Our life in Texas!

We have been living here in Lewisville for nearly 4 months now. It still hasn't sunk in that we will be here for a while, it still feels temporary to me. We do like it in Texas. There is always something to do and most everything is close by. We have ventured out to Dallas, but only for Dr appointments so far. Most weekends when we have time to do anything we are usually shopping or running errands or relaxing at home. We went to a park last weekend and walked around. It was pretty and there was a big pond in the middle. The weather is really nice and warm most days. Sometimes we will have some crazy rainstorms. Apparently it is tornado season, so whenever we get big rainstorms we listen to the radio to hear of any tornado warnings in the are. One day a few weeks ago we were in Dallas for a checkup for Mason and there came this crazy rainstorm with lots of thunder and lightening. It looked like a hurricane! We decided to drive the 40 min home. Turns out there was a tornado warning south of Dallas there. There was a ton of water on the sides of the roads out looked nearly flooded. You don't see rain like that in Idaho!

Malone is doing well with his new job. He is very busy working on several projects at a time. He often goes to work early and stays late to get things accomplished. He works very hard and always looks forward to his weekends off to spend time with me and Mason. He is enjoying his calling in Webelos. A couple weeks ago he had to make catapults out of common household objects like rubber bands and pencils and popsicle sticks . Then last week he got to help make a miniature golf course.

I have been trying to keep busy at home
I don't get out much since Malone has the car at work. Mason and I spend a lot of time together so it tends to be hard to get much done around the house. A couple weeks ago I was able to make a few pints of strawberry jam with some strawberries I got on sale. I usually try to make it a goal to at least get a few chores done each day.

A month ago I started a challenge workout program. Each day you do a workout, drink a nutritious shake, do the challenge for the day, eat healthy, and drink plenty of water. The workout I have chosen is called T25. It is an intense 25 minute a day workout. You do different workouts everyday so you don't get bored doing the same thing everyday. I have never stuck with a workout routine this long or this consistently on my own before. I have been doing it 5-6 days a week for going on 5 weeks now. At first I really struggled because I was so weak and didn't have energy to keep up. Now I am feeling a little stronger and am doing better at keeping up. I just go at my own pace, but each day I try to push myself a little harder. I have only dropped about 5-6 lbs but I am starting to notice a little more tone in my legs. I have lost a couple inches too, but all this is stuff I am noticing that probably no one else can see yet. I really enjoy the shakes I get to drink everyday. It is like drinking a chocolate ice cream shake everyday. The best part is it gives me energy, helps with digestion, and has lots of protein and nutrients. Probably the most healthy meal of the day!  I have also been trying to eat healthier. I have been cutting out processed foods, trying to limit my portions and get as much fruit and veggies in as I can. I am not perfect at it yet but I try to do better everyday! As part of this challenge I am part of a group on Facebook with other people who are doing the same thing as I am. Everyday we check in and post how we are doing with our challenges. We all keep each other in check, and uplift and support each other. It kind of feels like what I imagine rehab might be like lol. Anyway, it is nice to have people to report to and feel accountable to. I still have a long way to go to accomplish my goals, but I am enjoying all the new energy I have and I am finally  feeling healthy and happy with myself. My biggest motivation for this is Malone and Mason. I really want to have the energy to take care of my family the way I want to and to feel good too.

7 months!

Mason just turned 7 months old a couple days ago. Since his surgery, Mason has been doing really great. His incision on his head is healing as well as the little one on his tummy. He doesn't seem to be bothered by the shunt at all. You can still see the ridge on his head where the shunt is under his skin, but we are starting to get use to it. You shouldn't be able to really see it when he gets a little older, hopefully. We had a follow-up with Mason's neurosurgeon who is pleased with how Mason is doing. Mason's head circumference has dropped a centimeter since surgery, which is good. This past week we had an appointment with a urologist who said that we no longer need to cath Mason! Since January, we have been cathing Mason every other day or so. When Mason had surgery, he wasn't emptying like he normally does so we had to cath 2-3 times a day. Now, we don't have to cath at all. I just hope it will stay this way!! We'll see if this changes as he gets older.

