Old and New

Things I am missing about Tucson right now:
-Warm weather!!! When I woke up it was 30 degrees outside!!! The high is supposed to be in the 50's today but we'll see about that.
-Being able to throw on flip flops to go somewhere
-Brady being able to play outside when he wants
-Chick-fil-a (there is not one in Omaha that we can get to-only one inside an office building downtown that is not open to the public!)
-Greatland Target right around the corner (our Target is not as big and not as close)
-Home Goods-we have a Hobby Lobby here though so I guess I can trade one for the other
-The mountains-it's not completely flat here with some hills and contour but I am still scanning the horizons expecting to see mountains that are not there
-So many good Mexican places to choose from
-Brady's preschool-I need to find one here still for him
-Brady's friends-he keeps saying that he wants someone to come over and play with us
-Of course I couldn't forget my friends......I am missing you most right now! I've gotten a couple calls and emails and it seriously made my day. Sorry if I haven't responded, we have still been quite busy around here and usually in the morning is when I have the most time and it's too early to call you guys there. I will call I promise!!! Thanks for the thoughts though, I really appreciate it!

Things that I am enjoying about Nebraska right now:
-Buying a new wardrobe and shoes to accommodate the weather here
-Cooking fall recipes with the chilly air outside-somehow they are more satisfying and more delicious because it is cool outside
-We've already had 2 different sets of visitors come visit us because we are only driving distance away from family
-We have SO much room in our new house-in the bedrooms and especially in our finished basement and storage area. I don't feel like I am constantly stacking and unstacking boxes to get to things underneath each other.
-We now have a Super Walmart within a couple minutes. So much better than that nasty Walmart I avoided at all costs in Tucson!
-Grass and trees! We are enjoying the pretty fall colors and big trees right behind our house.

So those are a couple thoughts I am having right now. I am close to being done with stuff around the house. I need to paint a couple rooms still so that will keep me busy between that and taking care of the boys.
We are getting new bedroom furniture that I was promised when we move! I have to wait to put all my clothes away in there but both boy's rooms are pretty organized and clothes put away. I still have all my decorating to do but that's the fun part after I'm done painting the rooms. I also have our small table and chairs for the kitchen to re-finish so I have a lot of projects to get done before we have Thanksgiving at our house.
That's right-I get to host Thanksgiving and I am beyond excited! We have never had a big Thanksgiving with family since we've been married because we've been too far away. Now that we're closer, they are coming to us and we have some space here to accommodate everyone so I am very excited to be able to do it this year!
So that is my motivation for getting the house put together the way I want it. I hope that makes me get it done because I have been exhausted the last 2 weeks and pretty much 2 months before that too!
I'll post some pictures as I get some stuff done.

Cousins reunited and more unpacking!

This weekend my sister and Dad came to visit us. Melissa hasn't met baby Collin yet and she wanted to help me get unpacked and organized here. She's pretty good at getting stuff done and it's always more fun with some help than doing it alone anyway. I've also helped her move just about every time she has moved so it's payback time! :) We got a large amount of the all the boxes unpacked and most of the rooms in a liveable condition. I just have to figure out what colors to paint the boys' rooms and then I can really make them look cute and get it all decorated. I organized their closets today so I got a little bit more done today along with a couple more boxes. We only have a little bit left to finish so I should be all done by this week with most everything except maybe some of the decorations and stuff that is staying in the storage room downstairs.

I don't have any pictures of the unpacking, but instead of all the cute kids from this weekend. We haven't seen them since Sadie's birthday in May so it has been awhile since Brady and Ava have been able to play together. They just picked up right where they left off and played together so well the entire weekend. They just love each other to pieces and they stayed up WAY past bedtime playing both nights.

We tried to get a picture with all 4 grandkids for my Mom and it was 75% successful. It was so pretty outside on Saturday and so we thought a nice fall background would be nice. But everytime we got the camera out, Sadie wanted nothing to do with it.
This was the best picture we could get of her-it's adorable but we could not even get her to stand next to the other kids when they were sitting. Cute little stinker!

Attempt #2 inside. Sadie still doesn't want anything to do with it. We told Ava to hold on to Sadie and she was holding on for dear life! As you can see, she was taking great pleasure in the fact that she was holding Sadie down as she was screaming her head off!

