Gypsies

Well Utah, Its been a good 8 months, but Texas was hard to get out of our systems....so we are heading back!!

Actually in about 3 days.

We may be gypsies. 

It really has been a good experience, being here in Utah. Has everything gone as planned, or been super smooth? No. Things have been really, really hard. But we have enjoyed our experiences here, and all that we feel we have learned, both individually, and as a family. We have met some really wonderful people, and will miss them, and David has done really well and has enjoyed attending BYU. But ultimately, we did not feel that our situation here was what we wanted for our family long term. And that is what it would be, since David still has quite a few years of school left. It is not a decision we took lightly. We weighed out all of our possible options, with their respective pros and cons and decided that it was in the best interest of our little family to be back in Texas.

It will be great to be by our families again! We will actually be staying with my parents.
Going back to staying with your parents is always hard. Even though we love them soooo much, it is difficult to go from your own place to living with someone else. And I know that it will be crazy for them too, even though all they are talking about is how excited they are. They have NOOO idea what's coming....toddler take-over!!!

Man, I sound like a broken record, but we have been blessed with some pretty incredible people in our lives. we are so grateful for our wonderful families. We are also so grateful for ALL of the support and love from our friends and family!! That makes all the difference.

My sweet dad and brother will be making the drive from Texas to Utah and back again this weekend to help us!! Poor guys. They are so amazing.

I know that someday we will look back on all of this fondly. And honestly, we ARE enjoying the journey. Although it is hard and rarely perfect... and some aspects are definitely easier to enjoy that others.  I know I would not feel that way if I didn't have such in incredible eternal companion by my side.

Well, just wanted to give a quick update. Next time I post we will be in TEXAS.

Also, no pics because I left our camera in Albuquerque last month....fail.

A new found gratitude for my job...

So the past two weeks have given me such a feeling of gratitude for my most important job ever...being a mommy! And an even deeper feeling of gratitude that after this week, I will get to be home with my babies all day again!! I started training for a tech support job last week, and it is going very well. I am not actually naturally super tech savvy, but once I am a little familiar with the equipment, I do pretty well. But lets be honest, it is not the first job (or fifth or even tenth really) I would picture myself doing. And apparently my dad felt the same way, because he definitely chuckled a little when I told my parents. haha Obviously he was supportive, and had complete confidence in my abilities, but I am his daughter, and he just has never seen me as a techie. ha WHO KNEW??! But like I said, I am really enjoying it, and I will be set loose, and be all on my own on the phones next monday!! Yikes!! My schedule for the past two weeks has been mon-Fri 12-7. That has taken some major adjustments for all of us! Fortunately, a sweet friend of mine offered to watch Presley and Eliza for us everyday! What a blessing!! She has a 10 month old daughter, and so Eliza has had a little play buddy:) Our days go something like this:

5:00 AM-  David gets up and is out the door for work by 5:30 at the latest.* this is a normal thing, poor guy*
10:20ish- David comes home in between work and his 12 pm class and picks us up, along with all of our thousand pounds of gear.
11:20- We meet my friend Karli in the parking lot at my job and she takes the girls back to her house. She is awesome!!
 5:15- David gets out of class and picks up the girls...then they come back and wait for me to get out of training at 7.

Add in a lot of screaming babies and can-of-soup-with-grilled-cheese dinners and that about sums it up. haha

Poor David. Every night when I get in the car, ATLEAST one of the girls is screaming. And usually has been for about 10-15 mins straight. 
It has been a little rough, but I am grateful it is almost over, and really grateful I have the ability to help out with the finances for a while.

I will be so glad to get in to a NEW normal routine for our little family. Once I start my job and have regular hours that will really not be changing, and we move into our apartment next weekend, we will hopefully be able to just stay put for a while and get to a feeling of "normal"...whatever that may be :)

I will be working the 6:30-1am shift monday-friday, with one random day off during the week. Unfortunately for the first 2 months, I will be working every Sunday, but after that I will switch to saturdays. It will be nice to have saturdays off to hang out with my family, especially since I will basically be seeing David in passing most days. But I will really miss getting to go to church with my little family for a while. It will definitely take some adjusting. I am so grateful I will be able to be home with my girls all day, and that David will be home with them in the evenings. But like I said, my interaction with David will mostly be "hey babe, how was your day? Great! Hope you have a good night, the girls need a bath please, Presley eats again at 8. See ya tomorrow! Love you!" There is no way with getting up at 5 every morning that he will make it to 1:15ish am when I get home, and I wouldn't expect him to. But I will really miss our evenings together, just hanging out. Even if he was studying, at least he was there, and we could talk and BE together. So my couple days off are going to be really nice!