 

Mason is now  15.4lbs and about 25 1/4 inches long. We continue to have an occupational therapist visit twice a month. According to her Mason is right on track with development at this point. I couldn't be happier about that! He was able to roll back to tummy around 4 months and from tummy to back at like 5 months. Now Mason rolls all over the place! The other day he rolled under our coffee table and into the corner until he couldn't roll anymore.

 

Mason loves eating solids now. He is eating a wider variety of veggies such as carrots, sweet potatoes and squash and he continues to eat rice and whole wheat cereal. He is able to open his mouth and get all the food off the spoon easily now. Mason is a very active boy. I can hardly get him down for a nap most days. He will doze off when nursing and if I continue holding him he will sleep a while. But the second I lay him down somewhere to nap he wakes up. A lot of times when I am around the house doing things he wants to be right there with me. He cries and cries when I leave the room without him or leave his sight. Sometimes I wear the baby carrier around the house so he is happy and I can get some things done. He is enjoying sitting up more now. He's not quite strong enough to sit up alone, but he is getting really close. Mason definitely prefers sitting up to laying down because he likes to see what's going on around him.

 

Mason is crazy about our little dog Tivo. Everytime Tivo is around Mason is mesmerized and likes to watch him and try to pet (more like grab) him. Tivo puts up with Mason's friendliness for a bit and then usually wanders off. It is really fun to see Mason light up when Tivo is around though. Mason is such a flirt! I take him out to the store or church and he smiles at the girls and is just a doll. Ladies are always commenting on how adorable he is and what a happy baby he is. I love hearing people compliment my baby! I think he's adorable too. Mason also loves eating my necklaces. I am sure most babies are this way, but he is crazy about it! I am pretty sure he is teething because he will drool all over when he is chewing on things. I haven't noticed any swelling of his gums yet, but it's just a matter of time I'm sure.

Mason rolled into a corner until he couldn't roll anymore!

6 months old and surgery

Mason turned 6 months old on Monday! He is getting so big. I had to go through all his clothes and get rid of some his 3 month old stuff. Mason is 15lbs now. He is really great at grabbing things and putting them to his mouth. A couple weeks ago we started him on rice cereal, about a tablespoon a day, mixed with breast milk. He will open his mouth for the spoon and manages to get some in his mouth. Sometimes I wonder how much he's actually getting! He tolerates it just fine. In fact, I think he gets a little impatient with me because I go slow. He sure has an appetite! Mason sure is a mama's boy. I have a hard time being able to put him down because he just wanted to be held all the time. I'll lay him down on a blanket on the floor to let him play with his toys and it's a 50/50 chance he'll be okay with it. Sometimes he'll cry because he didn't want to be put down or sometimes he's okay with it, at least for a few minutes. He cries when I leave the room for even a minute a lot of the time. On Sundays Malone takes him for a couple hours so I can play piano in Primary. As far as I know he seems to do alright without me. Mason sure loves to giggle! Malone and I have got him to laugh really hard a lot lately. It's so fun! Mason is getting really good at sitting up. I think it's only a matter of time till he is able to sit up on his own. He sits up with assistance at his hips right now. I love watching him. He really concentrates on things. You can tell the wheels are really turning. Mason has started to babble a little bit. It is so cute! He'll say things like "gee" and likes to make raspberries with his mouth. I love it when he talks, it cracks me up. He loves to be involved in things. He doesn't like to be left behind, he wants to be with you and doing whatever you are doing. He likes to be actively doing something all the time. I can hardly get him down for a nap sometimes! Mason wakes up about twice a night on average. He seems to like Altivo and will watch him when he walks around. Tivo is protective of Mason, it's funny. We've had people over and Tivo is right up there watching people very closely when they hold Mason. Mason's occupational therapy is still going well. It's mostly just playtime, getting in some stimulation. The therapist will have him practice sitting up, laying on his tummy for tummy time, stimulate with a vibrator and brushes, and have him play with her special toys. It's not much right now. I think he'll need more therapy when he's learning to walk and such.