Eating lunch out on the deck. We had mummydogs for our Halloween lunch with Toy Story mac 'n cheese.
It was so fun to have my cute nieces here. The only thing missing was Grandma! We missed you Mom! I am glad that we live so much closer now and hopefully see you soon.

And here's a little bonus photo that doesn't really go with the rest but last night Collin was smiling for Aaron.

We're here in "O!"

So apparently, Omaha has been trying to get more tourism by using this lovely little saying......I wonder if it is working???

Here's Daddy with his 2 boys after we got here. Do you like Collin's nice "deer in the headlights" look?

So far the weather has been beautiful! It has been between 60-70 since we have been here so we've been enjoying the nice fall weather here. Here's us on our back deck. I LOVE the big trees!

But we've also been preparing for the winter-we've already bought a winter coat and hat for Brady! Grandma and Aunt Erica were here already for a couple days and they helped us shop!

Here's our little sweetheart who is already 2 months old (on the 19th). I finally sent out this picture for birth announcements right before we left Tucson when he was 6 weeks old.

2 cute brothers! Erica took this picture when she was here. I love these cuties!

We are still waiting for all of our stuff to arrive. We finally just got internet today here so I am finally feeling connected back to the world. We have spent the last 3 days driving around trying to waste time and get familiar with the area as well. I'm so glad we will finally be able to get into more of a normal routine with all of our stuff here.

I am also glad that my sister and nieces and Dad are going to come and visit us this weekend and help get everything put away! My sister owes me after I've helped her move several times!! :) I'm already enjoying the fact that our families are under 7 hours away now and we'll get to see them more often. I'll post some more pictures as we get everything set up here!

On the move!

It has been crazy for the last week and a half! We had the movers come pack last Monday (Oct 11) and take all of our stuff away on Tuesday. Aaron and his brother Chad left on Wednesday to drive our cars to Nebraska while the boys and I stayed behind in AZ for a couple days. So I had to set aside everything for Aaron to take in the cars with them and pack for us for all of last week and part of this week once we got here. We were lucky enough to stay with the Kemptons and Bedonts while we were still there until we flew here on Saturday. Thanks again for that!!!! Here's a couple pictures of our last couple days in Tucson.

I had to rent a car to have since Aaron and Chad took both our cars. I did not want to spend that much money on it but little did I know they would give me this little piece of crap that they call a car! It was shaking and so loud on the roads even going like 35 mph!

This picture does not even do it justice - it was so small! Tolson saw it and said something like "It doesn't have any ears or tail". He was thinking of those Truly Nolen cars around town! It is that ugly!
Somehow we were able to shove (and I do me SHOVE) 3 car seats in the back! Tolson rode with us around town in it! He thought it was a pretty cool car!

We said goodbye to all of our friends and went to the airport. We actually had a really good airport and flying experience. I was kinda nervous about taking 2 kids including a newborn alone on the plane. But it was actually one of the least stressful trips we have taken in a while. I'm not sure why I was so calm. But we made it through security with no diaper explosions (that happened on Brady's first flight at 2 months old!) and both boys were so good on the flights we took. So that was one less thing to worry about!

Here's Brady and Collin on the airplane

The hardest part of this whole move was saying goodbye to Tucson. We were so blessed to have been there for 5 years and meet some really great friends. I know that you all know how much you have meant to us and I just want to say thanks again for everything you have done for us and how much fun we have had with you! I could say a million things more about all of you but that will force me to get way too emotional and this post would be forever long!!! But I will say that we will be back to visit and it's not good bye forever!!!

We were also fortunate enough to sell our little house in Tucson as well. We're working on closing on it still but the new buyer has already moved in and is renting from us until we close. That is a huge relief and now we are able to move on and not have to worry about it. We had to drive by it a couple times before we left for Brady to say bye to it. Bye house and Tucson......we will definitely miss you and be back soon!

Dilemma

Collin has 2 cute little girls he could pick from. He was trying to hold both of their hands! It would be great if he did really pick one of these 2 in about 22 years because then I know he would have a great mother-in-law no matter who he chose..... right girls???

What blessings these sweet little babies are!