I think we're gonna like it here...

The kids are in heaven with the neighborhood pools. It's still summer here!




Becca on our street. We're trying to give the grandmas and grandpas an idea of what our neighborhood is like. Notice the big church in the back... a lot like one you would see in Utah, but not owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.



Our house. The grass looked extra nice after the Hurricane rains! I've never seen so much water in my life!




It's a short walk down this street to T and B's school. They love it and I think we're finally settling in!

A quick update from Texas...

Well, we're here! We started our drive to Texas on Friday morning. We went down south through Moab and then through the corner of Colorado. As soon as you drive through another state, you can tell instantly that you are in a new place. I no longer recognized the names of the towns at all! I enjoyed seeing the sunflower farms in Colorado.

We were able to get into New Mexico by the afternoon. Whoa- are we sure they are still part of the United States? I was shocked to see an Indian Reservation for the first time. There was a hospital, a school and tiny houses on dirt. That's pretty much it. John really wanted to stop for the night, but we had to drive another 2 hours to find a hotel. When we went to Pizza Hut for dinner, children came up to our table with handmade items to sell. I've never seen anything like it in this country.

On Saturday, we finally hit the Texas border by the afternoon. We had a mini-celebration at the border and took lots of pics. (Those will be coming soon... we don't have our internet up yet! I'm typing this at the library..)

Our first stop in Texas was at a gas station where we saw our 1st authentic Texan cowboy. Beat-up pickup truck with trailer, saddles strapped on the back, he was wearing a cowboy hat, boots and spurs. John and I were saying that an outfit like that in Utah is usually only seen at Halloween.

We stayed at John's sister's house on Sunday night and then got to our new place on Monday morning! It is in McKinney, Texas and it's a beautiful area. We are very grateful and can't believe how many miracles occurred for this to happen.

The kids started school on Tuesday- finally! Rebecca and Thomas walk to the elementary school 2 blocks away and I drive Allison for about 4 minutes to get to her middle school. They look like top quality schools and the kids are loving it so far! Allison found out that she is one of 4 LDS girls in her grade. What a change!

Thomas started 1st grade, he talked of nothing else, so we didn't want to disappoint him. We think he will do great! Becca will go to the middle school next year in the 6th grade.

So far we are loving it! We still have some adjustments to make, but we are so excited for the future. Yesterday was a "dream come true" day: Dad at work, kids at school, Mom at home- all home in time for dinner. WOW! It's been a long time since that has happened for our family.

We love you all and we'll keep you posted on new developments down here in the south!

Dear Daddy,

We've missed you so! (Especially when you're gone for a birthday & an anniversary!) While you've been gone... we had just a little bit of fun. All three kids performed in the 3 Nephi pageant.


This is what your son looks like with makeup on!


This is where your daughter picks up a fake rock to use for hitting Timothy on the head.


Meanwhile... Tommy and Becca were sweet little Nephite children.



Their annual picture with Jesus!


Then we headed for Marysvale and Tommy had a dream come true when a nice cousin offered his little dune buggy to ride in! He got to go twice!


Becca also got a ride- Allison was too busy building a dam in the river and playing lifeguard with Abbi and a bunch of 3rd cousins.


Look at this little hawk hanging around Mom and Dad's place! It even landed on the car and Becca was sure to get pictures.




This is where I grew up!



We headed for the Piute Reservoir, but not before we tracked down these marshmallows. We called my Dad the "Marshmallow Hero" because he turned the car around when he saw the delivery pull up to the store when we were leaving. He even helped them unload the marshmallows!


We would have missed out on this without those marshmallows...



We then skipped down to St. George to see this little princess! Our newest little niece and cousin, Zoe!


We also checked out the new Blackwell pad in St. George!






Enjoying the water and the red rocks!


The birthday boy and girl!




The sweet mom of the the sweet little girl.


Back to Draper to celebrate the birthday again!




Rebecca ordered Hawaiian Haystacks for her birthday dinner!



New clothes for the birthday girl! (Do you like her crown?)