This week was a really stressful and crazy week. Monday, April 14th, Mason had an appointment to visit Scottish Rite Hospital in Dallas to see a developmental pediatrician. We haven't been to Dallas before so this was a first. We met the nurse practitioner, who will be our go to lady, who was really upbeat and nice. She asked alot of questions about Mason. We had to do a lot of catching up with these doctors so they knew Mason's history and what his milestones have been like. The doctor answered a few questions I had in mind. So here's what we learned. Mason's hips are in socket like they should be. Sometimes with weak muscles the hips can dislocate, but this isn't the case with Mason. Mason has little to no feeling on the bottoms of his feet and obvious weakness in his ankles. The doctor was confident that Mason would be able to walk someday possibly with the help of ankle supports. He tested to see if Mason has any muscle tone in his bum to see if he can control his bowels at all. We learned that he has a tight sphincter and might have a chance at being able to control his bowels. We already learned previously that Mason might have control over his bladder to a degree as well because the urine doesn't just pour out of him. He can let it out, if that makes sense. And of course we'll know more when we get to those milestones of potty training. The biggest thing we learned was from a CT scan we did on Mason's brain that day. The CT scan showed that the ventricles that produce cerebral spinal fluid have gotten bigger since his surgery in November. This means that the fluid isn't draining quickly enough and it's building up causing his head to get bigger. Malone and I had noticed his head has gotten bigger over the last few weeks. He's in like the 99th percentile (way off the chart!) right now in head circumference. And recently I started to notice his soft spot over his scar from his ETV surgery seemed to be a little firmer. So in a way this news wasn't a huge surprise to me. The doctor told us we needed to get Mason scheduled for an MRI and most likely get a shunt placed. He said he'd review the scans with the neurosurgeon and let us know.

The next day I got a phone call letting us know we needed to show up for the MRI first thing the next morning at Scottish Rite. I started to make plans for this, and then a few hours later I got a call from Mason's Dr  at Scottish Rite. He said that instead of doing the MRI first thing in the morning at Scottish Rite, we'd have to go to Children's Medical Center a few miles from there and have him do the MRI there. Mason had to be sedated for the MRI,  so the dr. and the neurosurgeon decided that instead of putting him under sedation twice (once for the MRI and one for the shunt surgery) that we should just do the MRI and then do the shunt surgery right after so we'd only have to put him under once. This news came as a huge blow because we just weren't expecting to have to do surgery that fast! I had to quickly find someone to watch our dog for us, let Malone know he needed to take off work for a couple days, and I had to finish up a few things around the house. I wasn't happy about being rushed into it because I was hoping to get a second opinion.

 Mason's dr. told us to check in through the ER that evening so they can do his labs and everything before his surgery the next day. He said that they'd be "expecting us". The ER was a nightmare! Malone had gotten off work a little late, and we had a friend come over and help Malone give Mason a blessing. By the time we got to the ER at Children's it was 9:15pm. We got all checked in but had to wait in the waiting room with like 50 other parents with their kids. We waited and waited and waited. We waited probably 45 minutes before they called us back to get Mason's weight and information. Then they sent us back out to the waiting room to wait for bed for Mason in the ER. So we waited another half hour probably. Meanwhile Mason was getting hungry. I hadn't planned on having to wait since the dr. told us they'd be expecting us. I thought we'd just walk in and go straight up to neuro. So Mason was fussy and very unhappy. Finally they took us back to a room in the ER so the ER people could check him out, which was all routine. We kept telling the people that neuro was expecting us  and that hey had told us to check in through the ER. No one seemed to know what we were talking about, and it was extremely frustrating. Finally a neuro P.A. came and talked to us who seemed to know what was going on a little bit. Apparently when Scottish Rite referred us over to Childrens they didn't tell them to have a bed ready for us. So we ended up waiting in the ER for another 2 hours until they could get us a room. Mason was starving!!! So I finally said I had to take a time out and feed this kid before we do anything else. They wanted Mason to start fasting at midnight. So I fed Mason at 11:30 up to midnight. After that they poked Mason a few times and got an IV going for him. Poor baby was so so unhappy. Both Malone and I were extremely unhappy about ready to snap at this point. We were exhausted, Mason was exhausted, and we had to just keep waiting and answering the same stupid questions over and over to every person that walked in our room. It was ridiculous!!! Finally at about 2:15 we went up to Mason's room. We were able to give Mason some pedialyte before he literally passed out for the night. Malone and I slept there in his room that night.

