A Move to Bring in the New Year

So, as most of you know, we spent New Years Weekend moving from Utah to southern California. My sister, Wendy, and Ty's brother, Brian, sacrificed and drove down to help us. It was such a blessing that they came! But it also made it very sad when they left. Here are some pics of our journey. (some are out of order but I'm too lazy to switch them)
Ty pulled out about an hour before we did:

Uncle David keeping Linds asleep while I got ready to go:Zoom in on your computer and you can see that this is the welcome to California sign. We almost missed it:
I had no idea that all of this part of California was so mountainous. (not quite sure that is a word) But it made for a pretty drive in:
Here are the awesome missionaries/priesthood from our ward that had the truck unloaded in about a half hour. They were awesome:
Here's Whitney seeing the apartment for the first time. She tells me all the time that she loves our new home:
Here's Lindsey enjoying the new space:
Out of order, but it was surreal to see these signs for the first time, it made it real that we were here.We partied it up with take-out from Chili's on New Years Eve. (Wendy and I may have fallen asleep shortly after this and missed ringing in the new year at midnight, but we won't dwell on that :-)
I love putting up decorations in bathrooms, not quite sure why, but I do:
Doesn't she know we are trying to put things away, not take them out?!
Here the girls' room was clean for 5 seconds:
The boys putting together the dining room table:
All-in-all it has been a pretty smooth move. I still need to get a few things and unpack some boxes. The master bedroom is the last thing I need to do. I'm procrastinating mainly because I don't know what to do with all of my clothes. I have way too many and I'm not sure where to put them all! Also, the calendar tells me one thing to wear and the weather tells me another. I can't bring myself to open the summer clothes box and wear those clothes in January. But the 60-80 degree weather makes me want to. I'm putting it off as long as I can. If I wear summer clothes in winter, what am I going to do when it really gets hot during summer? Well, sorry for the rambling...Happy Weekend!

Merry Christmas

So I know that I am delayed, but I thought I would finally post about Christmas. It was fun and fast and full of family! Here's just a few pics of our little fam:
Decorating the tree, this is Lindsey's contribution:


Since it is probably the only time we will be decorating a tree with Pap Pap, we let him and Whit put the star on the tree
Here is Christmas morning. Uncle David helped open presents, I absolutely love this picture and how she is looking at him:
Here's the girls playing with toys later:


I hope you had a great holiday season, filled with love and good food and good times! Merry Christmas!!!

Serenity

Today we went on a little adventure down to San Diego. My mom got us a membership to the San Diego Zoo, so we went there (pics later) and on our way home we stopped to see the temple for the first time. To say it is beautiful does do it justice. I've never felt like this looking at a temple before. We stopped to look at the grounds and here are some pics:


This is an oxymoron if I've ever seen one. It's January and there are beautiful bright flowers all over the ground and also there's Christmas lights! I don't know if I'll ever get used to it.






It was so neat, as we walked on the grounds I just felt this peace come over me. I've been very stressed with the move and we are surrounded by very populated cities and everything seems so fast moving. I loved to just sit and soak in the serenity and the spirit. I hope we can soon find a babysitter or at least tag team so we can go do some work there. I hope you can all take some time in your day to slow down and clear your mind, feel the peace and serenity.

Sunset Over the Pacific

Today I saw the Pacific ocean for the first time (I'll post more on that later), but I was on a high from that. I had to then drop off my sister Wendy at the airport. After that it hit me like a ton of bricks and I was so sad. On our way home the sun was setting and I couldn't help comparing it to my situation here in California. Part of it is so beautiful and exciting. It's vast and open. On the other side, it is dark and scary and so lonely. It's neverending. I'm hoping today is the end of this downward spiral and now that the goodbyes are over, things will get easier. I'm so grateful for our safety and the blessings we have already received! Thanks for everyone's support and love. Hopefully this aching pain will gradually dull and I can always look at the silver lining of things to come! Wish us luck, and I hope you are all doing well!

We made it

Well, sorry for the blog vacation, but I've been a little occupied to say the least. After a long drive we made it safely to our new apartment in California. We don't have internet yet so I just wanted to write a short post to say we' re here and we're adjusting. Happy New Year

Thanksgiving at Grandma's

I hope you all had a great Turkey Day yesterday! We rotate every year, and this we were with Ty's family. It is always fun to get away and make the 2 hour drive to Grandma's house. It was a fun day and there ended up being about 42 extended family members who came. Here are some pics from the day:

Whit got a new Christmas book for Thanksgiving:
Whit and her cousin Desmond just sat down before dinner and started playing at their table:
Ty and Tami preparing dessert:
My two little cuties. They were being weird so you just get a bunch of random pictures:
Family Picture:



We are lucky she didn't get pushed off the chair!
Here's everyone eating:

She got a little tired of being so far away from everyone:
The kids got to make gingerbread houses after dinner. It was a nice distraction while the adults got to talk and check out Black Friday ads:
Whit just wanted to eat the icing:


I hope you all had a great day. I love being surrounded by family, even if it isn't my original family. I love a holiday that involves chocolate satin pie, family and most importantly, gratitude. What do you love most about Thanksgiving?

Thanksgiving

Where has November gone?! I swear Halloween was last week. I love the holiday season, and I'm super excited for Thanksgiving this week. I decided that I will list a few of the things I'm grateful for today:
-An aunt who reprimanded me that I don't blog enough which prompted this post. (Love you Aunt Kathy. :-)
-A roof over our head.
-A healthy family.
-I get to see my sister tomorrow!
-Our car.
-The holiday season.
-My laptop.
-College Football.
-New furnace at my parents' house.
-Food, especially junk food.
-Wendy's response to my tweet.
-Season 7 of House my awesome Hubby just got me.
-Having the most important Christmas shopping done.
-Costco

It's totally random but this is how I'm feeling today. I'm grateful for so so much more, but I need to get two little ones ready for bed. I hope that you all have a fantastic holiday and feel grateful and love from others. :-)