Washington

Hey Everyone!

First, Thank you SO much Heather for making this blog! Evanicio and I (McKell) moved to the Seattle Washington area in June and lets just I'm not liking it. I'm doing my best to like it as that it looks like we will be here for at least few years. But really I just love that this blog connects me back to my wonderful friends. I have yet to find a friend here in Washington, other than my awesome sister. I do know that Seattle is awesome to visit (just never live here) if any of you want to visit, my door is always open! Evanicio is working as a civil engineer in downtown Bellevue. I have been working as an Employee Relations Representative Program Manager, the longest title I have had yet, in Redmond. We live in a little place called Maple Valley. Everyone has been telling me this is the worst summer they have ever seen (worse meaning it rains all the time). I'm less than impressed by the nutty traffic, high prices, and depressing weather but life is an adventure and I'm hoping this is just one of the many stops along the way!

PS: the picture is of me at a place called Snoqualmie Falls, it was one of the very few sunny days we have had and was still only in the high 70's.

Question

Does anyone know if there is a way to find out where the new posts are? I can only figure out that you have to go into each post every time and that is just too time consuming. Thanks!

Weeks up-date

1st picture: My nephews Jace 4yrs old and Ransom 2 days old

2nd picture: Xander happy to be three on July 13

3rd pictures: Landen Just Playin in the car

4th picture: Kayden at the cabin (he said that it was stinky)

Hey this is awesome I love hearing about everyone, and what is going on each of you and your families. YEEEAAAHHHH I have good news. As some of you know I am currently back in Utah. Tyler has been in Oregon the last month while I came out to help with my sister-in-law she just had a little baby boy named Ransom, and she had a lot of complications, bed rest, and hospital stays so I helped out watching her oldest boy. Sadly this will be my last nephew from her, but she has two wonderful little boys and is blessed to have them. Anyways back to Tyler...He is currently packing up a uhaul, and driving to Utah today. I am so excited to see him after a month. The down part of the the whole experience is that he is going to have to take a pay cut. We lived in Grants Pass, Oregon, and the living circumstances are not good. The County was losing so much money that they couldn't 't pay for things like law enforcement, and so they cut them back. Everyday there were articles in the paper saying that police aren't responding to calls because they don't have enough man power. Tyler said that just last week two panhandlers were fighting in the parking lot, and someone called the police, and no one showed up, and so one got killed. There are some days that Tyler gets Three-Four bomb threats a day at the Wal-mart store (sorry for those that don't know he is a co-manager for Wal-mart) and that is scary sometimes, because you don't know what people are capable of doing. So we have decided that is not a place we want our kids to be, and I was scared in the situation, and didn't dare going out by myself so I was in the house a lot. So we are not sure what he is doing yet, but we just know that we have to get our family out of that situation, although it will be sad to leave our new friends that we have made. So anyways we are just going by blind faith. So we we are currently living with Tyler's parents till we can get everything the way it needs to be. Kayden is starting Preschool, and is way excited every time we get in the car he asks if he gets to go to school today sadly we have to say no you have till the fourth of Sept.. He is an awesome big brother. Xander for all of you who don't know when Xander was two he had lead poisoning, and had test after test done for information on why he wasn't talking and why he was so far behind in things. We are safe to say that we think a lot of his delay was due to the lead poisoning, but he has also been diagnosed with speech apraxia (which is like when old people have a stroke, and they can't talk, but young kids with it with the right help can grow out of it) so we have been doing early interventions, and speech therapy, and happy to say that Xander can now have some what of a conversation with us, and the screaming has almost gone away. Although he still shows a lot of frustration when we can't understand him or he can't get out what he wants to say. He has been accepted for a special preschool for delayed kids that he will start going to in Sept. Landen is doing GREAT he talks just a little less then Xander, and that make me feel GREAT he is learning new words all the time...it is sad to think that my little baby is growing up so fast. So currently I am just staying home with the boys and loving it although sometimes a break would be nice it seems as though I keep going and never stop. So I just wanted to up-date everyone on what is going on in my crazy life. Well hope to see some of you for peach days. Oh if any of you are around Brigham I was thinking next summer because it may be to late now, but we should have a park day that way everyone and the kids could get together...we may still have some time to do it before it gets to cold, but let me know I would love to work ever thing out! talk to you all later!

