Birthday

Happy Birthday

Aunt Tyne!

We Love you and miss you!

Washington is so far from Texas!

Happy Mother's Day

to our AMAZING

Mothers

and

to our wonderful Grandmothers

and

all the Amazing Women we know.

We Love You!

The Move

This is Daniel and Bensen the Sunday before we moved.

So, on Monday, April 20th we finished packing up all of our belongings and loaded them into my dad's trailer, thanks to the help of friends and family who we love and miss. We stayed in a hotel in Orem that night with my parents and left Tuesday morning for the drive down to Spring, Texas (just North of Houston).

My family room after everything was moved out.

Tyne, Daniel, and Bensen sleeping on the floor in the back.

Daniel driving. It ended up taking us 4 days, bleh.
The kids did really well.
Staucie with a lolly pop.

Bensen taking a nap.

My sweet Parker. He probably had the hardest time.

Texas.

Very flat.

We stayed with Daniel's sister and her husband in Dallas Thursday night. It was fun to see them. And we were grateful for a place to crash. Then Friday morning we slowly got ready to make the last stretch to Spring. Daniel got a phone call from our Realtor telling us that the landlord of the house we were supposed to move into that day told the property manager that morning that he had not been making payments and would probably foreclose. So, we lost the house we were supposed to be living in. We are trying to rent a house here while we wait to sell our condo in Utah. Anyways, so fortunately Daniel's sister, Brittany and her husband, Matt, have welcomed us into their home for the time being.

We feel bad living here and taking over their house. There are 5 of us and Brittany is due with their first baby in 3 weeks. Staucie and Parker are sleeping in their baby's room and I feel terrible that she can't set it all up the way she wants. We also feel bad that are kids are terrorizing their beautiful house before their own kids are even born.

We are so grateful that they are here though to take us in so that our kids have a place to sleep, eat, and play. They love their Aunt Brittany and Uncle Matt.

The kids playing in the rain.

Eating Nachos around the coffee table (A Lees tradition)

Brittany, Matt, Ashley, Daniel, Staucie, and Parker

Bensen really likes their baby swing. He has had a sinus cold and has slept pretty good in the swing.

Eating yogurt.

Bensen sleeping in the Pack n Play in our room.

Staucie and Parker taking over the baby's room. Poor Brittany :(

It has been really hard for me to make this move for many reasons and on top of it, we are homeless, but I have felt right about it accepting the job. Daniel has a great job in Houston and we are excited for a new adventure. But I am quite discouraged that we have no home. We are living out of boxes that are in Brittany and Matt's garage. Our stuff is all over in their house. I feel bad for taking over their home, especially when they are trying to get ready for a baby. I wish I had a place to call home. We keep looking and have been trying to put in applications on houses, but then when our realtor calls on the house that we JUST looked at, she is told that it is no longer available. I just don't understand why it has been so hard. I have become very discouraged. I also wish we didn't have to spend money on rent and could just buy a nice new home. The houses here are a lot less then what we paid for our condo. Bleh.

I am also VERY grateful for my parents. They helped us by driving all of our stuff down and helped pay for things. They helped entertain our kids at gas stations and hotels. I am not only grateful for their help, but I am also grateful that they were with me. Moving away from everyone was sad. I didn't want to leave my family. I haven't had too many breakdowns and I think I might have cried the whole way here if they weren't with us. It felt better that they were here, but I did cry a little when they left me. Maybe because they are not a one day drive away anymore, or because I am homeless, or because I don't know when I will see them again, or all of it. Thanks mom and dad. I love you and I am so blessed to have you in my life.

Moving

We are trying to get everything organized today so we can load the trailer on Monday. We will stay in a hotel Monday night with my parents and then begin the 3 day drive to Spring, Texas on Tuesday with all of our belongings and our 3 kids stuck in the car for hours. My parents are helping us move down there which is so WONDERFUL. I don't know how we would do with the 3 kids for 3 days without some help. Plus we have 2 cars and all of our stuff. I am so grateful for their help.

We are trying to sell our condo. I am so sad to leave it. I love it. We took some pictures of our front room so we could have them online to sell it. The front room and kitchen of our condo was what I fell in love with when we were looking to buy 2 years ago. I found it online and just the pictures alone won me over. We went to see the model right away and I wanted nothing else. I have loved living here, it hasn't even been 2 years yet. I have loved our neighbors, being near so much family, and our new, clean home. I will miss Utah, we have been here for so long.

Bensen looked so funny in his car seat the other day when my mom put him in to run some errands in the middle of all our packing this week.

Staucie and my mom taking a break to eat some of the eggs we colored for Easter.

Parker found a good hiding place amongst the boxes.

Staucie found a nice seat when the shelves were removed from the entertainment center.

Goodbye Utah!

We will miss everyone there!

Easter

We colored Easter eggs the night before...

Daniel, Staucie, my mom, and Parker

Staucie
Parker

My mom, Parker, Kyle

Bensen (Tyne held up and egg for him)

Parker and Bensen

Bensen, my mom, Parker, Tyne

Easter Morning!

(Our shelves are looking bare)

Bensen on Easter morning, he just "played" with a toy.
We went to Daniel's grandparents for dinner on Easter Sunday and the kids went on an Easter egg hunt in the backyard..

Parker

Staucie

Parker, Staucie, Sadie, and Spencer

Pictures of Kids for Grandparents

Parker loves to take care of Bensen.

Staucie wanted to hold him too.

The kids decided to nap on the floor one morning.

Bensen
And BensenThe boys in the laundry basket.
Grandma Randall reading to the boys. My mom is here helping me pack. She has been a lifesaver. It was so hard to do anything with the 3 kids and I was making very slow progress and freaking out. I am SO glad she is here.

Good-bye Utah, Hello Texas!

So we are moving in 2 weeks. This is kind of sudden. Daniel had a job interview in November and we have been waiting forever to find out. We didn't really think it was going to happen. Then a week ago he got the job offer and we accepted. He starts soon so we are busy trying to figure things out...

Lets start with the good...

1. Great career move!

2. Daniel will be happy at work.

3. Daniel's sister, Brittany, and her husband, Matt, live there. Daniel will actually be working for the same company as Matt.

4. We will hopefully rent a house and I will be able to send the kids in the backyard to play almost whenever they want. (We live on the 3rd floor.) So, all day long when Staucie asks to go outside, I can say, "Sure," instead of, "Parker is sleeping, Bensen is sleeping, it is snowing, I have to cook dinner, I am still in my pajamas, etc."

5. It doesn't snow.

6. A new adventure.

And the bad...

1. I will really miss my family and friends.

2. BUGS!!!

3. I love our home. It is new, clean, open, and I just love it.

4. BUGS!!!

5. It will be too hot in the summer.

6. BUGS!!!

7. We will be renting an old place.

8. BUGS!!!

9. So far we haven't been able to sell or rent our condo.

10. BUGS!!!

11. My family will be far away.

12. BUGS!!!

13. BUGS!!! (I have a very serious fear of bugs.)