes if feels like you are a visitor in our home…although its 50/50 I wish you were here always.  Our home doesn’t feel right when your gone.  But with Jetts arrival- you have been happy to help, and you seem to love him a great deal.  Jett loves when you play with him and now that hes almost a year, starting to interact- he lights up when he sees you.  Tristan still remains a bit of a challenge for you.  One minute you guys are happy and get a long…the next its world war in our home.  HOWEVER as Tristan is getting older I notice that with the common obsession( MINECRAFT) you have something in common.  You are more patient with him, and play video games, minecraft, and hang out which is fun to see. 

 

This year also saw you getting GLASSES! Oh honey Im so sorry….that is my fault.  I didn’t start wearing them till high school, but never realizing how bad your eyesight was it’s a miracle you have been able to play sports or read the board in school.  So yea…got your glasses and you are a trooper!  You still read a book a day practically – its amazing how much you are reading.  I love that you love it.  Your dad and I both love to read and hopefully its something that you will always enjoy.  Its hard to do leisure reading with all you have going on, but It’s a great hobby.  Your friends that you enjoy and play with the most…Zach, Kai, Talon, Bon…your happy with your friends, your happy alone.  That’s what I love about you.  Your contentment.  Your ease.  Its fun to be around you these last few months.  Your like my buddy now!  That preteen stage where you still want to be around me, and home, but you can chat about anything.  We have great conversations, and you’re a big help.

 

I do wish you would open up more.  I recognize some days your in a bad mood and want to be left alone.  Its very hard for me.  Seeing you only on certain days...makes me want to eat up every minute and when you don't want to talk, or something goes wrong in your day and your frustrated...I just want to talk talk talk of course.  I hope with each passing year you and I will still have our good conversations.  You've lost like 3 teeth all on one side of your mouth...funny actually...your still loosing teeth, your entering that funky teeth phase where some are falling out, coming in, everything is funny looking and you hate it.  Braces will come sweetheart hold on!  You also got your first ZIT! You obsessed over it, and trying so hard to not worry about it :)  But as an 11 yr old- you aren't terribly consistent or interested in the face routine of your mother lol.  Don't want to be messed over too much.   

As for events, went to Lake Tahoe vs Canada this year, you went to Oregon with your dad as usual.  Noel came out several times and you adored her time and attention.  ELEVEN- I still cant believe it.  Please stop growing up.  I love you more than you will ever know.  My heart isn't quite whole when your gone, but I love seeing you become a young man with each passing day/month.  You ROCK- You are amazing.... 

Happy Happy birthday Elijiah

Love,

MOm

 

 

 

Halloween 2013

Halloween… I know I know. I cant seem to keep up this here blog. Halloween Tristan still carried on his goth/skeleton get up- knowing that we didn’t have a ward Halloween activity I didn’t stress too much about Jett. We just put him in a fun outfit from Jonathans China trip. And I didn’t have elijiah on the actual holiday so his dad took this shot and sent it to me. Im a big holiday humbug Ive realized. Too much hype and annoyance with it all. Im not into decorating and creating clutter around my home either. So with the house for sale and having to keep it clean, Im doing a happy dance. Ill still do a little something around for Christmas- but not nearly what I have in the past. Any way I digress. Tristans Halloween obsession is waning. He has told me that Christmas is now his favorite holiday because its when Jesus was born( how cute)….so after Halloween was done- so was he. Back went everything into storage with no fuss or complaint. YIPEE!! I was surprised by Elijiah but some of his friends decided to dress up in this costume so they all had a good time. Other than some job changes, house on the market, birthdays galore coming up…nothing is going on hahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahah.

