we're here!

Last Saturday I woke up with the intentions of jumping in our van with all our kids and my sweet mom to drive up and meet Keith in Utah at our new home. ( he had driven up all of our stuff a couple days before to start unpacking before we arrived with the kids.) Well, the morning we were set to leave my dad last minute offered to take my place, drive our kids up to Utah with my mom, and send me off on a plane with Drew to get there a day ahead and help Keith out! ( I know, how awesome is that!)

I was so excited to get there, see the house ( which I hadn't seen yet) and start getting settled. I knew it would hit me at some point... the move and all. We had talked about the idea all summer, but it was never for sure until the very end. I kinda felt like the whole thing was pretty surreal, picking up and leaving Arizona and starting off on something totally new! Well, Keith picked me up from the airport and as we drove through our "new neighborhood" and pulled up to our "new house" I felt tears that I couldn't hold back. It hit me at that moment. Wow, I live here now! This is my new home. As Keith gave me the tour the tears continued. I kept reassuring him that I loved the house, but that everything was just sinking in and feeling real for the first time. Well, we knew the kids would be arriving that night with my parents so we didn't waste any time, we quickly got to work. As we started unpacking our things and getting the kids rooms ready for them to arrive all of those mixed emotions I was feeling quickly turned into feelings of excitement!

One of the first things I did was put our family pictures on the walls, that quickly helped it make it feel like home! I wish I would have taken a picture of the kids as they ran into the house late that night. They were screaming with excitement! The girls were SO EXCITED to have their own rooms, their own basement! One thing for sure, we were tight on space in our home in Phoenix! It's been nice to have a little room to spread out in!

We have already been here a week, it's been so great! The mountain views, the cool nights, the neighboorhood friends ( our doorbell is constantly ringing), time with family... we have seriously hardly gone inside! I mean we went for a picnic yesterday, in August! Amazing huh! (ask me how we're doing in February though) We have felt so welcomed by family and friends. Last night we were at a bbq for the thrid night in a row, getting home well after 10:00pm. That's pretty much how it's been since we've been here. One thing after another. Life just seemed to pick right up, just as usual. Tomorrow is the girls first day of school so those late nights are all about to change though. We've definetly been able to live up the last week of summer! I've no doubt were going to be very happy here!

I haven't taken many pictures since we've been here... but here's a few.

our view from the backyard, we're loving the mountains, and looking forward to many good hikes!

The first day the kids spent a couple hours weeding out the garden boxes, we were just thrilled to be able to be outside! Unfortunately we found out it's too late to plant anything, but next year!