3-1-13 - 3-14-13

3-1-13

We are leaving Lancaster. So sad. We love you guys and will miss you!!

My view for today and tomorrow

Meeting up with Adrienne and family in Kansas City tonight and tomorrow morning!!  So wonderful to get to see them!!

Brayden is pretty cute in the hotel crib cuddled up with Kaitlyn's teddy bear!

3-2-13

We ate breakfast with Adrienne's family and the kids got to meet the hotel mascot

Kaitlyn titled this on FB: "On a long journey, we stopped finally and met a friend." 

It was so wonderful to see you guys Adrienne DuShane and fam!!!

We had such a nice time!! It was so hard to leave our friends.  Thanks Adrienne for driving up to see us!!!

Back on the road. Just past Joplin Mo. So ready to be done on the car. Still have 5 hours...

We made it!! Babies are sleeping in their beds. So exhausted!! Happy to be here and out of the car 

3-4-13

The girls went to their new school today! I was sick with worry for them all afternoon, but they had a great time and loved it. Kaitlyn has a Kaitlyn in her class and Emily has an Emily. So fun!

3-7-13

Meet the teacher night at Hickey Elementary ( the girls new school)

Kaitlyn and her new teacher Mrs. 

And Emily and her new teacher Mrs. Wilson

One of the main reasons we decided to move in with my parents while we look for a house and wait for our Wisconsin house to sell was so the girls could go to this elementary.  I have been soo nervous and worried about them having to switch schools in the middle of the year and then have to start another new school in the fall.  The reason we wanted this school is because Aunt Tiara is in 5th grade here and mom subs here a lot.  My family is very well known in this school and I am hoping that will help the girls transition more easily.  They have LOVED going to school with Aunt Tiara!  They get to ride the bus with her, sit in the cafeteria before school with her, and see her in the halls during school.  What a comfort that has been to me!  I'm so glad they have her.  My mom also knows the teachers very well and made sure the girls got in great classes.  So wonderful! The girls are doing great in their new classes, love their teachers, and are making lots of new friends. 

That same night we got to see Tiara perform her living museum.  She did such a great job!  That girl loves to put on a show!

3-8-13

Gramy's house is too fun!  Brayden crashes all sorts of places.  Reminds me of Tiara, she was the same at his age!

3-10-13

Ryan's new job is exhausting!  So is coming home to a house full of kids and teenagers!  Haha.  Poor guy, he'll do just about anything for the kids and I.  Love him to pieces!

Went to check on the boys before I went to bed and they had locked their door!! 

How many people does it take to open a door?...

We got it open, eventually!!  Good thing they were asleep and had no idea they'd locked themselves in!

 3-12-13

Ryan's version of a selfie

Jace, Jessica, and I.  Can I just say, I LOVE seeing my family all the time!!! I've missed them so much!

3-13-13

I decided to take some pictures to remember the craziness that is 15 people living in one (big, thank goodness) house!

This is the girls plus Logan's room. 5 people in one room (Jessica, Tiara, Kaitlyn, Emily, and Logan), Logan begged to be in here!  My family rocks for letting us stay here!

 I don't think I got any pictures of the other rooms, but Ryan and I have all the dressers and our families clothes, our bed and Brayden's crib in our room with us.  It's PACKED in there! (We quickly moved Brayden our because he wasn't sleeping and neither was he knowing we were so close!  He just wanted in our bed the whole time!)  And then the babies (Evan and Brayden) share a room with Uncle Kurtis.  Uncle Andrew and Jace are in another room, with Min sleeping on the loft (she picked it!) with her clothes on the "stage" of the playroom. And Dad's office in the purple room.

3-14-13

Grilled peanut butter and jelly sandwiches picnic. The kids were so excited when I said we're having a picnic. I'm loving this weather!!

After a lot of searching I finally found a new seat that I liked for Evan!  I think he likes it too :) Brayden got to move up into Evan's old seat and is forward facing now!  My babies are getting so big!

And some pictures of us hanging out outside.  It gets a little crazy with all the bikes, razors, and trikkes going all over.  Too much fun!  I love this kind of crazyness!!  Oh and all so the crazy parking with all the cars here!

My poor parents neighbors must think we are CRAZY!  Haha, but we are happy and my parents are loving having everyone so close!!  Family rocks! 

Leaving Wisconsin

Febuary 2013

It's over a year later, and still I'm not sure how to write this post.  I didn't want to move to Wisconsin when Ryan graduated.  I wanted to hate it, I wanted to throw a fit and make my husband move us closer to family, even though we didn't have a job there.  I wanted so bad to live near our families.  So bad.  But the moment I saw Lancaster, I knew.  I knew it was home and where we were supposed to go.  When the 5 years came up and we started looking and looking, hoping to come home we prayed about it and felt we were to fall in love with Lancaster again.  So I did.  I truly love Lancaster. Truly.  I love the people, I love the small town, I love the beauty, the 4 seasons, fall, my house, my neighbors, my friends. Everything.  When the possibility came up to move home, it was almost more than I could handle. And then it became a reality.  We were actually going to move home! We would be by our families.  I could actually help out with the struggles some of them were going through.  I knew it'd be hard to leave my Wisconsin family, but I wasn't prepared to have it truly break my heart.  Lancaster is my home away from home.  The people there are my family.  Oh, it was soo hard. It was time for us to leave, but it was not easy.  I don't think I could have left for anywhere other than Texas.

