It is true.

I will be in the very city of Rome in just 4 1/2 days.

To say I am beyond excited is a complete understatement.

My dad is traveling there for business and usually likes to take one of us kids.

Well since all of us older ones have already been on one and the 3 littles are still too young, he opted to start round 2.

So Sophia quickly volunteered. 

In my heart of hearts I so badly wanted to volunteer as well but life is a bit different now with a cute husband and baby.

So I didn't say anything.

My dad asked me and I said I just didn't think I could do it.

But he didn't drop it.

He continued to ask me and tell me how he would love it if I could figure out a way to go.

So after some encouragement from Michael, I have decided to fly out for half the time.

They will be there 10 days and I thought that was just too long to be away so 5 days it is.

Oh and I forgot to mention, Emerson is coming along too!

I could not be more excited.

I am flying to Utah Wednesday morning to drop Olivia off to my mom and pick up Emerson.

And then a few hours later it's on a plane straight to Paris, and then Rome!

Ahhhhh I am freaking out just a bit.

This is going to be the best.

It will definitely be an interesting/harder trip since the longest I've left my little one is 1 1/2 days.

It might kill me.

But I know I would regret it forever if I didn't jump on this opportunity.

So Rome it is!

Our apartment.

Here it is.

Our cute little apartment for the next 4 months.

(I apologize for the lighting in the pictures, it is terrible. I am really not a professional picture taker.)

 So, you walk in the front door and to the right is our cute little kitchen.

To the left is the lovely family room.

And the patio.

Next, just barely down the hall is little Livy's room.

If this were my permanent home, I would be making cute ruffly curtains. But since it is not, blankets will have to do!

 Across the hall from her room is her bathroom.

As you continue down the hall to the right is a little closet with our mini washer and dryer.

Yay!!

And last but not least, the master bedroom/bathroom.

I seriously love my bed more than words can describe. 

After lots of begging I talked Michael into buying a completely new bed. 

Mattress, headboard, and bedding.

(Our previous bed was pretty much a crappy 200 dollar thing that came no more than 2 inches off the ground.)

It looks a little sloppy today but I promise I can make the bed better.

Oh and one of my projects this summer is to make some beautiful pillows for it.

So sometime in the future I might have to show it off again when it is complete.

We are totally loving having our very own place!

We're here!

Things have been  just a bit crazy here as you can imagine.

Moving out of state is no easy task.

But we're here and totally loving it.

We are so grateful to my mom and grandpa who both loaded up trailers to the tip top and made the 10 hour drive down here with us.

(It ended up being like 13 hrs with the stops and the usual problems that come with pulling trailers).

My grandpa left that next day but my mom stayed for another 5 days helping us get everything situated.

I am so grateful because we were completely moved in just 1 1/2 days later.

That left time for some play.

Which included spending a lot of time at the pool, driving around and getting comfortable with where everything is, and finally taking a little day trip to the Santa Monica Pier.

For those of you that know me, know that for months I have been ranting and raving about getting to live by the beach.

So to finally get there was just wonderful.

It wasn't as warm as I thought it would be so I definitely did not enter the water.

But I kept reminding myself that it is only April.

So without a doubt that beach will be visited quite often, it just needs to warm up a bit:)

Sunday morning came, and it was time to say goodbye.

I hate goodbyes so much.

And I hate change.

So of course I bawled like a baby for 2 straight days.

The stuffy nose, larger than life new zits, constant headache and swollen eyes were (and still sometimes are) my new look.

But I honestly didn't care.

And I think that's okay.

Don't get me wrong, I am so very excited to be here and to have our very own place and all that fun stuff, but it's been hard to leave the very place I grew up, and the place that holds so many dear memories.

Everyone has there own comfort zone and I went a head and ventured out of mine a bit.

 I'm sure it won't last for long, things are already getting better and I am already starting to love where we are.

I still can't listen to any type of soft music.

I know that is weird but seriously every time I do, I burst out bawling.

So for now, we'll stick with the upbeat shake your head around type stuff.

I miss seeing my mom, dad, Sophia, Emerson, Elizabeth, Emmaline, and Harrison every day.

They were such a huge part of mine, Michael, and Olivia's lives.

And I know they still will be despite the fact that we aren't right downstairs.

Thank you facetime. 

(We've been doing it at least once a day, and Olivia loves it!)

I think the thing that I've realized the most since being out here is that Michael and Olivia are my family now.

Just the 3 of us.

And that the little traditions and everyday things we do now will become who we are as a family.

And I'm grateful for that.

Grateful to start our lives together and have so much fun in the process.

I'm thankful for my sweet Michael for holding me while I cry and helping me adjust to this new life.

I couldn't do it without him.

And I couldn't do it without Olivia either.

Her cute laughs, silly words, squishy hugs, and wet kisses make my day every day.

Here's to the next 4 months in Cali!

Here are a few pictures of the past week.

I'm sure there are many to come!

 Michael started work the day after we got here.

11:15am-8:00 pm Monday thru Fridays

9:30am-2:30 pm Saturdays

He loves it.

(I think being a stay at home daddy was making him a bit stir crazy. Which is just fine because I will gladly switch him back places!)

He is still learning the ropes, but is already starting to see a bit of success.

So we'll see what happens.

The others in the group including his former mission companion are hilarious and so very nice.

So we are excited to make some new friends and have some fun despite the long work days!

 Playing at the pool.

 Looking at the potato bug with ma.

I think she got a bit excited and squished it.

Poor bug.

 Eating lunch on the Santa Monica pier.

 Going exploring with mom.

 They have a mini toddler playground just outside our apartment.

Olivia loves it and can do it all by herself!

Watching giggle bellies while mom makes dinner.

