It's New

It has been a while since I have been able to blog.  As a result, there is a lot of things that I wanted to post and remember, that I have yet to do.  Most of those pictures and memories are on my camera, which is, regrettably, currently detained.  So, I decided to start with what's new.  I'll hopefully get back to the other memories soon.  

So, what is new?  Well, there is a lot that is new.  In fact, most everything feels new right now.  First off...  we live in a new place.

 After 11 years of owning our house, Brandon and I decided to uproot our little family and try something new.  Moving from Mesa, Arizona (population in the valley being roughly 10 million) to Oak City (population around 600) is considerably different.  Oak City is beautiful.  I'm already in love with the mountains around my house.  They are gorgeous.  We have grass!  Seriously! (In fact, it needs to be mowed, but that is another story).  The kids can play out front!  It's really nice.  Do I miss home? Yes.  Will I like my new home?  Yes as well.

 Melanie started school the day after we got here.  She goes to school in the next town over, which means she rides the bus.  The first day, I drove her to school and met the teacher with her.  Then she rode the bus home.  Poor Melanie was very emotional upon getting off the bus.  She was so scared that she was going to miss her stop.  Now she is a pro!  And she is even tricky and does her homework on the bus ride home so she is ready to play.  (Smart Girl!)

Melanie's teacher is Mrs. Fowles.  Her first day of school was a Wednesday.  The next day, they had a ballet come visit the school.  Friday was a field trip (to Oak Canyon).  Monday was eat at school with your kid day (which I'm glad I participated in). Tuesday was fire safety day, put on by the Delta Fire department, who brought their trucks and let the kids tour them.  Needless to say, she has been having a good time.   She loves her teacher and the friends she has made have been a lot of fun.

 Noelle is part of a joy school and started the Thursday after we got here.  She already LOVES it!  The group consists of 5 or 6 girls, so it is nick named the "Princess Preschool."  Noelle fits the bill.  Every day she asks me if she can go to school.

 We live walking distance to the town's park, so we frequently walk there (almost every day, in fact.  There are only a few days were, for whatever reason, we didn't head that way.)  Here are some pictures from our adventures at the park.  It's a lot of fun!  Sometimes we like to walk from the park to the only store in town, which we have dubbed the "ice cream place".  We can get ice cream sandwiches there.  So fun!

 One "new" thing I have really been enjoying these last few days involves the change in the season.  That's right...  a CHANGE IN THE SEASON.  We have Autumn here!  Real, Actual Autumn.  And that means, cooler weather and colorful leaves.  I'm in love!  It's wonderful!  I took Oliver to the Canyon after dropping Noelle off at school last Thursday (which is only a 5 minute drive).  I showed Oliver the beautiful trees.  

Me: "Look at that tree, buddy, Heavenly Father made it red.  See?"

Oliver: "He painted it red just for me?  Wow!  It's beautiful!"

I feel the same way when I look at the beautiful trees.  How blessed we are.

I have more adventures to share over the last 3 weeks, and hopefully I'll get them organized and posted soon.  But, for now, I just wanted to share that we got here.  We are happy.  And most of all, we feel blessed.