Our first month in Arizona

So we made it to Arizona!! We are renting a great little house that we are loving. It is so nice to not be in an apartment anymore! We feel so private now LOL. Dan has loved his job. It is a perfect match for him and we are so grateful!! He deserves to have some good experiences. Shane is my shining little star lately. He is such a trooper with all we have put him through. He always starts a new school and fits right in and just never thinks twice about it. His new teacher says that he already has a lot of friends and is doing great there, I really admire his ability to just be put in any situation and make friends! What a blessing that is for him to have. Now that we are in a more relaxed school environment he is not behind in class anymore, he is exactly where he should be. His reading levels are right up to speed and everything which I am not sure that is a relief or just a worry over how much less is required of the students, they are pretty comparable here to Utah so I figure he would have gotten the same education there too so we are good. Brock has had a lot harder time adjusting but is doing pretty good. He is okay with his new preschool but really misses his old one. He has been a bit of stinker at home, he is really struggling with sharing, especially with Blake but we are getting there. He is starting to pick up on reading and loves to write and draw. Art is this guys little thing. He loves to make tape creations and we have tape on almost every possible place. He is a bit of a needy guy right now and I usually need to take a Brock time out in the afternoon because he wears me out!!! Blake is grumpy little ray of sunshine. He is so sweet than snap he is a ornery grumpy little man. He makes my days happy and just loves being with me. He is usually a good little side kick but at 15 months he is starting to get more and more opinionated on what he wants to do and think so it will come to an end just like it has with all my other kids. It makes me a bit sad, I have enjoyed him being little so much. I am adjusting. Dans' Aunt Elaine has been such a sweet lifesaver. I have spent a bunch of time with her and loved every minute of it. She loves and dotes over my kids just like Liz would have if she were here. It makes my heart so happy to see it! She makes us dinner randomly and just wants to be a help anywhere she can. My dad is here too and I LOVE it! It is so fun to be close to him and have that connection that I missed so much. My boys adore him and love going to his house. It is so fun!!! It is hard to adjust to a new society that does things very differently but I am getting used to it and slowly adapting. I love having so much space in our house, it is such a relief. I am looking to start school again the end of March, it is only going to be part time so it will take me next to forever to be done but there isn't much of a choice for us so oh well. I cannot wait to be done and be licensed! I really LOVE doing hair. It is my new passion. I think it is one of the best decisions I have made with my life. Any who that is really all that is going on. Our lives are so busy with homework and cleaning and all that stuff that days blow past.

Official enough to post about

We have a truck booked and a house ALMOST secured and a job offer.....all in Phoenix, AZ. We both have very mixed feelings about Arizona, we have really loved Texas. The thought of moving again gives me a stomach ache but you do what you have to do. We might have set some sort of record; moved 4 times and lived in three states all in one year. Dan goes out next week to iron out all the details but he starts on Jan. 2nd. He is very relieved, we both are really. I have had so much fun with him home though. I am going to miss him a lot in just our day to day living. We have spent the last 4 months together almost constantly and there have been definite times where we were really sick of each other but for the most part we have drawn so much closer and really gotten to know each other just that much more. I am so grateful I married him and love him so much. The kids have had him home all the time for quite a while and it will be a huge adjustment for them to have him back at work. It is looking like we are sliding into home base with barely anything left to our name so it seems like the right time for us to get a job. I guess just be grateful for all we have and that we have survived two full years of unemployment. We have been very blessed, if you would have told me three years ago that this would have been our outcome I would have never believed you! We have been through so much, we have shed so many tears and had so much fear and anxiety. We have ignored birthdays (yes even the kids') because we didn't have any money, even for a cake but we held our heads high and did the best we could. I would never wish it on anybody and I don't know how much I really learned from all of this, but I feel worn. I am tired and just want a break but I don't know if that ever really happens in life. So here's to a new start and a new year!

I traded a friend and got some pictures done! We didn't really need family ones but I thought it would be nice for people to see a new picture on our christmas card! I mainly wanted new one's of Blake since he grew so much sinse our last ones were done! Here they are:)

what were they thinking?

Halloween fun and other things like that

I am posting pictures from our quick trip to Arizona. We went down because my Uncle Mark passed away. We went out to dinner with the Campbell's, it was fun being all together.

We went over to Tiff's house for Halloween and had a fun dinner than went trick-or-treating. Brock was a bit timid again this year but was willing to put himself out there to get candy. It is so warm here that people sit out on their sidewalks and greet the trick-or-treaters. My kids didn't know what to think about this at first. It was pretty funny. We went to a cute little pumpkin patch and the kiddos had a blast. Blake was a bit grumpy and I thought it was hilarious so I took a bunch of pictures of his little grumpy face!!

BLAKE!!!

My baby is 1!!!!! Ok as of today he is like 13 months but I thought I would finally post about my little man! I want to start out with items and things he loves. First and most important is his blankie. I need to get a picture of him and the blanket because it is most treasured item, it goes everywhere with us! He loves his sippy cup and Blue's Clue's. We watch lots and lots of Blue's Clue's, it calms him down so super fast!! It will get me a good 10-15 mins which is just precious time LOL. He loves playing with his brothers and especially loves Shane. He gets so excited when Shane comes home from school. He loves to growl like a lion. You show him a picture of a lion and he will growl for you, I love it! He is a big rough houser, the rougher you play with him the more he loves it. His favorite foods are apples, graham crackers and spaghetti. His hates are being in his car seat and in general having to sit somewhere and be quiet. He learned to walk this month which for one of my babies is unheard of! I love love love when they first start walking. Just too sweet! We celebrated his birthday but he was so tired that he was shaking and didn't really want to eat the cake. I keep wanting to do a repeat but I haven't! He is growing up so fast. I love what a sweet little mama's boy he is. I think that is the good thing about having boys, they are all very attached to their mommy and I LOVE it! Here are a few pictures of my little bman!

Shane's Birthday

My nephew and Shane were born exactly two weeks apart so we decided to have a joint birthday party! It ended up being so much fun! Here are the pics.... Oh yeah, did I mention he got a second birthday too?