Monday, August 27, 2012

highlights from the past four months

So much has happened over the past four months that it is impossible to post about it all (especially since i've sort of been a blog slacker lately)  but hopefully this post will incapsulate how much fun we've been having and everything that has been going on.

May was our month of saying good bye.  It was so sad to leave Ohio and all of our good friends.  Here I am with my best buddies: Joslyn, Erica and Kaitlyn.
And here's Mr. Scott with his buddy Michael.  We were lucky to have such amazing friends.
A last minute surprise before we moved was one of my oldest friend, Lindsay Howie, coming to visit me from Boston.  We hadn't seen each other for 10 years so she had never met James or the kids.  Scott absolutely adored her and i loved catching up with her and letting her help me pack!
Next stop was driving to Iowa for James' graduation.  It was so fun to see old friends.  James' mom met us there and was so nice to stay with the kids at night so we could join in on all the graduation festivities.  Thanks Patricia!  This is James with his school buddies Ryan, Andy and Devin.  I love that we have med school friends that i truly feel we'll have for the rest of our lives.
And the big graduation day was a lot of fun.  It was great to see James in his get-up and see him accomplish such a huge event in life.

After graduation me and the kids flew to Utah while James and his mom drove (thanks again patricia!).  And of course Utah was a constant adventure as we reunited with family.  Scott is finally getting old enough to be able to gel with his older cousins and he loved every minute of it.  This is scott with some cousins on my side of the family, katie, josh and kenzie.
And finally a good photo of my mom and sara.  i swear i could never get them both smiling at the camera at the same time.  i felt so accomplished with this picture!
Down in Salem with James' family we all went to see the Lorax.  Scott was in seventh heaven with his drink, popcorn and his best cousins.
And scott LOVEd watching his cousin allie in her dance recital.  i'm pretty sure he wanted to get up on the stage and jam it out himself.
And of course when we go to Utah the grandma's spoil us with new clothes and toys.  this is sara in her new outfit consisting of gifts from both grandma palmer and grandy keyser.  thanks everyone for making us feel so special when we were in town!
this photo is out of order but it needs to be said that while daddy was graduating from med school scott was graduating from PRE SCHOOL!  yes, scott completed his first year of preschool and we had the wall to prove it.  his bedroom wall was covered with all his work.  we're so proud of our scotty man!
After a couple weeks in Utah we made the 10 hour drive to Arizona.  Besides scott having to stop every few hours for potty breaks (he had a sick stomach) the kids were seriously amazing.  Sara slept most of the time and scott was such a great kid in the back (he didn't even have a dvd player or video games) he just looked out the window and was mezmerized by all the cacti!

We're so excited that we have family in arizona!  my good cousin, cristy, and her family live in tucson (about two hours south of us) and we were able to spend the fourth of july with them.  here is scott with cristy's kids, leila and tyce.  scott asks all the time if we can go back to "tyce and lola's house."  it cracks me up every time.
and now we just spend our days with the four of us again.  but our little family is getting used to starting new in a strange town.  we're loving phoenix, though, even if it is reeeally hot.  we go swimming a lot and love cloudy days like this one in the photo below when we went to the train park.  scott and sara got SO muddy but they loved every minute of it.
and james is loving his residency here (thank goodness!) and spends every spare minute he has with me and the kids.  we feel so lucky to have such a great dad.

another picture that is months out of date but my camera broke back in february and i never posted about the james' sister amanda and her family coming to visit us in ohio.  we had so much fun with them and it breaks my heart that i don't have more pictures to remember it by (i stole this pic from amanda's blog).  we are so appreciative when family comes to visit us because we know its not easy to travel.  thank you so much for coming out and please know that we always want visitors in sunny arizona!
that's all for now but we did just but stay tuned for pictures of the new house!  (as soon as i get it to a place that i can take pictures of it. :) )