We only got a couple hours of sleep before the P.A. came in around 6:45 to talk to us briefly about the surgery/MRI. I was barely able to understand what the man was saying I was so tired. We eventually were able to meet Mason's Neurosurgen, Dr. Swift. This was the first time we had met him, and it was the day of my baby's surgery. Again, I felt so rushed through everything at this point. He briefed us in detail about the surgery and what to expect and why we had to do the shunt. I really wished we could have spoken with our doctor back home before we had to do this surgery. I wish I had stopped everyone and said this before we had gotten this far. Mason was scheduled for an MRI at 8:50am. He was starving since he had been fasting all night long. So Malone and I were trying to comfort him. It was about 5 minutes till his MRI when the nurse came in and told us Mason got bumped to 10:20am due to an emergency case. I burst into tears. I was holding a screaming baby who was starving and they told me he had to wait another hour and half?! I just cried as I held Mason. He didn't understand why I couldn't feed him. All he knew was that I wasn't feeding him. I felt like I was torturing the kid. The nurse assured us she'd do everything she could to make sure Mason was next. Luckily Mason fell asleep during our wait and stayed asleep until they took him away. It was so hard to hand my baby off to someone not knowing if he'd be okay when I saw him again. Malone and I were so heartbroken he even had to go through with this in the first place. We gave him a kiss goodbye and we left to go find some lunch and wait in the waiting room. We waited for about 4 1/2 hours. Finally Mason's neurosurgeon came and talked to us. He said everything went great, very straightforward. We were able to go and see Mason in recovery. He was sleepy, of course, and extremely out of it. He wasn't crying or anything, he just sat there all wrapped up in blankets. We had to wait there for about 20 minutes or so before they could wheel him back to his room upstairs. Mason slept for a long time that afternoon. I knew he'd be sleepy but it still made me worry. I just wanted to see my baby awake and himself again. Malone and I were able to get a little shut eye while he slept.

That night some friends of ours came and visited us there in  Mason's room. They were nice enough to bring us food, which was soooo good. We had hardly eaten anything all day long. It was nice to have friends support us since we just don't have a lot of people here yet. After they left we got comfortable and tried to get some sleep.  I woke up around 2 to try and see if I could nurse Mason. The nurse had to come unhook Mason from everything so I could hold him. I was so happy to find that Mason had an appetite and he was able to nurse without any problems.

The next morning the neuro resident came and talked to us and checked out Mason. He was doing really well and was eating well. She informed us that she would get started on Mason's discharge papers so we could be discharged that afternoon. What wonderful news!! Malone and I were so ready to go home with our baby. That day we were able to sleep off and on and managed to get  little something to eat. There was one point that afternoon where the nurses were trying to cath Mason. His bladder scans were showing that his bladder was getting really full and he wasn't relieving as much as they wanted. So they tried to cath him but they couldn't get the catheter to go in. All 4 of us each tried with no luck. So the nurses left and came back a couple hours later and tried again, and it was still difficult. Finally the charge nurse got it! Later when we were finally told discharge care, the nurse told us we have to cath mason 2-3 times a day to make sure he is emptying all the way. I was so frustrated because I knew this was unusual for him to not empty. I am convinced the anesthesia or something had messed him up. But I am hoping once he is back to a regular routine and gets that anesthesia out of his system he'll be back to normal. In the meantime we'll be cathing a lot.