I love this...

I love that we have this blog. It's great to hear what all of you are doing and it brings a smile to my face at the end of a long day. Here is a photo of Cooper and he is actually with JaNae Packer Morris' little boys, my sister Heather's kids and Mandi Packer Pearson (Janae's older sister and she married John Pearson, Tony Pearsons older brother) kids. I'll go left to right, We have Cooper, Samantha (Heather's daughter who is 15 months old) Tanner (Heather's 3 year old boy) Janna (Mandi's brand new little girl) Corbin (JaNae's 3 year old boy) Hunter (Mandi's 18 month old boy) and Taylor (JaNae's 19 month old boy). They are all close in age and we love getting together when we can, which is not very often. Any who, Everything is going great here in Brigham. Chad is almost done with his first class at the University of Phoenix (online) and I'm so proud that he is at an A right now. We almost have all of his credits transfered to the University so we will soon know how many more classes he has to take. I am excited to hopefully be on the downslope. My two jobs are going great. I work for a gentleman named Adam Hess who owns a lawn mowing business and I answer his phones, do invoices, etc. It's really only about 10 hours a week. Then I am still working for a company in Salt Lake from home that does insurance reports. Both are great but between them, Cooper and keeping up a household, life is busy. I will take it though. We live on the west side of town just a couple blocks north of the fire department. I will be honest it is different being on the west side of brigham rather than the east side. I didn't think there would be a difference but there is. I actually enjoy it because we are a lot closer to downtown and Kent's. Plus, we are very excited to walk to Peach Days this year rather than drive from Salt Lake for Saturday and that's it. Well, until another free moment. C ya girls.

FYI

I'm so glad you all have joined our blog and are navigating around it so well! Just a couple things you might or might not know. You can sign in by either going to www.brighamgirls.blogspot.com or you can also sign in at www.blogger.com . When I go to blogger.com it automatically signs me in (?) so it might do the same for you. I don't know how it works like that but it is cool! Another thing is you can go back and see any post that has been made by checking the archives, even if it has been months. One thing that I think is fun is the YouTube videos on the side. This is one of my new favorite songs, "Bubbly". I think it is so cute. Click on the second picture. The first one isn't working for some reason.
I really hope that we don't use this just for updateing on our lives every couple of months, although that is a good way to start, but that we actually talk about what is going on day to day, whether it is something your kid or schoolkid said that was hilarious or your husband/roommates are studying and you just need to vent to somebody.(Heaven knows that is what I used my dental hygiene blog for) And please post pictures!!! Okay enough of me.
Love ya, Heather

Arizona Heat

Hello Everyone!
Well it is so fun to hear about everyone! I just wanted to let you know where we are at since I did not do so previously. We are in the heat of Arizona. We live in Gilbert, I work about 15 minutes away in Mesa, (Teacher) and Ryan works about 25 miles away in Phoenix.(Accountant) Even after 2 years I am still not used to the heat. You know how in school we had snow days? Well here we have heat days and they are not fun. Heat days are when it is over 100 degrees by 9:00 am. That means there will be no recess. As a teacher I pray for recess! The other day I almost started to cry when on my way to work at 7:00 am it was 98 degrees! Aghh! But you know don't worry in a couple months we might get out of the hundreds. I tell you I just am amazed at the pioneers who came down here. No airconditioning, cars, oh boy! I am afraid I would have turned right around and headed back to wonderful UT! We do enjoy the shopping, people, Diamondbacks, Suns, geckos, swimming, swimming, and being near Ryan's family. Well have a great day everyone! Hope all is well!

