....And we're back!

Yes, I understand it has been over a year since the last post.  A lot has happened.  Perhaps one day I'll fill in the gap.  For now let's recap the last 6 months.  Stay with me.  It's a LOOOOONG post!!

October 2014: Placed our home of 10 years up for sale!

October 2014: The kids and I (Brandy) went on a vacation/relocation for 2 months!  I drove the kids all over Nevada,

 Side note: Grandpa said that was his first selfie!  :)

Utah,
  Temple Square with Nikki, Angela and her kiddos:

We also went to an aquarium

 We spent lots of time together!

We went trick or treating!

We picked up walnuts and Grandma and Grandpa's house

 

Wyoming,

 and Ohio (and many states in between Wyoming and Ohio). 

We enjoyed Grandma's chickens!

Visited Grandpa's work

Played 

Ate Thanksgiving at Grandpa's work

And Joe gave them LOTS of rides!

We visited lots of family and friends and had such a fun time!
 
While we were off having fun Robert was lonely.
He grew a beard.

Then he flew to Ohio and enjoyed the fun with us for a week including celebrating Lilly's Birthday.

This princess turned FOUR!  And she was thrilled when it snowed for her birthday!! What more could a girl from Arizona wish for her on her birthday!?

Then we drove to Kirtland, Ohio

 Where we found lots of snow!

And some lovely sister missionaries who were willing to have a snowball fight with our kids! (Side note, one of the missionaries is from our new ward we just moved into!!  Crazy small world right!?)

Then he flew home and was lonely again.  Then he flew to Utah and had a fun night seeing Christmas lights at Temple Square with us.

 The next day was Katelyn's 6th birthday we had a fun day as a family.  Then we all drove home together. 

Christmas came and went.

Then FINALLY around my birthday we got an offer on our house!!

All the details of the negotiations are stressful to remember so I'm going to skip to the best part:

February 14th, we closed on the house!!  Yay we were homeless! (sort of)  It was a little bittersweet.  We lived in that home for over TEN YEARS!  We moved in before we had any children and it seemed so big at the time.  We went to the same ward the entire time, had 3 bishops, lots of callings and made so many friends.  We brought 3 babies home from the hospital to that house and had the 4th baby in that house.  So many memories!  It has been hard to say goodbye but for about the last year it didn't feel like our home any more.

We moved in with Robert's parents and continued to work on getting our construction loan in order. It was stressful but not half as stressful as selling a house!

March 30th we FINALLY closed on our construction loan!

Two years after we bought the property, on April 1st we started construction on our NEW house!!

 

April 4th we moved out of Robert's parents house and into our trailer on our property!


Phew!  All I can say is this is all so crazy!  While I walked around our lot looking at all the changes it was a little surreal to think that this crazy dream we had went from a dream and a wish to a plan and now reality!  I know that the Lord has prepared this place for us to be.  We have felt and seen His hand in all areas of this process.  I am so grateful for my testimony in Him and His plan. We love going to church each Sunday in our new ward.  We have loved everyone we have met there so far.  And since the first moment we sat down in church Robert and I both said it felt like home; we didn't know anyone and it didn't matter because we were home. 

We since have both been given callings, we spoke in church (with really, really short notice I might add), baptized James and are starting to make friends!   I can't wait to get to know more people in the area!

 It has been a crazy six months full of lots of prayer, fasting, patience and waiting and here we are today!  Right where we are supposed to be.