And Then We Moved to Texas

{post originally started.....a long time ago.}

After we finally got back to Utah, we had a huge project. Pack up all of our earthly belongings. 

While I hate moving, a lot, I also love it. We got rid of so much! It felt amazing. 

Because Aaron was in Texas and I was solo, with three small kids, some of my awesome friends came to help me pack up my house. I sadly didn't get pictures of all of them. Sad face. 

Lis, Anteres and Erin H. came and packed up my kitchen. Shelley found a multitude of boxes for us. Erin M. packed up a few rooms upstairs. The whole Holmes family helped pack up a lot of stuff. All in all, we had so much help and I'm so grateful! 

Somehow, I didn't get pictures of everyone helping pack up the truck. There are too many people to list. It was overwhelming. We miss all of our Provo family so much!

Left to right: Lis and Erin packing my kitchen. -- Our last supper in our Provo home. -- Kade posing by his tagging. --Our last view as we left our home. Kade was extremely emotional. It was like a knife through the heart. --Kade and Tadd welcoming Dad home a couple days before we packed the truck up.

The night we left, some of our favorites came to say goodbye. 

The boy's favorite, forever. 

Lindsay. She drives a yellow FJ Cruiser. (That will come up later.)

I doubt we'll ever find a babysitter so awesome.

 Kade's very best friend in the whole world. He still tells me he misses Christopher. They were best buds. 

The Holmes kids and the Blair kids. 

Then we loaded ourselves into our cars and left our Provo home. 

We left at about 930 pm. We're also not stupid. So we stayed the night with my Aunt Jeny in Springville where I was greeted with a wonderful birthday breakfast accompanied by pretty flowers from her yard. I got a giant water mug for my birthday and it is a delight. 

We made the drive. It was a long three days. Left to right: An awesome building. --Kade was Aaron's driving buddy in the truck. He made Aaron do all the driving. Rude. --The never ending Texas landscape. --Aaron's picture of me. -- My picture of Aaron. --Crossing into New Mexico. -- When Kade saw this yellow FJ, he was overjoyed to think that Lindsay had made the trip with us. -- There were birds all over the tree in this shot. It was gross. -- Another picture I took of Aaron driving. 

We finally made it to the state line. It felt like forever. But we did it. Then we proceeded to be fantastic parents and drag our sleeping kids out of the car to take a picture.

When we got to our hotel in Amarillo, Aaron forgot how to read. 

That sign says 

"Trucks and trailers, use North entrance. CAUTION. Steep entrance, enter at an angle." Enter at an angle, he did not. Nor did he use the north entrance. So in the middle of the night, AAA had to come and help get our trailer unstuck. So fun. 

Left to right: Tadd, super excited to finally be at Grandma and Grandpas and no longer driving. -- Our Texas shaped waffles at the hotel in Amarillo. Only in Texas. -- Kade sleeping, fully clothed, at the hotel. -- Pulling up behind Aaron at the state line.

One thing that is new for my kids-- a lot of cousin time. We rarely saw cousins when we lived in Utah. Now that we live here, Kade and Tadd get plenty of play time. 

We arrived on March 12. When we first arrived in Texas our home wasn't ready to be moved into yet. We had a tentative move in date of April 1st.  So we stayed with Aaron's parents in Fort Worth, for three weeks. Aaron continued to stay with a co-worker and he'd come to his mom's on the weekends. It's about 3 hours from Austin. We missed him like crazy and we were disappointed when we met with the landlord of our house and found out our move in date was misunderstood (on his part. He gave us the wrong date.) and we wouldn't be able to move in until May 1st. 

On April 5, I was supposed to head to CA for a few weeks anyway, to see my new nephew Carson. However, with the change in plans, I changed my plans. I had a wedding in CA on May 5th, so I just extended the trip instead of flying back and forth. So I stayed in CA for a month. This meant another month apart from Aaron. 