Our first night home our friends brought us dinner again, which was so yummy! I got up with Mason in the middle of the night to feed him and cath him. I struggled trying to get the catheter to go in, just like at the hospital. Malone even tried and he couldn't get it either. So we waited a couple hours and tried again. Still no luck. I just kept praying that we'd get it because I was so worried something bad would happen to Mason if we didn't get it. Finally around 8 that morning I finally got it! Thank goodness! This whole ordeal had been so scary. Malone and I were just exhausted from lack of sleep and stress. Malone however went to work anyway and I stayed home to look after Mason.

Over the weekend members of the ward have called and even brought a couple meals over. It was nice to feel like people cared about us and were willing to look out for us, even though many don't really know us that well yet. Today, Monday, Mason seems back to normal. He's got a half moon shaped incision on the left side of his head with a little bump and what looks like tubing that has been threaded along under his scalp, behind his ear and down into his abdomen. I have no idea what to do with his hair, it's a mess. But he is doing really well. He is back to normal, laughing and smiling. We have given him some Tylenol from time to time when it seems like he is a little fussy, but otherwise doesn't seem to be in much pain at all. In fact he acts like nothing even happened.

 I am grateful for those who have prayed on our family's behalf and for his guardian angels who have watched over him. I am thankful to have the priesthood in my home so that Mason could get a blessing before his surgery. I am also thankful for those friends and ward members who have helped us out the last few days who have been concerned for our family. Mason is such an amazing little boy and Malone and I are so grateful for him everyday. He really brings sunshine into our home and into our lives. I don't know what I would do without him! I am also grateful for such an amazing husband who is so supportive of me and Mason and works so hard so that I can be home with him. Malone is everything to me. I love him so much. And I love my little boy Mason so much. I thank my Heavenly Father everyday for blessing me with such an amazing little family.

5 Months Old!

Mason is 5 months old today! He weighs 14 lbs 9 oz and is 25.5 inches long. Mason is now able to hold his head up for a couple minutes while laying on his tummy with his elbows under him. He holds his head up and will look around both directions like a champ. Mason can grasp things in his hands when I put things in there and he will reach out to grab things more than before. And of course the object goes straight into his mouth. He will flat out giggle when you get him going, it's hilarious. He loves momma and cries when I put him down or walk away. He continues to eat every two to three hours during the day and he wakes up 2-3 times during the night, but goes right back to sleep. Yesterday we had an occupational therapist come out to work with Mason for Early Intervention. She was really great with him. She taught me some techniques to use with Mason like using a small brush to stimulate him with by brushing. I will most likely be using it on his legs and feet, but you can use it anywhere. We don't know how much sensation he has in his lower extremities (feet and lower legs mainly) so any stimulation is great. We will be playing with different textures and toys to help Mason develop properly. The OT gave us these little rubber brush like things that you can put in baby's mouth so they can feel those textures in their mouth. I think they are mostly for babies who struggle eating or something, but in Mason's case we'll just use it for stimulation. I have a few toys that I am excited to introduce Mason to that I think he will like. Overall, Mason continues to do great. The OT thinks he is really doing great. She was impressed with his strength and enjoyed working with him. He was so good the entire time, being cooperative and happy.  Mason has an appointment at Scottish Rite Hospital in Dallas for spina bifida clinic next month. So we look forward to getting Mason checked up on with neuro, PT, etc. He hasn't had a checkup at spina bifida clinic since January, so I am eager to get him checked out. Now that the weather is starting to cooperate, I am hoping we will be out and going for walks and enjoying some sunshine. We love Mason so much and it has been fun to be with him everyday and watch him grow.

Updates and our new chuch callings

Just a few things to update on. Since I last wrote we had Early Intervention come out and do an evaluation on Mason so we can get an occupational therapist to come visit him regularly. Things went well and the lady asked a ton of questions about Mason. After working with him a bit and talking they ranked Mason about 3 months, which is about right for his age at the time.

