Our New Home!

Here is our new home!! Wahoo! I couldn't back up enough to get the whole house and yard all in one shot, so imagine these first three pictures all side by side and you get the idea of what it looks like.

Big side yard with lots of FRUIT trees! Yay!

Front of house

Other side-full size basketball court, and behind that another yard with a little jungle gym for B-rax

Close up of jungle gym. Braxton already loves it!

Pool in back of the house. We are loving this amenity, thats for sure!



Doesn't quite feel like "Home" yet, but it is starting to slowly as we get more settled in. I'm sure it will take awhile before it really feels like home. It is so nice being close to family again and being withing 3 miles of pretty much everything. I went to relief society for the first time this last Sunday and really enjoyed it. I think I am going to like this ward alot and will enjoy being friends with the women in it. Its definintely a different scenario than in Maricopa. Our ward out there was twice as big and had so many wonderful young couples our age with young families. Relief Society was just one big party with all my friends! Here, almost half the women are mothers of kids I went to school with. Interesting and weird to now be on their same level, but fun at the same time. There are only a few young families, and I haven't been able to meet anyone my age yet. Thats ok though, I am excited to be able to make friends with more "seasoned" women and see what wonderful lessons I can learn from being part of their lives.

New York was fun, and it is so beautiful there. It was nice to get away from this heat for awhile and enjoy the beauty of nature. Its nice to be back home though. We were able to go to Boston for a few days and spend some time with one of Justin's good buddies from his mission. I actually really enoyed it there. That was probably the highlight of the trip for me. Pics to come soon hopefully.

Bella's Blessing, Moving

We blessed Bella Rose in our home in Maricopa the Sunday before we moved. My family and a few close friends came and Justin gave a sweet blessing of happiness and health. It was more special to me because I finally got to dress my baby girl in the same dress that I was blessed in when I was a baby! I have been saving it for YEARS just for this day, and it was so neat to be able to finally use it and see how pretty she looked in it. I am glad we did it before we moved and went to New York (where I am now!) cause she would definitely have been too chunky for it if we had waited even another week or two. She BARELY fit, my little chunky marshmellow. She's a beauty though, eh?

I can't get enough of her smile!

The move went well. It was a long weekend, but we had so much help from my family and some good friends and neighbors. We were completely packed up and out of our house within 3 1/2 hours, then had everything unloaded probably within an hour at the new house. Our friendly neighbor grabbed his boys and called the EQ prez of our new ward and with everyone's help it went so quickly. Many hands make light work, thats for sure! I am so grateful to everyone, especially my wonderful family, for all their help and hard work. They stayed for awhile after everything was unloaded to help unpack boxes and makes sure all the food and beds were set up and ready so we could at least sleep in peace that night in our new home. Then the next Monday, labor day, they spent all day helping us do yard work (a HUGE task with an acre of land!) to get the outside in decent shape. I don't know how anyone does something like this without family to help. How blessed we are for them!!

We are so excited to be in our new home and are already loving how close we are to family and, well, pretty much everything. I underestimated how much I was going to miss my Maricopa friends and the wonderful ward we have there though. Thats been the hardest part so far for me. Braxton seems to have adjusted well enough and loves his new big room and swimming pool and all the space he has to play in. Nursery in the new ward is going to be the biggest challenge, as he would barely even go into his old nursery where he knew everyone and had friends. Any suggestions on that one? Our next priority is to get a fence up around the yard so our dogs can run free and enjoy all the land we have. Until then, they are stuck in the "play room" with a doggie door that leads to the back patio. Pics of house coming soon!

B-rax, taking all the dvds off the racks that Justin has just so neatly organized. He had to stay busy somehow!

Me papa, enjoyin our lunch break

My wonderful mother and sister, orgazing my kitchen for me while I ram-rodded the setting up of the rest of the house

My brother Johnathan helping set up the living room

My brother Joseph, all tuckered out from the long day