She's 10! Time for the traditional piercing of the ears!


Ahhhh... it didn't feel good! She was regretting it at this point.


She made up for the pain and suffering by buying these pink, fluffy, polka dot, flip-flop slippers with pom-poms, bows & metal peace sign charm. What a girly girl indeed!


Ahhh! Feeling better already!


The girls received some new jammies tonight from a favorite family of ours up here and they had some fun with the camera! (Oh, do you like Tommy's new haircut? We went super short!)


We're all packed and ready to go, Dad! We love you and can't wait to see you tonight! (Yes, I'm sure they'll be up THAT late.)

Can you guess....?

Let's see if you can guess where the Ryans are moving now....!

Here's a pic of Becca's new school "shoes":



And here's a pic of Tommy's new shirt:



Yee-haw! Did you guess.... Texas!? You're right! John is down there already- he's a working man again! We're moving to the Dallas area and we are really excited. Here's a little bit of what happened to bring this big change. But before I do, I must say that these wonderful people are our heroes:



This is John's sister, Mary, and her husband, Josh. (Thanks for letting me steal your pic from Facebook.:) Josh & Mary moved to Texas last fall when Josh got a job after finishing his MBA at BYU. To make a long story short, Josh decided to take a new job at Ford and needed to leave his current job. He recommeded John take his position when he left. He fortunately had built a great relationship with his employers and they decided to interview John. John did a few interviews via Skype and we found out about 2 weeks ago that he was hired!

Wow, what a blessing in these crazy times. We really appreciate all of you that prayed and fasted for and with us through these 9 1/2 months (yes, really) of unemployment. We appreciate those that looked for ways to help and lift us. It truly has been a trial of patience and faith. This is such a great blessing and a Win, Win, Win for everyone involved. Josh needed to leave his job, the company needed to fill the position and John needed work. Yay for all three! Isn't it interesting that we were in a position that we can just pick up and leave at this point in time as well. This job makes us feel happy that the others didn't work out! The Lord has blesses us and watched over us always... of course!

So we are leaving at the end of this month. John flew down to Dallas last week to start work and is staying with Mary and Josh. We love and appreciate them so much for their help and support! John will fly back here on the 25th and we will pack the truck on the 26th (it's nice that all of our things are already packed!) and drive the 27th & 28th. Then we'll be official Texas residents! We're so excited for the new adventures that await us.

Disclaimer: The pictures are not the "real" boots and t-shirt of B and T. I don't have my camera equip. w/ me so I had to improvise and steal some pics from the net!

Forgiveness

Wow, this is amazing! I just saw it for the first time tonight. In case you missed it, here you go...enjoy! (FYI- Grab a Kleenex first.)

KSL News This Morning

Alli and I had an exciting morning! We ended up being on KSL news today! One of my blog readers contacted me about nominating the owner of Family Fresh Foods (the store that made me decide to start a coupon blog) for the KSL High Five Award. Well, they surprised him with it EARLY this morning and Alli got to give him his gift basket!

You can watch all the excitement here!

Tommy's Birthday

Tommy had his 6th birthday today! And.... we found our camera right after we finished the birthday cake. But, my sisters-in-law got lots of pictures for us. (Thanks, Jill & Mary!)

We had a fabulous week with John's family- his sisters from Oregon and Texas came to stay for a vacation. We went to Seven Peaks and had a big birthday party for Tommy. Thank you Grandma Ryan! She worked so hard this whole week & made it fun for everyone.

This is at our 2nd swimming party in Riverton!

We spent the week on a nice little vacation of our own- right in Riverton! We stayed with John's grandma and enjoyed the basement John built a few years ago. Everything went well.... except for the little mishap of Tommy spilling a whole pitcher of purple grape juice on the cream colored carpet. Well, I should say 1/2 pitcher, the other 1/2 did land on a red rug. Who puts cream colored carpet in the kitchen???? Well, John's Grandma. (Ryans, please don't tell- we bought an extra special cleaner and we think we cleaned it up well. Eeek!)