Good Bye New Mexico!

 Last month we loading up everything we own and said good bye 

to Albuquerque, our home for the last two years.

We are grateful for the experiences and strength we gained from heading out on our own 

so far away from family, friends and anyway that we know.

We made some amazing friends, who I hope we will stay in touch with for the rest of our lives.

...

Here we are all loaded up and ready to go.

(Compare to the picture of us leaving Rexburg two years ago.)

 

Our awesome brother-in-law Justin flew down to help us move.

It was great to have the extra help and driver.

Justin is one of Sean's best friends so we're so excited to live so close to him now

(He and Sean's sister Michelle and their two kids live a mile from us here in West Jordan).

And here's us with the Blackers.

Nathan and Lizi were the best neighbors ever!

Lizi and I hung out pretty much daily.

Our kids loved each other and she was my best friend.

I already miss her!

 

The drive went smoothly.

Lexi threw up all over herself.

Our check engine light turned on once which worried us a little.

But other than that it was just a really long, boring drive.

...

Once we got to Utah we had so much help moving in.

We had family and friends help us move in, unpack and organize.

Yeah, we have AMAZING friends!

...

Here is a picture of our new living room.

 

And our new kitchen.

 

And the most exciting part of our new place, our own laundry room with a washer and dryer!!!

 Moving was exhausting. For everyone!

 We are so happy to be here in Utah.

It has felt like we're on vacation because we have been having so much fun

 and hanging out with so much family and friends.

We love our apartment. 

I will have to post some pictures soon (but first I have to make it picture worthy).

...

And most of all, I'm so grateful the move from New Mexico was a million times better than 

the move to New Mexico.

Moving Makes Life Crazy

We have an apartment to live in.

It's about a mile from Michelle and Justin's house.
There is a big grass area in the middle.

And a great playground and pool.

For now we've reserved a 2 bedroom/ 1 bath but if a 2 bath becomes available we get it.
Either way, I'm happy.
We are finally going to have a washer and dyer.
And we're gaining tons of square footage.

We also reserved our moving truck.

We're going with Penske this time.
And we finally broke down and bought boxes.
We were trying to get free ones at the local grocery stores and had no luck.
So we went to Lowes and got amazing boxes for such a good deal.
We are going there from now on.
...
In the meantime, I feel like all I do is pack and sort out stuff to take to the Goodwill.
These are the boxes I packed this past Saturday.
It doesn't look like much but it took me all day.

And to add to the craziness that is my life right now...

Did you notice 4 children under the age of 4?
Yep, I was asked to watch these two kids from our ward for two weeks.
It's making my life A LOT more exhausting but I'm getting paid and moving ain't cheap.
...
Moral of the story.
DON'T MOVE!!!

Goodbye Jaylen

The week before we went to Utah we found out that our friends, the Edgley's,

were moving to Seattle.

We also found out that they would be moving while we were in Utah.

Yeah, they moved really fast.

I knew Lexi would be so sad to see Jaylen go. He's her best friend. We saw him everyday.

...

Everyday at noon we get together with several women from church and eat lunch.

The school district does free lunch for all kids 1-18 years old.

So we all get together, the kids eat lunch and we hang out. It's awesome!

Here are all the kids in our group. I should have got a picture of us five moms too.

This was our last "picnic lunch" with Jaylen, his little brother Gavin and their mom Cera.

The night before we left for Utah, we hung out with the Edgley's and said goodbye.

And of course, took pictures...

Cera really was one of my best friends here in Albuquerque.

She lived in the apartment complex next to mine.

We would take our kids on walks together several times a week.

If I ever needed someone to watch my girls she was there and I would watch her boys for her.

We worked in the Young Women's program together at church.

And our husbands Sean and Aaron worked in the Young Men's program together.

We did picnic lunch together and swim lessons for our kids.

Saying goodbye to Cera felt like being in Rexburg all over again,

where our friends were always moving.

But unlike many my Rexburg friends, I know I will see Cera again because

every time we go back to Washington to visit our parents we will be able to go see them.

The night we went to say goodbye, Lexi and Jaylen cuddled in bed together.

They really do like each other but perhaps it's best we spilt them up before they are teenagers.

Haha.
Since Jaylen has left Lexi has referred to him as her best friend and even been quoting him.

It's Been a Year!

June 1st was our year mark in Albuquerque.

A year has past since our AWFUL, HORRIBLE, TERRIBLE MOVE.

A lot has happened since then.

My girls have changed so much!

Just look at pictures of them from a year ago,

they are totally different kids!

Living in New Mexico has been really good for us.

We have faced some big challenges and been forced to grow and rely on the Lord.

Sean and I have become an even better team.

We have made so many amazing friends and meet people we will never forget.

