Goodbye Indy!!! Oh and My Birthday

The moment has come to say goodbye...Again!!! This seems to be the norm for us right now.  To think this won't happen again is silly, but for now we'll hope for the best.  We had to say goodbye to so many great people and I didn't get very many shots of these awesome people but we will never forget them.  This is Cameron Bell.  Randy met him shortly after starting at Eli Lilly.  Randy trained him to help him learn how to manage more effectively.  These two quickly became more than coworkers, brothers is more like it.  They are so much alike and we loved having Cameron around.  Him and his wife, Sara, were married shortly after we moved to Indy and Cameron asked Randy to be in his wedding.  They had their little girl Charlie the next spring and we've really felt a connection with these guys.  We hope to keep in touch with them in the future.

The packers came on the 1st and had us packed by late afternoon.  We slept in our house that night and sent the kids to school on the 2nd to keep them busy while the movers were loading the truck.  I shipped the littles off to friends homes to keep them occupied and not underfoot. The movers left about 7 and Randy and I spent the rest of the evening cleaning.  Luckily all we had to do were the  downstairs floors since we had been cleaning while they were loading.  Our Durtschi friends offered their parents home to crash at for the night before we headed out the next morning.  Alesha said they are use to company and would love to have us stay there instead of getting a hotel.  We were very grateful for that, especially since it meant that we could hang out with them for just a little longer.  When Randy and arrived to their house, the kids were running around like crazy people and having a grand ol time.  It was hard to make everyone go to bed knowing we wouldn't see them again.

Malia driving Logan crazy, lol.

 Luke being...Luke!

 Masie saying bye to Yukie, I mean Luke.

 So we all went to bed very late with the intention of getting up early and heading out. The only problem was getting us out of the house early is really hard and the Durtschi's decided to come one more time before seminary to say bye...again.  Kenz is really going to miss this guy!

 They brought Bry and Skye to say their goodbyes.  Luke is a big dork sometimes, haha!

 Can ya tell.

 Great bunch of kids

 Masie's bud Skye

 The kids slowly woke up and joined in on the goodbyes.

 And then the kids took showers, cuz I wasn't about to sit in the car for 12+ hours with this stinky bunch.  That gave us enough time for the younger Durtschi crew to get ready for school and come say their goodbyes.

 And of course my goodbye's with this girl!  Man I'm going to miss our walk/talks.  I can talk to this girl for hours and it feel like only moments. 

 Since our goodbyes took so long, we stayed long enough to see Grandma Pat (she's a nurse that works the night shift).  She is an amazing woman who will help anyone, anytime.  Her selfless service is inspiring.  She loved these kids and I'm glad she got to see them one more time.

 Then we stuffed ourselves one more time into the van...

 and took more pictures, haha!  Love her!

 Love them!!!  Thanks for all you did for our family in the short time we were there Durtschi's/Bland's.  Thanks for making us feel like part of your family and teaching us so much.  Till we see each other again...Love You!

 Then it was off to Martin's Cove to see lots of family and for an epic baptism.  The car ride went well, and when it didn't, this is what would happen.

Oh and btw, we left on my birthday.  This is how we celebrated.  At least I got my Culver's

Morgan's 12!!!

This was a tough party for Morgan.  This was the last weekend before we were packing up and moving so this kinda turned into a birthday/goodbye party.  I'll admit, there were some tears shed.  She invited kids from school and church and these girls had a blast!  They made some ducts tape crafts, ate dinner and watched a movie.  This is Aw-Bee (Masie's bestie) who is actually closer to Morgan's age.  They always had fun together.

 We rented Home which they made it through about halfway before deciding to be creative and goof around outside.

 Let the goofiness commence.

 Love that Masie joined in this shot.

 Wouldn't be complete without a crazy baby pic.

 Or two!

 Or Three!

 Ok I give up, he's just so squishable. 

This is wear the tears flowed.  This is Lily who also recently moved into our neighborhood.  She was having a hard time making friends and Morgan was her first friend.  This was a hard goodbye.

 Love this girl of mine.  She is always conscientious of those around her.  She is so loving  and helpful.  Being the youngest in her school class made me worry a little bit, but she has stepped up to the plate and is always on time, and does not like to procrastinate.  Not sure where she got that from...not me that's for sure.  Love you Morgie Poo!

Malia's 8!!!

When we were first married, I always would look to future milestones as something that would take so long to achieve.  Such as being married for 15+ years, having children in school, having children who were self sufficient, having teenagers...being in my 30's!  Well we have hit those milestones so fast and so many times that I can't even keep up, and here we are again at one of those BIG milestones.  Malia turned 8 before we could even blink and with that came a really big decision for her to make.  To be baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints.  It wasn't even hard for her to make that decision, she has known for a long time what the answer would be.  The hard part was the decision on when and where to be baptized.  You see, with the temple dedication so close to her birthday, we thought it would be a good idea to baptize her on her birthday so she could be apart of the dedication.  In the church, only baptized members are allowed to attend and even though should would be 8 by the dedication, we would have to hustle and get that ordinance done within 3 days of her birthday so she could go.  The problem was it wasn't convenient for any extended family to make that journey at that time but we were prepared for a small, intimate gathering for this special occasion.  That was until the news of the move came up. At that moment our plans were given a new possibility.  Lindsay, who has a son 5 days younger than Malia, decided to have her son, Bradley, baptized in the Sweet Water River in Martin's Cove, Wyoming where my parents are serving a mission over Labor Day weekend.  The same weekend we were heading out of Indy.  So we now had the option of joining her and share a baptism with lots of family or doing it on her birthday so she could go to the temple dedication.  It was a tough decision but Malia really wanted to be with her extended family on this special occasion so we decided to make the long trek out to Wyoming to see celebrate with everyone.  I will post separately on the baptism but in the meantime we celebrated her birthday and prepare for her upcoming baptism with some fun shots at the temple the week before the open house.  Bonnie Jean had come one more time to kill sometime while Andy was gone to hang out with us and take some cute shots of Malia in her baptism dress.  They turned out really cute!

And since it was her 8th birthday, it was party time.  She wanted to have makeup/dance party.  We invited friends from church, school and the neighborhood.  It was a fun/crazy time.

Kenz even helped with the makeup and nails.

 Even our neighbor Tracey who is pregnant with her 7th joined in the fashion fun.

 The girls had fun dancing!

 Masie couldn't get enough.

 Little Kay Kay joining in on the fun.

Aren't they beautiful!

Happy birthday sweetie!!! We sure are proud of all you have accomplished and the beautiful young lady you are becoming!!!