Moving

A good friend of ours volunteered to watch Jace and Brooke while Craig and I did our preview trip out to AR to secure housing and buy a car.  It worked out great because she lives right next to kids elementary school and both of her kids are in the same classes as my kids.  We took Ty with us.  It was crazy finding housing.  I came out super prepared.  I had a list of 20 houses that I had sent to our realtor the day before.  By the time we arrived the next day there was 4 left.  We couldn't find a 4bed at all.  Boo!  It was like hunger games for houses.  There were so many people looking for houses to rent all at the same time that it made it really difficult to find anything.  We didn't end up in the neighborhood that I originally wanted but we like what we found.  It's a 3 bed so it will only work for a year for us but we're happy and feel good about it.    After we signed a contract for a house we headed over to the Mazda dealership to buy a Mazda 5.  We were able to talk them down quite a bit and were happy driving our first brand new car off the lot.  It was a fun trip.  Craig's dad came over from Oklahoma and helped out with Ty and we got to eat out a lot and it was all on Wal-Marts tab.  :)  When we got back we had less than a week before we were flying out again.  This time with the kids to stay.  I didn't take my camera with me on the trip and didn't get many pictures of the whole moving process because it was just too chaotic.  Here are a few that I did get.

So what do you do when the packers have come, the house is cleaned out and there is no tv, music, or toys??  Brooke got creative and made a band out of what was left over in the fridge.  This girl cracks me up.

The kids are going to miss this house!!

Krynn had her 6th birthday party at Pump it Up the night before we left for Arkansas.  They had so much fun together.  They decided to be pen pals and are already planning how they are going to visit each other.

Saying good bye to our AZ home.  

The kids got close to our neighbors across the street.  They were sad to say good bye.

We had to get stop by the Thunderbird School of Global Management one last time.  It has been a huge part of our time here in AZ with Craig attending the school then working for them.  I'm sure we'll be back for visits.

 It was quite the challenge getting 3 kids, 2 car seats, a booster seat, stroller, 5 suitcases, and 2 carry on bags from shuttle to airport and through security.  We had a layover in Dallas and got dinner then the next flight was only 45 minutes.  The kids were pretty good for the most part.  They loved being on a plane and riding the train in the Dallas airport.
 

Unpacking took longer than expected.  It's been a month and I'm just getting done with the house .. I haven't even touched the stuff in the garage.  The packers used SO much packing paper.  It filled up an ENTIRE room.  The kids had fun playing in it though.