I also have a TWO year old and a FOUR MONTH old!! It seems impossible, but its really true!! I will have to do an update all about them soon, but this post is already pretty long I feel like....but I do have to share one cute story from the other night. While we were all in the kitchen while I was whipping up a feast in the form of soup, of course. Eliza came in and was talking, and dancing and just kind of in her own little world, then out of no where she gets down on all fours and says "I puppy mommy, woof". David and I about died!! It was the cutest thing!! We have never seen her do anything like it before!! Just another indication of how big she is getting, and how BIG her imagination is becoming!! We just love our sweet little girls, even amongst all of the craziness!!  So I will do a catch up post sometime about the girls, but here are some cute pictures in the mean time. Obviously I have been bad about taking pictures the last couple of weeks though.

 I will often go in to check on her in the Playroom 

and find her laying in this drawer pretending to be asleep :)

 Trying to do push-ups with daddy...I kinda missed the really good shots

basically she just moves her little bum up and down...it is really adorable!

Introducing the potty!  We have had one success!! 

We will be a little more serious about it after this week is over!

 Presley is getting so good at holding on to her toys

with those chubby little hands :)

And she loves her exersaucer now too!

Not hard to see why I am DYING to be home during the day again!! :)
 

Two years old!!

 We barely caught her excited face when we told her she was going to get presents..

this face, accompanied by a big gasp ha

 Trying on her Dora dress from Memaw and Tickie tie

 Rangers shirt from Auntie Lauren...

surrounded by all of her princess presents...all of her grandparents know her well!!

Our baby girl is now officially TWO years old!!! Not a baby anymore for sure!! We were so happy that her birthday fell on Presidents day this year because David didn't have school, so we had the whole day to play! One thing we didn't plan on was me waking up looking like I had elephantitis on one side of my face. I have had a tooth that was in need of a root canal for some time now, we wont say how long, and it had finally become a real issue. I was worried that it was abscessed and I know that can be dangerous, so I called several dentists and was able to get into one for early afternoon. They were awesome!! Even though they had to pull my tooth, while it wasn't completely numb because the infection was preventing the numbing medication from fully taking affect. I was really kicking myself for objecting to laughing gas...who rejects laughing gas?!?! But I didn't want to be loopy for the rest of the day. Luckily it was pretty quick. Then we were off. My already swollen face was now swollen in a ridiculous way!! I couldn't help but laugh every time I looked at myself in the mirror. And I was definitely getting some double takes haha. But I was in some pretty serious pain for about an hour afterwards. I just kept praying that I would be able to get past it because I just wanted to give Eliza a great day!! Heavenly Father Definitely answered my prayers. But I looked like a mess in Toys R us...our first FUN stop of the day. Picture puffy face, eyes and a mouth full of gauze haha! But anyways, on to the good stuff!! We let Eliza loose in Toys R Us, so to speak, and she lead us around picking out what she wanted. Which was, wouldn't you guess, EVERYTHING!! She was in Heaven!! But we left with just a few things we knew she would actually play with. Then we were off to the mall! She go cute new dress, and we wanted to get her some shoes, but couldn't find any we liked. But she didn't want shoes anyways...every time we would look at a pair, and try them on we would ask her "what do think Eliza?" and she would say "no shoes...more toys." We were dying!! Not like she hasn't  been completely spoiled rotten by our families already. The whole week leading up to her birthday packages were arriving. Spoiled. She is going to wonder whats going on when she isn't getting any more presents! After the mall, we went to a cute little cupcake shop and let her pick out a cupcake. She picked chocolate with pink frosting, and did some major damage to it! I wish I had the pics but they are on Davids phone. We had a great day celebrating our sweet little angel! We are so grateful that we are blessed to be her parents! She brings us such joy, and we couldn't love her more!!!