October- China

October has been a busy month in the Bechtold household. I had 2 small trips- Vegas for work, and AZ for a girls trip, and Jonathan had a 10 day school trip to China in there as well. I have to admit leading up to Jonathans departure was very stressful for us all. To me juggling everything, working, and worrying about migraines and my Vegas trip was a lot for us to coordinate. Add to the fact that the time difference and only being able to chat for a few minutes a day on skype wasn’t ideal. However in all we got through it and he arrived safely home. I guess. Actually while he did arrive- safely could be debated. I guess there was some significant plane issues which caused for them to have an emergency landing in Japan where he said he was truly praying for his life and if it was the end to hopefully have us know he loved us. SOOOO as you can imagine having him land in Salt Lake that night was a relief 30 hours of (plane)traveling sure isn’t much fun. Absence does make the heart grow fonder and I am here to say that even though it was only 10 days our partnership in all things is evident. Jonathan is really my best friend and having him gone was difficult on many levels. November is coming with many birthdays, events, holidays and before you know it Christmas ekkk! We will be renting out our basement come the new year so we will be adding the basement kitchen in the next couple of weeks and finishing up details to get it rentable. Excited to share the pictures as well when its all done! ( just a couple pics of Jonathans trip and our Girls Trip to AZ- got to see Noel for a second - I was sooo happy :)! )

Soccer- Fall 2013

Soccer- Fall 2013 This fall season has been a doozy. We had elijiah try out for a team in SLC and he didn’t make it. I guess they had a full team, or nearly full team from what we were told and had tryouts for a second team but didn’t get enough players and so in the end he just wasn’t good enough for the first team. While Elijiah is a great defensive player, that is the only position he plays. He doesn’t have the opportunity on his current team to play other positions which is a real disadvantage in situations like this…his skills or lack of in other areas don’t shine. So we decided to continue to play on his competition team in Utah county which is a great team, just a lot of driving. Im not sure when next year rolls around what we will do…the division between the really die hard soccer players has already begun as we can see. Those that play year round. Those kids that eat breath and live soccer, play year round and those that don’t. Elijiah does not. He loves it. Hes very good. But hes also very good at Basketball and plays that and skiis in the winter. He also has shown some Talent for track and field sports. Hes very tall. Hes growing a bit and finding that soccer skills are more for shorter stature kids and hes loosing some of his footing if you will and ground skill wise each year as he gets bigger to those that are more agile. I think he will continue to play competition, but probably not at the elite level some of his teammates are playing with each passing year. Most of the college level, professional level soccer players are not 6’5 lol….and Elijiahs height will continue to be an advantage to him in other sports so we will see how many more years he will play soccer over other sports such as basketball. That being said…his current team while not undefeated like last year, is playing well. They are fun to watch and they continue to improve and they are a great team.

This is Tristans first year in soccer. I wanted to have him wait the extra year to play a team sport and soccer seemed like the logical choice. It’s a good cardio sport. Fun, and hello something that I already knew a lot about. However at the last minute his team didn’t have a parent volunteer to coach so I stepped up and thought it would be fun to do. Boy was I wrong. Tristan has been difficult. He is all over the place, meltdowns in the middle of practice and games and I have another boy who I believe is autistic so between the two of them and the general nature of 5 year olds picking grass, attention spans and really lack of any skill and focus its been a challenge. Its like herding cats. Coaching gymnastics is easier. I think its that there is a level of discipline you can expect even at 5 in a gym….but on the field running after a ball with 8 kids….nah there is none of that. We try to have Jonathan there during the practice and Games when possible to help as I really cant leave the field when the game is going on….Im literally directing the kids and yelling instructions and helping them the entire time. While on one hand I love it, I really do! It’s a huge challenge to have Tristan struggle so much. Ive learned that perhaps team sports is not in Tristans future. He gets very frustrated by loosing( there is no win or loose at this stage yet) or doing poorly, or someone else not playing well etc. Im thinking individual sports such as karate, swimming, tennis etc might be better for him. He hasn’t developed self control that is needed to play team sports and I don’t want to set him up for continued failure, or fighting with others when he does loose control, so we will look into something else going forward. I want for him to have success and develop self esteem and as a parent its important to recognize the strengths and weaknesses in our children and develop their individual talents and I feel this isn’t his strength. Im glad we have tried it tho!  I do think its been a good experience for Tristan hes had a good time despite having me as his coach, and theres been a few fun moments for him im sure! And trust me…in all my years of coaching kids, and being around sports, you can tell which kids are really talented, which kids aren’t, and which kids are forced by their parents who really shouldn’t be there- so I think we will try something else for him next year….. Anyway just a few more weeks and then we are done for the Fall…
( hats off to my incredible father in law Carl for taking these pictures they are so amazing! Thanks Carl!)