We miss you!

In October we had a new family move in across the street from us. We became fast friends. Our kids were the same ages and loved playing together. Jorie became a great friend and helped me out with babysitting and was so easy to talk to. Unfortunately (for us) they had another job opportunity come up in Las Vegas and they had to move. Even though we only knew them for 6 months, we felt like we knew them forever and were so sad to see them go. Here's some pics of the kids right before they left.

Cole and Madelyn, they were in the same kindergarten class and loved playing together
Jacob and Caden were also in the same first grade class, as well as the same primary class. These two were best friends

All of the kids including Claire. We love these guys, and miss them so much!

Randomness

I apologize ahead of time if this post is totally random...my brain is just functioning that way right now. I haven't posted anything for a month and it's been a crazy month. We took two trips to Spokane. The second time we left Brent behind to start his new job, while I returned to Keizer with the kids. More on that later. While we were in Spokane we celebrated Claire's 3rd birthday. And being the 4th child...these are the only pictures I have of the celebration. I have given up on trying to make cute cakes and luckily 3 year olds are easily convinced to have a "KRISPY KREME CASTLE!" Seriously, who would not want that? We were able to celebrate with lots of cousins. Later that night we took the kids to raptor reef, an indoor waterpark, to finish off the celebration. Of course they had a blast, and of course....I took no pictures. :)

Jacob was chosen to have his artwork displayed in the district art fair. This was his second year in a row to have his artwork picked. He was very proud of this, and luckily this year we made it to actually see his displayed artwork (unlike last year....don't ask)

So the kids and I are on our own. Malia, Jacob and Cole are all playing softball/baseball. Seriously, I don't know how my mom did it. Three kids to practice, on the same night, at the same time??? It's craziness. Things were pretty good until yesterday when I started feeling pretty sorry for myself. Brent is off doing fun stuff, while i'm here...blah blah blah. Let's just say I had a little mommy meltdown. But here's the crazy part. After church today, my neighbor who lives two houses down (she's a member) asked to come over and talk to me. Basically, her granddaughter, who is 19 is coming to live in Keizer after living a few years back east. This young girl used to babysit for me before she moved and she was great. Anyway, the grandma has foster kids in her home and they are all boys. So basically, she needs a place for her granddaughter to sleep in exchange for babysitting/cleaning. A free babysitter, sounds like heaven. I'm sitting here amazed at what a blessing this will be. A blessing for me and for my neighbor....Heavenly Father is definately looking out for us. (Now, if we could only sell our house......)