9 years, 10 moves, 4 jobs, 5 dogs, 2 kids

Today Ryan and I are celebrating 9 years. {well not really celebrating he is at a church meeting and I'm updating our blog}. It has been a great 9 years with lots of twists and turns. I wouldn't have had it any other way. I am so grateful for where we are now and the wonderful kids we have. I hope the next 9 are just as great!! I love you Ry, thanks for my 9 beautiful red roses.

BTW - We do not have 5 dogs. We have had 5 dogs in the last nine years. Mostly humane society foster dogs. - ryan

Quick recap

{the new house}

Well we have had a crazy few months so I want to make sure everyone is filled in on what is going on in our lives. In November Ryan got laid off so the job search started and took us to Utah for an extended stay. (we were already planning on spending Christmas there) We were in Utah for 3 weeks and then headed to Mexico to meet our group for our 2nd annual mission trip to Juarez Mexico. I posted some pictures of it last week but was unable to add anything because of a nasty Trojan horse on my computer. But thanks to a wonderful BIL we're up and running again.

Back to the update....Utah and Mexico were great. Laralee and Hartwell spent so much time with their cousins and loved every minute of it. Laralee still talks about them and asks for Aunt Kristine constantly. We were so excited to see our friends from GA when we got the Mexico. We missed them terribly while out west. It was very cold the first night and day we were there and it even snowed. (see pictures) Hartwell and I spent the first working day in the van, it was too cold to have him out. We had a great group a teenagers with us this year and Laralee loved them all, she would walk around yelling for Taylor or Emily and would get upset if they didn't pay attention to her. They were all so loving toward both of my children.

While we were in UT Ryan went on several job interviews and one was in Anniston AL, only 21/2 hours from Dahlonega. He loved it and they offered him a job a couple of days before Christmas. So on our way back to GA from Mexico we stopped and looked for a home to rent. That ended up being harder than we anticipated but we finally found something. We then drove home, rented a moving truck, packed our things and moved to AL. We are mostly moved in and settled and love it here, but we do miss our awesome friends back in GA!!!

Ryan loves his job and also his new calling at church. I have made some friends from church that have younger kids and we spend a lot of time together letting the kids play. So I think that about wraps it up. Hopefully now everyone should know where we are and whats going on in our lives.

It snowed Friday so we went out and played and took pictures.

Daisy came out to play in the yard with us before our walk.

Laralee said this was her "computer'. I love the imagination of a 2 year old!

Our Saturday morning walk in the snow before it melted.

Annie made Laralee some play dough for Christmas and we had so much fun playing with it. She is so creative. This went from a snowman to a lady with glasses and hair holding a baby.

Uncle Larry was our first official visitor. We all had lots of fun while he was here.

Hartwell is growing but thankfully for me not crawling yet....

Here's some cousins we got to see while we were in UT. Poor Laralee was sick that day.

Laralee and Aunt Anne dressin' it up!

Princess cousins

We made it to Temple Square to see the lights before we left. Laralee is crazy about Christmas lights so she was in heaven even though it was FREEZING!!!

Family Portrait

Saturday morning was the perfect day to play in the snow. My older brother and his family made a whole family of snowmen to look just like their little family. Notice the hair on the girls and the relocation of his hair. They are such a cute family and so creative. It's too bad it warmed up and the snowmen fell over.

Utah

Laralee wanted a nice warm bath after playing in the snow. My sister's girls have these cool crayons that you can use in the bath tub that Laralee loves. This is her "serious face".

Brrrrrr!

You can't see it, but she has no shoes or socks on.

My pretty princesses.

Poor uncle Dave, you are the best. Not many uncles would do this for their nieces.

It started snowing the day after we got here. Yeah, Ryan and I really wanted to have some snow this Christmas. Laralee and I went out to shovel the walk ways and driveway this morning. We had so much fun playing and eating the snow!!!