The last couple of weeks were full of goodbyes.  I suck at goodbyes.  I hate them.  Mostly I pretend that it's not even happening.  Like no one is leaving.  But I couldn't this time.  And there were so many people and so much I wanted to thank everyone for.  I have a few pictures that were taken durring this time, but not many.  I wish I would have taken more.

GNO- Girls Night Out
My friends, my family.  These girls.  I'll love them forever.

 Top row: Brianna, Rebecca, Julia, Abby, Tammy, Rindy
Middle row: Tiffany, Ella, Me, Katie, Jenny
Sitting: Coreina, Shelly, Amanda, and Laura

They surprised me with having Coreina (who'd moved away) and Brianna drive down from Minnesota to see me.  What a huge surprise!  So fun. 

Library time

I LOVE the Lancater library.  I miss my librarians and the story times there.  When we first moved here we would go to the library like 3 times a week.  Just the two girls and I.  We didn't know a soul and had no friends. My kids grew up in that library.  Every Wednesday was story time with Mrs. Karen. I made so many friends there and the kids learned to love books and learning there. Here's some pictures I stole from Katie of the last story time.

Playgroup:

Playgroup was what kept me sane.  That's where I met most of my friends and where my kids grew up.  EVERY Tuesday unless someone was puking, we were there.  Even when I was in labor (I think it was with Evan) we didn't miss playgroup.  How I miss those Tuesday playgroups! They made me a photo book and surprised me with it at the last playgroup.  I'm not sure how I didn't bawl the whole time!  LOVE these women! Some pictures from Katie.

And the last set of pictures I have are from when Katie and Amanda stopped by one last time to say good bye.

There's so much that happened.  So many friends that went out of their way to help us get ready, so many that were there for us even though we were leaving.  So many I miss and love.  I don't have ANY pictures of all my church family.  They were also amazing and I miss them too.  

When we got to Texas I was a little depressed.  My poor husband.  He was so confused, I thought this is what you wanted. Yes, yes it is.  Yes I'm so happy to be by family again.  I just had no idea how much of my heart I would leave behind.  Still over a year later, thinking about it and writing about it makes me cry.  I will be forever great-full to my Father in Heaven for not listening to me.  I begged and pleaded and even tried to compromise.  Please don't make me move even further from my family.  But he knew.  He knew how much I needed Lancaster.  I grew as a person, as a wife, as a mother, as a friend.  I made friendships and had experiences I will treasure for always. I love Lancaster and am so thankful for the time that I had there. For the friends that I made.  For the way our little family grew together.

2-15-13 - 2-28-13

2-15-13
Evan feel asleep in front of the dishwasher :)

2-16-13
My baby Brayden boy is one today! Happy birthday my baby, I love you! He's already spent the morning weaning himself and practicing walking. Growing up to quick for me!

2-18-13 So...we had a showing tonight! & one lined up for tomorrow. Ahhh! I know that doesn't mean it'll sell right away, but still pretty exciting. ~also, it's really weird to come home knowing some one was walking through your whole house while you were gone.

My girls are going to miss their dance class!

2-19-13 My cutie pie girls got to cheer for the Lancaster Arrows.  I loved it, so fun!

2-21-13 One tough guy! Had to get a blood draw, and it took two sticks before they could get the vein. Poor boy!

What happens when the doctor is late and you have 3 little boys,exam table becomes a jungle gym...

2-23-13 Peeling potatoes for dinner tonight, and pulled this monster potato out of the bag! It's as big as my arm!

2-24-13 Avery fun girls night out that started a whole bunch of goodbyes that broke my heart, which will be a different post.

2-25-13 The costumes for the June recital are so adorable!  The girls are sad they will miss it!

2-26-13 Eating Japanese style :)

2-27-13 Talk about stress, Uhal called at 1 today to tell us that even though we reserved a truck 3 weeks ago, they weren't going to have one available for us. Gah!! We were supposed to pick it up at 8am tomorrow morning. After 2 men calling for 2 hours we FINALLY got a truck, (the one we reserved) but we have to drive to Mount Hope for it, and they aren't too happy about it. Really!! This is your job, that we have to do for you, because YOU didn't do what you promised to! Grr. Oh and Brayden has ear infection #4 in 2 months. Awesome. And BREATHE!!!

Took these cuties shopping with me.  Fun girls.  There are soo many people we love and will miss from here!!  I wish I had taken more pictures of everyone!

2-28-13 Logan and two of his buddies wrapped in packing plastic :) Love these two families!!