Happy Birthday Maura!

Maura turned 7 years old last week! She was so very excited. The morning of her birthday we opened presents. We swam after school and went to eat Peter Piper Pizza for dinner. On Saturday we had a pool party and had a lot of family over. We had hot dogs and cake and the kids swam and swam. Maura was in heaven. I sure love that little girl. Here are 7 things about Maura:

1. She is a water dog. She is the first one in the pool and the last one out.

2. She is a good mama's helper. She has started getting Mila out of her bed and washing her and getting her down after meals.

3. She LOVES to snuggle.

4. She has a very strong love for stuffed animals.

5. She is super sweet and sensitive.

6. She loves math at school.

7. She loves cats.

 I had to add these little close ups of the kids faces. I just thought they were too sweet and shows each of their personalities. I sure love my kiddos.

On the road...

We headed out on our big journey on Saturday the 21st. We drove until we got to Columbus, OH. We ate pizza and swam. The next day we drove until Joplin, MO. Then the next day we pushed it to Amarillo, TX. While we were there, we were picked up by a limo with bull horns and taken to the Big Texan to eat. The kids loved all the big, fun things to take pictures with. The next day we drove until Flagstaff and stayed one more night. We finally got to our house by noon the next day. It was so exciting to be there. TJ saw it for the first time (and he loved it...phew!) and so did the kids. Everyone was so excited to be there. It took us a while to get settled and do some improvements (thanks family for all the help), but we finally feel like we are settled in. It's good to be home.

Last Goodbyes

I took the kids to school on their last day of school. It was sad to see them say good bye to their teachers and friends, but they were excited for the big move. 

The hardest thing was saying goodbye to Drew, Cassie and the kids. It was so great to have them in Buffalo with us. We miss our weekly dinners, morning walks, Sunday walks, sleepovers, and bike riding. We also owe them a huge thank you for the help they gave us when we packed and cleaned. Drew carefully loaded the truck for us and both of them helped clean the house the next day when I was laying in bed, sick with the stomach flu. We could not have pulled it off without them. We miss them so much already.

Goodbye party

Before we left Drew and Cassie threw us a good bye party at the church and had a lot of our friends from Buffalo come. It was a potluck, so there was lots different food and great company. We were so touched by seeing so many friends show up. Thank you Drew and Cass for putting it together and thank you to all of the friends that came. We love and miss you!

Catching up...

It has been so long since I've posted anything. This move has pretty much consumed all of my time. I have been feeling more settled, so I had a spare minute to do some catching up. I think I left off at Easter, so here we go:

We were still in Buffalo at Easter. We colored eggs, had an Easter egg hunt with Drew and Cassie's family, were visited by the Easter bunny, and had a really good Easter dinner. The weather was beautiful. Seeing these pictures makes me miss Buffalo and all of the green. We are glad we got to spend Easter there.