Happy 6th Birthday Lucy

 How we love this girl!  We were so excited to celebrate her this weekend.  She is my Thanksgiving baby and it's always fun celebrating her around this holiday.  For her birthday we decided to take her to The American Girl Doll Store in Scottsdale for her birthday.  Just us girls went and the boys went to  Top Golf for the afternoon.  We went to the store and Lucy got to pick out any doll she wanted. She chose the Maryellen doll.  The perfect doll for Lucy because they both have that pretty red hair.
We then had lunch at the Cafe in the store.  It was so cute and perfect to have the girls dolls there with us!
We came home that evening and went out to dinner, and then came back home for cake and ice-cream.  We sure do love our little Buttercup!

Happy Thanksgiving

 We had our first Thanksgiving down in Arizona!  It was just our family this year and we actually really enjoyed it.  We heated the pool for the weekend so, the kids got to swim for a couple of days.  We got up in the morning watched the Macy's Thanksgiving parade and I starting cooking.  While we were  waiting for the food we took a walk around a beautiful park with some fun AZ Saguaros in them.  We made our way back home, had our dinner, and then got ready to go see a movie.  We went and saw the new movie Moana.  It was such a great day being together as a family!

Moving Day

 The day finally came that the moving truck arrived and it was time to move out.  It's always a stressful day getting everything ready to move.  We spent the day cleaning the house getting it ready for the new owners.  Also, trying to figure out what we needed to keep with us and not in the moving van.  The van could have taken a couple of days to get to AZ so, we were anticipating kind of camping in our new home down in AZ.
The time finally came to say good bye to our Veranda Court home.  There were lots of tears as we drove away.  The Olson family waved to us as we drove away from the circle.  We were now ready for our new adventure!
The next morning we started early and made the drive down to Gilbert in one day.  Mike drove our car with the 3 girls and then Jason, Max, and I drove Mike's work car down.  Max was a nightmare!  He barked all the way from SLC to Las Vegas!  Jason and I thought we were going to die.  After Vegas Max settled down and the drive was a little more peaceful.
We made it to our new home around 7:00 that night.  We laid out our sleeping bags and spent the first night in our new home.  The kids woke up the next day excited to explore the house and the new pool!  Our truck came that morning so, we did not have to wait to long to get our beds set up and start the process of moving in.  Tom and Cathy happen to be on vacation in Phoenix that week so they came and saw us.  Uncle Tom was the first person in the pool!
We moved in that weekend,and then that Monday the kids started school.  It was so hard for me to drop the kids off at their new schools.  It was especially hard to drop Jason off at a new junior high/high school.  I cried all the way home thinking about the hard day my kids would have.  But, the kids were strong and found some friends to eat lunch with and they were happy to go the next day.  Lucy also started all day Kindergarten in AZ which was a hard adjustment for me, but Lucy loved being there all day.
Moving is really hard!  Emotionally, physically, financially, but we did it!  The Lord really helped us through this time and made each step bearable for us.  It just all fell into place and we can't deny that this move was meant to be!

15 Years

 Love this guy so much!!  The best of times with him!