Since December 10th (aside from the few weeks we got together after Max was born) we had lived in separate states. Only seeing each other a day or two, here and there. It was the worst. The boys didn't know what was going on. Kade thought Aaron and I were permanently separating at one point. He came to me in tears before Max was born and told me, "I wish dada still wanted to live with us." It broke me in two. There were behavioral changes in both boys that were an unfortunate result of all of this and I wish I could have done something different to make it better for them. 

Anyway, just days before I was to leave for CA....the landlord backed out. Decided he wasn't going to move, so his house wouldn't be available. 

um...what?

This was the house we were supposed to move into. 

 Luckily, the ward we were going to be in, had a realtor. She helped us find the home we are in now and we even get to be in the same ward! 

Some of our Fort Worth fun.

Left to right: We went to see the Croods. The kids loved it. So did I. --Kade, Tadd and Snow White loved exploring the field behind Grandma's. -- More exploing. -- The boys, playing in Grandma's and Grandpa's backyard. -- Aaron came to his mom's on the weekends. We were always very happy to see him. --The boys loved when Grandma got home from work. It was their favorite time of day. -- Kade read to Max. Max loved it. -- Kade wished Max could play. So he tried. -- The boys discovered a love for iPad puzzles.

Easter weekend. Left to right: Aaron and Kade search for eggs.--Tadd shows his loot. --Around the house on Easter. --Kade showing his basket. -- The Easter bunny loves me. --Max in his church outfit on his first day of church. -- Max's basket. -- Kade during the egg hunt at the Connelly's house. -- Kade during the egg hunt at the Connelly's house. -- Cousins, ready to get their hunt on. -- (last two) Making "peep s'mores" in the backyard. 

Easter happened. It's my very favorite holiday. I just love it.

We went to the Ft. Worth Zoo. A good time was had by all.

Left to right: We played at the park. -- Brayden had a birthday party. -- Tadd was funny, as per usual. -- Tadd was a good helper with Max. -- We had a picnic.  -- We fed the ducks. -- Max was cute...--and then cuter. 

We went to a circus. 

We rode a miniature train with cousins. 

I did the bravest thing I've done as a mom thus far. I flew. On a plane. With all three boys. By. My. Self. 

It was actually kind of an awesome experience that restored my faith in humanity. Debbie took us as far as she could, through security. After we finished in the security line, the man in front of us offered to help us get to the gate because his flight wasn't for a few more hours. So he carried some of the bags and took us to our gate. Once we got there the boys were saying they were thirsty so we started loading up all our bags again to make a trip to the airport gift shop for water bottles. A lady waiting at our gate offered to watch our things whilst we were gone. Amazing. 

While getting on the plane, the man behind me helped carry bags. 

He also waited after we landed to help me off the plane, so did the family sitting behind me. I walked off of the plane, nearly empty handed. The woman in the family sitting behind us commented on the "well behaved boys" and told me I should write a book. Uncontrollable laughter escaped along with a thank you. Once off of the plane, my dad was there waiting for me. Though I was making the trip alone, I was never without help. It was amazing. I'm so grateful!

Saw this sweet baby boy Carson. The newest member of the VanDeventer Family. I also got to take his newborn photos. 

Updated the Grandparent/grandchildren photo. I love it.

We watched a lot of Brock playing volleyball. 

Left to right: Kade loves snuggling with Max. They both fell asleep, just minutes after this was taken! --We went on a walk with Kelsey and Carson. Only one carseat, so we got creative. -- Uncle Brock loves Max. --We spent an evening with Aunt Pam and the Lane family as well as Melody, Nathan and Hudson.  --Happy boys. -- Even though we were at my family's house, we didn't see them a ton. Kade and Tadd still spent lots of time with just the two of them discussing things like why their apples were different colors. --Tadd couldn't get dressed. -- College night at the Getty in LA. --  Max smiles in the creepiest of ways. We still love him. 

The home stretch! Just one flight separating us from home!

We're here, all together, under one roof. I am so happy.