Living by family

 Since we are living in the West- we also happen to be closer to family.  Three hours from Athena and Ben in Portland, and 4 hours from Mark and Malinda in Boise.  Athena and Ben came and helped us unpack.  It was so fun to have them come! We celebrated Nayeli's birthday while they were here. Athena made a super cute cake!  

Emma was here, and so the kids slept out in the shed.  They froze.

Athena blogged about her trip- so I just copied and pasted this next part from her blog to  mine.  Why reinvent the wheel? 

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That evening after Ben got home from work, we packed up the car and drove to see my sister Emily and her family in Hermiston, Oregon. They just moved there from Florida since my brother-in-law Darren will be working as a nurse anesthetist. Anyway, I had told Emily that we would come and help unpack, move boxes, etc. It was a 4 hour drive so we got there late Friday night, chatted for a bit, then went to bed.

Saturday morning Nayeli was so excited to meet her cousins. She LOVES other kids and she especially loved Gabe. They are only 6 weeks apart.

 

Paul, Gabe and Nayeli. I can't get over Gabe's cheesy grin. So cute.

That afternoon we had lunch and then did a small party for Nayeli. She had requested a rainbow cake so my nephew Paul helped me make one I had seen on Pinterest. She loved it, mostly because it had "num-nums" aka Skittles on the top.

The inside of the cake. I was so pleased with how it turned out.

Isn't she the cutest? Ben had me make sure she was wearing this shirt to go with her rainbow cake. She's also got a thing for rainbows right now.

We had a great weekend hanging out and helping Emily and Darren. Actually Ben helped and I laid on the couch. Being 37 weeks pregnant made me pretty useless, but we still had a great time talking and enjoying each other. Besides, Emily and Darren are great hosts and it was so fun to see them since they've been living far away for so long. However our fun was short lived as we left early Sunday morning to be back for our 1 o'clock ward.-  Athena's Blog

Thanks  Athena and Ben for coming! It was so good to hang out!

When we moved in...

Like I said- moving is hard, so when our truck didn't show up, and we had HUGE complications with our cars getting transported out here- I was a little discouraged.  I've moved before- so I knew to expect complications- so I wasn't too distraught.  We had to stay in a hotel for a couple of nights in Hemiston while we waited for our moving van.  It ended up being a good thing because it gave us a couple of days to clean the house we were renting. - Here are some e-mails I sent my family while staying in the hotel.
March 23, 2014
  I am in Hermiston at a hotel and should be moving in today!  I feel a little bit out of place here.  I think  30% of the people are Hispanic.    If Naples was a 10 and Rigby was a 7, Hermiston is a 6. So it's not too bad,  but not great either.  All the neighbors houses can see in our back yard and I can see in all their yards- they are all close- I almost feel like its in the city. They left the house ok but didn't dust anything so the baseboards and windows and walls are all disgusting. We're going to go over this morning and clean before the moving truck gets there. They had too big German Shepherds in the house and yard so the yard is pretty torn up.  They had the carpets cleaned but there was still a dog hair everywhere so Darren rented a Rug Doctor and went over it all again. Maybe it's a good thing we didn't get the truck on Saturday because we have done a lot of cleaning to get the house ready. Darren started work Friday and actually got called in. He went in this morning 6 for his first full day. Derek and Emma have been fun to have a long. Yesterday for church I don't think any of us had a full church outfit.  Derek brought Jareds church pants and so when he put them on they came to his knees. He refused to take them off though. Emma came up with a great idea and told him to just wear his jeans over them. That worked great and we had a good time. I am excited to move in and think even though I feel uncomfortable and out of place right now I will end up really liking it here. Plus it's always very reassuring when you know you are where Heavenly father wants you to be. Love you all!
 March 24, 2014
 Hey everyone! 
Today went much better!  Darren started his first full day of work. It went great for him.  The 6 kids and i checked out of our hotel and came to the house to clean.  I felt much better after getting the house and yard cleaned up a little bit. I clean up dog poo in the yard for half an hour. After I was done Paul asked when we could get a dog. I told him it was the wrong time to ask. Lol  Darren got off work about 1 and the moving truck got here about 2. The missionaries came at 3 and a bunch of guys from the elders quarm came at 5. I can't tell you guys how nice it is to move from 1400 square feet to 2400 square feet!  And have a fenced yard! We met a neighbor family from the ward that lives 3 doors down.  He's an orthopedic surgeon and they said they really liked the neighborhood. So maybe I jumped the gun on saying it was ghetto- lol. I guess it's a ok neighborhood- pretty much like our Rigby neighborhood.  Anyways it feels great to be laying in my bed and not in a hotel room or someone elses house. I really think we're going to like it here actually I already really like it here. :-)
 
Here are some pictures of the backyard when we moved in. It was pretty torn up- we have done a lot to it and I'll post pictures soon.  I don't know why I didn't take any of the front yard- but I'll post some tomorrow.

Happily Overwhelmed

Where have I been? Happily Overwhelmed.  Seriously- moving is a lot of work and takes a long time to get your feet under you again.  I haven't even gotten mine yet.  I have unpacked- but I don't have everything hung up on the walls yet. There is always something- moving, school, vacation, summer- running a half marathon- (yes I did that!).  Anyways I have been so busy- I have put blogging on the back burner.  But I am ready to bring it to the front burner again.

So lets go back to moving here. Here are some pictures of the kids first day of school.  They all really liked their schools.  Paul even likes Middle School.

Here is Darren on one of his first days- with his boss, Russell.  They have become great friends and I am really good friends with his wife- so we love to hang out with their family.

Having a husband with a job might just be one of the best things in the world.  I feel sooo happy everyday that he goes to work.   After after 11 years of school it feels ...AMAZING!!