Eight Years

I have been married to this wonderful man for eight years.  I feel so blessed to be able to share some of my most cherished memories with him.  He is my best friend.  I look forward to the many years ahead.

Holly's Baby Shower

One of the big benefits to moving to where we are is that I am going to be minutes away from my older sister, Holly.  I haven't lived near her in the 8 years that I have been married.  She is at the end of her pregnancy with her 3rd child and her very first boy!  Some of her friends threw her a baby shower and I was able to go to it today.  She got some very cute things.  We are looking forward to the arrival of a new nephew in a few weeks.  Hoping all goes well for her and that we will be moved into our new place in time to help watch her girls.  Congratulations Holly!

Anticipating the next chapter...

Last week Stephen was offered a job at a technical support call center.  We think it will help him gain some experience in the IT field and are hoping that he enjoys it.  We are very grateful that it didn't take him too long to get a job.  We didn't think it would, which is partly why we took the leap of faith to move down here.

We also found a place to live.  I was really disappointed in my rental hunting at the quality of rentals and the prices they were.  We just kept driving by dumps that were way more than what we were renting before.  The place we found isn't exactly where we were hoping to locate, but we both liked it and felt good about making that our home.  We will be really close to my older sister, which will be fun.  The downside to our new place is that we can't move in until September 1st.

Last weekend my in-laws and one of my sister-in-laws watched the boys for Stephen and I so we could get away for our anniversary.  It isn't until the 16th, but we thought it'd be best to take the opporunity now.  We had a wonderful, quiet time to ourselves.  Thank you Mabel, Lawrence, and Kimberly for taking care of our boys.  We have been lucky to live near my parents for two and a half years and now we are lucky to live next to Stephen's family.

Vance will be starting kindergarten soon as well so as you can see we have lots of changes going on around our neck of the woods.  As Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin said in a talk once, "Come what may and love it."  Oh I will try.  :)

Fun and busy weekend

We had a busy, but good weekend.  On Friday night, my sister-in-law and her husband were sealed to their baby boy whom they adopted six months ago.  They were sealed in the Salt Lake City temple and we were able to attend that.  Stephen's sister, Erin watched our three boys while we were in the temple.  Erin had our camera so I didn't get any pictures of Mandy, Jake and their two boys, but Erin took some cute pictures of our boys and took a picture of our family outside of the temple. 

Erin said that the boys insisted that they have their picture taken with Jesus.  I guess that's what you do there, right?

The boys were so not into this picture...

Friday was also Mandy's oldest sons birthday and he had a birthday party on Saturday.  The boys were pumped to attend that.  They had a lot of fun.

Stephen sister, Kimberly painted these, aren't they awesome?!

Sunday we were able to go to the baby blessing for Mandy and Jake's little guy.  He is a sweetie.  It was nice to be able to attend that as well.  He has really pretty blue eyes.  I am happy that we were finally able to meet him.  And now we get to see him everyday because we are living in his basement,  We love their little family and are very happy for them. :)

Moved

Well, we got ourselves moved.  We picked up the moving truck last Friday, got everything packed up and cleaned on Saturday and headed part way to our destination.  We were able to visit my brother Eric and his wife, Tami in their new apartment.  It was great to see them.  Then we continued on our way on Sunday.  Stephen's sister, Mandy, her husband, and her two boys are letting us stay at their place until we get a job and a place to live.  We are so grateful for their willingness to share their home.  We are also grateful they have room for us.  We were able to get our stuff into their garage and basement.  We had some guys from our ward come help us load the truck on Saturday which was a huge help.  Stephen's parents came up to help us out.  His dad drove the moving truck and his mom drove her van full of our stuff.  It was a huge help!  My parents came and helped us clean and watch the boys while we packed up and that was a huge help!  I am always so amazed at people's willingness to help and for people's kindess.  How do you repay people who do huge things for you, like let you live in their  house?  I don't know, but I am so grateful to everyone who has helped us with this move even if your helping has been to pray for us.  THANK YOU! The boys were very excited about our moving truck.  I am so glad they can find adventure in moving.

 Porter starting feeling feverish and sick on Thursday night and today was the first day he started to seem back to normal.  Poor kid.  I've really felt bad for the little guy.  He has been a trooper though.

 Vance was eager to help load the truck and do anything he was able to.

We were able to go to the court hearing for Mandy and Jake's adoption of their son, Jonah on Monday.  That was fun.  We are looking forward to seeing him sealed to them and going to his blessing as well.  I am grateful to be able to participate in some of these big family events. 

I must say, though I was and am very sad to move.  I loved the area we lived in and I loved living close to my parents.  It is going to take some adjusting, but I have faith that we have made the right decision even though it was a hard one to make.  Life is interesting, isn't it?

Pool Fun

We pulled out the swimming pools one more time so the boys could have a few more chances of getting wet before the move.  Porter was even brave enough to get wet this time.

Mostly we are busy packing and getting ready to move.  An applicant was approved to rent here so we are off the hook with our contract.  I am very grateful that this worked out quickly.  The boys are getting excited to move.  They are still young enough not to really understand what exactly it is.  It's just a new adventure for them.  I am glad they are not upset about it.  That will make it a little easier for me not worrying about them so much.

Fourth of July Festivities

We spent our 4th of July at my parents.  That was our last trip up there before we move (sniff, sniff...)  We always have a good time doing the small town festivities. 

First we went to a parade in a neighboring town.

 We enjoyed some s'mores by roasting marshmallows over the bbq grill.  Tanner had the hardest time eating his since he was so sticky and the kid hates to be sticky.

 The kids also enjoyed some popsicles during the day.  Porter loves being a big boy too.

 Stephen and I took Vance and Tanner to see the firework show this year.  It was the first time we've taken them.  My parents stayed home while Porter slept.  It turns out we could have gone in my parents front yard or their backyard and watched all the fireworks we wanted to see, but who knew?  The fireworks the city put on were small, but fun and it took us about 3 minutes to drive home.  Can't complain about that.