The BIG Move

Andy signed out of Ft. Benning for the last time and made his way home on Friday, Feb 4th.  The time leading up to that is a blur of organizing, cleaning, coordinating, planning, packing.... no time to even think about the HUGE changes ahead.  No, at that time all I cared about was getting my hubby back!  It had been 17 looooong months and I was ready!  The movers had come and packed up the house the day before, and the truck had already come and taken everything away by the time he arrived, so we basically camped out in an empty house until Sunday.  We stayed because Owen's last Jr. Jazz game was Saturday, and it was nice for Andy to be able to see him play.  We also took the opportunity to celebrate birthdays for Jen, Whitney, and Shelbie before we left.

See ya on the other side, household goods!

Whit:

Jen:

Shelbie and the boys:

The next day Dorin and Tiff had a going away party for us at their house.  I wish I had taken more pics, but I'm glad I got this one of my kiddos and their second cousins, the Stueck kids.  These guys were great friends and my kiddos miss them like crazy!

Later that night we had the family stop by to say farewell one last time.  Don't mind all the red, swollen eyes.  It was very emotional..... (especially for me.  I hated leaving my brothers and their families!)

Dalton and Van had a close bond

Rasmussen Cousins

Miller Cousins

Carter and Shelbie, best buds!

Owen and Kade have always been like twins!

Me and my Bros

I got my hubby back!  And I get to keep him!  (for awhile!)

Owen's best friend Zach came to say good-bye too

And of course we had to say good-bye to these.....

On Sunday, Feb 6 we embarked on our new adventure.  Eastward-ho!  I didn't get a lot of pics on the road, as I was too busy keeping kids entertained and what-not. The first night we were lucky enough to be able to stay with my Uncle Troy and Aunt Christine near Greeley, CO.  It was Superbowl Sunday and we arrived just in time to see the second half.  I am so thankful to all my family that welcomed us in on our journey.  It was so great to see them and not have to deal with a bunch of hotels!  We ended up catching colds along the way as well, so parts of it (mostly Missouri) are a blur....   I was smart enough to remember to take in my camera when we stopped at my Grandma Fern's on Monday, however.

After we left Grandma Fern's on Monday afternoon, I HAD to stop by and visit my Gramps' gravesite.  I hadn't been there since the funeral in 2004 so I had never seen the headstone.  I left there a total wreck.  That probably explains my forgetting to take pics when we got to my Aunt Gaila's house that night.

Thank goodness we got to my Aunt's that night!  A nasty blizzard set in and we got snowed in there until early Wednesday morning.  Thank you so much, Aunt Gaila, for letting us crash your otherwise quiet household while we waited out the storm!  I am so thankful we weren't on the road when it hit, most of I-70 was totally shut down because of it.

We headed east again Wed morning and drove straight through Kansas and Missouri and stayed with Aunt Lez'lie and Uncle Stephen in their home on Scott AFB in IL that night.  It was so good to see them, it had been YEARS and they had just reassigned there the summer before from Hawaii. Thursday night we stayed in Knoxville, TN, the only night of our entire journey where we had to have a hotel, and then by Friday afternoon we had arrived at Fort Bragg!  The entire drive was fascinating, watching the landscape literally change hour by hour.... we left the mountains, went across the plains, and then through the Great Smoky mountains, to emerge here, in the Piedmont region of North Carolina.  We reached the Great Smoky mountains early in the morning; the kids were sleeping and the sun was rising while the mountains themselves were shrouded in a mysterious mist.  One of the most beautiful things I've ever seen..... I am really regretting not having the presence of mind to document the trip, so you'll have to take my word for it I guess!  =)  It was such a great trip, the kids were amazing and the time to reconnect with my husband was nothing short of fabulous.

Once we arrived here we checked into one of the hotels on post, where we lived for ten days while waiting for our new home to be ready.  Thank goodness we didn't have to stay there long.  It was tiny and we were driving each other crazy, I think!

So there you have it, that was our move!  A very lengthy post so if you made it this far, I'm impressed!!!

January 2011

January started off pretty mild.  Andy was still home on leave on New Year's Eve, so we just hung out with the kids and stayed up late watching movies.  Turns out we have a little dancer on our hands!  After watching Step Up 3 (or some number, can't remember which, the latest one!) Shelbie was inspired to do her own free style:

At the end of the night, this is how I found our girl:

Party Animal!!!!!

New Year's Day was Andy's last day at home, so we spent our day taking the kids snowboarding for their first time.  I was too busy having fun to get any pics of that, but rest assured we had a great time!  =)

A few weeks later Drew had to get his tonsils/adenoids out.  This was extremely stressful for me, right in the middle of Finals and planning a big move, I was stressed to the max worrying about my little guy.  Thankfully my mom and Mark came and spent the weekend with us.  Drew did amazing.  He was great about just relaxing and he didn't complain a bit!  Here is a pic of him just before we went to the hospital:

The rest of January was spent finishing up Finals and organizing the BIG MOVE.  There was so much work involved but thanks to great family and friends everything got done in the nick of time!

Christmas, 2010

For Christmas we were once again S-T-O-K-E-D to have Andy be able to come home and spend some time with us! This was his second Christmas since joining the Army and we were ready to be a family again.  The night he came home I caught this awesome pic of the kids "waiting up" for him:

Christmas Day was lots of fun!  We had all my family over that afternoon/evening and we had presents, good food, games, and rumor has it a certain Auntie sang carols with the kiddos, but I can neither confirm nor deny this..... ;-)

Christmas Eve we had spent with the Rasmussen's.  Dorin and Tiff's family and ours have a tradition of going shopping together for Toys For Tots.  Instead of buying presents for each other's families, we have each of the kids choose a toy they would like and we buy them and take them straight to the bin where the kiddos get to put them in.  Another tradition we share is getting together on Christmas Eve and making gingerbread houses, or cookies.  This year we decorated cookies.

I know, I know, another overload of pics, but we did SOOO much during this leave that I can't help myself!  I'll finish with some randoms of other things we did while Andy was home and then I swear I'll stop! =)

We met Santa....

 Made tons of treats.....

 Created a snowman and his dog.....

 and were all smiles on Christmas morning!

Halloween 2010 and an awesome sunset

Next up was Halloween.  The kids were bummed that it was their second Halloween in a row without Andy, but we had fun dressing up anyway! We went to Jen and Jason's and had dinner and went Trick or Treating in their neighborhood.  Unfortunately, Utah in October is very unpredictable and it ended up pouring freezing rain down on us!

All the ladies getting in on the fun:

 Miller Cousins:

A few nights later I was doing the dishes when I looked up and saw this beautiful scene.  I couldn't grab my camera fast enough!  Turned out pretty good, considering I was snapping through the window!

October 2010

Last October we were lucky enough to have Andy home for a little visit!  It only lasted four days, but boy were we glad to have him!  The kiddos hadn't seen him since Sep 2009..... Here are some pics of the fun we had!
The first order of business was to get some AMAZING new pics taken!  My old childhood friend is a fantastic photographer, don't you think?  This is just a small sample of the great shots we got from this session. Those of you in Utah interested in getting great pics, you can find him HERE

The next day, we had a combo birthday party for Andy, Jose, and Mark.  Here is some of the fun:

And finally, some random pics of other stuff we did that weekend!  (pic overload? I think YES!  but hey, it's fun!)  =)