Hello, Phoenix!

     We've been in Phoenix for almost three weeks.  Our house is looking more and more like a home and less like a warehouse, but we are far from "settled".  The blessings are that we have a home, our "stuff" made it to our home, we are slowly unpacking, and we are taking time to enjoy each other every day.  The weather here has been perfect outside weather.  So, Audrey rides her bike, Claire rides in the stroller, and we go exploring.  We've found so many new play grounds, it's almost overwhelming!  We also got our Christmas tree up and decorated, and we found the Little People nativity.  Audrey and Claire have fun moving around the nativity characters.  Audrey re-enacts the birth of Christ while Claire takes baby Jesus and puts him in the bath tub (or in the kids' kitchen fridge)!  I snapped a few photos of our house two weeks ago.  As you can see, we were surrounded by boxes.  I'm SO happy to report that the boxes in our living room/kitchen are completely gone, and we only have a few (containing pictures to hang) left in our dining area!

 I'm so glad our great room no longer looks like this... I thought I was going to go insane for a few days.

 All of these boxes are gone now, and our Christmas tree is in the far right corner.

 Isn't moving just the best?!?!

 But, this is the view from our front door... Yup.  Grass. And a park.  In Phoenix!  I love it.

 Our cute little home.

 This backyard pool is going to be fantastic this summer!

And Audrey loves that we inherited a play set for our yard, too.

Goodbye Sumter...

          Thirty-six hours after flying back to South Carolina from our trip to South Dakota, we officially said goodbye to Sumter.  I am not going to lie.  It was much harder for me than I anticipated.  Our time in South Carolina was so special to me.  I am so thankful God put us at Shaw for this past assignment and brought so many wonderful friends and families into our lives.  It was not an easy 2 1/2 years... Matt was gone for over half of our total time living in South Carolina.  But, God provided such a support network for our family.  We had a great church, life long friends in our squadron and on base, a truly solid bible study, and some of the best baby-sitters EVER!! (You know who you are!)  Claire joined our family while we were in South Carolina, and we saw our extended family often since our parents lived within driving distance of us.    All of this is to say that, while we are excited about our next adventure in Arizona, my heart is sad about those we said goodbye to when we left South Carolina.
          Audrey also felt the sting of a move for the first time.  As she was only 18 months old when we left Korea to move to South Carolina, she did not really "miss" her friends and playmates in Korea.  As a four year old, though, she had much stronger ties to our community.  I watched her tell her best friends, her baby-sitters, her teachers, and her adult friends goodbye.  Each time, she would either hug and kiss them until I had to pull her away, or she would attempt to "go home to live with" whomever we were telling goodbye.  She still talks about many of her friends, and she prays for them each night!
          So, I must thank all of you in South Carolina (past and present residents, as many of our military friends have already moved on themselves) who poured yourselves in to our family's lives. Thank you for your friendship.  Thank you for your encouragement.  Thank you for making our time in Sumter so rich and full.  God bless you all until we meet again!

          We took these two photos as we were headed out of town...

 Ms. Stephanie, Camryn, Audrey, and Ms. Mary Beth

(Audrey's teachers at day school and her best friend from school)

Timothy and Audrey

(Audrey's other best friend)

Belated Thanksgiving Pics

So, I'm finally getting a chance to sit down and look at pictures...

I'm putting up a slideshow of our Thanksgiving adventures in Gregory, South Dakota.  Matt, the girls, and I flew out and spent Thanksgiving with Poppy, Grammy, Uncle Jordan and Aunt Heather, and two families that are great friends of the Russell family.  Every year, some people from each of these three families meet in Gregory to pheasant hunt.  We haven't had a chance to go to South Dakota since we were first married, so Matt was super-excited to get back and spend time with family and friends.

I was a bit apprehensive at first, since we were taking the girls with us, but we had such a great time.  Audrey and Claire loved exploring the lodge.  The great room had a juke box, and we had dance parties almost every day!

In the slideshow, you'll see pictures taken mostly inside Stukel's - the lodge where we stayed.  The lodge is really nice, but it is filled with an abundance of animals.  It's a bit of a shock (for me, at least), and that is why I had to snap a few photos of our "friends".  The animals didn't seem to bother the girls at all, and they were particularly fond of the bears!

Audrey also got to go out with the hunters and field walkers one day and help them hunt for pheasant.  Matt said she was quite a trooper, happily yelling "Up birds! Up birds!" in order to send the pheasants flying.  I think she rode on Matt's shoulders a lot, but it still wore her out.  She fell asleep in the van in between fields!

Thanksgiving in South Dakota turned out to be a nice break for us in the midst of our move!