Easter in Utah

We had so much fun in Utah. I was worried I wouldn't want to go home (or move to my new home that is.) My mom helped me with everything and it was so nice to have company. My mom pointed out we had been together everyday for almost a month. (AND I didn't even get sick of her company)

It was so easy to die eggs at my mom's house because there were 3 adults to my 3 kids.

Jansen, Reesa and cousin Gage

Saige was the BEST helper in playing with my kids, they loved her!

Little Mitchell was always getting much needed attention!
My mom and dad.

Jordan spent time with me showing me how to work my camera in modes besides automatic...
Here I'm learning to capture movement in a picture, it made for lots of blurry shots, but so cool.

Reesa was a little punk would of course would never smile

Look at all these cousins!!!
(Beckham, Gage, Jansen, Caprice, Mitchell, Saige, Zoey, Remy, Reesa, Jude, Zaylee, Cianna)

Saige was so good to play with Jansen, she thought the trouble he got in was hilarious and was always laughing and telling us a good story about what he was doing next!

Reesa would not leave Remy alone and had to be by her ALL THE TIME!and yes we did have snow for the Easter Egg hunt!Jake was invited to eat at the kid's table, and did well with supervision...After looking through almost 200 photos, I realized I didn't get family photos of my siblings. But they did all come to see us... Here's the closest one with Nathan, Kassie and baby Jude

It was so nice to have Jake FINALLY get to Utah! It had been almost 2 years since his last visit!

P.S. We did some really fun other things too that I didn't get photos of!!! (It's just too hard to have kids AND bring a camera!) like dinner in Provo with Alex, Shauna, and Lucy. They even let us give Jansen a much needed hair cut, thank you! and a fun visit to see prego Annie and family. Wish I could have seen all my Utah friends, but it was just SO HARD without a husband, and 2 hours of sleep each night. I knew I was lucky just to make it...

Goodbye Virginia

Well we did it! We packed our house and Jake drove this truck across the U.S. We had an awesome system where we labeled boxes with a 1 or 2. Jake unpacked all the "1" boxes before I got to Cali so I could just arrive with the 3 kids.My mom flew out to help us pack and clean, and then flew with me and the 2 boys back to Utah, while Reesa drove with her dad, Grandma Geyer and cousin Stuart. What a trek!

I must admit, I will not be sad to say goodbye to this kitchen wallpaper!

Me and Chelsey

Cousins Rylee and Brinley above, and Tyler below.

Everyone loves Mitchy!

Chelsey and Aaron

Rylee and Mitchell

Jansen and Whitney

Brin and Reesa

Stuart with Uncle Jake. .

Stuart and Grandma Geyer gave up their spring break to help us move.

They did some really fun things along the way. They got to visit Aunt Hannah, and see all the animals on her farm, (which I need to steal some photos off Hannah's blog to show you how cute!) They dropped Reesa off in Utah and continued on to Cali.

What a fun picture of Brinley and Reesa. I feel so lucky to have gotten to live by my sister and her family for almost 2 years. I loved being able to see her family daily/weekly and be an active part of their lives. I wish I could live by everyone I love forever. It sure makes moving hard!
So I can never really thank all the people who helped us move and all along the way. I need to thank Laura Brinton for all the confidance she gave me all along the way and helping me get organize and realize that it was possible, watching my kids, and feeding us dinner. Shirley for coming over and packing, cleaning, and keeping me company. Megan for bringing me dinners, even when I didn't ask. Jennie, Brittany, Crystle, and Whitney for helping watch my kids. Betsy for organizing every effort we ever needed. The Midlothian ward Relief Society for all their help, support and prayers. The Elders of our ward for helping load our truck. Our next door neighbor Larry, who did some of everything for us. Lenora and Stuart for driving all our stuff. All the phone calls and offers for help we didn't wind up needing. My sister for loving me and my family and never making us feel guilty about leaving. My mom and dad for letting us stay in their house, cooking, cleaning, and shopping for us and never getting mad about everything Jansen destroyed. Jake's siblings for opening their homes along the way, and the Kendall for welcoming us and being our family out here.

Actually I feel so lucky and blessed to have so many wonderful friends, and family that support us, care for us, and love us! Life is so hard and you make it all worth it! It really is fun to have friends all over.

p.s. since it's been 2 months since we left VA I'm sure I left out half of the help I received. I'm sorry, BUT I still am thankful for what you did. I know we never, ever could have done this alone!!!

March in Virginia

I'm not really sure where to start, or how far back I should go... lots of stuff has of course lost it's appeal. BUT we did lots of fun things as we left Virginia, so I'm going to need a few posts to get caught up to our life now.

Reesa got to have her cousins Rylee and Brinley spend the night. We painted... made a chocolate pie,

As you can see, it was enjoyed by all
and read stories in bed


We had the BEST Saint Patrick's Day!!!! I couldn't think of a better way to be green than seeing WICKED!!!... Jake and I both won the lottery for Wicked tickets! The Landmark theater does this really fun thing, where the night of each show, you can enter your name for tickets, jump through a lot of hoops, and if you win, get a great deal. Well we got THIRD row seats for 25 bucks a piece!

Since my mom was in town, we had a babysitter and were able to go. It was amazing. (Yes Jake still used his binoculars, informing me all the dental work the cast had had done. We saw Wicked 2 years ago, from the very last row on the very top balcony, and Jake spent the whole show trying to determine if it was a green costume, or green paint all over Elphaba. I love him!)

and Mitchell being Mitchell spent the whole night giving my mom a hard time. The only way he was happy, was upright sleeping in her arms. What a workout! Thanks mom!
The night before I fly away, Jake splits his eye open playing ward ball and needs 14 stitches! He was in the ER, while I stayed home and went to bed!!!

Update

I feel so lonely missing all of my blogging friends and their comments. I really feel apart from my world! We still haven't set up computer which makes blogging impossible. But don't worry I have two months of great photos I plan on blogging when we get our computer set up...

Meanwhile, we are set up here in Coarsegold, CA and just loving it. I think the slower pace is really what our family is needing. It gives me more time to focus on my kids and hopefully offer them a little more help. Jansen has been undergoing some testing to help us learn how to better meet his needs and we found out he communicates at a 10 month old level. What a challenge!!! At least that makes me want to be more patient with his frustrations. We've found a GREAT therapist who just loves him to death, and we couldn't be happier with her. It seems like we have more options for help everyday with Janse.

Mitchell on the other hand we've had a harder time finding where to start. We've been gone from Virgina for almost 2 months and still don't have anything set up for him. We've been to his pediatrician, and have an evaluation at the hospital set up for him in two weeks. Jansen's therapist have given me some new ideas for Mitchy, but it's obvious he needs more.

Reesa has been in HEAVEN playing with her preschool friends and especially Cami Kendall. She asks daily to go see her. We got two kittens for her to play with and she spends lots of her time with Daphne and Tiffany.

I joined our ward quilting group and LOVE IT! and Jennifer has been a great friend keeping my mind occupied with lots of fun dreams of card making and scrapbooking. We got together this week and made 40 FREEZER MEALS! Yes, even I'm amazed. But now we will be eating good for the next month to come!!!

Jake is in love with his job. Yes he's found his second love. He enjoys being at work and thinks the staff and patients are great. He's begging me to let him work more... (right now he's working 1 full day and 2 half days). We're looking for a more permanent place to live since we're just renting and hopefully we'll get something soon. AND everyone is welcome to come visit us anytime!!!!!

So that's the latest. loving and missing you,
kellie