Oh how we've grown

This past few weeks have been tough on my emotions.  Many tears have been shed, many boxes have been packed, many goodbyes have been said and it's hard!!  We have loved living in Texas so much and have grown physically (just the kids hopefully) as well as spiritually because of the experiences we've had and the people we've known.  It's been life changing.  But, I'm finally ready to embrace this next stage of our lives in Utah and am excited to live close to family members again. We feel blessed looking back and looking forward.

Here's a look back at what we looked like when we first got to Texas 5 years ago.  Ethan was 7, Abbey was 6, Miah was 4 and Ellie was 6 months old!  This first picture is us arriving at the Austin Airport for the first time.  It was a long plane ride since the plane had to circle around our first big Texas storm for 2 extra hours before landing.    I remember being so excited and surprised at how humid it was, ha ha!

We stayed our first week in a hotel until we could close on our new house.  It was April of 2007 and Ethan was in 2nd grade and Abbey was in 1st.  Here they are in the hotel room all ready for their first day of school at Cactus Ranch Elementary.  So cute!

We loved Round Rock right away and found lots of fun things to do in the community.  Here's our first Easter Egg hunt at the Cat Hollow Park.

Here is our first trip to down town Austin.  We visited Town Lake, the Botanical Gardens, and Zilker Park.

We took many trips to the neighborhood pool and made great memories and great friends in Sendero Springs.

Ellie was so little and so she didn't know or care that we moved here but now I've realized that Texas is all that she knows!  She's 5 and 1/2 now and had literally grown up here.

We visited the "Round Rock" and saw the cool wagon wheel tracks in the river bed.  We learned all about the cool history of Texas and Round Rock and will always remember the Alamo!

Ethan, Abbey and Miah have all been baptized here, here's Ethan on his special day.  He has grown up so much since then!!

We became the proud owners of a ski boat and had the best boat partners, the Nelsons and the Heatons! Ethan and Abbey and I all learned to wake board and Miah and Ellie loved the tube and the knee board.  Dallas of course mastered crossing the wake 20 feet in the air on his wake board.  Fun times!

And now here they are all grown up.  They love Texas so much and are already asking to come back here for vacations! We have Texas in our blood now and will keep saying "y'all" and "Hook 'em Horns" to represent the Texas spirit wherever we go.  Thanks for the good times Texas friends, we love you!