Happy Birthday Benji!

 Our sweet Benji turned ONE just before we left Frisco. I can hardly believe that it has been a year! He is a sweet and chill  little guy. He's happy to just be around the family and in the midst of whatever is going on. He adores his sisters, but is wary of their craziness. He loves to watch them run circles around him and will scream with delight right along with them. He also loves music. He "sings" along whenever anyone is singing and dances to any music he hears. He isn't walking yet, but that could be due to a little incident of his parents (ahem, Rob) getting a little over-excited when he took a tiny half-step and pushing him to try again, and again and again. Right after that experience whenever he heard the word "walk" he would collapse in a melty crying puddle on the ground. Sorry, Buddy, if we scarred you!

 He loves to point at everything these days.

With all the nuttiness of moving, we ate a gourmet dinner at McDonald's for his birthday dinner. He was pretty stoked that he got his very own water cup!

Grandma Nett and Grandpa Dave were here for the party, but somehow we didn't get a shot of them, but we're thankful that they were here to help us celebrate because they bring the party :)

 Get this thing off my head!

Grace and Ruby chose a husky dog for him to be his new lovie and named him Max.

 Ruby was an excellent present opener helper

I love the following 4 pictures and the story they tell of being the younger brother....

 Ben's such a good sport, he generally doesn't fuss too much about the sisters picking on him.

Playroom decorated for the party a la Grandma

Faker, faker, belly acher!

 Gosh, I love this kid! Happy birthday little buddy!

Hello! Howdy!

Grace just told me about how she was welcomed into Primary on Sunday. They asked her how we say hello in America and she said "hello". Then they asked if we don't say "howdy!" I think she was confused but happy to be the center of attention :) Then they sang the Hello! welcome song but they sang it in British and American like this:

Hello!

        Howdy!

Hello!

        Howdy!

We welcome you today....

Haha. Apparently we need to brush up on our American :)

Last Days in Texas

I don't even know where to start. We have had a whirlwind month since I last blogged!

First, a few random pictures that I haven't posted yet:

 

 Ruby got her new wellies for London and she loved them so much she slept in them and with the box :)

Sadly for the kiddos, we were going to have to spend Halloween on the road. They were very understanding and agreed that the church's Trunk or Treat would be enough Halloween for them this year, so we got all gussied up and headed out. The girls were especially excited that they got to be fancy and wear eyeshadow. Grace was Tinkerbell this year and Ruby was Minnie Mouse (again) and Benji was a mummy.

The next day Dave and Annette flew in to help us and visit one last time. They also drove our car home with them to car-sit for the next 8 months.

While our house was being packed up, the Williams let us stay with them. Kip is my mom's cousin and he and Barbara were like grandparents to the kids. Every Sunday Grace loved to sit with them in church. I think the ward actually thought that they were the kids' grandparents.

Here's the truck all packed up and ready to go!

The first packing day went really quickly. We had 3 guys like a whirlwind pack the house all up. The next day they came back to load the truck and disassemble the big things and wrap them. The moving company contracted with a third party to unhook the washer and dryer and fridge and prep them for moving. The third party was supposed to get there in the morning, then by noon, then "in an hour", then "by the end of the day" and on and on until the whole house was packed except for the washer and dryer and fridge and we were planning on turning our keys in that night so we could leave early the next morning. The third party promised to be there at 7 am sharp to get everything packed so the movers could come back and load it all. So early the next morning Rob met them and they got it all prepped for the move and to be stored, then they waited for the movers. We knew that the fridge's doors would need to be taken off to get it out of the kitchen, so the third party did that then put them back on when they got it out of the kitchen and moved it to the doorway to be ready for the movers. When the movers got there they wanted the doors off again so they wouldn't have to squeeze it out of the front door, so everything was halted while they did that because it was blocking the front door. Finally, they got some stuff outside to find out that the lift on the truck wasn't working and they would have to call a repair man. We were on a time crunch to get moving to drive to Tucumcari and turn in our keys by noon. So Rob locked up the house and left the movers and all of our large appliances sitting on our front lawn waiting for the truck repair man. I sure hope they made it to the storage! :)

Packing

Us with all the stuff we're taking to London. We'll have 11 bags of our life that we'll take with us and all the rest is getting packed to stay in Texas. Thankfully we don't have to do the packing ourselves this time. It is wonderful!!

Grandma and Grandpa came to visit and help us. It was so fun to have them here and help us!

Benji loves his grandpa!

Church

(I've been trying to blog but blogger is taking super duuuuuper long to upload pictures so I haven't gotten very far. But just know that I'm working on blogging to keep y'all updated on our British adventure!)

We sure we're spoiled back in the States being able to leave 5 or 10 minutes before it started from the safety and warmth of our garage and driving our own vehicle for a few minutes to the door of the chapel and walking the 10 yards to the door. I will be sure to appreciate that when we get back!

The ward we are assigned to is the Staines Ward. There is only one ward that meets in our building and we live in the farthest reaches if the ward. Luckily last week we ran into a senior missionary couple serving a genealogy mission at the British National Archives which are a stones throw from our flat and who live in our housing complex. They were kind enough to let us tag along with them to church. We left at 8:30 for our 10:00 meeting. We took a bus into the next town then a train into Staines-upon-Thames where the ward meets then walked the block to the chapel. 

The ward is quite small but the people were wonderful and very lovely and welcoming to us. There are people of many nationalities and my ears had a hard time tuning in to understand the multitude of accents we heard today. Sadly, we found out that the Petts' permanent flat won't be in the same ward as us and even sadder for them is their bus ride to church us even longer than ours! 

I packed a lunch and we ate it at the station waiting for our train home. Elder and Sister Smart we're so sweet and played with the girls who were ca-ray-zay pants on the ride home. Public transportation is so hard with exhausted littles who have been pushed to their limits!

We arrived back at our flat at 2:50- almost 6 hours later! Needless to say, I'm not exactly looking forward to Sundays!