No I'm not dead, and no I haven't fallen off the face of the Earth...well I am in Iowa living on the edge of town across the street from corn and a horse farm!!! Not kidding. But in all reality, it is very beautiful.

Life is good. I'm sorry to all my friends and family I haven't been good at calling it's been very busy out here. Here's what has been happening in the last almost 2 months.

We packed up all our stuff in CA and crammed it into a moving truck with the help of the missionaries, a neighbor and Robert. My sister Kathy even came up from San Diego to watch Maddy and help us clean. It was a lot of hard work and we couldn't have done it with out our friends and family, so a BIG thanks. After all was said and done we fit our lives in 10 feet of truck space. Here's how it looked in the end. Pretty scary! But besides some nicks and dings and one broken dish, it all made it here.


It was bittersweet to leave CA. We loved the friends we had made there and it was hard to go our separate ways as we moved on to the next stage in our lives. I was actually the first of all our friends to leave, it was really hard. I cried and cried. Heather gave me a card and I had to wait a couple days to read it, because I was so upset to be leaving. Of course I cried again when I read it. Thanks!!!! I couldn't resist, here is one of the last few pics we took in CA, Rex is such a crack up! :)



Traveling worked out well. I flew with Maddy and Ethan drove with Lola. Besides a blowout during our layover, Maddy was great over the whole day of traveling. Everyone thought she was so cute so lots of people wanted to hold her and help. I think Ethan (and Lola) just barely survived his 3 very long days of driving.

On August 25th, we signed away our lives and maybe our first born, purchased our first home. Maddy was so excited she pooped and stunk up the whole office! So here it is our new home. It's so crazy to think we are actually here in a home. We are getting pretty close to being moved in. W still have pictures to hang, shelves to put up etc., that's not too bad. I took video, but blogspot is freaking out, so maybe next blog, you'll just have to enjoy this pic.


Ethan is working at his dad's office and is doing great! He really likes it. But now that he's back he has to clean the office and mow the lawn every week. I don't think he likes that part!

As for me I'm offically 27 now! Yikes, that 30 mark is getting closer and closer. Looks like I'm finally growing up just in time. A kid, a house, and an employed husband no longer in school! Here's my party. We went out to dinner then had family and some friends over for icecream cake. Yum, icecream cake, maybe I'm not so grown up!


Maddy is now 4 months and huge!!! She is wearing 6-9 mon old clothes! She is always hungry, so I started her on rice cereal. She took to it right a way. She is finally sleeping in a crib, hallelujah she's out of our room. She moves around a ton at night, we usually find her in the morning facing the opposite direction of how she was put down the previous evening. After a rough time zone adjustment, she's back to pretty much sleeping through the night. Naps, however are still a challenge we are working on.



So friends and family, please forgive us for not staying in contact better. We will try harder now that we are more settled. We love you all and miss you!