📦🚛Moving a Happy Football Family🏈

I have had many coach's wives ask me over the years how my kids are so well adjusted after moving around for this football life......9 times in 14 years of marriage isn't exactly easy👰🏼💍❤️👶🏼👦🏼👦🏻👦🏼👫🛣📦🚛.

I try as hard as I can to follow these basic rules:

1️⃣. #1 and the MOST important.....stay positive. Kids follow your lead. It's not easy to find out you're not being kept on a staff when a new head coach comes in to a school. My husband and I first talk about it, then have a family meeting, and then get excited about our new adventure.....wherever that may be if we don't already know🛣🏈. We stick together.....there's no "i" in team right😉👍🏼. 

2️⃣. Start packing early. I started packing one day after my husband left to start work at SDSU and we moved 3 months later (I have four kids remember👶🏼👦🏼👦🏻👦🏼). We have had fully paid moves, moves that haven't been paid for, and mostly partially paid moves over the years. It's very easy to get stressed when you're paying it all on your own, and doing all the work yourself. I have boxed up 7 of our 9 moves myself-having my husbands help only for the last day or two before the truck actually arrives (if I am lucky.) Start to pack early (crucial with a house full of babes).....I mean it. Things won't seem as stressful (for you or for them) and you can purge and get organized at the same time 📦👍🏼.

3️⃣. Unpack the kids bedrooms 1st. I always get a shower curtain up, utensils out, etcetera, but my babes (kiddos) rooms are always the 1st to unpack. My 5 year old, Palmer just told me last week that his room feels like home now ❤️👦🏼🏡. I do it all: hang wall decor, place furniture, and decorate ASAP. It's comforting to them🔨📦👶🏼👦🏼👦🏻👦🏼❤️🏡.

4️⃣. Rome wasn't built in a day. I really like to set up my homes fast, because I hate boxes laying around. I also try to work on things room by room. .....I like seeing the results. Usually most wall decor is hung last-it gives me time to think things out. Just DON'T forget to get away from it all for your sanity.....and your kids sake....nothing good ever comes fast. Everyone deserves a break with a little fun.

5️⃣. Enjoy the Area. Having a big family we don't do a lot of vacations, but we do try and enjoy the area we live in with every move. We have taken our boys to the Pro football hall of fame, countless children's museums different places we've lived, professional sporting events, the ocean, Mount Rushmore, and last summer we went to Yellowstone national park and hiked while we were living in Bozeman, MT.....all because football took us there. Take in the land around you.....and your kids will have happy memories with each move🎢🏔🏖🎡🏙🏟

6️⃣. Move when it's best for you/your kiddos. Some wives swear by moving before the school year is out while others wait till it's over. I really think you have to do what works for you. We have done both. This most recent move to South Dakota-we moved 3 weeks before school let out. I think it's been great for them to meet kids before summer Vacation. Plus I like knowing that I am getting a little settled before the school year is over. Another reason, my son Jaxton is in baseball, moving this way helped so he could start right when his season began. I don't prefer moving right away. This way they still have a few months to say goodbye to friends and adjust to leaving.....which I also think is
extremely important. It gives us all closure. 

Bottom line. Kids will react a lot to you.....my kids were born into this football life and I want to make sure they are happy about it. It's easy to think a football family is the best when you're going to national championship games or the thrill of a winning season. I think it's most important how you react in the hard times......with a not so "perfect season".....that is sometimes followed by a move. 

So it has only been a few weeks since we began our new football adventure in Brookings, SD. We already are members at our local children's museum, have had baseball games, track meets, and have been to a handful of parks to blow off steam (remember the four boys.) Right now the kids are off to school, the baby is down for a nap, and I probably need to go unpack a box some where. 

You got this mama.....stay positive. Plus home is wherever your football adventure takes you.......GO JACKRABBITS 💙🏈💛🐰🛣.