Then we celebrated Valentines Day! We kept it small and just went out to Red Lobster, which was delicious! Malone and I haven't been out to a nice restaurant in a while. Malone got me flowers and I wrote him a love letter. We had a really great time together. First V-day with our little guy!

Malone is still doing great at work. He has been given a lot of things to do that keep him busy. He usually has up to 4 projects going at a time that he is working on. Sometimes he gets a little overwhelmed with learning everything and trying not to miss anything. But with some time he'll get the hang of it.

Malone and I have been taking advantage of the gym here. We've been taking turns in the evenings to spend time at the gym while one of us hangs with Mason. And lately we have been trying to watch what we are eating and include more fruit and veggies in our diet. There isn't much to show for it yet, but hopefully it will eventually.

Recently Malone and I received callings at church. Malone was called to be in Weblows and I was called to be Primary pianist. Last Sunday was my first day as pianist, and it was a lot of fun! I didn't get a chance to practice beforehand, so I was a little rusty with my Primary songs. But kids don't care and no one else seemed to care if I messed up either. But I care! So Malone and I went to the church on Tuesday night so I could practice. It's nice to play piano again, I've missed it.

Mason is 4 months old!

Mason is doing awesome! He is getting so big now, I don't know where the time went. I haven't gotten Mason in for his 4 month checkup since we haven't gotten a pediatrician here yet. But Mason has certainly grown since he has moved up from size 1 diapers to size 2. He is wearing some 0-3 month stuff, but mainly 3-6 month and some 6 month stuff. He's got a lot of cute clothes to wear which is fun.

 Since moving to Texas, I have been spending everyday hanging out with Mason. He learned a new trick last week! He learned to roll over onto his tummy! I had just laid him down on the floor and went to do something in the kitchen, and when I looked up he was on his tummy. So I didn't get to see him do it the first time. But a few days ago he rolled over again and I saw him! Then two days ago he rolled over at least 5 times while we were playing. Mason and I play a lot during the day. I get his toys out and try to help him learn to grasp things. He's not great at grasping things yet, but is starting to show interest. He will lay there and reach out to touch things sometimes. If I put things in his hands he'll shove them in his mouth, as long as he can grasp it. He is super smiley, he kind of does a laugh. It's more like a squeal really.

 

Mason has been able to hold his head up really well. I tried out his bumbo seat the other day, and he actually was able to sit in it for quite a while before he started getting tired. I might be a little early trying out the seat, but he really likes sitting up. Lately he has been waking up more at night. He use to sleep most of the night and wake up once around 4am. Now it's like 11:30pm, 2:00am, and somewhere around 5:00am. He has been getting sleepy at night around 8:30ish and is usually asleep before 10pm. Last time we checked his weight he was 12 lbs last month. My guess is he is around 13 or maybe 14 by now. And as far as I can tell and assume he is developing normally. His head seems to be doing well, his soft spot is still soft. Malone and I keep an eye on that constantly. If it ever starts to feel firm or full, that is a bad sign that his ETV isn't enough to maintain the flow of cerebral spinal fluid. So we feel his soft spot constantly to make sure it feels soft, which it does. He is such a happy baby. Just now I had him laying down on the floor while I did a few things around the apartment and he just sat there cooing to himself. It was so cute. I look at him and he just smiles and smiles. This little guy has me wrapped around his finger.

 

 

Texas

We are finally in Texas!! We spent our last weekend in Idaho doing a lot of packing. We had an ABF trailer dropped off at our house so we could load all our stuff and ship it to our new apartment in Texas. With a lot of help from family, we were able to load everything we own into our trailer. It is a little nerve wracking putting everything you own in a trailer, let someone take it and hope it all ends up where it's supposed to without any harm.