This is so new to me

So Today is the very first day of my life as a part-time, away from home working mommy. The situation is actually pretty perfect for us right now, allowing David to work EARLY in the mornings, go to school and then be home with the girls/do homework while I work a couple evenings a week. Nothing too grueling or strenuous, but definitely weird for me. We knew that unless it was absolutely necessary that I wouldn't have to leave my babies with someone else all day to work, so I am so grateful for this opportunity to help our little family progress in our goals. It won't be forever...I can definitely handle that.So what is this job, you ask? Well, I am working for a market research company. Sounds pretty fun and important when I say it like that. But really I am going to be TRYING to get people to do phone surveys for products and politics and such. Probably not the most fun. I heard a girl that worked there during orientation talking about how many times she has cried when someone has yelled at her for calling. Yikes. I sure hope that kharma doesn't come back to bite me for all the times I said "no" to phone surveys. But I was always nice about it :) It is definitely something I never even thought about doing, but I gladly take on the challenge! I am so grateful that David will be home with the girls, but I am really actually sad that I wont be there to give them a bath, and put them to bed like I ALWAYS do. It will be weird to say goodbye to them when I leave for work, and not see them (awake) again until the next morning. But again, it isn't every night. And in fact I love this job because I can set my own hours! So wish me luck!! And ALWAYS say yes to a phone survey!! Ha ha, just kidding....

In other news...We are moving into our own apartment on March 16th! Two days after our three year wedding anniversary, and probably the exact time my family will be here for spring break! Oh well, we will have lots of help... :}  This apartment will be great because it is literally across the street from where David works, as well as walking distance to BYU, which is something he really wanted. And I'm not complaining because that means I will have the car available for cruising really important stuff only ;) There is also a playground in the complex so that will be great for when the weather gets nicer. All in all, we are in one continuous transition, but hopefully after this move, we will be staying put for a while! I have loved this adventure thus far though! It hasn't been without it's hiccups for sure, but we are learning a lot, and are so excited for the future we are building! Plus I have the best partner I could imagine going through this all with, not to mention our two little buddies, who really help put it all into perspective. It is a little worrisome at times having not only us to take care of, but our two babies, with so much uncertainty at times. And we joke about our logic in starting a family BEFORE either of us was done with school, but like we would change that....Not a chance!!

Sorry this is a boring post with no pictures.

making more of "those" days...

Some days it seems like everyone wakes up on the "right" side of the bed, we don't visit the time out spot 600 times, Eliza is at least wearing socks, Presley takes a nap at the same time as Eliza, and we have the exact ingredients for dinner. The perfect day. haha. Other days it seems like a zombie monster dinosaur has taken over my (almost) two year old, and practically nothing productive gets done, dinner is barely ready on time, and I feel like I am running around like a chicken with my head cut off! I seriously treasure those sweet days, and there are a good amount of them for sure. But there are also quite a few days where I have to try a LOT harder to stay patient and not let myself feel overwhelmed. No day is actually perfect of course, but some are definitely better than others. I remember being in high school, and struggling with the normal teenage things and it felt like some days were just destined to be "horrible days". I depended too much on what happened that day to determine whether I was in a good mood or...not so good mood. But I started realizing, after many pep talks from my mom and dad, that when I made a more conscious effort to make my days better by seeing all of the great blessings in my life, I felt so much happier, despite the fact that the "boy of my dreams" hadn't even talked to me that day. Yeah that is embarrassing to admit. And by the way, I didn't even know the boy of my dreams yet!! ha  And obviously the same goes for my days here at home. If Eliza is having a rough day, and I start letting myself get into the funk of "ok, here we go again, I wish this day was OVER", almost automatically I start to feel like I am sinking into a bog of tantrums. But I constantly have to remind myself that If I just take more time to see things in the eternal perspective I find we all have a much better day around here. It is pretty amazing!! I am constantly saying little prayers throughout the day, and I know Heavenly Father hears me! I really wish I was better at this. But I am so grateful for the sweet little moments that make the hard ones so worth it. Like when I was sitting on the floor with Presley and Eliza playing, and Eliza came up to me and gave me the biggest hug, out of no where. My heart melted. I have to remind myself sometimes that the dishes can wait til later...sometimes Eliza just needs mommy to dance to the village dance scene on tangled with her a couple dozen times, and Presley just needs a few extra minutes of mommy time, all by herself  before a nap. Sometimes toddlers poop in the bathtub...twice in one week. Or wake up out of the blue at 6am on the morning you want to get up early to work out. Sometimes a two month old will have a blow out in two or three different outfits a day. And somewhere in between all that, a smart little toddler learns how to open the door to the pantry and dump out an entire container of hot chocolate...as you are trying to leave the house. I find myself constantly drawing out of the well of "sweet moments" when I feel like the day is surely going to test me to my limits....and thankfully, with two precious babies, that well is always overflowing! I am constantly praying for more patience, and I truly believe that our loving Heavenly Father gives us opportunities to do just what we ask for. That is what we are here for, to learn and gain experience. And one way or another, hopefully I will learn what I am supposed to !

