A tearful goodbye and a happy new life

So, we are finally back to a somewhat normal life now -yeah!!! I always hate blogging after I haven't for a long time because then you have to play catchup and it gets long and probably boring, but here it is for ya'll.

As I was taking picture around the house emmy kept following me saying "cheese" and got real excited when I turned the camera on her.

In Arizona this is called a park - lots of rocks and not a ton of grass, but the girls love the playground.

Ok so I just have to brag about Maile for a minute, she has just been doing so good with riding her bike and swimming, I can't help but be really proud (especially of her swimming skills). She has moved on from her little flinstone car to a smaller bike and now she rides this one to the pool every day(thank goodness cause that flinstone one took us a good 15 minutes to get to the pool, now I'm speedwalking after her). Big thanks to Uncle Justin for the bike. She can even swim across the width of this pool without her swim jacket, today she did it 4 times with not much rest inbetween. Dang she's gona be a good swimmer - love it!

This is where we spend a good couple hours every day and this is why I've been loving our new place. Our little neighborhood park area is all we need. Seriously these are our outings for the day playground in the morning. swimming a little later on and then my recent find is a big cement pad right behind our house for the girls to ride thier bikes and cars on - they love it! We really have it made right here in our neighborhood. Plus since we had so many toys and things packed away for 6 months it was like Christmas for Maile and Emmy they have so many new fun toys to play with when we're home. The weather here is absolutely perfect, it is monsoon season now so most afternoons we get a good thunderstorm, but its nice cause it cools it down a bit. So, yes life is good and we are adjusting well to this new life and place.

I actually hadn't felt homesick or realized what had just happened until we got internet and I've been getting caught up with blogs and emails and then it hit me that we are far away and I'm really going to miss all our family and friends. I've met some nice people around here but it always takes time to build up real close relationships.

Aaron has stayed a little busier with work than expected, so he's usually gone between 12 and 14 hours at random times. His schedule should get a bit more regular once he's done with the hands on training which won't be for another 3 months. He enjoys the job and gets a whole lot of action which kind of freaks me out - he thinks its fun. The other day he caught 9 illegals on his own. It is so great to be back together again. Maile just can't get enough of her daddy, it's hard to keep her out of the room when he's trying to sleep after working all night.

We totally love our house, so I want to show it to everyone since nobody is here to see it. We still have quite a bit to do, including major painting, but here are a couple shots to give you an idea of what it looks like now and hopefully will improve with time. Every night since we've moved in we're working on projects and the list never seems to get smaller. I didn't get a chance to get the girls room, but pretty much everything else. It's been fun decorating and just living in our own house is like a dream that I can't believe has actually happened.

I know this doesn't look like anything special now, but this might be my favorite purchase for the house, because I finally have a place to organize all my stuff that has been a mess for so long.

GOOD BYES
Dont' ya love this picutre?
Maile and Buzz look like they are about to break down in tearsMaile and her buddiesWe utilized every possible space in this beast we even stuffed all the drawers, but we still had to leave some things behind.

I always hate saying good bye cause I usually am crying too hard to even speak and when I do it just makes the crying much worse and I sound like an idot and I never even know what to say.
My sister Jodi and her family moved to Germany 3 days after us, so that was a tough good bye cause they plan to be there at least 5 years. Maile loves playing with her "buddies" so it was hard watching her say bye to them, but it was cute all the hugs and kisses she had for everyone.

We've become so close to my parents and brothers while at home, it was so hard to leave them. I couldn't have survived those 6 months without thier help.