POTD Week 17

*All day Sonic Happy Hour*What's for dinner*EK making up for lost time. She is in to everything now*EK's first oreo*Chris at work*Book Club treat. So good!*The first night of croup.*

Wordless Wednesday

Lately.

It's been a while since I've done an update post. Mostly for journaling purposes. And much to my mothers disappointment I have no pictures to document.


 First..we are in the process of buying a house! 2 days in to looking we found a great house in a great area and we jumped on it. The market is so crazy right now and there aren't a lot of houses for sale in the area we want to be in. A lot of the houses we looked at and before we could make an offer, there were already 3 or 4 offers made. It's definitely a sellers market right now and there aren't a lot of houses available! The house we made an offer on went on the market the night before and I saw it the following day. I called Chris after seeing it and he told me if I really liked it we needed to go ahead and make an offer. Before he even saw it! The great thing is if Chris didn't like it we weren't out any money. We just needed to make sure the ball was in our court. So we went back to our realtors office, started all the paperwork, Chris showed up a little while later, signed all his paperwork, then we went and showed him the house! Thankfully he really liked it and likes it even more every time we see it. It's a 5 bedroom 3 bath home perfect for our family. The girls are excited about having their own rooms and we have been to the ward the last 2 Sundays and plan to keep going. It will be great for the girls to get to know some friends in the ward before we move in. The only downside to the house is the yard is super super small! Thankfully the house makes up for the yard and there are 2 parks nearby and a community pool we can bike to. We figure we do more bike riding anyway so the yard wasn't a deal breaker. It's still a great little space for the girls to play and that is all we need. Everything is moving along. We had our inspection yesterday and nothing major made us back out. We are set to close around the end of May. Hopefully a little sooner.


 Christopher- He started working the Monday after we moved. Poor guy wore his body out packing, loading, driving, unloading....and then he went right to work. He really likes the office, the projects he is working on, and he is excited about the potential here. We are still a little in awe that it all worked out the way it did and the company took such good care of us throughout this whole ordeal. He isn't crazy about the commute but unless we want to live in downtown Phoenix...sadly, the house we are buying is a little further out than we wanted. It is actually the furthest out we wanted to be. The subdivision was our cutoff. He will have a commute on his hands but we love the area and he is fine with it. I'll let you know in a couple of months if he still feels the same. He joined a gym near his office and leaves every morning at 5am so he can run before work.

 I am trying to find my place in limbo. It's hard when you aren't living in your own space, all of your stuff is in storage...but it's temporary and I'm not complaining. I'm so happy to be home! I can't wait to make our house a home, decorate, buy some furniture. We have some ideas floating around. Most of all it will be so nice to be back on a normal routine. Lots of things haven't changed, like bedtime, but it's still not the same.
I kinda feel like my job is on hold. I should enjoy it but it actually is making me a little stir crazy!


 Elodie isn't in school right now. We ran in to a kink and aren't sure where to go from here. Her school she was at before we moved won't let her come back for the rest of the school year. I already have her enrolled for 3rd grade so that isn't a problem. We just aren't sure what to do with her for the last 20 days or so. Homeschool or just put her in public school for something to do. We tried to put her in our old subdivision school but when they found out we weren't planning to keep her there next year, and the fact that there isn't much time left in the school year, the principle said she would rather not have her there. We have been doing some worksheets at home but nothing serious so we really need to make a decision soon. The house we are buying isn't super close to Elodie's school either so we are trying to decide if we want to just put her at the neighborhood school or make the commute to her old school. We would have to cut ties with her old school eventually since it only goes up to 6th grade. Most parents pull their kids out after 5th grade so they can be at the jr high from the start...I'm just not sure I am ready to cut ties with her school. I love that school. The teachers. The curriculum. I know Elodie will be challanged there. On the other hand, putting her at the neighborhood school (which is a great school too) we would have no commute, she would be at the same school as all the kids in our ward, and I would switch her there for 6th grade anyway. It's definitely easier to switch her now as opposed to switching her in 6th grade. Too any choices! We are thinking we will let her finish out the school year at our neighborhood school to see how we like it. If she likes it enough to stay then we will. Other than that she too is happy to be home. She will start piano lesson again as soon as we have our piano set up and is excited to take a tumbling class this summer.


 Addysen is in friend heaven asking to play with Graycie every single day. She is also excited about all the little friends she is making in our new ward. She loves bike riding and has loved having Elodie at home! The girls fight but for the most part play really well together. We have her enrolled for preschool with Graycie next year and Melissa and I have already figured out carpooling and extra playtime at each others houses after school.


 Evyn Kate finally decided to start crawling! WOO HOO! She is all over the place and I try to keep her legs covered. She makes her way to Ginger's dog bowl but thankfully I have stopped her before she gets too close. It's only a matter of time though I'm sure. She is such a great baby and we love having her in our home. She has added to her vocabulary with the words "cracker" and "sis" She jabbers all the time and amist it all is still napping and sleeping great! She has 6 teeth and naws on everything she can get her mouth on. She also whines for smoothies and sonic happy hour. Mostly Sonic.


 We are doing really well. A little stressed but overall plugging along and happy!

POTD Week 16

*Easter Dresses*A book and a snuggler.*2 girls and a bubble bath.*Spaghetti Face.*A crawler. Finally!*Signing Our Lives Away.*A packet of paperwork for our house.

