Memorable trip, new house and a birthday!

After my last post from Salt Lake, Blaine came home from work and we finished the loading and left Salt Lake. Cayden, Kayla and I headed on a road trip stopping to see family along the way before getting to our new home. Blaine, Josh and Jared headed to Steve and Ann's house so Blaine could sleep and then they headed straight to our new house. I think I got the better end of the deal, I did not have to lift a finger to get the truck unloaded, it was completely done by the time I got there! Our first stop was St. George. We got there about 8 pm on Monday and stayed at Grandma Maggie's house. The next day we spent with AnnMarie. It was amazing to see how big Natalie has gotten! She is pretty much a mini me of AnnMarie. She has beautiful, big brown eyes.

Here is Kayla with a big smile. She had so much fun playing with Natalie. I think Natalie had fun teaching Kayla new tricks.

Here are the two of them playing on the floor. It is so fun to see them together. It is kind of bittersweet. I used to live so close to AnnMarie, these two little ones would have seen each other at least once a week. Now I live so far away, we are lucky to see them twice a year. I must admit, AnnMarie does come down this way much more often then up to Salt Lake.

That Tuesday night, we had Trey sleep over at Grandma Maggie's house so Trey and Cayden could spend more time together. They had so much fun! They watched a movie, slept in sleeping bags on the floor, and even ate all of their breakfast the next morning!

They were playing tag in the morning and blocks and watching more movies.

Kayla had fun watching the boys play. The boys were teasing Kayla and trying to jump over her. She just laughed at them, thinking they were pretty cool. It was fun to see the kids play together. They were just playing, not worrying about anything but the moment they were in. It was nice to escape to that world for just a short period.

After Jenny picked Trey up, we headed to lunch with Debbie, Becca, and Kelly. Brad showed up to say hi. I then went by the car wash to see Travis before we took Grandma Maggie home and headed to our new home. when we got there, the beds were set up, trucks were unloaded, and boxes strewn all over the house. I was so thankful to see all of that work finished. I have such an amazing husband that had all of this finished for me when I got to our new home! Over the next few days I got the rest of the house unpacked and we got settled in. In the meantime, Kayla started to crawl! she has been doing the army crawl, but this was real, true crawling! I took these photos while she was crawling to my purse.

She has already figured out that mom's purse has cool stuff in it.

She just could not reach it, she fell onto her stomach, and got mad because she could not reach it. She is such a funny little girl!

Well here are the asked for photos of our new home. It is unpacked and mostly decorated:

The living room and sitting area.

The family room

The Kitchen and dining room

The master bedroom

The master bathroom

I am totally loving this house. There are some things that I do not like, but over all. I love it. Is is so roomy and open, the floor plan really works for us. I am so very thankful that we were able to have such a wonder place to live during these trying times in our lives. i know that God has his hand in our journey.

This is Kayla's Easter dress. I was so excited to find it. It was on the clearance rack at Target and it was only $5!! I was thrilled. I was looking for something that did not make my little beauty look like a street corner worker, or was so frilly that you could not find her in the dress. I knew that we would be very short on money this Easter so I could not believe my eyes when I found this perfect dress!

Cayden had his fifth birthday on Sunday. I decided that I would take advantage of having so many family members in the area and invited them all to come over. I invited my aunt Nina in addition to all of my brothers and their families. AnnMarie was in town with her family so they too were able to come. My dad and a couple extra nieces were able to come as well. I was so thrilled that everyone came! We had a total of 26 people at our home! I loved having my family over for the party. I was not even stressed about cleaning it after they left (although John and Andrea did most of the cleaning before they left).

John, Andrea, and Joshua

Blaine, Jordan, Paul, Camille, Natalie, Kayla, Nina

Cayden blowing out his candles.

Cayden opening presents with the help of Jacob, Lexi, and Lauren.

Over all it has been a very busy past 2 weeks. I am very happy with my family and my home. I am still a bit worried about our job situation. I am sure that Gods hand is in our lives and is watching out for us during this journey. I just hope that we have the strength to endure what we must.

Moving Day and Memories

I woke up today after getting to sleep in until 8 (thank you Tammy and Lynn for watching the little ones), to find this:Jared, my wonderful little helper, had already showered and was cleaning the basement. He has been spending most of his time with his best friend this weekend, and he felt like he wanted to help and surprise us. What a wonderful boy. I was so pleased to see that he got up and did this himself. He is such a great helper (when he wants to be)!

This is Josh and Jared's room. It still has lots of work to be done before we leave. They needed to dao laundry at he last minute and this was the result.

Here is Josh. He was not as ambitious this morning. He has been helping all weekend to load and pack so he was taking it easy this morning. He also was not very happy to know that he was in the picture.

Here is my beautiful kitchen and dining room. I was sad to see it that empty yet this messy at the same time. It is just the last little things that need to be packed before leaving today.

This is the living room. It is normally that cleanest room in the house all of the time. These are the things left to load into the truck.

This is Cayden's room. I actually did this cool paint job. It was lots of fun to turn this room into outer space. It started out being sunshine yellow and that was too much for us to live with so this was the end result. I thought it was a really cool room.

This was Miss Kayla's room. I bought the quote in light pink and cut the flowers and butterflies out with my cricut. It was a fast fun way to make her room a little girly instead of just white. there was a beautiful picture of me holding her where the gap on the border is. It too has been packed away for our journey.

This was an amazing view from our front porch. It had been sunny all week and a storm was coming in. It was so beautiful, I really wanted to capture this moment. I wanted to remember the beauty of the Salt Lake valley. It really was not all bad, just the snow.

This is Miss Kayla's nine month picture in her car seat. I have not gotten one since she was six months. She has gotten so much bigger I am sad that she is growing so fast but happy at the same time that she is healthy (finally) and able to grow.

I love this hat. I bought it a long time ago and never wore it. I put it on on Cayden and he loved it too. He keeps telling me it is his fishing hat and he needs to go fishing.

Mr. Cayden posing for the camera. I found this outfit on clearance for $7. He loves the Broncos so I got it for him. He has been so cute with the stress of the move. He tells me when we have to leave to go anywhere that we can not leave yet because his toys are not packed to go to the new house yet. He is so cute. I just love the things he comes up with to say.

Here is a better picture of Kayla's ponytail. This one she left in until nap time. She thinks the bows taste good.

Example of a yummy bow. This was the first time I put her hair in a ponytail. It lasted less then an hour. She is so cute, it really is hard to be mad at her!

This will be the last post in Salt Lake City. It is a bittersweet moment. Many memories, tears and laughs have happened here. I will really miss all of the friends I have made. here we come Phoenix!