The Stars at Night are Big and Bright

Deep in the Heart of Texas!

During the first few years of our marriage, we moved from a tiny apartment on Hansen Avenue in Idaho Falls to the classy El Dorado Apartments in Orem to Grandma's apartments in Provo to our Victorian townhouse in Old Upper Arlington, OH, to our own condo in Columbus, OH, to a house in South Provo on Slate Canyon to our most recent and beloved residence in Pleasant Grove, and now to a rental home in Coppell, TX, just outside of Dallas. That's 8 moves in just over 10 years!! I know it's not a record, but it's a lot of work still the same. We have had so much assistance from friends and family, it's been unbelievable. Moving is a sure test of who your true friends are, I have found. Right by our side during our moves have always been Sam and Tessa, Nick and Meadow, my parents, Missy and Adam, the entire Terry family (Meadow and Adam's family), along with various other family members, friends, and ward members.

So, as you can see, we started out to Texas in a snowstorm. The entire first day of driving was a nightmare. The roads werre snowy and we averaged about 45mph over 10 hours of driving. The next day we sailed through the remaining 700ish miles at about 70mph- NICE! It honestly went by so quickly, and Zach was a peach through the whole thing, thanks in part to my Mary Poppins momma who came along. Due to the holidays, we were unable to schedule the utilities to be connected until just yesterday, so we ended up staying 5 days in a hotel (thanks again to James and Rachelle for Pricelining for us!). It was ridiculous.

When we arrived, a moving party from our new ward was already assembled and helped us unload the truck in 2 hours flat! I am so grateful for the worldwide network of the church and for the selfless, Christlike service of its members. We could not havecompleted any of our moves without that assistance. Luckily, my mom was here to help us unpack many of our things the first few days. It was too cold to be in the house for too long. My sweet old roomate from BYU, Janet, lives here and has brought us food and invited us to her home for dinner with her darling family. It is so nice to already have a friend here!

I actually really like our house. It is a ranch twinhome with 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. It is less than half the size of the 2600 square foot house we left behind, but it is still big enough for the three of us. We wanted the bigger home in Utah so that we could have family stay with us whenever, and that space was well utilized. We don't count on having many frequent visitors here in Texas! It has a few faults, like the ugly linoleum and wallpaper. Plus the walls are a bit colorless compared to what we came from. I can't wait to splash paint around on them! I don't know if we'll mess with the ugly floors or wallpaper, but if we do, I think we could make it quite nice. I doubt Corey will have much time for remodeling with his school, but maybe during the breaks....

Note the unraveled roll of toilet paper accompanied by that mischievous expression.

And that is the lovely linoleum I was referring to.

And then the Buckeye jacket- what an awesome year for OSU!!!

These are mostly pictures from our last going away get-together at Carl's Jr. with my family.

My darling Tressie Girl

My beautiful sister Melissa

My stunning sister-in-law Meadow

Zach is going to miss his doting Grandpa Alexander so much!

And here is Zach at Walmart on New Year's Eve. It was a smashing party with the duck and carousel and all, if you can't tell by Zach's face. Talk about your white trash event!