Wordless Wednesday {A Baby and Spaghetti}

Easter Dresses

I have a confession to make. We didn't make it to church on Easter Sunday. While I was overly bummed that we didn't go, it makes sense why we didn't go. Christopher was exhausted from all the heavy lifting, loading, and unloading. Not to mention the toll it took on all of us to drive for 2 days straight and we weren't really sure where all the sunday clothes were...except the girls dresses. Those got put in the pilot. We needed a day of rest. And we took it.

So the girls wore their Easter dresses a week later.






With Addysen you get 2 seconds of this...




And a million minutes of this...

Easter Fun (Part 2)

After our egg dying and basket digging we headed over to our friends, Derek and Audrey's, house.

We had a potluck dinner and an Easter egg hunt. Afterwards we enjoyed sitting outside soaking up this "why we live here" weather and chatting it up. Made me so grateful to be home! Such a great homecoming!

We put the guys in charge of the egg hunt.

And all the moms were in charge of peeling eggs for potato salad and deviled eggs.

Elodie and her gal pal Ryanna.

Addysen and Graycie ready for the egg hunt.

Evyn Kate wondering what the heck all the fuss was about! Next year my dear. You will understand next year.

All the kids ready and waiting!

Little Lyla got a head start.

Easter Fun (Part 1)

We had plans to get together with our friends for Easter BEFORE we moved back! It was a fun way to spend the afternoon after all the driving, unloading, and unpacking. We have done Easter with these families a few other times so it was like we never left!

Before we went to the Petersen's we dyed eggs and dug through our Easter Baskets. I made sure to pack all of the girls Easter goodies in the Pilot so I didn't have to go digging through boxes to find their stuff. There was quite a bit we did have to dig for but I knew exactly where the Easter basket stuff was! Priorities.



Yes, we dyed our eggs on top of an ice chest. My girls didn't care.



Easter Baskets. I made those skirts the week we were getting ready to move. Again. Priorities.


Little Evyn's outfit.


Elodie's Basket-

Addysen's Basket-

Evyn's Basket- (Poor Evie. I just didn't see the point in getting her a ton of stuff. She was so happy with her little weeble wobbles.)

School Easter Party/Last Day of School

Elodie's last day of school before we moved back to Arizona was also her class Easter Party. It was a fun way to wrap up her time at Wood River. Although we were very excited about moving back to Arizona, it's sad to leave behind great teachers and sweet friends Elodie has made. We really feel blessed to have put Elodie at such a great school. She loved her school and thrived there. Elodie is an amazing student and we are so proud of how well she does in school. She did such a great job of switching schools and accomodating to a new school environment. She was such an example to me.

Elodie and her friend Laramie

Her class did a pinata during the party. 

Elodie and her friend Cade. Elodie was so shy when I asked if I could take a picture. I got the classic "MOM!"

The whole class with their teacher Mrs. Kiddy. We love her!

The treats

Elodie and her friend Molly. Who surprisingly looks a lot like her friend Emma, who has a younger sister named Molly. 

 Elodie and her teacher Mrs. Kiddy.

 Watching a movie. 

Full Circle.

We made it to Arizona safely. In one piece. No problems. What a blessing! The girls did great the entire trip! I can say this because they weren't in my car. The uhaul had a bench seat so both of the older girls opted to ride with Chris the entire trip. He was a great sport about it and I think, for the most part, they all enjoyed spending time together. It was a bit of a lonely drive for me, Evyn, and Ginger but we all did great.

We started packing up Wednesday evening. The missionaries came to help for a little bit. And by the time the truck was packed and ready to go it was 2am. It was a long night- especially considering most of our house was already packed up because we never unpacked it AND we started a few weeks ago. We all slept on our mattresses and they were the last to get packed Thursday morning.

It was weird to have a normal schedule for Thursday with an empty house. Elodie had her last day of school and Easter party and Chris had to work until 4pm. The guys he work with were really great about this transfer and the office threw him a little going away party. Very nice. I asked him to take a picture of his desk before he packed it all up. I think he was feeling a little sentimental otherwise he would have just rolled his eyes at me!

I took the little girls up to the school to help with the Easter party and help Elodie clean out her desk. It was sad to leave but I won't say we weren't more excited to come home to Arizona!

Once Chris made it home and we had passed off the keys to the new home owner we were all set to go!


Last picture of the girls sitting outside the townhouse we rented for a year. We loved the little subdivision we lived in. Great for bike riding!


It was so weird leaving Corpus Christi knowing that (crossing our fingers) we will never go back there again! We had spent our entire time there hoping for an opportunity to move home and now that it is here it felt so weird! Almost not real!

We stayed the first night in San Antonio. Drove all day on Friday. Stayed the night in New Mexico Friday night and landed in Gilbert around 4pm on Saturday.

This was my view the entire trip.


The girls and Chris. They had so much fun riding in that moving truck!


My little riding buddy.


We (Mace and Chris) unloaded the truck in to a storage facility, we had dinner at Mace and Melissa's house, and returned the uhaul.

We let the girls ride their bikes in the parking lot of the storage unit.

EK was just happy to sit on a towel! She was so happy to be out of her carseat!


We are so grateful to be home and feel so blessed that we were able to come home so quickly!

A few fun facts.

-I would say half of our stuff never got unpacked when we moved to Texas. There were a few items that got packed in Arizona and never left the spot we put them in when we moved to Texas. Full circle.

-We left Arizona to go to Texas on April 6th of 2011. One year exactly.

-We returned the uhaul and rented a storage facility at the same place we took a uhaul from when we left Arizona to go to Texas.

-We had dinner at Mace and Melissa's the night before we left Arizona last year and we had dinner with them tonight when we came home.


Craziness. It all feels very surreal. Like we never left but we have been gone for a year. I can not say enough how grateful we feel to be home.