firsts

the kids started school.

I don't know who was more nervous- me or them. They have all adjusted fairly well-some of them making friends a little more quickly than others. The first day G and J were suppose to start, G woke up with an upset stomach, so she went alone. G threw up 3 times that day, had a recoup day the following day, then went to school Wednesday. 

 the kids have been dying for watermelon- a family favorite. i was happy to oblige when i saw it at costco. nothing better than watermelon on a sunshiny day!

 we drove to the top of the local mountain range by us. 10,800 feet. amazing views. 

the kids wanted to stay up there and explore for ages, there was still some snow left-we can't wait for it to all melt. we are excited to create many family cookout memories.

it's been a long time since we've had views like these.

excited to see what NM has to offer!

where'd we go...and how we got there

saying goodbye to our stuff and hoping it makes it to our new destination okay.

sunday before we left. bitter cold.

freezing temps, blowing snow. so cold.

first few hours of our drive we hit a white out snow storm. it actually wasn't snowing particularly hard, just foggy, made for not ideal driving conditions. a couple parts of the drive we could only see about 10 feet in front of us.

glad we made it through quickly without any harm.

 yes, it was so cold. this was without windchill.

with windchill it was around -18

 we drove through st. louis and got to see the arch

 and busch stadium.

pretty cool.

i didn't take a lot of other pictures. the kids travelled great. the older boys were with my sister and her husband (YES! saints to fly out to be with us and help us drive our cars and family across the country.)

It was so nice that they got to meet some of our friends.

one of my great friends also made treat bags for each of us with our favorite snacks, healthy and unhealthy, candy and drinks. so thoughtful and so amazing. definitely helped the drive go by. there were so many times when corey or i were needing a snack and i'd reach in the bags she packed and pull out little surprise treats. so kind. thanks Jen and kids!

 we made it to New Mexico

 pulled up to our new house. kids were so excited to explore.

we couldn't too much because we weren't moving in until the next day and we didn't know if the owners were still there.

 we moved in on saturday.

it took 12 guys about 1 1/2 hours to unload our stuff. it was great

the kids took by phone and started taking pics of everything. 

heres our back yard with amazing views of the mountains.

 this is the other things the kids are constantly laughing at- tumbleweeds. they think it is hysterical that we live in the desert and there really are tumbleweeds that blow across the road constantly. a huge one blew in front of our car while i was driving and they were all chanting to run it over.

 bucket that catches rain water and distributes it to our plants.

 more tumbleweeds. ;)

 this is what i love. view of the mountains. every morning.

 a few days after we got here. it snowed. boo! it had been 70 the week before. school was cancelled. everyone was excited. everyone except our family. 

people kept asking if we were loving the snow. i kept thinking don't they realize we just left 3 months of snow and cold. we were in a frigid zone. negative numbers for 2 weeks. our pipes had been frozen. it was cold. 

i was looking forward to some warmth...

we shall see ;) stay tuned

our peeps

these are some of the people we had to leave behind.

it really is horrible saying goodbye who people you have come to love.

they have become your support system and your surrogate family.

it is horrible saying goodbye.

it seems like there are few times when both husbands and wives get along. 

this was one family that we did. 

our hubbies would go on man dates every time we got together. somehow the moms only got to get pedicures once.

this is one family who i will miss so much. more than so much. infinitesemely.

why is this picture of me so hideous. you would have thought i had been cleaning and packing all day... oh wait, i was. but then, so was my sidekick. she looks a lot better. probably because she is so much younger. ;)

i am going to miss this gal so much. we met within a month of us moving into buffalo. we had so much in common. my husband helped them move in and when he came home he said you are going to love this girl who just moved in. i kept asking him why and he just kept saying you will. 

and i did/do.

we are the funniest pair. ever. we laugh at each other's awesome jokes. we both love gummi candy. I overlook the fact that she doesn't like warm cookies. i mean really, who doesn't love warm cookies. is there anything better in life than a warm cookie. nope. anyway, we explored buffalo together, swapped kids a couple times. i witnessed our first fist fight during one of those swaps ;) boys will be boys. we went to the beach together. camped together.  explored upstate NY together. this is a friendship that will last well past forever. 

we've already betrothed our heavenly children to each other ;)

she kept me laughing.

it was hard leaving buffalo, but i knew we would be only 4 hours away. 

this was so hard, knowing we are 2,000 miles apart.

 another family who we will miss so much. they became our surrogate pa family. we had kids the same age who became like siblings.

somehow i managed to get no pictures of parents....

saying goodbye stinks.

we are going to miss this family so much. they are going through a particularly hard time right now and it kills me that i can't be there to help out. 

