Stubborn!

The other morning Caleb was fighting me to get dressed, he just wanted to go around like this! If we weren't going anywhere I would have let him stay like this:)

 Chase wanted in on the picture action as well and he wanted to put on Caleb's slippers so Caleb put on his shoes.

 The kids have had a lot of boxes to play with lately. They don't need toys just an empty box!

Moving Weekend Adventure

I did the packing but we had a moving company come and do the rest. It was awesome to have other people load up all our stuff and take it to Montana for us. I don't think I'll move any other way now. The  truck came at 8:30am and they were all done by 11:45 am!  The truck was loaded April 27, we left on the 28 and we moved into our new house on the 29. 

This was before the truck came..

 No crib to sleep in so he made himself comfortable on the window bench for a nap!

 The kids didn't grasp that the moving truck would be taking all of our stuff except for some over night things until it actually was all gone. They were so excited to be "camping" in our house and loved it. The girls slept in one room while the boys slept in another.

 Having some muffins for breakfast on the floor!

Utah Home- Good memories!

 So the drive from Utah to our Montana house is 5 1/2 hours if you don't stop. It took us 8 hours with the kids and they did pretty good. Steve would take one of the kids with him in his car and I had 2 others and when we would stop for a break we would switch who got to ride with Dad. The first half of the journey looked like this.....(I love that Caleb has drool bubbles!)

 We stopped for lunch at Wendy's and the kids had these fun glasses in their kids meal.

 The kids were most excited about staying in a hotel and couldn't wait to go swimming.

 We signed papers for our new house at 9:30 am but had to wait until it was all recorded and official to get keys. The moving truck was already at our house waiting to get in and all went smoothly. Caleb found another spot of floor to take his nap Friday afternoon while the truck was being unloaded.

Front room of disaster!

It's now been just over 2 weeks and our house is looking pretty well put together. We can park one car in the garage and I think we have found most everything. Makenna started her new school that very first Monday and seems to like it. She can ride the bus here and has really enjoyed that! Steve is so much happier at work and enjoys his new job. Now we need to find some good friends for all of us!

Before the Move

We were able to get together with Steve's family the night before we moved and go to dinner. These hooligans were running all over except for this quick picture!

Makenna, Clark, Chase

We love our friends and we spent a lot of time with them before we moved away. The kids are so cute and gave each other going away presents.

Chase and William are the cutest. Our last lunch date together for awhile. We always seemed to see William and Katrina on Wednesdays and we loved it!!

 I love these ladies so much!!

 This picture warms my heart. The Wed before we moved the YW of the ward had their fundraiser dinner so we went and they had cute picture props around the table. Makenna's face makes me laugh!

Chase, Liv, Makenna, Tori

Moving Experience

I wanted to write down our family journey for the past 8 months and I'm a terrible journal writer so it's going on the blog. I don't want to forget this past experience, so here it goes.
Really this story begins 5 1/2 years ago when Steve lost his job at Cream O'Weber. He was in sales for the company in the Cache Valley area and it was a great job. Well then the company went out of business and Steve was able to be hired for Meadow Gold but as a route driver. We were grateful for a job but knew that this would be a temporary job. We moved to Kaysville and continued on with life. We always thought Steve would move up in the company and it would be in Salt Lake (Salt Lake is the biggest branch for the company) or he would be able to find something different for sure in Salt Lake!
Well Steve has been looking for something different ever since we moved. He hasn't been able to find another job and moving within the company hadn't been working out for him until last summer. Steve was offered to be the route supervisor over the drivers in Montana. Montana!!! I hate moving and had no intention of ever moving again. I loved where we lived! We had great neighbors, friends, family close by- I loved it! But this was a great opportunity for Steve. So after discussing with each other about it, a lot and praying we felt like this is what our family was supposed to do.
We put our house up for sell in August and Steve came up to Montana at the end of September to start his new job. I stayed with the kids in Utah until our house sold. It was an uphill battle to sell our house. If I could do it again I would just wait until after Christmas to put our house on the market. It was slow and not the best time to sell. After New Years it really picked up and we got an offer in mid-February and we would close in March. We had found a house in Montana and things were going smooth to have everything come together. But the man wanting to buy our house pulled out 10 days before we were to close! Luckily we got another offer the next day so we were able to extend closing on our house in Montana. We finally moved April 28 and closed on our house in Montana on the 29.
So for 8 months I got a glimpse of how hard being a single parent is. I am amazed at those who are single parents. I still had Steve providing for us financially and luckily we have phones and facetime. He would come home about every 3 weeks but it would only be for the weekend. He'd be home Friday night to Sunday afternoon and then would have to leave again. Single parenting is so hard and I now have a new perspective for those who have to do it alone. I definitely have learned some things from the past 8 months that I wouldn't have otherwise.

I learned the lesson again to not judge others You never know what people are going through and we need to give each other the benefit of the doubt. I know that I needed (and still do!) others compassion, kindness and forgiveness. I couldn't have done it without the help of others. Such good friends, family, neighbors, and our ward family. I hope I can be someone that others can rely on for help. That I can give help when I see someone else in need because we need each other to get through life's adventures! My testimony about trusting in the Lord was strengthened as well. Their were so many days where I was questioning our decision to move. I just figured that since we felt this was the right thing to do that it would all work out easily. That isn't always the case. I learned that just because it is the right thing to do doesn't mean it will be easy! We have to trust Heavenly Father in that things will work out in his own timing- and they do! If we take the time each day to pause we can see how the Lord is blessing us and He is aware of our needs! We were blessed so much! We have such good friends and family who would watch my kids when I needed. Good friends to be with and who helped keep me sane. Steve was blessed too. Work paid for a hotel for him until Christmas and then he would have to find something himself. He looked for apartments but nothing was working out and then he ran into one of his old co-workers who lives here in Montana and had some connections. So Steve was able to stay at an Assisted Living Center that rents out some of their extra rooms. It was cheap, warm, and furnished. We had so many blessings and I'm sure many that I wasn't even aware of.
I wouldn't change this past 8 months if I could. I became a different person (hopefully for the better) and am grateful for this challenge in my life and the things I learned.