Life is a funny thing sometimes

Where to begin. As most everyone knows, Brice graduated from BYU this past April and had been job hunting since even before that. At the end of April, we got a call from Page High School in Page, Arizona (3 miles from Lake Powell). We packed up Claire, Brice and a very pregnant me, and went down for the interview. The next day we were offered the job. At first we were very excited, but as it go closer, I started to feel more and more uneasy. We would be moving to Page with not one friend or family member within 5-6 hours of the entire town.
A couple of weeks after Noah was born, Brice got a call from his old high school basketball coach in Colorado. They had an opening at the high school out here. I always said I wouldnt live near his hometown. I love his family. It has nothing to do with them, but it is very small, and VERY windy. However, once we started thinking about it, there were way more positives to us moving to Colorado so Brice jumped in the car and interviewed in Colorado. On his way home, he got a phone call saying that they had given the job to someone else. We were actually very sad about it. We were very grateful that we had the job in Page still, but had started to get very excited about moving to Colorado. He looked around a little more in the Colorado area but was unsuccessful. So, we just began moving forward with plans to move to Page. We were able to find a house but were going to move in without seeing it. Luckily, the landlord wasnt requiring a deposit until we got there so if we hated it, we wouldnt be married to it.
We had all of our family out in Utah for Noah's blessing and also to help us pack. Monday morning, our truck was loaded, we were finishing the last minute cleaning and were planning on leaving for Page on Tuesday morning. Well wouldnt you know...the Lord works in mysterious ways my friends.
Brice got a phone call Monday morning at about 10 saying that the Colorado job was open again and was ours if we wanted it. We both sat on the bed and laughed. At that point, thats all that we could do.
After much praying and thinking and talking (we had about an hour to make up our minds) we decided to move to Colorado. We feel that there is a reason that we hadnt given any money to the Page landlord and that Brice was going to hand in a signed contract when we got there...he hadnt mailed it. So, we called Page (they were very unhappy...kind of rude), let them know we werent coming and headed out to Colorado on Tuesday morning. We are currently living with my inlaws. All of my stuff is in a storage unit. Brice, me and our two kids are sleeping in one room and living out of a suitcase and we are having a heck of a time trying to find a place to live. But we feel like we made the right decision. We felt really bad about letting Page down, but we have to do what's best for our family and so here we are. After the crazy emotional good byes, I am excited about this new chapter of our lives. I am sad to be gone from Utah. I'd been there 7 years and made the best friends I could ask for. But that is the beauty of technology. I am able to keep in touch with all of them. And one of my good friends is getting married in September so I will be going back to Utah for that. I hope I have a home by then....wish us luck :)

The Royal Couple

So, I totally jumped on the Royal bandwagon. I just love them. I love the image that they portray. I love that they are genuinely in love. I love that they dont care that traditionally the Royal Couple doesnt do this and the Royal Couple must do that. And I love that they are both beautiful. Ya, Kate Middleton is a little bit too skinny, or a lot to skinny, but if I had to live up to Princess Diana and the Queen, I wouldnt eat either. When we were in Canada, we happened to be there the same time the Royal Couple was in town. They had two events that the public were allowed to attend and if you wanted to do it, then you had to stand in line on Wednesday morning to get wristbands. I thought it would be fun to see them, but there was no way I was going to stand in line with 2 small kids days in advance. We drove by Tuesday night and there were already people in line so we said forget it. The next morning, we were watching the news and getting ready to go to the zoo and the news report said that they still had a bunch of wristbands left. We decided to try it. Why not? When are we ever going to have an opportunity like that again? So we went. There was no line. We walked right up, got our wristbands and walked out. We even ended up with two extras that I tried to convince my friend Shelley to fly up to use, but had no luck:( So we sold them and made $100. Scrappy I tell ya!

Anyway, Thursday night, you had to be in line between 430 and 615.  We got there at 6 (long story involving trains, walking the wrong way, carrying a double stroller and two kids down 3 flights of stairs) I was ready to just go home! But, we ended up being 3 rows of people back and when the Royal Couple arrived, it was truly magical. I may or may not have teared up a little bit. I just thought it was so cool. We tried to explain to Claire that we were going to see the princess, but since she didnt look like Cinderella or Belle in a big fancy dress, it was hard for her to understand. Oh well. Im so glad we went. It was totally worth it even just for the experience and to say that we did.

They showed up in a motor brigade on 12 Ave in Calgary. This carriage was sitting there waiting to carry them in. What I would have given to be that driver!!

Here is Princess Kate getting into the carriage.

Followed by her dashing husband Prince William. I LOVED that they were wearing white Stetson cowboy hats. The traditional hat of Calgary. They were given to them as gifts at the airport when they arrived.

And here is the happy couple driving in. They drove about 200 yards and then there was a presentation where Prince William participated in chuckwagon racing which I thought was so cool. They said that the Royal Couple has never participated in events in the cities, only observed. But Will and Kate broke all tradition and participated in a TON of things while they were in Canada. I dont know them personally but they have a glow about them and I really feel like I know them as weird and as cheesy as that may seem. I loved it. Everything about it. The next day we were driving on Memorial Tr in Calgary and all the traffic in the opposite direction stopped. People were out of their cars taking pictures. It was the Royal Couple's brigade taking them to the airport. So cool. I am proud to say that Canada still has some allegiance to the Queen and to England. It makes me feel closer to the Royal Couple. :)

Family

My family is pretty spread out right now. My dad is in Arizona, we are in Utah and every one else is in Canada so its pretty rare that we are together. The only person we were missing in Canada was Brice. I was super sad, but we decided to take a couple of pictures. These are a couple of the best ones. I wish wish wish that Brice could have been there. We missed him so much!!

Canada Part One

We got to go to Canada with Noah for the first time - EXCITING! We also got to pay for Claire's plane ticket for the first time - not so exciting. It was a lot of fun. We did a TON! We are glad to be home too.

Noah meeting GG (my mom's mom) for the first time

Grama reunited with her grandkids.

Claire fed the Canadian geese some bread. They got REALLY close...I was scared because they can be really mean.

Claire playing at the splash pad at Eau Claire Market...ten minutes later she didnt have a shirt or diaper on...

Grama on the bench with Noah

I didnt take swim diapers to Canada and refused to pay for them up there so we used normal ones...now I know the difference. I think this one weighed about 8 pounds

We also took Claire to the zoo...her first time at the zoo of any kind. She loved it.

The gorillas were her favorite. They came right up to the glass and played with her

I dont think she realized the peacock opened up its feathers. She walked right up to it and out they came. Scared her to death

Noah at the zoo...one of the few minutes he was awake that day

Caught a smile on camera. I love when babies start having real smiles

Well - this is the first Canada post. There are plenty more to come as we did about 1500 other activities including see the Royal couple. Stay tuned :)

Newborn Photos

Can you believe Noah is 5 weeks old already? I cant. Time sure flies. I  had his newborn portraits taken when he was 4 days by this talented girl here. Seriously, if you need photos, call me and Ill give you her number. Shes amazing.

Here are a few of my favorites, however, they are all fantastic