We're ALIVE!!!

I thought I would do a little post to let you all know we are alive and well in good old Bountiful UT!!! Since we have arrived things have been Hot, crazy and busy!!! Since I now have an IPHONE (can you tell how excited I am, beyond excited!!!!) I have taken a few pics on that! Our camera is in some box in a storage shed so that is the best you get! Here are a few things we have been up to!
-Playing with cousins
-Running the Wasatch Back Ragnar Relay with my 3 sisters!
-Looking for houses
-Soaking in the heat (splash parks, fountains, and swimming pools)
-Bear Lake with the whole dam fam!!!

We haven't stopped for one second and I am basically still living out of boxes in my parents house because who has time to unpack when there is summer fun to be had! We may or may not have found a house but I will keep you posted!
The last couple days it has really hit me that I live in UT, before it felt like I was on vacation. I miss you all in Calgary and wish I could transport you here to play with me everyday. But I will say this feels like home, and we made the right decision. Blakely is in heaven!!! She loves her Papa and Suzy and can't get enough of all the action!!!

 Who needs clothes when its summer!

 Cousin Love!

 Her two favorite things, backpacks and her bottle!

SISTERS!!!

They Came

They Played

They Conquered

Two of my sisters (Whitney and Bekah) came up for a way too short three days to see Canada before I left and to help me pack up. Let's just say without them coming I would probably be freaking out right now, but they were so much help and did 90% of my packing. Even packed up my kitchen and sent Hank and I on a date to the movies (something we haven't done since Blakely was 5 weeks old and could sleep through movies)

The second they left I wanted to bawl my eyes out. Here are a few pics of us partying in Banff!

 So funny, doesn't it look like she is a celebrity..."No Pictures please"

Exact same hair....if mine were down you would see those same ripples in the back!

 Ater all the rain the river was insane...I have never seen it like that!

 Once again the love of backpack. She got mad when at dinner I tried to take her out!

 Sisterly love!

Survival Mode

Remember how I used to blog pretty regularly and then that just went away....well it is due to the fact that since I returned from Utah I am in full blown survival mode. I am just trying to survive my life without having a nervous breakdown. Therefore pictures and blogging have gone out the window. However, tonight I am finding that I have actually showered after class and eaten dinner by 9p.m. so we are on a roll!

This is a bit of what I have been up to lately. Teaching, teaching and more teaching. I bit off a little more than I can chew and have realized that I am invincible. For the last couple weeks I have been teaching two to three classes a day for a total of at least 15 a week. This is proving to be a little too much when in between you have to chase a 18month around. I was at least surviving when Hank was here now I am just trying not to die. Luckily I have wonderful friends here in Calgary that are taking my wild daughter for me and really helping me out. I honestly don't know what I would do without you all. In between classes I am trying to keep myself busy. If I am home alone I get lonely so I am trying to fill my days with activities for Blakely and my nights with mindless reality tv and packing. Can't wait to watch my SYTYCD tonight. My two sisters Bekah and Whitney came up this last weekend for a quick trip and saved me by packing up the majority of my house, despite the fact that my house is in boxes I don't know how I could have done it without them.

The countdown is on and I get more and more sad and yet more and more excited as the days go on (does that even make sense)!

Hank is in Utah and started his new job today...he also went house hunting with my wonderful realtor Aunt Mary. We are thinking of doing a bit of renovation on a house, lets hope I don't regret that later (right Amy?)

Anyhoo, sorry for the rambling...maybe it makes me feel like I am talking to someone other than Blakely!

I will leave you with a few random pics from my phone from the last couple weeks!!! Phone pics because I am too lazy to dig my camera cord out of a packed up box!

 Carter and Miss B

 The kid is obsessed with Backpacks thanks to Dora..."Backpack, Backpack" may be her favorite thing to say, hence the hello kitty backpack and the pic below where she made me put her in the backpack to watch a show while I made dinner!!! ha ha

Look at all those boxes...we are making progress!



Big Changes!!!

3 years ago Hank and I decided to pick up our lives and move to Calgary Canada, it was big leap of faith for us but we figured...why not? It will be adventure!