Here are some of those sweet moments

 Eliza found some old ballet slippers in the play room,

It gets to me so badly to see her walk around in those big, floppy, worn out slippers

especially because I know it makes her feel like a pretty princess...

 This picture says it all

 and this one <3

 If she doesn't tell me "no mama" when I pull out the camera

then this is the face I get....love it....

oh and notice the stickers on Presley's forehead..

 Big sis will show you how its done

 tracing her hand...

Showing off her pretty clip on earrings

with her kitty cat ears crown on.

Sunday walk

Yesterday we walked to church. That is something we never could've done in Texas, but in Utah you can do that since there is a church building in every neighborhood...ALMOST literally. But honestly, our church building is right around the corner, so we decided to finally give it a try. Every Sunday we see members of our ward walking the long walk around the block to church since the weather has been so nice. Even though there was snow on the ground, the weather was great! Eliza loved getting to trudge through the snow in her boots.

Quite the getup for going to church

David carried Presley in her car seat ha

She was in her own little world

My new project is going to be working on transitioning Presley into the crib, Eliza into a big girl bed, and both of them into the same room!! I am stressed thinking about it. But Presley is fast outgrowing her bassinet, and so it will need to be done. We don't have a toddler bed for Eliza yet, so that will be the first step. She loves her crib, and has not even ever tried climbing out of it, so I mostly worry about her getting upset the the baby is in "her" crib. But I have been doing my homework on the dreaded transition, and so I feel somewhat prepared. I think once we get her a bed, we will start by putting it up and just getting her excited about it! Get cute princess/barbie bedding and talk it up all the time so she can't wait to jump into it..and stay alll night. yikes. Then maybe we will start slowly, by having her take naps in it and eventually put her in at night time as well. That part I am not so worried about as much as putting Presley in her room. We just do not have space in our room for the crib. I know I am not the pioneer for this sort of movement, but all of the sudden when faced with this challenge in a month or so, it seems so daunting! Eliza sleeps so well at nap time and bed time that I worry adding Presley (who wakes up for a paci, and is pretty noisy and grunty) will throw off the groove. I am trying not to stress, but if anyone has any solution that worked for them, I am open to suggestions!

What do you do....

When you are trapped in the house all week??

You play lots of Hi-ho cherry-O of course!!

 It may look like she is throwing a fit, 

But actually she is cracking herself up!!

She thought it was hilarious to fill her bucket up and then dump allll of the cherries out!!

I have been waiting for the day that Eliza and I could play games together and do "Big girl" stuff....
That day is getting closer for sure. But In the meantime we have our own fun, and make up our own rules to games like hi-ho cherry-O....which was not so much a game as "Put all of the cherries into a bucket and then dump them into another bucket and then dump them all out" sorta thing...but she loved it!! And it was a good chance to count and do colors (this game had different colored cherries). Most days it seems like she picks "a color of the day", and everything is that color!! she is funny!!

 We also eat a lot of nuts!! I think it is more the novelty of shelling the nut

than actually eating it, but she does like almonds

most of the time :)

 This was the look I got in response to my asking her if she wanted help...

ok, guess not!

 Lots of wardrobe changes!!

 and Photography sessions.

this photo courtesy of Eliza Elysse...she is practicing "abstract":)

And Lots of cuddles!!!

Although we find lots to keep us busy...I think I speak for all of us when I say, Thank goodness for the weekends...when David is home and we can get out of the house!!

