Arkansas

What a busy week! I literally have had zero time to blog. It is 11 pm and we are leaving for Arkansas in the early morning. We will be back Saturday in time to spend a few hours with our friends, the Taylor's, from Colorado. They will be here in Texas for Thanksgiving with his family and are staying with us in our cozy apartment..... We are so excited to see them! It has been 2 yrs since we have seen them all.We were totally surprised and thrilled when they called last night to see if we were going to be in town during their visit.. (Brandie, if you read this....John and Adam were hoping "Cousin Jude" was coming along with them.) (:
We got both cars registered with TEXAS plates this morning and now we both have Texas drivers licenses. I am known to move state to state keeping the same license and never switching. bad girl. I surrendered an Arizona one from 5 yrs ago this morning. Boo Hoo.
Katie gave a talk at church last week and Alex, Chris and I are speaking next week even though we have not officially moved in the ward. I also was called to the Young Women's Presidency and we haven't even signed the papers on our house. Busy ...busy....busy.
Life is good. We have so many blessings.We have met many wonderful people here who have been so warm and welcoming.
It is so great to be able to visit Chris' family.We are going to his Mom's house ( Arkansas) tomorrow and then on to his Grandma's for Thanksgiving. What fun. And last weekend we were in Kansas visiting Grandpa John, Grandma Dana,Aunt Libby and Uncle Jean and cousins. We have loved being so close. It is only 6-7 hrs away. What a blessing.
Goodnight.

The Party is Over, Kiddos!

Party time is over for the big kids....they are back in school. Alex is going to a 9th Grade only school, Kathryn is in middle school, and Steven and Ryan go to the elementary around the corner from our new house. It is named Mary Martin...after the actress in Peter Pan. She is from the town we are moving to.... Weatherford, TX. Small world. I love that the kids can walk to school and the neighborhood pool from our new house. The kids are excited to have sidewalks and a neighborhood playground.

We are supposed to close on December 3rd. Movers arriving with load on the 4th. Let's pray it all goes as planned.

I will only have to drive them to and from for 7 days or so. It is an hour and a half to two hours round trip to drop off and pick up because of the 45 min range of start and release times of all 3 different schools.

We are looking forward to settling in our new home in December. The apartment has been fun and simple, but I am ready for real life to start again.

Grandpa John, this one's for you

These pictures are reversed, but after you gave Adam his "Leaf $$" he bought a present for himself at Cracker Barrel in Oklahoma on the way home . The funniest part was that he had it gift wrapped for free and brought it in the car and unwrapped it and acted surprised when he opened it. I wish you could have been there to witness it. By the way, this is a "talking parrot"that repeats everything you say. The kids have been wishing that we would buy it for them since 2001 when they went to their first Cracker Barrel in Colorado. The big kids were so excited to "use" it all of the way home!!!!!!There were a lot of laughs last night.

Kansas

Ryan with cousin Keziah and Aunt Libby with Adam

On Thursday we decided to jump in the car and head to Kansas and see Chris' parents and sister (and family).We had an awesome weekend. It is so great to live within driving distance of family.Next week we are going to Arkansas for 4 days.

Thankful

Thanksgiving is around the corner. I was thinking about all that I am grateful for....
The Savior Jesus Christ, my family,husband, children,music, laughter,sunrises,sunsets,flowers,rocking chairs,running water, healthy bodies,cars,toilets,a home to live in,quiet times,smiles,kisses and hugs and much much more.

Couponing

One of the best things about Texas is their double and triple couponing policies. Ten years ago when we lived here it was even better( you could triple a 75 cent coupon to 2.25), but it is still great. It is almost 2 am and I was up organizing my shopping list for tomorrow a.m.. I am all about FREE things...if they are useful. So in a few hours I am off to get my free toilet paper, toothpaste, soup, evaporated milk,razors,nylons and much more that is on my list.

Our New 10 yr old

Time has flown by since Ryan was born . He turned 10 yesterday and I wish I could freeze him. He was actually born here in Ft Worth just down the road from where we are staying right now. He was our biggest baby at 10 lbs and 24 inches long!!! Yikes! (He was 2 weeks overdue. )
He wanted to go to Subway for lunch on his birthday so Adam and I went with him. While we were eating, Ryan was bragging that he was even bigger than Adam(9lb 12 oz) at birth. Adam asked him if he was as huge as a foot long sub sandwich. Ryan was able to say he was two footlongs put together! It was so cute watching them have this conversation. I love my boys. They bring so many smiles to my face.I feel very blessed.
We also realized that 10 yrs from now Ryan won't be with us on his birthday because he will be on his mission. He was pondering how awesome it would be if he and his best little buddy , Joseph Baker, were serving in the same mission. He is so sweet. I love that little boy.

A Moment of Silence

I need a moment of silence. I am ready for kids to get back in school. The "honeymoon" is over. I am going a little nuts. I am hearing voices in my head. As Tom Hanks says in the movie The Money Pit..."The Care Bear's were here." I am feeling a little nutty. I am ready to move forward. We have 25 days left in this apartment and no offer on a house here. Two houses we liked kind of fell through or went under contract already and now we have very few options and I am getting worried. Pray for me. I need it.

Halloween

We love Halloween. It is so fun to dress up and get together with friends.We had a ward party on Thursday with pizza, a cupcake walk and trunk -or-treating.We made a lot of new friends and one very kind family invited us to their home for dinner and trick-or-treating the next night. It was a blast and the kids had a great time. There were a ton of trick-or-treaters (300+) kids came to their door. They just sit on the front porch because there is a constant stream of families. Their neighborhood was beautiful......but a couple 100k out of our price range. W got great news from our realtor as we were arriving at their house. We have an offer on our home for sale in UT. YEAH! We were so excited, grateful, and relieved. It will be Monday before we know if all is well and excepted by Lockheed. Cross your fingers for us!

Zoo

The kids and I have been going on a lot of field trips. We had a great time at the zoo this week. The weather was perfect and it was so bushy and green. I am still trying hard to not be offended when people ask if I am running a daycare. (: Big ol' Texas isn't too BIG on big families. People are constantly counting our kids and asking me if they are all of mine and from the same marriage............ of course with a big LOUD exclamation of , "Oh my G**!" The kids and I all cringe every time we hear the Lord's name taken in vain.): I should hand out a pamphlet on different variations....oh my goodness, golly, gosh,gracious....holy cow...etc Ryan is very proud he is finally taller than the Emperor Penguin!

Little Creatures

some little creatures I saw crawling around downtown Ft Worth

Small things in TX

Some small things here in Texas are our church and gas prices. Here is a pic of the little office space in a strip mall that is rented by the church. They have seminary,ward activities and Young Men /Young Women activities there. It is so humble and cute.It will be another year before the new chapel is complete.(it burned down a year ago) Pretty big change for us coming from a small town that had 15 wards, 5 chapels, bursting at the seams and was just divided into 2 stakes the weekend we moved. The weekly att

endance to sacrament mtg here is 110 people. WOW!