We decided to take a more southern route through Utah, New Mexico, and western Texas in hopes of avoiding bad roads in Wyoming and Colorado. Our first stop was in Salt Lake City where we stayed with my brother. The next morning we set off on a long drive to Farmington, New Mexico, which was about 6 1/2 hours from Salt Lake City. We wanted to keep our drives somewhat short for Mason's sake. I didn't want him in a car seat for too long on our drive. This part of the drive was Malone and my favorite because we got to go through Moab and see the a little bit of the cool rock formations in the Arches National Park. We eventually stopped in NM for the night. Not a fan of Farmington, at least the parts that we saw. Looked a little sketchy. The next morning we drove to Amarillo, TX. The drive through New Mexico was the worst! It was so boring and ugly. I have never seen that much sage brush in my life. And all the pretty rocky mountains turned into flat nothingness. Ugly. This was one of the longer drives, I think it was 7 hours or so. We did pass through Albuquerque, which was okay. Just a big ol city in the desert. I am so glad Malone didn't get a job in New Mexico! We reached Amarillo safe and sound. The next morning we grabbed breakfast at Denny's and headed out once more. This time to Lewisville, Texas our final destination! This was about a 5-6 hour drive from Amarillo. Texas is also quite flat like NM, and there is a lot of sagebrush in between cities.

But we reached Lewisville, and there were lots of trees! Even though everything is dead here right now during winter months, I think it'll be way pretty when it warms up. Warms up?! Yes it is like 30-40 degrees here most days. It's been quite cold and windy and rainy/snow mix here. A lot colder than I expected! There has been this arctic chill throughout the country right now. Way cold everywhere. We even had a little smidge of snow the other day, which of course was a big deal because this place isn't built for snow. The roads got extremely slick, people drive crazy and crash. Kind of reminds me of Rexburg, only the locals have or sense there. It's supposed to warm up again next week, thankfully. Anyway, we got here to our apartment that last day of driving and got checked in so we could move in the next day. We stayed in a hotel again that night because our trailer hadn't showed up with our stuff yet. The next morning the trailer showed up with our stuff! Yay! And very minimal damage as well, which was great. Malone started moving some stuff out of the trailer himself. I was in the apartment with Mason, since I didn't feel comfortable leaving him in the apartment by himself while we were hauling things in. Malone has a friend from school, named Duncan, that works at the same company as him. So Malone called him up to see if he could come help us move, but he couldn't come that day. But I guess Duncan mentioned we needed help to a buddy of his named Mike who works at the same company. And Mike called Malone and offered to help. So he came by and helped us move a few things for a couple hours that evening. Around dinner time he invited us over for dinner at his apartment. So Malone and I went, and we made some new friends! They were so nice! We stayed in a hotel again that night and came back the next morning to move more stuff. Mike showed up and brought his brother with him to help us move. And then a neighbor kid about 15 yrs old offered to help us out, which was so nice of him. We got everything moved in and it's taken us a while to get everything settled in, trying to find a place to put everything. Our apartment is a 2 bed 2 bath. Masons room serves as our storage room at the moment. We have a lot of stuff we are still trying to find a place for. It's tough going from a house to an apartment!

Moab, UT

New Mexico

Texas

Altivo enjoying our new apartment!

Got a little skiff of snow the other day

So, our first impressions of Texas. I have to say, I've been impressed! The people here have been nothing but kind. We went to church our first Sunday and the ward members were very friendly and inviting. So many came up to us wanting to meet us. We had a few members stop by our apartment to welcome us as well, a few faces I was able to recognize when we went to church our first day. Even out and about in town, the people have been really friendly. It has been easy to fit in here so far. Our bishop says people are friendly here because no one is actually from here. So many people move here from other places for work etc. Makes sense I guess. The weather here, like I said, has been cold, 40's mostly. But looking at the forecast it will warm up to the 60's and 70's this weekend and next week. We sampled a little southern BBQ as well and that's been delish! So I am looking forward to trying new food around here as well. So far so good here in Texas. We are enjoying our new life!

Mason fitting in with his cute cowboy outfit