Our new home

Ben and I came to Texas the begining on July and in 2 1/2 days looked at many beautiful homes. In our search we found the perfect floor plan for our family. We went to the builder and he said that he had a spec home that would be ready the middle of September. We put our deposit down and it has been a fight ever since to get it done (not because the builder has been difficult, but because there are no trades people to do the work... sound familiar Calgary). Needless to say our possesion date has been moved to end of Septemeber to end of October. Not going to happen. I have said it before, we have been blessed many times over in this move and this next opportunity is no different. The builder notified us that he had a house come on the market that is the exact same floor plan as the one that we were building... who's buyer has fallen through and we could have it in 10 days.....AMAZING!!!!!! So (sound the trumpets please)..... THIS IS OUR NEW HOME!!!!!!

 

 The back yard

 Bens favorite room in the house... the media room

 The master bed room

 The master bathroom that has the biggest closet I have ever seen in my life. Honestly my kids rooms were smaller than this closet. I don't understand how people could possibly fill it all.

 Bailee's room

 Lincoln's room

 Jackson and Harrisons room

 My favorite room in the house.... the kitchen

 View from the front enterance.

 

London does have a room also, but she wouldn't cooporate for a picture.

The front view of our home

Let the adventures begin

Me and the kids arrived in Houston on Friday. We surrvived the trip. I am eternally grateful for my mother-in-law who was willing to fly with my to Houston for the day. Our final tally for travel gear was:  10 suitcases/ 2 carry ons/ 4 car seats/ 1 stroller/ 5 children and 2 adults. It is amazing that we arrived with everyone and everything in tow.

Our Summer adventures

As a lot of people may know the kids and myself spent the month of July and August in Nampa Idaho visiting my in-law. The kids and I spent the days swimming and playing with their cousins and hanging out with granma and grandpa. Jackson became an avid farmer, helping grandpa collect corn and pick tomoatoes from their garden and Bailee helped to gather beans. They all became very good at shucking corn. Harrison was very helpful to grandma in cutting the corn off of the cob to freeze too.

When we arrived in Idaho Jackson could not swim on his own and Harrison was terrified of the water and wouldn't even get in. When we left a few days ago Harrison was jumping into the water and Jackson was swimming laps. Amazing what daily dates with the neighbourhood pool does :)

We also celebrated Lincolns 7th birthday with grandma and grandpa and all of his cousins.

London is growing up before our very eyes. She has fallen in love with shoes, lip gloss, purses and babies. She is quite the ham and makes us laugh on a daily basis.

We have had a lot of fun, but also miss all of our friends and family in Calgary. We have spent many hours infront of the computer skyping and trying to stay in touch with everyone what we can. I am hoping that this blog will help everyone keep up with us and we will be able to keep up with everyone else.

Here are a few pictures of our summer adventures.

 Harrison and Ali swinging at a park in downtown Boise.

 London and her shoes

 London feeding her baby

 Cousins at the zoo

 Bailee's very sore thumb. She gave evryone the thumbs up for weeks while it healed.

 Happy 7th birthday buddy!!!!

 The kids all in the most amazing tree. You can't see it in the picture but there are 2 tire swings on this tree. Every kids dream come true.

 Jackson shucking corn with papa.

 London getting ready to go swimming

Our new begining

For all of our friends in Calgary and Idaho and Utah.... I promised that I would start my blog again when we arrived in Texas... so here I am living up to that promise.

The internet in the apartment that we are staying in is extremely slow. I tried to load some photos, but I think that was a little too much for it to handle because it froze up on me. So I promise that I will add photos as soon as we get into our own place..... which will be in 10 days by the way (YES!!!!!!!).

We have already had many adventures in Houston. My mother-in-law flew with me to Houston and I am extremely grateful for her. I really don't think that I could have done it by myself (Final tally: 10 checked pieces of luggage, 4 carseat, 3 carry-ons, 5 children, and 2 adults). Thank you Charla!!!!!