Indiana

Hey everyone,
Well if I went by first impressions I would have said it would be a long two years, but thankfully I can now laugh about our little adventures! :) We got here August 1st and I was really so excited about getting to our new house since we took a long time to get here stoping to visit with family. I was so anxious to get my own home and stop living out of a suitcase. But we got to to our house and I started crying... It was filthy. It looked like the previous tenants had not cleaned the whole time they lived here and the landlords had not done anything, not even repaired any nail holes in the walls or touched up the paint. Half the house is tile and the grout should have been a sand color but was brown with dirt. Which is sad because it's a really nice house and its only five years old. When I mentioned the undesirable conditions to the landlord she acted like I was making unreasonable demands.(But apparently people in Indiana have lower standards than that of Utah because my friend Allison said their house was the same way when they moved in) The next little thing that happened was that the gas had been turned off and despite beggin and pleading we were not able to have it turned on for five days!! So from Wednesday to Monday I boiled water on the stove and in the microwave and lugged it upstairs to the bathtub. And because we were working so hard cleaning this place, at the end of the day we were so gross and we really needed showers! I tell you it really gives you an appreciation for things like hot water heaters!! On the first day taking Jared to campus I got so horribly lost without my cell phone and I thought I was never going to find my way home. And just this week our roof started leaking. Go figure- its a new house! But that really was the worst of it. I haven't gotten lost since that one time and everything else has been great! Our ward is awesome. They have so many activities. There is a Mom and Tots playgroup and an institute class every week, scrapbooking club, knitting club and recipe club. There is a birthday lunch every month. I can't belive how many LDS people there are here. There are 10 mormon MBA students in Jared's class of 200. They call the MBA students wives "Krannert Widows" because you basically sacrifice your husband to the "Krannert School of Management" for the next two years. It's true. I have hardly seen Jared this week. The wives of the Ph.D students at least have their husbands around sometimes. It's a good thing there is a lot of cute young moms to hang out with and so much to do in the ward! But I'm really looking forward this experience out here. I'm still working on getting my dental hygiene license out here which looks like it might tke a while as the licensing for Indiana is a lot different, but I am enjoying all the time I get to spend with my Miles. He just gets cuter every day. And chunkier! Little guy weighed 17 lbs 9 oz last week! I'm going to need a chiropracter after carring him around all day! Well, much love. Sorry about the novel!

Hey All

Hey everyone! Although our life here in the Springs is less exciting then everyone else's, I figured I better share at least a little about us. Jason and I are living in Colorado Springs where the rain never stops. Today we had a massive hail storm and then a down-pour of rain. I have to admit, I do love it, but it comes right when I get off work. So much for going swimming or doing something outside. Jason is working for an ad agency and is soon to move into the media department. He is way excited about that. Plus, he will finally work a regular 5-day week instead of his crazy hour schedule right now. I am working the last job I ever wanted to, but hey...it is a job. I work for LexisNexis as a content editor. The courts send us the documents and we publish them for the attorneys and such. I would love to be teaching right now, but no luck in finding a Family and Consumer Science position. They are getting rid of all the programs here, which is so heartbreaking. I am working with the Beehives in our ward and Jason is in the Elder's Quorum presidency. I just love it. I have way too much fun. That is about it....
Good to hear from all of you! Take care!

Andrea

hello from the huskers

First: Thanks to Heather! This is great!

Second: we made it safely to Nebraska. It has been great! We have been here over a week and Aaron has been home all day with us! No work or school, it has been wonderful! We have had a really exciting week. Sunday night we had a huge storm, and as new comers to the area, we thought it was a tornado. Luckily it missed Lincoln but hit a few outside cities pretty hard. We have also visited the Omaha zoo, Council Bluffs, Winter Quarters and the temple. All worthy for site seeing! We have loved it here so far and have been too busy to get home sick. Aubrielle (our new little one) is 2 months old and growing like crazy! They just grow out of the newborn stage way too fast! Well I am excited to hear about everyone. I think in everyones first post they need to say where they are currently living, because I don't remember! I will start. If you couldn't tell, Aaron, Olivia, Aubrielle and myself moved to Lincoln Nebraska for graduate school in Marriage and Family Thearapy. We will be here the next 2 years and after that who knows! I can't wait to hear from you all!

New Job

Hey Girls!

I'm just writing to let you know that Cody got a new job! He is doing PSR (Psycho-Social Rehabilitation) work with children. Basically he is helping them work through their anxiety disorders to function in social settings. The job is in Idaho Falls so right now we are deciding if we want to move there or stay in Rexburg. Either is ok with me, I'm just so grateful he has a great paying job! I hope you are all doing well!

Much Love, An :)