You Say Goodbye... And I Say Hello.

On March 11th, 2010 the Canada family, Brooke, Bradley, Daniel, and myself, picked up and moved our lives to Madison, Alabama. For everyone besides Daniel, this is our first time living anywhere except sunny Southern California. We said goodbye to our home, our friends, and our family in order to start fresh in a new state. We are currently living with my in-laws (Daniel's Dad, Ray. His Step-mother, Diana. And his younger brother, Brandon.) who were gracious enough to make room for our family of 4. As any of you with young ones know.... it's really more like making room for a family of 6 with the two little ones. Well with all the toys, high chairs, bottles, sippy cups, books, movies.... you get the picture. Originally we were only planning on staying here until we could find a home of our own to move in to. Now our plan has changed a little. We've decided to wait until Daniel finds a job, and settles a little before we go out on our own again. Hopefully it won't be too long.... but it'll be for the best. Brooke is sharing a room with Daniel and I while Bradley has his pack-n-play (soon to be crib) set up in Diana's craft room. What is a craft room you may ask... well... Diana is big into scrap booking. I mean HUGE into it. So much so, she needs a room for all of her stuff. We were going to have Bradley share a room with us, and put Brooke in there, but she would absolutely DESTROY this room if she was ever in there alone for 5 mins! LOL So we figured it'd be best to have Bradley in there instead.

As some of you may know, Daniel's dream job is in the field of law enforcement. He has is AA in Administration of Justice and plans to go back to get his BA in the same field. The county's out here are much smaller than in CA so until the sheriff's open up to new hires, he's going to try to be a Correctional Officer and get his foot in the door. The testing for this isn't until the end of April and then of course there is the back round check which will take however long. So until then, Daniel is looking for anything and everything he can to support us in the meantime.

The kiddos are adjusting to the move much better than expected. Brooke is overjoyed to have so many people in the house to play with. She's been a great help to her Bama (Diana) in the kitchen making pancakes, and has even helped her Papa (Ray) and Uncle Brandon learn how to play the guitar. She has tons of room in the yard to play with her slide and to play soccer with anyone who can keep up. She's still having a little trouble understanding that we now live so far away from our friends and family. She especially misses her Best Friend Rhyleigh, and her boyfriend Landon. She does however talk to Landon every Sunday at Church. She likes to call him from the play phone in the daycare. LOL Yesterday Rhyleigh sent her a video message and she wanted so badly to send one back, but didn't quite understand that she couldn't play with her through the phone. So we'll try again today. Brooke loves going to Sunday School every week and playing with the kids. She doesn't know any of their names yet, but I'm sure she'll make some friends before long. We're hoping to get her into a good Pre-School in the fall and until then, she may enjoy a few days at Mother's Day Out. Mother's Day Out is a program offered through one of the churches out here. It's $10 a day, from 9:30 - 2. It's only offered a few days a week though. We haven't tried it just yet, but I'm sure we will before long. For those of you reading who didn't know already... Brooke is 100% Potty trained! She hasn't had an accident in over 2 months! I am especially impressed with this considering the hellish day we spent traveling out here, the 3 days where she thought her Daddy was sleeping (while he was really driving the truck out here), and the huge adjustment of living somewhere completely new. We are so very proud of our little Princess. =)

Bradley is doing very well with the move as well. His sleep schedule is still as it was in Cali, and he hasn't really been affected much by it at all. LOL He'll be 8 months already if you can believe it on April 5th! My how time flies!!! He is a strong sitter now, and is even starting to rock a little on his knees. I have a feeling he'll be crawling very soon. He is loving the time with his Papa, Bama, and Uncle Brandon who all make him laugh like crazy. The kiddos are both looking forward to the Easter Bunny hoppin' his way on over Sunday morning. Brooke is hoping he will bring her Princess and the Frog, and Bradley is hoping for anything he can stick in his mouth and chew on. LOL Mr. Bradley still does not have any teeth, but I'm sure they're not far from coming.

As for myself, I'm adjusting pretty well too. I get along wonderfully with my in-laws and am so thankful that we have them. I'm still worried about making friends, but I know it's still early. I'm sure soon enough I'll have someone I can enjoy a coffee date with now and then. Until then, I'll settle for calling my CA friends all the time, while drinking coffee out here. =)

My plan for today, after the cooking, cleaning, nap times, bath times, etc... is to take some pictures of our lives out here so you all can get a visual. I hope to get these posted tonight, and if not, hopefully by tomorrow morning. Until then....