Goodbye AZ

This is such a sad post for me to write. We're down to 3 days now. Here is a quick update of what we've done our last few days/weeks here:

Preschool Graduation!
We had a little celebration with a picnic and "award ceremony" at the pool. The girls all did such a good job and learned so many things this year. I am so proud of all of them.

Halle, Caysja, Kate, Miah and LeiLani

Certificate of "graduation" from Ladybug Preschool

Pool Party
Miah, Caysja, and Halle in the shower at San Lagos

Kate, Halle, Caysja in the hot tub

Alissa and Me

We went to the Gila Valley Temple open house with the Hamblin family. Before a temple is dedicated, anyone and everyone is invited to go inside. The Hamblins are from that area so they took us home with them for the weekend and we stayed Fri. night with their parents so we could go to the temple Sat. morning. The temple was so beautiful! Our kids LOVED getting to go inside a temple for the first time. It was dedicated just last Sunday and broadcast to all the Stks. in the whole state of AZ. Thanks for taking us with you, Hamblin family!

Caysja and LeiLani--everyone kept asking us if they were twins!

Group shot outside the temple

We went out to eat after the temple. There's nothing like REAL, authentic Mexican food and the Gila Valley has plenty of it!

Moving pics
Caysja thought it would be fun to climb our shelves and take a nap

I probably boxed up their toys too soon, but not to worry! It never ceases to amaze me how entertained kids can be with just a cardboard box!

We had a goodbye party with all our good friends last weekend. We played "Rate Your Mate" (HILARIOUS!) ate yummy desserts, talked, laughed and reminisced. Thanks for coming everyone!

(Matt and Kristy Hamar, Sara and Rhett Frei, Carlie and Ryan Skinner, Isac and Jen Simpson, Britni and Travis Hamblin, Amanda and Jordan Glenn, Joanna and Adam Smith, and us--we're missing Ben and Leah who had to leave early as well as Becky and Zac Freestone who couldn't make it)

Am I ready to leave? Not even close--(especially since it SNOWED in Idaho yesterday--aaaagh!!!!) But since I don't have much choice in the matter, goodbye AZ! We'll never forget you! Thanks for being our "home away from home" and making the last three years go by so fast. You'll always hold a special place in my heart. WE LOVE YOU!

Things I'm really going to miss...

The list of things I'm going to miss when I leave AZ (one week from today) could go on and on. Here are just a few of them...

*BUNCO*
LOVE these ladies! Thanks for many wonderful memories, laughs and good games!

*DATE NIGHT*
What am I going to do without my Friday night dates?!?!! This picture was taken the last time I'll ever watch these kiddos. (Doesn't Crew look like he's got 5 little girlfriends?!)

*THE SAN LAGOS POOL/BEACH/HOT TUB*
Seriously, this is the main reason why we never moved to a house. I don't think I'll EVER find a pool that can rival this one. We LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it! I mean seriously, we have our own BEACH!

*THE WEATHER*
(Need I say more???!!)

*GOOD FRIENDS*
This is the biggest one. We're going to miss you all more than we can ever say.

I wish we didn't have to leave...

Birthday Tea Party

Caysja and Halle have been inseparable little friends the past three years we've been here and luckily we're both moving to ID so we'll still get to see and hang out with them now and then! Before we both moved, Alissa and I decided it would be fun to have a combined fourth birthday "tea party" for Halle and Caysja since their birthdays are just 13 days apart. We gave all the girls little hats and purses and taught them proper rules of etiquette. We read "Fancy Nancy" and then let them pour the "tea", open presents, and eat cupcakes and ice cream. Unfortunately my camera died before we got to the tea/presents/cupcake thing (that ALWAYS happens to me!!). Anyway, it turned out super cute and the girls had fun!

The little "ladies" (Kate, LeiLani, Miah, Halle and Caysja)

getting ready for the "tea"

"how do you do, Miss Kate?"

reading "Fancy Nancy"

One Last BBQ

A couple weekends ago, we had one last BBQ party at Joanna's house to say goodbye to our good friend's the Morrises. We are so grateful for the awesome friends we have made here that have helped these three years go by so fast. We LOVE you GUYS!!

The Girls: LeiLani, Kate, Lily, Halle, Caysja (we're missing Miah)

Us: Britni, me, Amanda, Joanna, Kristy, and Alissa

The guys: (not the best light as you can see!) Matt, Jordan, Wes, Caleb, Adam (missing Travis)