Stay tuned for pictures of the apartment!

The animal farm.

Our very last day living in Utah was spent taking Olivia to a baby animal farm.

It was supposed to be a nice day, so Leslie and I ventured out with the 3 littles hoping that this little animal farm would be worth our time.

And it most definitely was.

For all you Utah people with little animal lovers you must go to Hee Haw farms.

(Make sure both you and your child wear clothes and shoes that can get dirty.)

Our visit started off by petting the tiniest little bunny you've ever seen.

And watching all the other bunnies hop freely around.

We then decided to visit the goats.

(Bad idea to go in the cage.)

They are friendly little things but they are just a little invasive.

So of course Olivia and Hallie were screaming and crying every time a little goat would come up to them.

Not a very good way to start out the visit.

At least for Olivia, who remained a little freaked out the rest of the time.

We then held baby chicks and ducks.

Olivia really liked this.

And I just thought the little duck was the cutest with it's mini webbed feet and all.

Someday I will get I duck.

We then got to pet a baby bunny that was just 10 days old.

It was seriously the size of a marshmallow with a little bit of fuzz.

After, we took them to a little corn box. (Sandbox except it was corn kernels instead.) Crazy.

They didn't really think anything of it, which was a bit disappointing to me because I seriously was close to hopping in myself and playing.

We went on a little tractor ride around the farm which was fun except for the hay was poking my butt like crazy the whole time.

Here are a couple funny stories...they might not be as funny if you weren't there but I need to remember them.

*There is this giant slide on top of a dirt hill that we decided to try out.

At first Leslie just wanted to send Olivia and Hallie down but after more thought we decided it would be best if we all held hands and went down together.

So we did. And it was the fastest slipperiest slide I've ever been on. 

We were flinging all over the place and poor Hallie ended up going down on her stomach.

When we reached the bottom we looked over and saw little gunny sacks. 

Whoops, it might of been a bit better if we had sat on one of those.

*The next funny adventure was the baby goat and pig chasing.

Yep Leslie full on ran around the goat pen trying to catch the baby goat. And after a bit she was successful. So we all got to hold it.

Well the baby pigs were not so easy. I was seriously running my very hardest after the stupid little things and could not catch them. 

They were squealing like crazy which kind of freaked me out because I didn't want one of them to bite my finger off.

But after about 20 minutes of constant chasing they both ran straight into the mud.

And I was not about to go in there.

So maybe someday we will get to hold a baby piggie.

After our chasing adventures we took the littles to ride the ponies.

Olivia was so freaked out and wouldn't even go near the little pony. 

I blame it on the goats.

So we ended with a fun little ride in animal carts.

 After our fun day,

 I've #1 decided that I am not a farm girl.

#2 decided that goats are a bit freaky.

And #3 decided that sometime in my life no matter what I will catch myself a baby pig even it means rolling around in the mud.

Arches.

For as long as I can remember we have always gone to Arches over Spring Break with the Hookers and a few other families in the ward.

I have so many fun, unforgettable memories from this place.

This year as spring break quickly crept up on us I was really unsure about going.

We were moving in a week, and I was really worried about how Olivia would sleep at nights.

And definitely did not want to deal with getting up multiple times.

But, I just couldn't let myself not go.

So for a couple days we ate yummy food, played games, went jeeping, ate popsicles at the park, caught a lizard, played endlessly in the sand, gave the babies a bath in a tupperware container, and spent time with amazing friends.

Olivia was such a trooper and slept perfectly both nights.

Michael and I slept well even though we slept "old" style on the ground because our tent was too small to fit a mattress.

I'm proud of myself for that but hope to never have to do it again:)

I love my mattresses.

I am sad that we probably won't be back for a while.

But it was a perfect trip to end with.

Olivia, Hallie, and Jay playing in the sand.

Definitely a favorite thing for these littles.

Sitting in their very own camping chairs.

Such big girls!

Okay, the puffler hat makes me laugh so hard.

She looks like a marshmallow!

Up high on the rocks with uncle Emerson!

 

 Squeezing in a nap before the excitement of the afternoon begins.

I love her little ponytail sticking straight out.

 

 Jeeping at Fins and Things.

Michael, me, Sophia, and Emerson getting ready to head for the rocks!

 

 

 Getting pumped up by eating some warheads.

 It had been so long since I had one.

Seriously I thought it would be nothing, but those things are really quite sour.

 Picture with my boy before we venture down these rocks in the jeep.

There were definitely some iffy parts but it was so much fun!

 Thinking they are big girls and that they can venture off into the endless rocks by themselves:)

Trying to show dad something. 

(She is huge into grabbing your hand and taking you to what she wants).

Part of the group just hanging out!

Well Olivia got a little violent and hit ma on the head with a shovel so here she is saying sorry:)

Went off with the best friend on these beasts. 

I am so proud of myself for getting through all the crazy steep parts we rode on without dying.

 

Leslie and I took the littles to get a popsicle and then to a park because it was so dang hot.

The others met up with us a little later.

As you can tell by Olivia's shirt she insisted on eating the popsicle all by herself!

Thank goodness for camping clothes.

With Aunti Soph.

 

Cute pose.

Playing on the playground.

All the kids. Minus Winston:(

 

Love giving this boy hugs.

Well because of the sand, snacks, and sticky popsicle juice you can only imagine how dirty the little guys were.

So we pulled out the tub, heated up some water, and stuck em in.

They were in heaven.

And so were we because our babies were clean!

Wrestling around in the tent with Soph.

I really have no idea what this face is, but it is funny.

Loving the warm sand.

Once again, I failed to take a family picture.

It makes me so mad.

Anyhow, we are so grateful for fun vacations, family and good friends to share them with.

Arches will always have a special place in my heart.