Disneyland Part 1

My parents took me and the kids to Disneyland for one last trip before we moved. We were sad that Daddy could not come. I will have to do this in 2 posts because there are so many cute pictures. We drove down on Sunday and came home late Tuesday night. These pictures are all from Monday and Tuesday.

The Jungle Cruise Ride

Jon posing in Tarzan's treehouse. He explored this while Joey and I went on Indiana Jones. Joey was tall enough to ride but I don't know that he liked it all that much.

Pirates of the Carribean. Arabella was happy to be out of the stroller and seeing something new.

Joey was such a good sport for the whole trip. He was helpful and stayed by us really well!

Pirate Jon, arrgh!

Arabella is always putting her feet and legs up. People were smiling and laughing to themselves while she was doing this so I had to take a picture. What a silly girl!

One of my favorite places to get a treat in Disneyland is the store by Splash Mountain and the Winnie the Pooh ride. I took the kids in to get something. Joey chose this amazing caramel apple, Jon picked a chocolated covered pretzel with sprinkles, and I had a delicious marshmallow stick covered in chocolate, caramel and cashews, yummy! Arabella ate one of Mickey's ears and loved it!

As we came off of Splash Mountain, my dad and Jon were at the front of the line to get pictures with Winnie the Pooh and friends. We lucked out! Jon thought it was great, Joey was a bit shy and embarassed, and Arabella did okay with the characters except Tigger. He made her nervous.

Jon was asleep. This was the easiest picture to get, no line!

Arabella loved It's a Small World. She clapped and laughed and just could not seem to quite take it all in.

Cute of my family but we missed out on Mickey's amazing pumpkin ears.

This is a horrible picture because we took it at nigth but Mickey is done in all oranges, yellows, reds and whites. He has a party hat on and there are huge flower mickey balloons on each side. The theme is all about Celebrateing.

Goofy looks great! We were the last picture that he was out for!

Joey chillin' in the fire truck.

Titan's merry-go-round in California Adventure. Grandpa and I rode California Screamin', a great roller coaster!

Some pictures of the renevations they are doing at California Adventure. They have drained the water that was in the middle and are installing Bellagio style fountains to do a water and light show kind of like Fantasmic focused on the Colors of Disney. There will also be a new Little Mermaid ride and something to do with Cars. Jon wanted to go down and see what the workers were doing.

You can not tell that well but I am soaked!! Joey loved the Grizzly River Run so we went twice, the line was not very long. I faired better the second time but the first ride I was drenched.

Jon and his Cars buddies.

Joey and Grandpa and their Cars buddies.

Arabella sleeping really well in her stroller but yes her leg is up again. She usually had that leg up on that "window" or the bar right there as we walked around. What a funny girl!

Bugs Life bumper cars

Jon had just hit his head so we were trying to make sad bug faces.

Jon had so much fun getting wet! We could ring the water out of his shirt by the time we finished. Arabella got an entire outfit change and Joey soaked the front of his shirt but they had fun!

Mickey actually had no line! He looks great all set for harvesting his candy corn fields.

I loved the candy corns in the palm trees.

My parents got sprayed with water during the parade. I wished I would have centered them better but I spun around really fast trying to capture the moment. It was really funny and they were so suprised.

I loved the guys swinging, you can't see them that well but they have a fun job there is no way around it.

There were to people swinging around on poles for Toy Story and you can see the one really well in this picture. Again a really fun job!

This was how we ended our Disneyland experince. I have so many fond memories of that place with my family. It is part of who I am really. My mom loves Disneyland and my dad loves it because she loves it so for me it is part of what I admire about my parents marriage. They share in each others interests and dreams. I have already told Peter that whether it is Disneyland or Disney World (being in Texas it is almost equal) we will be going again in the not too distant future.

Texas

Monday afternoon at 2:00pm Peter, Arabella,and I pulled out of our driveway in Peter's truck packed to the gills and a Uhaul equally as full and headed to Dallas. We quickly learned that we could not travel faster than 65 (and slower regularly) due to our load. We needed to be to Dallas by 5:30 on Tuesday. As time passed it became apparent we would be pulling an all nighter. Peter is lucky that I have gained some great skills at staying up all night with little sleep. We took turns switching out every 2 hours or so and stopped for an hour when we both slept. Arabella was so good!! We did finally make it to the apartment Peter would be staying at for the next two months until our house closes. House, you ask? Well, Wednesday morning we met with a realtor and saw 10 houses. We had narrowed our options down from 78 to 10 and it was a full day of house hunting. At the end of the day, we had narrowed it down to 3.

House number one: 5 bedrooms, decent yard, and the back fence had a gate that lead to a park. (You would still have to go with your kids because you would not be able to see them, so good and bad.)

House number two: 4 bedrooms, 2 living rooms, wonderful yard-large, hot tub, storage shed, big trees.

House number three:4 bedrooms, 3 living rooms including the huge game room pictured below, decent yard.

This house was the winner in the end. We revisited our top three on Thursday and made an offer on house #3 that afternoon. Crazy!? We affectionately called this house the Texas house. You may be thinking :"Well, duh!?" but all of the light switch plates were metal with silhouettes of cowboy like stuff, ie: horses, stars, boots, cows. There were stirrups for hand towel holders, cowboy boot shaped night lights and the two lighting fixtures pictured below. Yes, that is a wagon wheel with guns and branding irons and the one to go over the kitchen table is antlers. The owner accepted our offer and we will close on November 3rd. Peter stayed in Dallas to start his new job and I flew home this morning. Grandpa Rabner played Mr. Mom for a week to Joey and Jon and they had a great time. Our deepest thanks go to him!