this family is one of the kindest, most generous, giving families i have ever had the pleasure of meeting. we spent a week in the OBX with them (not knowing them that well before hand) and we became fast friends. food friends. we all loved to cook and make dessert together. we swapped kids so many times. they BBQ'd for us. our kids always wanted to get together. we spent a lot of our time together. the moms spent lots of time shopping, eating, getting pedicures, costco runs..all of that was made possible by her kind husband who would babysit kids. i am going to miss her so much.  it was horrible saying goodbye. they are a family/friends that we always knew we could count on. the live and love the gospel. i can't say enough good about this family and feel so blessed that they were in our lives. 

it's horrible saying goodbye.

there are so many other amazing friends that somehow i didn't get pictures with before we left. so many families who have touched our lives-fullers (some of our first friends in PA, who's kids i love- who helped be through a difficult time), bowies (who moved in a few years ago. we are food friends soul sisters), balukoffs (secure and constant friend. never hard, always easy), pitcavages(so funny, so giving and caring),   bensons (amazing couple full of joy, love and wisdom), baers(so funny, BEST NYC girls trip) , I could write paragraphs on each of these families, but i'll spare you. there were also so many new people who had just moved in who we were getting to know. we made so many amazing friends. it was hard leaving. we will treasure our memories and what a lovely amazing time we had in pa. i think it's the people that made a difference. thanks for touching our lives and hearts. 

we are better people for having known you.

leaving

i might as well label this post ripping my heart out, stomping on it, spitting on it, and then leaving it in PA.

How do you express in words leaving  a place you have grown to love, Where you made amazing friends who were as close as family, going through so many things as a family, building a home in the beautiful country and relocating 2,000 miles away. I know we will never live in the East again. That is a chapter in our book of life that has closed and will never re open. I  made friendships with people that will last a lifetime and longer. They have touched my heart and my life for the better. PA will definitely hold a special place in my heart.

where to start.....

last october c and i were talking in the kitchen. I mentioned that i was no longer feeling settled (even though we had just built a house less than a year previous). he mentioned he was feeling the same. he put a message on Facebook to a friend we met in NY. his friend got back to us and said that the job he was working at weren't hiring. we said we weren't in any hurry, but to keep us in mind in a few years. he contacted him a few days later and told him they were hiring two people and to get his CV in quick! We sent it over, and next thing we know we are on a plane 1 day after J's birthday-5 days before her baptism. The interview went well and the lady said it was nothing official yet, but to start getting his credentialing going. we got back the night before J's baptism (good thing Heavenly Father was directing me to get things ready weeks in advance).

They called 4 days later and officially offered him the job. 

It was a range of emotions. Really! we just built this house. we weren't even looking to move. we love PA and our grassy lot. But we felt the Lord guiding us. We put our house on realtor.com- we had met with 2 agents who didn't sound too hopeful that our house would sell before 6 months. We had an offer in 3 weeks. The buyer actually contacted me three days after the posting. All his credentialing went through. We made it back to NM and found a great house that is perfect for our family.

We had some bumps the last little bit before we left ( pipes freezing and flooding our kitchen, an amazing friend's son being diagnosed with lymphoma..) things that definitely made it more stressful, but we know that this is where we are suppose to be.

it was so hard saying goodbye. there aren't adequate words to describe it.

i will miss our house and land. i loved the 3 mile loop to run on that went around our house.

i will miss this cook top. so bad.

this was my favorite area in the house. this kitchen/family room area. it was the hub of the home. i loved cooking for my family and having people over. i loved looking out the windows in my kitchen, seeing the green and the hills, and occasional deer that would venture through our yard.

my perfect pantry (not perfect in cleanliness, just size- love it)

this was our toy room right off the family room. perfect place for kids to play close to the family.

b's room

g's room

k's room

the girls room

our master

love this toasty shower

i loved watching the sunrises out our back porch. favorite things

part of the three mile loop around our house. amazing views.

loved having fires out here at night. 

view from front yard. amazing. 

i was so skeptical of moving out and living in the country. 

i loved it. everyday. never got tired of it. 

things i am going to miss;

amazing friends, wegmans (if you don't know it, i'm sorry), PA foods; soft pretzels, home-brewed birch beer, pirogues, seeing amish buggies- love that), Knoebels- amazing amusement park, small town feel, rollings hills and farm land, FIREFLIES, hershey, humble kind people, jack and barb (our sweet neighbors in town), being 3 hours from DC/NYC/gettysburg, trees and green. 

our time in PA was blessed by so many people. teachers, friends, church members. they have left an impression on me and on my kids. we will always be influenced by them.

we grew so much as a family. b and c both joined our family in Pa. We had a couple ER visits (k using a knife and B hitting his chin). B and C got up to so much mischief in our house. wow. from flour to syrup to toilets. oh, the memories. we had so many fun adventures and such a great time exploring. i felt like we utilized our time in the east. we couldn't have gone or done more.
i know that we are where Heavenly Father wants us to be. it doesn't make leaving easy, but it makes me happy knowing that we are following the Lord's promptings.
thanks for shaping my life and for the memories.

we will miss you PA!