And we have loved the warm sunshine.

We don't plan on staying here in the Duke City forever, just a few years.

So we are excited to make the most of our time in the Land of Enchantment.

I'm excited to see what exciting things this next year has in store for us...

(Sorry no pictures. But if you click on the links there are pictures.)

Pictures of Our New Home

So we've lived in Albuquerque for 2 1/2 weeks now. We are no longer living in a maze of boxes. Most things have a place and our apartment is feeling like home. Now all I need to do is finish decorating. I figure I'll just share pictures now and not wait until I'm satisfied with everything (that will probably never happen since I am always changing my mind).

First we have the living room. It's a long room with an awkwardly placed closet but it works. It's easily twice the size of our old living room so we love it!


We got my sister-in-law's old entertainment center which works great for us. Thanks Michelle!

This wall above the couch troubles me. Who in their right mind would put the thermostat in the middle of the wall!? I have no idea what I'm going to do to decorate around it. Any ideas?
And this is our dinning room/ office area. It's a great size. We were able to put our chest with a bench on it up against the window. So now we easily have sitting for six at the table.

Our kitchen is tiny but we have the biggest pantry closet in the hall so that makes up for the small size. My favorite thing about the kitchen is that there is a doorway to get into it which means I can block Lexi out with a baby gate!


Since I first took the pictures of the kitchen, I've put up some of my license plate collection. It adds some color.
Lexi has her own room for now. Eventually, I want to move Avery in with her. For now Lexi is still in the crib. When I'm ready (and when they are) Lexi will go into the toddler bed and Avery will go into the crib.

I love Lexi's room. It's over double the size of her old one. She actually has room to play. Her closet is huge so we use it as our storage closet for all our random things that don't have a place.
Our bathroom is tiny but we don't mind. I'd rather have the square footage somewhere else.
We have TONS of storage space in our bathroom though which is perfect for all our stuff.
And last our the tour is our room (and Avery's room too for now)...

Pictures From the Move

I figured I needed to post some pictures of my last post. Here is a picture of us in front of our huge moving truck and our Rexburg apartment...

Lexi's favorite part of the trip was definitely stopping to see her cousins Halle and Parker...



And Lexi's favorite part about our new home is that it's bigger and that she has been reunited with all her toys that I packed up. She was so excited to see her rocking horse again...

Right before we move we bought this swing on Craig's List and I'm so glad we did. Avery has spent a lot of time in it while we packed and unpacked...

Avery's eyes are starting to get lighter. Some days I think they will be blue like Sean's or Lexi's and other days I think they will be green like mine. What do you think?

And some pictures of the girls from earlier this week. You'll notice that yes they are matching. And yes, I planned that. I love it when they match...

THE WORST MOVE EVER!!!

I'm happy to report that we made it to Albuquerque and are now living in our new apartment. We are grateful to finally be here, especially after the horrible move! Things just did not go as planned with this move, at all!

Budget messed up our moving truck reservations. We originally scheduled to pick up our truck two Saturday's ago. But were informed that they weren't opened on Saturday's. So when Sean went to pick up the truck on Friday, he was not excited to find out the the 16 foot truck that we reserved was no longer available. All that was left was a 24 foot truck. I really don't understand what's the point of scheduling if none of it matters.

Sean started loading up the truck Friday night and then we spent ALL Saturday loading up the truck cleaning. It was such a horrible, long day!!! Luckily we did get a little bit of help but not much because it was pretty much the worst weekend to move. It seemed like everyone was out of town celebrating Memorial Day.

Sunday morning we drove out of Rexburg. We both got emotional leaving town. I had tears in my eyes on the highway as I saw the Rexburg temple fade away in the distance. We LOVE Rexburg. We have so many wonderful memories there. That's where we've lived the majority of our marriage, that's where both of our girls were born and that's where we met so many wonderful friends.

So Sunday we went as far as West Jordan, just outside of Salt Lake and stayed with Sean's sister Michelle and her family. It was just a quick stop because Monday afernoon we were on the road again. Our plan was to drive 4 1/2 hours to Monticello Utah. We went 2 1/2 hours to Price and stopped to eat. Then we got back on the road. Halfway in between Price and Green River (which is basically saying in the middle of no where) I noticed that our car was making a funny sound. I turned off the music so I could listen. I noticed that it made the sound every time I hit the gas. I tried to maintain 65 MPH but couldn't without having the car making that funny sound. Suddenly, I started panicking and bawling. It didn't take long before I couldn't maintain a speed of 50 then 40 MPH and that's when I knew something was seriously wrong. Sean was driving the moving truck a head of me. He realized that I was falling behind and pulled off to the side of the road and I eventually made it up to where he was and pulled over too.