These are a few more pictures of our house hunting experience. Arabella loved a chance to crawl around and not be in her car seat.

Friday while awaited a call from our Realtor, we went to Peter's office and he signed some papers and I met is very nice boss. I think it will be a great place for Peter to work.
After that we headed to the State Fair. It was great! I could not believe how big it was. It was rainy and cold every day we were there except Thursday, so it was a bit chilly at the fair.

This was a garden train they had set up by Big Tex a huge statue of a man in the middle of the fair (you can see his red boots in the picture). He is animated so that his mouth and head move. He makes announcements about some of the happenings at the fair.

This sculpture was made entirely out of butter and this is only a shot of half of it. Amazing!

Peter took his picture by yes Peter the Great the bull. He was massive. He weighed over 2600 pounds and measured 64 inches from the ground to his shoulder.

But the pigs/hogs were not to be outdone. check out the size of that pig!

All in all we had a great time and were able to get so many things in place. I was able to interview for my job and signed a contract. My start date is Dec. 7th or sooner if I can get my license and a few other things in order. I feel much better about moving having seen the school Joey will go to and the chapel we will attend. We ate dinner at my cousin Alexis' house and she is about 30 mintues away, it is nice to have some family nearby. Moving to Dallas will be good and now I just have to pack a million boxes (or at least a hundred).

My 6 year old son!

My sweet Joey turned 6 today and had a great time celebrating. It is amazing how much you can learn from your children if you are willing to learn. Joey is a great example of love and desire to be good. He is so full of energy and curiosity. Joey loves learning! As I was thinking about him last night at work as midnight came and passed, I realized that the the Lord new just what type of first born I would need and gave that to me. I pray that as the years pass I will be what the Lord needs me to be in Joey's life as much as he is what I need in my life.

Happy Birthday Joey!
Dinosaur themed birthday party

Oh how the kids liked to lick the dinosaurs clean!

Joey at 5 years old!

Joey's 4th birthday!

3 year old Joey-a little bit of his old curly hair!

Joey's second birthday, the day after we moved into our house and now we are preparing to move. Oh, how our lives change!

Joey about one year old-his first haircut!

A sweet baby boy!

School Days

Peter wearing Jon's birthday party crown from preschool. They had a party today!
From Joey's back to school night. He was so excited to show us everything. He loves his teacher Mrs. Gardner and we think she is great.

They had a pirate themed back to school night. We had a treasure hunt list of things to find.

Some of Joey's great artwork!

Jon started preschool too and has loved it!

Jon with his teacher Miss Keiko. She is so much fun!

Jonny you are cute!

A girl with skills

Arabella somehow crawled into the hole that is on the bottom shelf of our entry table. She obviously did not mind but we were impressed.
Jon flying a plane "to Africa".

He was very busy repairing the car!

I have not sent any good pictures of our family doing anything for a while and none of Arabella crawling. This is not a great video but she was having fun. Jon, Arabella, and I went to the discovery museum a little while ago and had a great time playing around.

And the winner is...

Dallas!!! Peter actually was offered the job in Texas the day after he interviewed and then within an hour was called by a new company in St. Louis. Peter told them what the situation was and they still wanted his informaiton. This was on Thursday and Peter needed to let Dallas know by Tuesday. We did not hear back from them on Friday so we prayed and felt that Dallas was going to be a good fit for our family. Saturday night we were going to go to the temple for final confirmation. Saturday afternoon St. Louis called back and wanted yet more information. Peter and I left them temple feeling that both places would be good for our family. Bright and early Monday morning Peter had another conversation with St. Louis and they did not know if they would be able to offer a job by Tuesday. Peter, with his amazing faith, prayed that Heavenly Father would make the path clear for us to know and within minutes St. Louis called saying they were sorry but it was not going to work out. That job was most inviting because it is more along the lines of design engineering and that is what Peter loves. Peter called Rick (his new boss) on Monday afternoon and accepted the job in Dallas. Many of you may be wondering what happened to Omaha or does Shellie not know her geography. Well, we were wondering the same thing because they did not call back when they said they would, twice. Well after being unable to get a response through phone or email we wrote them off and still felt good about Dallas. Silly us, that company called on Tuesday asking for another interview. Truly, if you pay your tithing and follow the commandments the windows of heaven shall be poured out upon you and you will not have room enought to recieve it. Today is the 5 month mark from the day Peter was laid off. I never would have thought this experience would have lasted this long but Peter and I both recieved continual confirmation from the spirit that the right job would come in the right time, and it has. There are a million things to get arraned! Our plan is for Peter and I to drive down with a load in a trailer and move Peter into an apartment so that he can finalize finding a house for us. Then we will move the family down. I have spoken with a nurse recruiter and there is a facility opening the end of Novemeber that would be a great place to work. We should be moving the family at Thanksgiving time. This feels long winded but it has been quite the week! My heart is full with so many emotions. We have great friends here in Las Vegas and we will be moving farther away from our families which brings great sadness. Knowing how the Lord has enriched my life through our time in Las Vegas though, brings me peace that Dallas will be a great experience as well.

Interviews

OR

Peter has been unemployed for nearly 5 months now. He has been diligently searching the internet and contact old engineering buddies trying to find leads for a job. He has sent out literally 100's of applications. Finally, 2 weeks ago Peter had a phone interview with a company in Omaha and today he was flown to Dallas to interview with a company there (thanks Maas' for the tip). We will be anxiously awaiting phone calls and checking emails until we here from them. I must say that the prospect of packing up our house is overwhelming so I am trying not to think of it until it becomes a reality. I am so proud of Peter and I know he will be a great worker for any company that hires him.