Building with Daddy

The boys got these fun Tonka trucks for Christmas.  On Sunday, Ben and Allen enjoyed putting his together.  It is so fun to see them working together.
 

Hammering

 

 

Visits from Family

The week after I got back from the US, my mom came from the states for a week.  We had this trip planned long ago to help get settled after the move. 

Heading off to airport to get ShoSho!

Ben was in charge of the flight information!

 

Daniel, Lauren, and "baby Auuubery" came for the weekend!

 

Loving some reading time with Uncle Daniel

Aunt Lauren is SOOOOO fun!

 

 

Celebrating Gr. Ma!

On February 4th, my 93 year old Gr.Ma went to be with her savior!  She was ready and in the last couple of years her health had really declined.  We praise God for all the answered prayers and how she went so peacefully with my mom at her bedside.

Gr.Ma was really our only grandparent that we have ever known.  What a blessing to get to go to the states for a week to celebrate Gr.Ma and be with my family! 

Daniel, who is also living in the UK right now, and I were able to travel together which was a lot of fun!  Here he is talking to his beautiful wife and precious daughter in the Heathrow Airport. 

So fun to have a brother as a seatmate!  How often as adult children do you get this kind of time with your siblings?! 

We arrived in Little Rock on Valentines Day and were greated by the family. 

My sweet friend Angela had sent this great headband to us last year and I thought it was the perfect comic relief for the situation and appropriate since it was Valentines day! 
Thanks Angela!

Jenny flew to Little Rock but James and the boys drove in for the Memorial!  Love this guy!  So full of personality!

 

Of course, I had a shopping list and Friday was our only free time to do it.  It was so fun to go shopping with my sister, mom, and Aunt Dee(mom's chosen sister).

Saturday was the memorial and that will get its own post.

Sunday we went to church and celebrated Jenny's b-day!

Monday the three of us flew to California with my Aunt Kate and her wife, Nori, to have a graveside memorial with family and friends in California.

On Tuesday, we went to Disneyland.  A favorite memory from growing up.  It was so much fun to hear mom and Kates stories about going as kids.

When Allen told Ben that I was going to California, Ben said, "She's going to the big race!"  We may watch A LOT of Cars in this house. 

Jenny's boys LOVE starwars.

They make some really fun "ears" now!

Loved the time with my sister and mom.  It was precious!

My mom and her twin sister, Kate!

 

The move

I honestly don't know where to start in blogging, so much has gone on in the last 6 weeks and some of it I am still processing so we will start with the move!

A couple of months ago, we were given the option to move out of our town house into another one closer to Allen's work (6 minute walk vs. 20-30 minute walk).  It was not an easy decision to make but finally decided that it was the right decision.  However, in our mind, we had it all very planned out to look nice and pretty.  But life doesn't usually look nice and pretty does it?  So, we ended up having to move our move in date up and moved rather quickly into our new home because I went to the states for my Gr.Ma's memorial(more to follow on that).  Of course, the day the packers came to pack us up, it was snowing! 

Our packers were awesome!  I was able to pack about 75% of it but they finished up which was a HUGE blessing!

Our new house!  Also, a huge blessing was that the boys nursery allowed them to come in for extra mornings while we packed and moved.  

The new kitchen, dining room, living room!

Look at that beautiful back garden!  LOVE IT!  I love the privacy at this new place!

So we packed and moved on Monday and Tuesday.  I unpacked us and then packed me on Wednesday.  Because Thursday I left for a week in the US with my family. 

Sorry the pics didn't work the first time and now I can't get them to rotate!