Picture-mania!

I promised a major picture history now didn't I? I wasn't joking...here goes the past few weeks...picture-style! (With as little commentary as possible...)

Our house...

Sweet little helper...

What the girls do when we're unpacking...those little rascals! (Ok, so they didn't put Emma in there...Nate did. She loved it though!)

First day of school! Ok...so the pack's a little big. The list said to get a large backpack though...just following orders!

And she survived!

What we do after a long day of unpacking...hit the beach!!!

Can't beat this sunset every night at the beach pool, eh? We love it there!

My saving grace that 1st night when we got there. (Yes I'm talking about my dad. The air mattresses saved us too though! Thanks Trever and Katie!)

Abs entertaining Emma while the guys unloaded. Thanks Trever, Dad, and Matt! (Oh yeah, and thanks to my amazing hubby Nate who is the hardest working man I know!)

Abs in Grandpa Brian's pool in his backyard. (Utah trip)

Person ballet lessons with Erica. I'd give my left arm to have her teach my girls ballet!!!!

Sare took the girls and I to lunch before we left for AZ. Love ya sis!

Goodbye hugs with uncle Justin!The Dunleavy cousins. All girls...rock on!

Liberty park! Jenny and I met up to let the kids play in the water and go on rides. Then my brother Joseph met us there too. It was so fun, I miss you Jenny!!!!

Last goodbyes....so sad! Our kids are such good friends!

Sweet little Ash....what a doll!

My sis-in-law Trista's baby shower.

Brookie holding Emma. Brookie is taller than Caitlin and she's only 6 months older than Abs! Miss ya Brooks!

Angel, Hailee, Abs, Brooks, and Caitlin on Grandma Nielson's trampoline. These girls play so well together!

Yay for haircuts from Sare!!!!!! Thanks!

Last morning in the playhouse. They already miss it! Liberty came over to our house yesterday, and when Abby told her to come play in her room, Liberty said, "slide!". Yikes..no more slide....

St. Louis arch..it's HUGE!!!!!!!!!!!

Last trip to Nauvoo and my cute little pioneer girls...

These guys saw more of each other the past 2 years than either Jenny or I have probably seen of them since we were married! :o) We miss living there already.

Sweet friends! Those were the days...

Ah sweet friends. I love these girls so much. Jenny was slightly emotional (to say the least ;o)...she was the 1st to move. I'll never forget you gals and the great friendships we made! Thanks for always being there for me though everything!

Nate taught Caitlin to ride without training wheels!

Well, there you have it folks! More to come later..now that we have the internet, you're going to get sick of hearing from me! ;o)

Arizona Heat Baby!

Ok..so we don't have the internet, so I took all the pics to the library to put them on our blog..but the library computer won't recognize my USB cable...so I'll have to wait until we have the internet next week. Be prepared...once we have it I'm going to follow suit of my old roommie Annie and do a 3-week-picture history...mostly just pics, and you can use your imagination to fill in the past 3 weeks of our lives.

Soooo...here goes the short synopsis (pictureless) for now. The girls and I left Missouri the end of July and flew to Utah for a week to visit. On the way to the airport we FINALLY saw the 'Gateway to the West'..aka the St. Louis Arch. It is HUGE...holy cow. So that was fun, I'm now 100% cultured. NOT. Anyways, Utah was great. We stayed at my moms, visited my dad, Sarah gave the girls haircuts, we went to the Nielson she-bang-o in Elberta, got a short personal ballet lesson from Erica, yada yada yada. Great trip, great fun. My dad drove to AZ to pick the girls and I up at the airport, and help us move in once Nate came with the truck. Nate was behind schedule as it was, and then the 1st night he got a blown out tire on the trailer of the moving truck. But he made it to Gilbert around 3am. I had a small emotional breakdown when we got to our house with just the girls and my dad. We had no bedding, no pillows, Abby and Emma wouldn't stop screaming, and there's no carpet, it's all hardwood and tile. The floor was mopped from all the construction, but it was still dusty from the paint and such, so I didn't even want to sit on it to feed Emma. Katie and Trever came to the rescue and brought air mattresses, pack'n'play, pillows, blankets, etc. My dad ran to Wal-Mart at midnight and got mopping supplies so I could mop before they unloaded early the next morning. Wow..thank goodness for friends and family, I wouldn't have made it without!

Ok...that was wayyyyy to long for a synopsis. But I love our house, the resort ROCKS, and the weather is...yes...hot...but dry! So it's not too shabby. Pretty sweet for a move across the country. Now that we're getting settled, I'm starting to miss Kirksville so much more. The close friends, the wards, knowing if you go to the Aquatic center any time, any day, you'll run into friends...Kirksville was such a great experience.

Now on to more important things...CAITLIN STARTED KINDERGARTEN TODAY! She's such a trooper. Yes, I cried like a baby AFTER I walked out of the classroom. It's tough on mom's to let your little girls grow up and start school. But she loves her teacher, and she seems like she loves school. Hopefully it'll stay that way!

All-in-all things are going well. We miss all of you Kville friends so much already! Check back again next week for a picture post..should be fun!

Thanks Tobey!

Tobey took our family pictures and did a great job! Thanks Tobey for doing that for us...and for spending time while you were sick (along with your whole family!) to get them just right, and ordered for us. (Tobey will try to tell you that's it's nothing..but she does such a great job!!)

Hard Goodbyes

Every day is getting harder as we are saying goodbye to people I would never have wished to live without. I have learned so much from every dear friend I have met here and spent my life with the past 2 years. Going through the medical school experience is something that one cannot understand unless you have been there. The strain it puts on a family is so real...and friends have been my saving grace. They have been through the same thing as we have these past 2 years, and we have laughed and cried together. We made it...but only with each other's shoulders to lean on. This is such a bittersweet time in my life, and I had to include this poem that my friend Katie Rynearson found...because it describes our friendships here all-too-perfectly. It's so hard...we had to move across the country with our families...away from the rest of our families and friends. We had to endure ice storms, tornado warnings, and everything else med school threw at us. We made lifelong friends, but now we are all having to go our separate ways to continue on our medical school journeys. I will love and miss every one of you that has helped us and touched our lives in Kirksville!

"On the first day of it, we talked.
But nothing deep.
We sang
We looked at each other
And little did we know.
And time passed.

On the last day of it,
We talked of life things.
We laughed and we cried.
We sang with deep meaning.
We looked at each other
And we knew.

And then it ended...
But not really."