It has been a busy few months for our family. Since our little Callie joined us she has done a lot of traveling. When she was about a month old we headed back to Utah for Christmas which I was SO happy about. Ryan only stayed a few days and actually had to go back to work the day before Christmas but the girls and I got to spend it surrounded by the rest of our family and we were very happy to do so. The girls and I then stayed for a few weeks while Ryan went back to work. At the end of January Ryan came back to get us and we took the chance to bless Callie. Ryan gave her a beautiful blessing.
The next day we headed back to Grande Prairie not knowing when we would be back to Utah to see our family. The wait wasn't long. About a week after returning we heard back from a job that we had applied for months before. Ryan got an official offer from Holly Frontier Refinery on Feb 14. Which made my Valentine's Day present the best one I've ever received. We were moving back to Utah!
It all happened very quickly. Ryan's rig happened to be shutting down for a month two days after we got the call so we decided to just go for it. Got out of our lease early and left Grande Prairie within about 10 days. 10 very stressful and emotional days. Packing up the house alone with two babies was a beast of a chore, but my real struggle was leaving my friends. While I could live the rest of my life without experiencing Grande Prairie weather again, I can't say the same for the people I met while there. I made some amazing friends who truly became my family and leaving them, especially so quickly, was not easy. I will be forever grateful for their love and support while I was so far away from my family with a husband gone all the time, especially during my pregnancy.
After saying our goodbyes we were on our way. Headed back to our home and family. Our actual home, however, was rented out at the time. So we spent a few weeks at my moms. Once we finally got our renters out we decided to do some fixing up. Some necessary and some just for fun. Ryan still had two weeks before he started his new job so we decided to become DIYers. With two babies, it was quite an adventure. We did a lot of things one-handed.
And Oaklee spent a lot of time like this (she has a habit of
stealing Callie's bumbo, it's very fun apparently):
We made custom frames for our bathroom mirrors
using crown molding that we painted and stained.
We also used the crown molding and some wood letters from Michael's to make this project in our room after painting an accent wall.
Here's the completed room:
Next we painted some stripes in Oaklee's room. Yes, it is a lot of pink.
We only do girls in this family and our house has a lot of pink.
Then we added the girls names:
We are pretty proud of ourselves for our first attempts at DIY. And it was actually a lot of fun.
After finishing our projects and moving in we still had a week before Ryan started his new job so we had some great family time.
Ryan started his new job this week and I have to say I am extremely grateful. We have been so blessed for this all to work out like it has. We both feel like this is where we are supposed to be. Grande Prairie was a necessary learning experience. We both grew a lot as individuals and as a couple and learned some lessons that I think we needed but I am very grateful that the Lord has decided it is time for us to be back in Utah surrounded by our family. Seeing the joy on my kids faces as they get to see their grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins all the time makes me so happy.
I am so blessed to have my crazy husband and his crazier children.
