Goodbyes...

We're still working on good-byes! Tomorrow is moving day for the kids and I. So many emotions flowing right now! So many people and things to say good-bye to. Last time here, last time there.... you get the point!

Here are the kids with Miss Yvonne - their daycare provider. She is wonderful and we'll miss her a ton! Thanks Yvonne for an amazing 2 years!! :)

Bryce got to have his 1st sleep over at our house with Sam. The boys had a great time!!! They are really going to miss each other.... but Sam's Nana and Papa live in Bryce's new home town.... so this isn't really good-bye!!! :)

They played a little game of football Sunday morning before Sam had to go home. I took a few videos for them to look back at in a few years!! So cute!

As I tried to get everything organized for our move, I washed the fabric to all the car seats and cleaned them out. (Still don't understand the use of the crevices in the plastic of the carseats - I know I vented about this in an earlier blog posting, but it's ridiculous!!!!! :) Jenna decided to create her own daycare center in the living room. She had all her babies in the seats and even a place for them to nap and eat! She also buckled herself in the seats NUMEROUS times and then could not get out on her own and would have to call for help! Silly girl!

The neighborhood boys enjoyed our last Sunday out running around the yards and having fun!

I love this "silly picture"!

Sunday night the girls and I went out for one last GNO. We went to get our nails done and then out for dinner. It was a great time!

I'll miss you all a bunch - but will definitely still be seeing you!!!!!!!!!! :)

Moving!!!

That's right --- we're moving!!!! I wish I would have made more time to blog during this process, but as you can imagine, things have been very busy and hectic.

For those of you that don't know the whole story.... I'll start from the beginning. On July 7th, we were notified that Cory would be losing his job. Wells Fargo Financial is closing the doors to all 638 Financial branches. Cory is the manager at the local branch. We were quite shocked by the news and a little overwhelmed about what was to come. We spent a lot of time talking about our future and where we wanted to go from here. We decided this would be the perfect opportunity for us to move "back home". We've always wanted to get there and raise our kids there... but the timing had never been right.... until now. Cory's job was what brought us here and what has kept us here. Now that his job is ending, we really felt it was time for us to follow our dream of moving home!

A month and a half later, here we are only a few days away from moving day!!! I accepted a new job and start on Sept 7th. Our house is on the market. We've had our going away party. We had a massive garage sale. We've started packing. It's almost time to say goodbye.

It's so weird how something I've wanted SOOOOO bad for SOOOOO long is so hard to do!! I am so excited about our move and what our future holds. I can't wait to spend more time with family & friends. But we have so much to say goodbye to here.

I remember moving away from the first house Cory and I owned. It was an older home and there were a lot of things I was looking forward to leaving!! ;) It was still hard though. At that time, Bryce was only 8 weeks old. Now, with this house, I think it's going to be even more difficult. It's the only house our kids have known. Those are THEIR rooms. All of their "firsts" have happened here in this house. It's our home.

It's sad and very hard. I'm fighting back the tears as I type this. BUUUUTTTTT... I know what we're gaining. I know our future is bright and this whole situation is a blessing in disguise for our family. We are going home to raise our kids with the people we love, in the town we love and the town that has always held our hearts! Our kids will get to have some of the same teachers that Cory and I did!!! They will get to go on some of the same field trips to the post office, the grocery store and city hall that we did. As teenagers, they may even be pulled over by some of the same cops that we were!!! :) They are going to get to spend a lot of precious time with their grandparents and great grandparents!! They will grow up with a lot of their cousins! They will form the kind of bonds and friendships that Cory and I are sooo blessed to have! My excitement is strong and I think the kids are feeling the excitement of this move.

But before we're able to get there.... we have to say goodbye.

These are some of the people we're having such a hard time saying goodbye to! We've built strong friendships over the last 5 years and we will miss our neighbors and friends sooo much! Thank you for all the memories and good times! I truly hope there will be more to come!!!

Here are some pictures of our house.

I will be back to blog about the goodbyes and the hellos that will come over the next week or 2. Lots of changes right now.... but change is good. :)

July in Review

July has flown by! It's been a busy month and I wish I was doing better at keeping up with my blogging, but will give you a few updates on what we've been doing.

Early this month, we took all our neighbors "home" with us for our neighborhood annual camping trip. We call it CWNK (Camping with no kids)! :)

We had a great time showing them where we came from and why we love vising so much!

Cory's aunt & uncle took us out on their houseboat! What a FUN day!

All in all, CWNK 2010 was a huge success and everyone wants to do a repeat next year!! Thanks to all our family & friends who helped show everyone a good time! They felt so welcomed and had an awesome weekend!

A few days later, we packed up again and headed on our annual family vacation to the Ozarks!

We did some boating, fishing, swimming, rode some go karts, went to a beach, out for ice cream, celebrated Bella's birthday, rode a helicopter and just enjoyed our time as a family!! :) Here are some pictures....

Vacation was a lot of fun and we created so many memories! We're already looking forward to next year!

Bryce has been busy with Baseball and Jenna is now in gymnastics! They are both loving it and it's helping to keep them busy this Summer!

It's been a busy Summer and I have a feeling things are going to be even busier over the next couple months! :)

Happy 4th of July!

Hope everyone had a happy and safe 4th of July!

We had a great weekend! We went to a beach on Saturday - it was such a GREAT time! The kids LOVED it and had so much fun playing in the sand & water!

I think Bryce had a little sand with his hotdog here! haha! He didn't seem to mind though! That's what being a kid is all about!! :)

Yes - it looks like we bought out Walmart on our way to the beach! We did get a few comments from people and it was quite the hassle carrying all of that in! haha! But we did use it all and had a blast doing so! Next time we wont' take so much though! You could totally tell we were "1st time beachers"!!!! :)

I love this picture of Jenna - she looks so precious!

We had so much fun at the beach on Saturday that we went back to a smaller, local beach on Sunday for a couple hours!

We had a great weekend spending time together, with friends, bbq-ing, roasting marshmellows, watching fireworks, etc!

Bryce Loves Baseball! :)

Bryce had his first T-ball game this week! We definitely have a LOVE FOR THE GAME in this house!! :) Here are a few pictures from game #1!

Have a great 4th of July!!

God bless the men & women fighting for our country! Support our troops!