Ben and I have had many blessings lately. We are very lucky to have such amazing friends and family. I don't know where to even start to thank everyone for the support that we have recieved. Thank you Calgary for taking such good care of Ben the last 6 weeks. Thank you mom and dad for being there to do everything that I was not there to do myself and to take care of Ben for me. Thank you to the Cranston ward for loving our family so much. Thank you to Charla and Dan for letting our 5 children and myself take over your house for 6 weeks. Thank you Andy, Kelly and girls for being our best friends and to Scott and Nicole and Lucy for playing with the kids and giving London a little cousin to learn to play with. I can say with 100% certainty that our Heavenly Father has had his hand in our lives, guiding my family, giving us strength when we thought that we had no more, for carrying us when we could go no further, for making us stronger through our triasl and triumphs. I will miss everyone that has touched my life over the last 7 years. We have learned that it is never good bye, just see you later. So I hope that I will see you all later (we will have plenty of room in our home for any passer-byers). I have told the kids that we are going on one big adventure hunt...so here is to many adventures and a new begining for our family. Thank you all.

Londons first steps!!!!

London took her first steps today!!!!! I was fortunate enough to catch them on video too. She was so proud of herself. We were so proud of her. Way to go London.

Here's the video so you all can watch them too!!!!!!!!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufnxMbXrdZo

Life lately

London has had countless tests and procedures done in the past 13 months. There was one left that they had not done yet. Her doctors had put off scoping her because they weren;t sure that they would find anything and did not want to risk her going under general anesthesia. Well the day came last week that they decided that this was the one and only test that they have not done and it is something that needed to be investigated. London was so good. We arrived at the hospital at 630am. London was taken to the OR at 515pm. It wa a VERY long day for her, but she was so good. We spent a lot of time walking around day surgery and talking to all the great nurses.

 We got the test results back yesterday. As expected, they all came back normal. Back to square one. We went to see Londons pediatritian yesterday, Dr Kelly, and he said that she looks great. So much more alert and healthier than he has EVER seen her look..... What an amazing compliment.

 London has discovered that she likes to hang out under the sink. Seriously I turn my back for one seconds and she heads for the sink. Her favorite thing is to sit there and knock everything out and onto the floor.

 We got London a helmet so that she can go for bike rides with us.

 A couple of weeks ago we thought that it would be fun to take the kids to Elbow fals for a picnic. It was gorgeous in Calgary and the snow had all melted, it was still gorgeous at the falls..... but the snow had not all melted.

 Only real Albertans have picnics in the snow...... the kids loved it.

 My baby turned 9 on April. Seriously. 9???? I can;t beleive how time has flown. I love you Bailee. You are turning into such a beautiful and grown up little girl. I can;t wait to see what the next 9 plus years bring.

 Bailee and her American Girl Doll... Taylor. She has been asking for one for 2 plus years. She was so excited when she opened the box. It has become her favorite new toy. She goes everywhere with her.

Spark

With it being Easter weekend, Ben has a few extra days off. We have been making a list of things that we need to see and do before we leave for Houston in December... the Science Centre being one of them. We went with a wonderful family in our ward, the Mulhollands. The kids has SO much fun... and so did we after the inital shock of the admission proce wore off ($90 for the family, a bit steep of you ask me).

We went to a presentation that they had on gases, and Bailee got to be one of the "helpers". Nice glasses!!!!! Here is a link to one of the experiements she assisted with.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8D0uUVHQgp0

The boys had a blast playing aand touch everything. It was like a little boys dream come true.

London even got in on the fun in the creative kids museum. She got to play with building blocks and crawl through a mirrored tunnel!

So London has been home for just over a week. And I can say she is super happy to be home, and we are just as happy to have her home. She is doing good. She had a bit of set back last Sunday night, but has recovered now. She is now up to date on all of her vaccinations, as of Thursday and besides the usual fever and diarrhea that my kids always get, she has done well with them.

It was back to life as usual today and back to church. I have said it before and I am sure that I will say it again, but we have been so blessed by all of our friends and family. It was so nice to formally thank so many people, and for London to give them all that big, heart melting smile today.

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