While trying to make good on my promise to keep my blog updated for our out-of-state family (sad to say that) I have been racking my brain thinking "there really isn't that much going on" but then I realized that the new little things the girls do are probably things worth mentioning. Because although they seem normal to me since I'm with them all the time, they are new to all of you. So it may not be super exciting all the time, but I want you all to feel as much a part of their lives as possible!! 

 

We had a visitor!!!

On Sunday morning, I woke up to find someone on the couch in the family room, where I usually go to feed Presley when she wakes up around 7...plus, I also had Eliza awake that morning because church is at one and so in order for her to be ready for a nap by 11, so she gets a nap (which is absolutely necessary) I have to wake her an hour earlier than normal...so I was a little worried that I would have to keep both of them quiet in our room while David slept. I I thought maybe it was my Cousin Jimmy who lives about 5 hours away and sometimes comes down to visit, but when I noticed the girly bags by the front door, I was stumped. I put barbie (of course) on in our room and went to get Elizas cup out of the fridge...and the LAST person I expected to see walk around the corner was.......

MY MOM!!!

* Obviously this wasn't when I first saw her,

I just thought a picture would make a nice touch here:)

I was in shock!! "What are you doing here?!" was all I could ask ha! Unfortunately my Aunts Mother-in-law passed away in Idaho, and so they were driving up for the funeral on Monday, but they asked if my mom wanted to hitch a ride since they had to pass our way. Of course she did!! It was a very short stay, but so so sweet!! We were hoping she might get to stay longer since my dad had found a one way ticket to DFW  for that coming Saturday for a really great price, but they sold out so fast and we couldn't find another great deal...so she had to leave Monday night. But we just spent Sunday and Monday enjoying the time together. Eliza was in Heaven!! She was Grandmas little shadow those two days, and enjoyed pulling her this way and that....having someone who would do anything/go anywhere at the exact moment she wanted them to, what more could she ask for!! She was obviously spoiled! She and Presley both were!! They have both changed so much just since the time we left Texas, so I know it was so fun for my mom to get to see them and *try* to catch up on snuggle time. It was hard to say goodbye on Monday night, and Eliza definitely was missing Grandma the next morning. But we are so looking forward to this spring when my whole family will hopefully be able to come up...as well as Davids!! We can't wait to see them all, we miss them soooo much!!

 Eliza wasted no time in showing gramma around

 Trying to catch up on a months worth of missed kisses

 Sweet moments with gramma

 ***

 ***

 Reading stories 

It was good to see my Aunt and Uncle too for a bit

on their way back home

Two little princesses

Life with two little girls, under two no less, is definitely very busy!! Some days I feel like I am running all day, and when I stop to look at what I have accomplished, I find myself asking "what in the world DID I accomplish, anyways?!". I felt like I had a pretty good system when it was just Eliza and I, but even then I had room for improvement. Adding another baby to the mix has definitely made me realize that I need to find another system! Presley is finally getting on a more dependable schedule with eating and sleeping. She eats every three hours and sleeps from about 9pm-7am, which I am happy about!! The biggest thing for me know is trying to work out the napping situation. Her nap schedule has been a little more on the sporadic side, and I would love to get it to where Eliza's nap coincides with one of Presleys naps, because two hours is not nearly enough time to get it all done anyways, but when their schedules are different I have maybe an hour! But they are both getting so big, and they are so so much fun! Here are some fun things they are doing right now:

Eliza~

• In every sense of the word, she IS a "bah-bie" and "peen-chess" (barbie, princess)! she is dressed in her princess dresses all day! She loves her barbie and princess movies, and pretty much any girl who is wearing a dress and sings is barbie!! We can almost always get her to calm down if we talk about barbie!! And I honestly don't know how she developed such an intense love of barbie, but it is so precious! 
• She is talking tons!! Her vocabulary grows by the day, and sometimes it shocks us!! So much fun!! Some of the things we hear the most are "Bah-bie" "Peen-chess", Book, Baby, Shoes, Phone, "yesh" (yes, in response to most things, fortunately), "nack" and "cheet" (snack and treat),  "bup" (cup) and Milk, and Cuh-uh (color)
• Aside from barbie, her favorite thing to do is color!! Sometimes it is more a game where she hands out the crayons and then takes them back and hands out different colors, but she loves it all the same!
• She loves, loves, loves bath time, and showers!! In fact, if David or I try to even take a shower, 9 times out of 10 she will be stripped down and jumping in before the water is even warm!
• She is a creature of habit!! It is almost to the point of being a little ocd at times. When she goes to bed, the only light that can be on is from the cd player, and if there is a book or piece of clothing out of place she will say "uh-uh" until it is in its proper position. Big trouble, I know. We have a space heater in her room that we turn on about 30 mins before she goes to bed to warm it up in there, but she HATES it!! If she knows it is on we have to pretend to turn it off before she can roll over peacefully. So the other night I had turned it on and then we went in to read stories and she noticed it was on...so she exclaimed "uh-oh", turned it off, and then...began blowing on it saying "hot"...it was pretty funny.
• She is such a good big sister!! She wants to share EVERYTHING with Presley, which isn't always great, but I love that she wants to include her and share with her. 
• She knows alllll about time outs! Since moving to Utah, she started with in with her high pitched screams when we said she couldn't have/do something, or when something wasn't going the way she planned, and so she has become very familiar with our time-out spot. She does pretty well with it...most of the time.
• She hates being in her car seat!! Sometimes driving to the store 10 minutes away brings on a total meltdown
• She will be TWO next month!! Holy cow, how did that happen!?!
• She is so sweet, and has such a good heart...she is always concerned when baby is upset, or when anyone cries, and she gives us kisses when we have "boo-boos". She has us all wrapped around her little fingers!!

Presley~

• She is quickly turning into a little chubbs!! I am so excited!! 
• She smiles at us all day long!! She has the sweetest, happiest little spirit!! It breaks my heart when I have to rush by that big toothless grin to do something....but I always come back pretty fast :) I can't resist!!
• She sleeps through the night!! 
• She is in size 0-3 month clothes, but I have a feeling she will be going up a size shortly.
• She loves to "talk", especially at night before she falls asleep... she will lay on the bed and talk to me for 10-15 minutes, until she is worn out. And she loves to talk to her big sis :) 
• I think she loves that Eliza wants to dress her up and share cookies with her...nothing brings a smile faster than Eliza coming over and giving her a barbie doll, or putting a crown on her head!! 
• She is an absolute doll!! She just steals our hearts over and over again!!

 Happy to be "playing" dress up with big sis

 Showing mommy "pretty eyes"

Also wearing 3 layers of princess dresses :)

Proud mommy moment

If I have taught Eliza nothing else in her two years of life, at least I can proudly say I have instilled in her the need for...pretty, painted nails! From the time she was 6 months old I have been painting her toe nails, and I was always pleasantly surprised that she would actually LET me. Then in the past month, I have also started painting her finger nails. She loves it!! I like to have my nails painted, but they often go a little neglected and scraggly looking for too long before I take the time to redo them. Which is the case right now. So this morning while Eliza and I were sitting on the kitchen floor, looking at all of her "bah-bies" (barbies), she noticed the sad state of my nails, and with a gasp, and "uh-oh", she shook her head and pointed at what was left of my nail polish. With a very concerned look she then said "paint, uh-gone", after which she pointed to her nails, which happen to have a fresh coat of sparkles and said "spah-koos (sparkles)....paint" pointing once again to my nails. Ok, so maybe that's not so much a proud moment...more like just plain hilarious!! We have a little diva on our hands!! Smart, sweet, and lovable....but a Diva non-the-less!!!

But later when she came up behind me while I was doing dishes, exclaiming "yeh-wow, yey-wow!" showing me the yellow magnet in her hand...THAT, I definitely feel good about!!

My two little princesses :)

That is a "crah" (crown) on presleys head

Eliza is wasting no time in turning Presley in to her little protege!!

