Busy, Busy

Well, let me just say that we have had a VERY productive few weeks since moving in. All (and I mean all) of this productivity is acredited to my blessed mother, who left yesterday. Thus, today is a day of mourning at our house. If we had a flagpole with a flag, it would most definitely be flying at half mast.


1. We have our Christmas shopping done. We live two minutes away from excellent shopping: an outlet mall, a brand new regular mall, and a huge shopping villiage. Woo hoo!

2. A few days after moving in we got the carpets cleaned. We decided to move as much furniture as possible, so we shoved most of the house (all but the beds and dressers) onto the tile flooring located in the kitchen and the bathrooms. It was moderately annoying, however, to move everything off the carpets when the house was completely empty just a few days earlier. We have the homeowner to thank for that one.



3. Five days after arriving, Danny went to Boston for 8 days.

4. My mom helped take our family picture. It's easier said than done, trust me.

5. We got Baby's first portraits taken.

6. Danny took the kids to see Santa.

7. We've all been hit, one after another, with a nasty cold.

8. We finally went to the right ward on the third try. Let's just say neither our ward's website nor the folks from one of the other wards were correct in the information they gave us.

9. We obliterated an enormous colony of aggressive ants living under the threshold of our back door. Thank goodness for Dad Dixon's recommendation of Anhydro. It really works. The ants in this picture represent just a fraction of what was under there.


10. I bought a new camera - a nice camera. I got the bug and obsessively researched SLR cameras every night for a week. I'm really excited to not have junk pictures any more.

11. We got most of our pictures hung on the walls.

12. Danny and I went on a date, twice! Now that's something noteworthy. We spent a quiet, romantic evening at a monster truck rally and a very boring couple of hours at the Bodies Exhibit. No, I'm being sarcastic. There's nothing quiet or romantic about a monster truck rally. Being first-timers, we regretfully didn't take earplugs. So, we plugged our ears with our fingers the whole time and hardly said a word to each other. On the upside, we did get blasted with AC/DC and Guns N' Roses for two whole hours. As for the Bodies Exhibit, it's not boring at all. It is SPECTACULAR! I very highly recommend going.

13. I found our new pediatrician and took the kids to get their H1N1 vaccinations.

14. I gave Baby her first taste of rice cereal. It's way too early for my liking, but these 30 minute cat naps all day every day are enough to drive me nuts. I thought maybe she needed a little more sustenance in that chubby belly of hers.


15. There has been lots of baking going on: 3 loaves of banana bread, ginger bread with lemon sauce, two loaves of whole wheat bread, and (my personal favorite) store-bought cherry turnovers.


Thanks for coming, Mom! We couldn't have survived without you!

The Move

Well, we made it to Texas! We drug our feet having to leave Alabama. We loved it there and really enjoyed ourselves during the past eight months. We decided to make the 10-hour drive over two days (mostly for my sanity's sake), but the whole process actually took much longer.

These first pictures have nothing to do with the move, but I wanted to post the pupmkin carving we did before we left. The kids had a lot of fun doing it and loved seeing their jack-o-lanterns out by our front door.

Day 1 (Oct. 26)

Danny and I worked late into the evening packing the things we'd need for our drive. My mom arrived to help us with the move. She's a SAINT and has been a tremendous asset! We definitely could not have survived any of this with out her.

Day 2 (Oct. 27th)

Fortunately, Raytheon provides an excellent relocation package which includes a professional moving company. On this day, the movers came and boxed up all our stuff except our beds, bedding, and towels.

Day 3 (Oct. 28)

The movers came back and loaded everything onto the big truck. It was weird seeing the house all empty.
We ate our leftover lasagna lunch, etc. on the floor.

We forgot to keep out any paper cups, so we had to drink out of some paper bowls.

We drove to Decatur, a neighboring city, to spend our first night in a hotel.

Dallin came down with something and was SO sick, the poor little guy.

Day 4 (Oct.29)

We left Alabama and drove through Mississippi, up through Memphis, and made it to Little Rock, AR with no problems (4 different states in 5 hours). The kids did WONDERFULLY, in spite of the fact that Emily was also sick by this point!!

We had torrential rains driving through Arkansas both days. Danny was a great driver and we prayed hard for safety.

My mom, the baby, and I sat in the middle seat.

Dallin and Emily sat in the very back. We had a very nice ride in our van. We love it.
We stopped for lunch outside of Memphis. We could've eaten here....

...or here. Can you guess which one we chose?

Yeah, Steak 'n Shake won, but we thought the name of the other restaurant was funny.

After a bath in our hotel in Arkansas.

Playing cards.




Day 5 (Oct. 30th)

We left Little Rock and drove the rest of the way to Dallas, again in heavy rain. It seemed to clear right up as soon as we crossed the Texas border. I didn't take any pictures of this day - the excitement of the trip had worn off and I was just ready to be done traveling. The kids did great again and the day went smoothly. It had all just gotten old.

Day 6 (Halloween)

Our belongings arrived on Saturday morning. Emily and Dallin did GREAT keeping out from under foot by playing outside by Daddy for nearly two hours. So, with these moves, the movers put stickers on every box and other large items that go onto the truck. Every sticker has a different number so they can keep track of our stuff. Danny's job was to check off each item on the number sheet, 283 to be exact.

Getting ready to go trick-or-treating that evening.

Emily was Snow White.

Dallin was a policeman.

Megan was a ladybug, with wings and all.

"Trick or treat!"

Megan was lulled to sleep in Daddy's arms as we walked from house to house.

Since Arriving

The kids have had a hay day playing in all the packing paper!

Due to a scheduling mix-up, we didn't have our gas turned on till Tuesday the 2nd. Having no heat wasn't a problem at all since it's not too cold here yet. Having no hot water, however, was a pain. We had to boil water on the stove and add it to the cold water in the bathtub in order to wash ourselves relatively comfortably. It only ever filled it a few inches high, though. Needless to say, none of us bathed as regularly as we'd have liked!

We've already been out around the neighborhood taking walks in the morning