the 4th.

my eyelids are drooping, words slurring in my head, fingers aren't working properly...it has been a looong weekend but i just downloaded all my pictures and am excited to share some of the fun we had! i don't think that we could have packed anything more into this holiday! i spent the week in vegas visiting good friends and family. Then, the marshall mob + my sister all drove back to the mountains thursday just to hop in the car the next morning in route for san diego! the beach was awesome and it was so fun to see tyson, kari, mya and owen! it was noah's and lyla's first beach experience and saying noah loved it is a huge understatement! he ran around the entire time we were there! we packed a lot into one day...good food, beach, and fireworks. then, we headed back to running springs that night and started off saturday with a rhino ride through the mountain trails. it was so fun! then, my sister, sara and i braved the crowds down at lake arrowhead with the kids for the fourth of july celebration and fireworks! noah kept screaming "woah! awesome!" and was so excited he got to see the fireworks again. tad and tracy are the best at hosting huge dinners for the family so tonight was another fun night with good fun and games. as tired as i feel right now, it was so worth it! i just wish loren were here to be a part of all the fun. he took his own little vacation to vera cruz, mexico with a few school friends so i am glad that he was able to have a little fun himself! i have a ton (not as much as sarah and anthony) of pictures so picking just a few share is going to be hard, but i'll try! and then i am going to crash...

ohhh, we just love grandma marshall... she is the BEST.

his shorts couldn't keep up, they only lasted half of the day...

i grabbed noah long enough to attempt a family picture. he lasted .02 seconds...

this is pretty much what noah did pretty much all day...

i just love this cute pic of emmalee! she was the only one i could get to pose for me!

and i thought april was crazy...

Loren and I were skyping last night and both going down memory lane through our blog and he pointed out that we haven't had any updates for awhile...it's been pretty busy around here!

It has been exactly one month that we packed the big yellow penske with all of our belongings and we kissed Loren goodbye as we headed out west to start our new adventure in California. Thanks to Sam and Cecily, the trip was fun and successful - we made it here in one piece! It has been a whirlwind and there are moments still in the day that I have to pause and remember this little sign that Cecily put on my fridge during the crazy move that says, "Have you tried prayer?" (Yes, I still have the sign up and is my daily sanity reminder!) Moving with a 2 year old, an 8 month old and two dogs without Loren is not something I want to do again! I am so grateful for Loren's family for stepping in and taking on so much! We had a small army of people waiting for us up the mountain at our new home when we pulled up the big penske and the whole truck was unloaded in about an hour! Cecily diligent unpacked almost every box we had within the next three days! (Thank you! I couldn't have made it without you!!) And now a month later, I have the house almost 90% settled and have been having so much fun decorating, painting and making this our home.

Along, with all of this craziness, I have been adjusting to living at 6000ft. Running Springs really is beautiful and makes you appreciate Heavenly Father's creations. I am getting used to the small town living s l o w l y ...it is strange not having mail delivered to our house and I really have to plan my grocery trips! We had some strange June weather last week and I have already experienced driving in the fog...but we moved from Texas just in time as a tornado touched down 2 blocks from our old house just this last week! The new owners sent us crazy pictures of the damage in our neighborhood. Give me fog any day!

Noah is loving playing outside and likes helping me with the yardwork. I think that he is kinda starting to catch on that this is our new house...in the beginning he kept saying, "this is grandma's house." and lyla, well, she's just happy anywhere she can crawl and explore. It is really fun being next to Tad and Tracy and I love being only 3 hours away from family in Vegas (already made one trip and planning the next in a couple of weeks!)

And I miss Loren so much...I thought that I could make it the whole 3 months without him, but I bought his plane ticket this week and he's coming home on the 11th for two weeks! YEAH! I am so excited that he will be able to come see our new home and just be here with the family. Noah misses him like crazy and asks about him all the time. It will feel more like home with him around. There is definitely a huge void in our lives right now and can't wait for it to be filled!

I haven't pulled the camera out a ton since being here, but here are a few pictures I have captured...

This is the BEAUTIFUL view from our bedroom and bath


I painted the dining room - this was the first room to be 100% complete.
More pictures of the house to come...


lyla showing off her standin' skillz in the play area


funny pictures from our vegas trip!

I will definitely post more pictures soon!

farewell to our home

Well as I sit back watching the Phantom with my boy on this relaxing Sunday afternoon, I find myself thinking about our home. This past Thursday we signed our home over to a nice young couple. Looking around I see many memories. The beautiful flooring takes me back to moving in. Truman and Travis, two of my best friends in the world hooked us up by driving down with us and helping us unload. Not only this, but the night we got here I was pretty sick. Most likely because I had been driving the moving truck and only stopping to get gas and there I would use the restroom to try to make better timing. So the first night, despite absolutely hating any form of medication, I took NyQuil and went to bed about 8:00pm. Good thing NyQuil knocks you out or otherwise I wouldn't have been able to sleep at all. Truman and Travis were tearing out the carpet, linoleum, and wood that was throughout the main living areas. it takes a true friend to do what they did. I can look at some many places and remember good friends and their selfless acts. I look out the back windows and think about the Saturdays that were spent keeping it green and groomed. How nice it was to be able to use the beautiful scenery to host barbecues and get togethers for BYU games or a night of Rock Band.
I think of the sofa that I am comfortably sitting on and remember how it was my bed for a while to not wake up little Lyla by my early alarm. I can see myself with some buddies from school marching around trying to memorize various things. I think of all the sacrifices that Sonya made to help put me through school. The home was seemingly always clean. The children always taken care of and the bills always paid. Not uncommonly marriages fail when one of those involved is in a school like mine. Yet within these walls our marriage was safe.
The rewards from the happiest days of my life where brought back to this home. My son Noah and daughter Lyla. Thankfully this home had room for my mother and Sonya's mother to come and assisted during these glorious experiences. But this home safely watched over these most valued parts of my life. I have seen Noah roll over, crawl, walk and run within the walls of this house. Lyla is following suit but is only to the crawling part. This home has often been filled with the laughter of our happy children.
This home will most definitely be missed. We are ready to move on and begin the next stage of this journey but this home will be part of some of my greatest memories. Of course as I look around this home I remember the hard times, but when this home is locked for the last time by me it will be locked by a family that is together and progressing toward our eternal goal.

the month of april...

so, it has been a crazy month and i think may is going to follow suit. we are packing, getting ready for our move to california, loren had his 3rd round of board exams (and passed, of course:), we had a fun trip to san antonio with friends, we signed off on our house today :(, loren could probably take his toothbrush and pjs to school since that is his home now, and westwillow has my head spinning... we have had a lot going on and so, a month after our last post, this is going to be a doozy! i sat at the computer for 2 hours downloading the pictures off our camera so get ready...

fort worth zoo


someone is not getting that camera back...

this is for cecily...

my favorite picture of the day...

I came in to find Loren sitting with both of the kids before bedtime...
i don't know how we are going to make it without him while he is mexico for 3 months.

this is a classic "loren" face...

she's a mover
6 months and is starting to crawl and can sit up on her own

easter photo shoot...

stay tune for the may update featuring our move to the mountains!
running springs get ready!