Many Faces of Carly

Here's a collage that I just love of Carly and a pic of her each month of her life! I love you Carly, you have made me smile everyday!!! It has been a wonderful 1st year, and it has flown by so fast. I love that each day is so special and I feel so lucky and blessed to have such a wonderful daughter I feel undeserving, I look forward to each new day with you...I can't wait! I have the best family ever!

Texas & New Mexico 1 Year Birthday!!!

Poor Carly!! Glad we had a chance to celebrate and have a Birthday Party for Carly right before we left Texas with my family! Carly got to eat her own cake and make a huge mess...BUT THEN we went to New Mexico on our way to Oregon and was there for her Birthday! (Clint drove the moving truck to Oregon with his Dad, while Carly and I made a vacation out of the trip) Carly was sick with the stomach flu for the first time ever on her Birthday...throwing up every 5 minutes!!! Not how I was planning Carly's 1st birthday to work out...It was still fun visiting one of our best friends the Brimhalls, at least Carly was able to look happy enough to take the pic with her strawberry cake (NM pics shown first) for a few mintutes and then threw up a few seconds later...poor girl...good thing she chowed on her Texas cake earlier, cause that was all she got! At least she got some cool presents!!!

Here are also some pics I took of Amy and her new baby Scout at 3 weeks old! He is so adorable and a good baby...I love new babies! It really made me baby hungry! uh-oh!

Goodbye Texas!

Today @ 6:30 we load up the truck to move to Oregon!!!

It's really hard to say goodbye to a place that you loved so much. My family moved here 9 years ago, and to me this move is so bittersweet. It's time for us to move on and leave so many great people, good memories, and my family. This is where Clint and I met, started a life together, and had our first baby! I feel so grateful for the times that we have had here, and all the people who helped to contribute to how blessed we have felt! We love you all and hate to say goodbye! Thanks to all of you who have been such great friends and have loved and cared for us!

I had to write a list of 20 things that I would love about Oregon and this move to make it easier....then of course I had to inlude a list of why I love Texas, but at least I made it shorter! lol I love Texas!

Here are some pics we took recently at a little pizzookie getogether with some of our friends to say goodbye! You guys are awesome!

20 Reasons to love Oregon!

Finally! Outdoor recreation
You can sit on the grass! No fire ants
No black mold…gross!
Holistic mindset (there may be too many hippies though)
Beautiful agriculture! I love the tropical plants that grow there!
Most beautiful Temple ever
Less traffic, smog, pollution, etc…
4 seasons
A new start ;) Always nice
Tap water you aren’t scared to drink
WAY less crime
Clint has a job!! Money! Money! Got to have it…(yeah to pay off our student debts) this should be number 1
Mountains
Clint parent’s nearby, and their HUGE ranch… 3 hours away
Closer to Utah, California, and even Alaska (for Clint’s sake), and other cool cities to visit like Seattle!
A change in Scenery
No more blistering hot, humid weather
Cheaper Airline tickets to states I like to visit (flying to Utah from TX is lots of $ I don’t have!)
Awesome Seafood/close to the coast
Lots of lakes for boating, skiing, wakeboarding, fishing, etc…

10 Reasons I will miss TX
Brick and Stone housing (its a million dollars for one of those in Portland!)
Awesome restaurants because that’s what I do here…eat!
Economy is great
Shopping is too
Southern Hospitality, the friendliest people live in TX (great friends!)
Bible belt, conservative (very different in Portland)
Texas pride…seriously what other state waves their flag everywhere? And it is the only state allowed to wave it as high as the US flag!
My family is here
This is where Clint and I met, started our life together, and had our baby!
The church is awesome here

Oklahoma

If you like the zoo, this is the best place I have been too! It's called Arbuckle Wilderness and its inbetween here and Oklahoma City- almost half way. Anyways, you drive through this wilderness and there are just wild animals roaming around and you feed them through your car...but dont get out! I have to admit I was a little scared and nervous of some of those animals, especially the bull looking ones with horns! Plus they warned us that some of them bite, like the Zebras and the donkeys! We fed everything from Ostrich's, camels, zebras, horses, weird bull/cow looking things, deers, and gazels! It was seriously the funnest thing in a long time!

We also checked out Bricktown in downtown Oklahoma, and went to their botanical gardens. I have to say, and I am sorry for any OK fans, but other than the wilderness there wasn't much else to see! Oh well we had fun, thats all that counts!