Change is in the air!

It's been a while, a great while, since I've posted and a lot of things have changed in our family...not just the fact that I'm blogging again. ;)

Long story short...we moved to Utah.

I guess I can elaborate a little more than that! 

We were struggling financially and had tried several ways to save our home, including loan modifications, etc. When those were declined, we tried to short sell. We actually had a buyer and a broker that "had never lost a case". In the contract, the buyer would let us stay in the home and rent from them. That way we could stay where we were and have lower payments. Perfect! As far as we knew, everything was going great with the short sale. Then, in one week, the bank denied the sale, put the house up for auction and sent us an eviction notice. We had 5 days to be out. Looking back, we see that the bank didn't really want to work with us at all. Everything we tried just turned into a brick wall. They didn't sell the house at auction either, but they get more money from the government by foreclosing so they just did that instead of working with us.

Anyway, all of a sudden we had to be out...which left a door wide open. We had been pining to get out of Arizona for a while and really didn't have the money needed to rent a home (with deposits and everything). Most of our family live up in Utah and we've been away from them for a long time. After talking with several people including Jason's boss and our church leaders, we felt that we should head up to Utah. Crazy and insane, but it felt right. And it still does.

So Jason resigned from his job at University of Phoenix and we headed up to Utah. We are staying with family until Jason finds a job up here.  So now we are basically homeless and jobless, but we are VERY grateful to family for taking us in.

We started our new adventure by staying with Jason's parents in Salt Lake City. We got here in the middle of the Fall, with trees bathed in Autumn colors. It's amazing the small things you appreciate when you haven't had them for a while. Fall was very mild this year and stayed quite warm. On Halloween I took my kids trick-or-treating in a short sleeved T-shirt!  Basically it was Arizona weather in Utah. The best of both worlds. :)

So...what's a blog post without pictures? Here are some Fall/Halloween pics from this year...

Enjoying the Fall colors

Decorating Halloween Cookies

 

Whether coloring, painting or decorating cookies, Lauren is very focused and intense in her artwork.

Pretty Cookies by Kamary

We did Mini-Jack-o-lanterns this year.

 

The weather was so mild on Halloween that we decided to visit the Wheeler Historical Farm. We had a lot of fun. It was such a beautiful day!

Petting the Pigs

They loved the horses

Hanna has a way with animals. Those that normally shy away from people gravitate toward Hanna.

Lauren wanted to pet the rooster but was kind of scared too.

 

The goats were entertaining

There is a real Hanna smile. :)

The turkeys were pretty funny.

Brynlie trying to figure out where to go.

Watching the ducks.

 

The kids went on a mini hay maze. Brynlie got lost and scared. They decided they didn't want to try it again.

We also went on a wagon ride.

Everyone had a chance to milk a cow. It was a really fun experience.

 

Cute Brynlie

Jason & I tried it too

 

After the farm we went home to get ready for trick-or-treating

Alyssa was Frankie

Kamary loved her art teacher from AZ so she decided to dress up like Mrs. Miller for Halloween. :)

Here's a shot of everyone on the porch (except Kamary who didn't trick-or-treat this year).

All ready to go.

Hanna was Wonder Woman this year. She's giving her Power Girl pose. ;)

Kohler wanted to be a ninja this year. He and his cousins all had the same idea.

Brynlie has taken on a new identity in the past several months. She is Moopy the Blue Kitty. So naturally she dressed up as a blue kitty for Halloween (and every day since).

Lauren was our pretty witch princess this year.

 

We enjoyed spending the Halloween season with our family.