I never could have expected what Calgary would become for us...it is our home and we have fallen in love with it. The friends we have made, the experiences we have had, the canadianisms we have picked up have all have impacted us so much and made us feel right at home. We knew when we moved up here it would be short term, but now that our journey is coming to an end it is a very bittersweet feeling. While I know the decision to move back to Utah is right for our family at this time I am filled with sadness to leave this chapter of our lives here in Calgary and take on the next chapter!

These last couple weeks have been a complete whirlwind as our plans to move home at the end of the summer so Hank could start the Masters Program at the University of Utah in the fall have been put into superspeed! Hank got offered a job and our house sold and the next thing we know we are getting ready to pack up to move back to Utah. While it is quicker than we wanted we feel very blessed that Hank was able to get a good job in his field of work and couldn't help but feel that things were happening as they should when our house sold a few days later.

While I can't wait to be back home with my family and friends...these next few weeks I will cherish Canada and how it has become a part of me and always will be. Thank you to all of you who have made this my home...I hope you will always let me come back to visit!

Sneak Peak

Utah has been crazy busy and crazy fun! Miss B is in cousin heaven. Here are a few pictures of the fun we have been up too!

Wedding #1 (don't worry there were 3 more)

2010 Baby Girl's Photo Shoot

Race for the Cure

Cousin Wedding Shower for Sam

ALOT more to come when I get back to reality and get my life in order!

Momma!

So grateful I get to be a momma to this!

Wishing you all a happy mother's day!

Easter Weekend

When we first moved from Utah to Canada one of the hardest things was being away from family on holidays.... Easter was especially hard becasue usually my whole family goes down to St. George and has been doing it since I was a little girl. This past weekend we had such a good time I barely felt the heartache of being away from family. In fact as we were driving home from Easter dinner I said to Hank....this has been one of my favorite Easter's we have had. Canada has become our home and we have created our own family here, some who are real family (Richard and Jeanne Allen and family) and the friends that have become our family. I feel so blessed to have such great people in my life!!!

 Now back to the best Easter Weekend Ever (the fact that the sun was shining in full force and it was warm really helped)!

Friday afternoon we went to a birthday party for a friends 1 year old girl. I don't have any pictures but let's just say Blakely had the time of her life. She loves being around other kids and didn't stop running around for 2 full hours. She also participated in her first ever Easter Egg Hunt. She basically just wanted to stop and eat what was in the egg after finding one but I prompted her to continue on!

Saturday after I finished teaching a double we headed out to Butterfield Acres with the Dahls. From the website's description we couldn't have been more excited. To make a long story short it was a bit of a dissapointment. Apparently when I ordered the tickets to the Easter Bunny thing they didn't go through so we weren't on the list and couldn't get tickets, I felt so bad because we had all traveled up there. We made the most of it and tromped through the mud to see all the animals. We were a little dissapointed but the kids seemed to have a good time so I guess that is all that matters.

The girls and their daddy's!

Sunday we woke bright and early to go to church. What a wonderful thing we get to celebrate...the resurection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I hope that I can continue to teach Blakely what a sacred holiday this is and why we celebrate it. I put together a little Easter Basket for Blakely to get on Sunday morning. I honestly thought she wouldn't care about it, it was more just for me to have fun....but to my surprsise she loved it. She was going through it with big smiles on her face. And she knew exactly what was in those eggs. All I heard all morning was please please, somebody takes after their mom and loves chocolate!!!!

Later that afternoon we went to the Allen's for a delicious Easter dinner feast complete with a trip to the park for some Easter Egg Launching. It is such a fun tradition the Allen's have and we feel so lucky we have been able to be a part of it for the last couple years while living up here. We are so blessed to have at least some family here and couldn't ask for better people.

Funniest picture ever!

This melts my heart...

 Getting very dirty while I try not panic about it, ha ha

I hope you all had a wonderful Easter weekend. Now I am headed to home to spend time with my family and couldn't be more excited. Honestly it has been way too long. They are all going to die when they see how big Miss B has gotten. I will post when I get back, or sooner if you get lucky! ha ha