But the time Sean made it to me I was hysterical. I was crying so hard and I couldn't even talk. Sean looked under the hood and realized that our car overheated and saw liquids all over. We knew we needed help but unfortunately we were in the worst possible place, we were in the middle of the countryside with no cell phone reception. After waiting awhile to see if someone would stop and hopefully have reception (no one stopped), Sean drove off in the moving truck to go find reception. He said he got emotional driving off leaving us there. Eventually he was able to stop and call his dad who called the police. To make a long story short, we waited on the side of the road for just over FOUR hours before we were able to get a tow truck to come. And then we had to make the journey to Green River. We luckily found an open hotel room (not the one that we had already booked for the night over two hours away in Monticello). Needless to say, it was a nightmare of an evening. Just imagine being left alone in your car with no connection to the outside world with a hungry, energetic nearly two year old and a newborn. Yeah, I felt hopeless.

Tuesday morning Sean walked to the shop where our car was and was told the awful news that our engine needs to be replaced!!! Just to get the part there will be so expensive and then there is the cost of labor! (Let me just add that before this trip we got two new tires, our brakes inspected, oil changed and the whole car looked over just to be safe). I sat on the bed in our cheap hotel room that morning and bawled again. We didn't know what to do. Sean almost started crying too. We talked about all our options including leaving me and the girls there until Sean could came back for us. The idea of being left there made me feel depressed and scared. Green River has about 800 people living there I was told but from what we saw the whole town looked abandoned and run down. Finally after talking to our parents we decided that the best option was just to leave our car there and figure out what to do with it later. So we emptied our car and squished into the cab of the moving truck. (This is when we became grateful for the goof up with the moving truck because the original truck we reserved only had two seat and the truck we actually got had three). Sean drove, Lexi sat in the middle and I held Avery in my arms. I had a prayer in my heart the entire drive that Avery would especially be protected. It terrified me that she wasn't in a car seat.

So Tuesday we made the rest of the drive. It was horrible. Lexi was bored and tired and Sean and I were stressed and overwhelmed. We made it to our new apartment complex around 10:30 pm. Luckily our managers agreed to leave the door unlocked so that we could move in that night. When we pulled into the parking lot we were greeted by five people from our new ward. I cannot explain how amazing it felt to have them there waiting for us so late at night. Pat, my new RS president hugged me and held Avery for me. She was exactly what I needed. They stayed until a 12:30 am and helped unload about 5/6 of our stuff!!!

Last Wednesday, Sean finished unloading our truck. An old retired man from our new ward drove Sean to the airport to pick up our rental car (We are so grateful that Sean just turned 25 and is able to rent a car). And then we dropped off our moving truck. It felt so good to get rid of that thing! Since then I have been unpacking and Sean has been getting to know the car dealerships in Albuquerque. We our trying to work with our warranty company to get the Elantra fixed but in the meantime we are going to have to buy another car (something we have been planning on doing but just not so soon). Oh and did I mention that since we've been here Lexi and I have both been sick (the throwing up kind of sick). Yeah, I was so sick on this past Sunday that I couldn't go to church. I was so upset. I had been looking forward to finally getting out of the apartment and meeting new people. I haven't really gone out much (lack of a car doesn't help and the fact that ABQ is in the middle of a huge heat wave doesn't help either).

Holy cow this is turning into a novel. I suppose I should end with something positive. Sean started his new job yesterday and loved it! And I survived my first day as stay-at-home mother of two!

We're Moving SOON!!!

Just before the new year, Sean got a job offer in Albuquerque, New Mexico. We excitedly accepted. Sean will be auditing for the Department of Defense. This is a fantastic job offer. There is job security and set raises with the government plus they are paying for grad school. We both feel that this is the right thing for our family. We have never been to ABQ or to NM for that matter but we're excited to move there and start this new chapter in our lives.

Today we picked Sean's start date, June 7th. We are planning on moving the end of May and moving in to our new apartment the beginning of June. Things are finally starting to seem real. We are looking more seriously at apartments and think we might have found the one! All the apartments that we're considering have playgrounds and pools which will be amazing, especially for Lexi. Now we just have to sell some of our furniture, finish packing (luckily I started the packing process when we first got the job offer) and find someone to take over our apartment contract here. And and we still need to have the baby!

And because I know you're all curious, here are some fun Albuquerque facts:

It is a high desert climate. The population of the city itself is just over 500,00 and the metro area is about 800,000. The average home cost is about $200,000. There are over 300 sunny days a year. The average temperature in July is about 90 degrees and 50 in January. There are three Costco's in the metro area. ABQ is home to the world's longest arial tramway and home to the Albuquerque International Ballon Fiesta in October (which we're so excited for). And importantly there is a temple there too.

And here are a few pictures...