Part 2

Two weeks has never gone by so fast, I don't think!! Even right after having a baby!! *logged under "things I never thought I would say"* But its the honest truth! It was good that we were so busy because it kept us distracted from thinking about how we were in another state, right before Christmas, without all of our family and everything we knew. But when I say us, I think really it was just...me. While I know David misses our families and stuff, it doesn't effect him the way it does me, but I guess, duh. Christmas time is not really an ideal time to move across the country, especially when you are leaving all of your close family. So thankfully we have family here!! My aunt and uncle, and two of my cousins. I am so grateful for this opportunity to get to know them better, since I have never lived close to them. Their oldest daughter Dilya always came to visit yearly when I was growing up, so I was pretty close to her. It is great to live near her now, and to get to know her kids. And like I said my Aunt and Uncle are great!! They are so sweet, and have really gone above and beyond to help us out!!. My cousin Tracy and her husband Charlie have 4 beautiful little girls, between the ages of 9 and 18months, so between Dilya's daughter (age 9) and son (age 7) and Tracy's girls, Eliza and Presley have tons of cousins (second cousins twice removed?? we will just go with cousins) to play with!!

It was great that Christmas was on Sunday! I remember, unfortunately, when I was younger not liking it to be on Sunday because that meant that we had to interrupt Playing with our presents to go to church. But now I love it, because what better way to celebrate our Saviors birth than to partake of the sacrament, and sing hymns of praise. And never have I appreciated it more than this year. It was so comforting to be in a "familiar" place in essence, when everything else was so new and different. After church, we went to Tracy and Charlies for dinner. We had a great meal and enjoyed the evening together. Can I say again how great it is to have family here?! Eliza had a blast playing with their girls in their amazing play room!

Since David wasn't in school or working the past couple of weeks, we took advantage of our last few weeks as a family before the craziness begins, to explore our new home. We met up with a couple of Davids mission companions and their wives several times which was a lot of fun!! We spent new years eve with one of his companions and his family, and had a great time!! It snowed for the FIRST TIME since we've been here on Saturday!! We have been shocked with how great the weather has been!! I think I had this idea that from the time we got here until may it would be one snow storm after the other. ha kind of like when my family moved to Texas and I seriously thought everyone was going to be a cowboy! I am grateful it has gone easy on us so we could spend time out and about! Seeing Temple Square with all of the lights was so incredible!! It was Davids first time to see the Temple so that was extra special.

David started classes last week, and everything seems to be great! I am so excited for him!! I know it will be a lot of work for him, and our whole family to make the adjustments for our new life here, but Heavenly Father is definitely looking out for us, and blessing us in such incredible ways!!

I have a lot to post about our babies...actually our baby and almost TWO year old! So stay tuned~~

New year, New place....New adventures awaiting!! (part 1)

We made it to Utah!!!

I decided (against my better judgement) to do our update in at least 2 posts, and even then they will probably be way long!! I am really just hoping I will get back to finish before another couple of months fly by....hence the reason my better judgement was saying "just do one ginormous post!".

I will start with getting to Utah, and see how far we get!

David had his last final at school on Wednesday the 14th of December.  Fortunately we didn't have to do too much packing since we hadn't unpacked that much when we moved in with Davids parents, but of course it is ALWAYS more work than you anticipate. So we spent that week packing our clothes, the girls things and the other miscellaneous things we had to pack, and then Thursday morning David went and got the u-haul and we loaded it up. We decided to do the smaller trailer because we really didn't have that much stuff, although again, we underestimated a little bit. But David pulled out his expert packing-it-in skills and fit it all into the u-haul and the bed of his dads truck. We were supposed to have great weather all the way, and we were really hoping the forecast was right since we didn't think a tarp covering our stuff in the bed of the truck would completely protect it. we fit it all but our beautiful couches! I was a little devastated bummed that we had to leave them behind, I think I had an unnatural attachment to them. ha But we really didn't want to have to worry about storing them once we got here because we were unsure of our living situation in the next few months, aside from staying with my Aunt and uncle. Davids dad and David were the only ones who really got a decent amount of sleep since they were the main drivers, and then Davids brother Glenn who came with us, Mom Philipbar and myself made it to bed somewhere in between midnight and 4 when we were supposed to head out. I fell asleep on the couch at 2 and woke up to get ready to leave at 3, but I knew I could sleep once we got on the road. Poor mom, I don't actually think she slept. It was the weirdest feeling, knowing that we were leaving their house for the last time, for who knows how long. When we pulled out of the driveway and I shut the gate behind us, the gate that David and I loathed, I wanted to cry. I knew I would miss having to open that gate, even in the pouring rain, or 107 degree weather. So I may or may not have given it a little "pat" before I walked away. And guess what, as I write this I am realizing that I do miss that old gate, because it means I am thousands of miles away from "home"...Texas. But Utah is starting to feel more like home for sure. But anyways, back to our trip. So with a family prayer and two vehicles filled to the max we were off. By the time we fueled up and were on the highway it was 5, which was right on schedule pretty much. Eliza was awake from all the commotion, but we put barbie on the dvd player we borrowed from my parents and she was back to sleep pretty quickly. And so was I. Our Trek to Utah had begun!! And for all my worries of screaming babies the whole way, I must say they did AMAZING! Of course Eliza had a few melt downs, as she was sick and tired of being trapped in the car, and I can't say I blame her, but I was so relieved that she really did so well! Of course having her movies and toys and TONS of Junk food healthy snacks helped:) We stopped every few hours to use the bathroom, stretch, eat, etc...which was perfect for Presley's eating schedule. Speaking of Presley, She looked like this....

