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.