For almost the entire trip! She gets the traveler of the century award!! Traveling with a 6 week old is the way to go!!

We stopped at the halfway point for the night, which was Albuquerque, NM where Davids family lives! That was so perfect! We got to his grandmas house at about 6, and of course she had a big meal of homemade enchiladas, rice and beans with red chile all ready for us! Heaven!! It was so great to see his family again, and for them to meet Presley. Eliza just made herself right at home, and enjoyed being out of the car for a while. We had a blast laughing and joking and hearing stories, and then Eliza and I crashed at about 10:30. We got up at 3 again and headed out by about 4. That day we traveled through New Mexico, Colorado, and finally made it to Utah!! We were greeted with some snow on the sides of the road, but had clears sunny skies, the whole way!! What a blessing!! We made it to my aunt and uncles in Spanish Fork, Utah that evening by 5:30! We unloaded, and then David and his dad and brother, and my uncle took some stuff to my cousins to store until we have our own place. Then we had to say goodbye. That was really rough. Saying goodbye to my family on Wednesday night was hard enough, but now we had to say goodbye to the last of our family from Texas!! It was like the  trip had drawn out the sad inevitable, and that made it worse. Of course Davids mom and I were emotional. It felt like we would never see them again. Which I know is not true, since they are already planning a visit, as are my parents and siblings, for this spring!! So I am holding on to that for dear life!!

We have had lots of fun since we have been here! My aunt and Uncle are so great!! And we are forever grateful to them for opening their home to us!! We could not have done this so easily without their help!! We met up with a couple of Davids mission companions and their wives, which was so fun! I have been hearing about these guys for the past 3 years and it was great to finally meet them!! David spent a good amount of time looking for a job, and was offered a job with a security company the first week! It was nice to have him around for the past two weeks and spend time together as a family in our new home...Utah! But as I finish this post he is starting his first class at BYU!!! AGHGH I am so excited for him!! I know I sound like a proud mom on their kids first day of school or something, which will probably embarrass him, but I know how hard he has worked to get here, and I just love that man so much!!! Eliza is adjusting pretty well. I think she is ready for the "vacation" to be over and to get back home...so she has been acting out a little more than usual, and has not been sleeping through the night very well this past week. It breaks my heart, and I pray that we can help her to make this adjustment and feel at peace soon. She does love having a big playroom full of toys, as well as my cousins kids to play with!! Presley of course is doing great!! She has been a pretty gassy baby, and it seemed to get a little worse for a bit once we got here, but she seems to be doing so so much better lately! I will fill in on the details by the end of this week hopefully, but here are some pics of our trip and a few from the our first weeks in Utah:

Coloring is a good distraction....for a while

Of course we had to have a posed "driving" pic

By Amarillo we were looking a little rough, *and we needed a new battery in our car* so we picked up some more healthy snacks in the form of hershey's kisses, which she did not devour by herself, as this picture might lead you to believe :)

Just crossed the border from Colorado into Utah!!

Exploring the snow with Memaw!

She thought it was so fun!!

Eliza, David and Glenn

:)

We are in Utah!!

The first week we were here, One of Davids companions and his wife took us to see the Salt Lake Temple!! 

Not a very clear picture (our camera wasn't doing so well), but it was so beautiful with all of the lights!!

Eliza has made friends with my Aunt and Uncles chickens :)

Presley is just getting cuter, sweeter, and chunkier each day!!

We have been so blessed!!!