I'm going to try this one more time!

Well I know that it has been well over a year since I have posted anything but I am going to give it another try. Let's update everyone on the new with the Kitchen Family.

Well Greg finally graduated from Midwestern University in June 2011. We moved home to Peoria for a little while. We thought we had a couple of good prospects in Arizona for a job but none of them panned out. We took a job a Washington Hospital Center in Washington DC. One of the sites where we did clinical rotations last year. We are here for a minimum of 3 years.

We moved to a small suburb on Washington DC a little town called Vienna in Virginia. It is such a cute place and we are enjoying the area.

The girls are still growing like crazy. McKenzie is 9 and is in the 4th grade, she is such a great big sister. Brooklyn is 6 and is in the 1st grade and is still our emotional child. Jacey is 4 and is the baby of the family. She sure knows how to work being the youngest.

I am getting used to living in a place with out any family, it gets tough at times but am enjoying my time out here. I sure miss my family and friends but feel your love and support.

Can anyone say.......ROAD TRIP!

So we decided to leave on Sunday May 30, 2010 to head back east for Greg's clinical rotations. I must really love you Greg in order for me to pack up my house and leave my friends and family for an entire year. We had some of our friends and family there to send us off. We must have looked like the Beverly Hillbillies as we drove down the highway our car was stuffed as full as we could get it.

Thanks O'Donnells, Piepers, Walkers, and Stumpes. I sure do miss you guys. Thank you for all that you guys did to help in our moving We couldn't of done it with out you.

Here we go getting ready to get in the van and hit the road. It was really hard for us to leave. We have been in the same house for over 8 years and now we were up and moving.

Our first stop was in Holbrook, Arizona where we met my parents and Brooklyn and Jacey for a little lunch at our favorite place to eat called El Rancho. My parents had the two younger ones for over 2 weeks. Thanks Mom and Dad we never could have been ready to go with out your help.

As we were saying good-bye Brooklyn and Jacey had a hard time. They started crying and kept saying, "It will take forever for you to get to Maryland." They knew that when we got to Maryland they then would be able to fly on a big airplane with grandma and grandpa out to be with us and see their new home. It was really hard to leave them but we knew that they would have more fun with grandma and grandpa than they would being in a van for 4 days. Thanks again mom and dad for watching the girls they had a lot of fun with you guys. You guys are the best! I love you guys and miss you very much.

Welcome to New Mexico! We finally left Arizona on Sunday afternoon.

We stopped in Albuquerque, New Mexico to visit Aunt May (my dad's sister). It was great to see her. Greg and McKenzie had never met Aunt May and I hadn't seen her for many years. She had a fun loving cat and pet rat that McKenzie got to enjoy for a little visit. Thanks Aunt May for the perfume and sea shell.

Sunday night we stayed in Santa Rosa, New Mexico. It is hard to see what a place looks like at 10pm, and this is it. McKenzie and I are just enjoying a little breakfast before we get back in the van.

Welcome to Texas! We made it to Texas on Monday morning. We didn't travel for very long in Texas a couple of things that I remember is they had the biggest cross in one of the towns and it STUNK really bad in a couple of parts by the cattle ranches. They also offered a 72oz. steak, I guess everything is BIGGER in Texas.

Welcome to Oklahoma! The scenery really started to change once we hit Oklahoma. It was starting to get really green and pretty.

This picture is at the welcome center.

This is what you would have seen had you driven behind us on the freeway. I am sure it was quit a site to see.

McKenzie was a real trooper on the trip. I am sure it was one of the most boring things she has ever had to endure, but she did great. She did have fun though getting to see all the different states.

On Monday night we stayed in a little town called Sallisaw, Oklahoma. It is on the Oklahoma and Arkansas boarder. This night was the hardest for me I really started to feel home sick I wanted to go back to Arizona I missed my family.

WATCH OUT FOR CARS, GREG! Doesn't really look like much traffic. He had to secure our bag that was on top of the van.

Welcome to Arkansas. We arrived in Arkansas on Tuesday morning, it sure was green. I really liked Arkansas it was pretty, green everywhere. The people there are really friendly but the accents are really thick, Y'all come back now! I especially liked Little Rock it was a beautiful city. I could maybe live there. Maybe but don't get any ideas Greggy.

So we stopped at McDonald's for breakfast and we looked out the back window and this is what we saw. A beautiful little pond for fishing and a park. So we decided to take a closer look. It was lovely. It was really humid though.

The trip from here on out was beautiful and green.

Welcome to Tennessee! We crossed the Mississippi River and this was the only picture of the Tennessee sign we could get. The river was huge.

We decided to stop in Memphis which is just on the other side of the river.

Elvis has left the building! He resided in the welcome center in Memphis.

There was this Huge egg looking thing outside the welcome center made of all these little pieces of tile. It was pretty, McKenzie almost knocked it over!

On Tuesday night we stayed just outside of Knoxville, Tennessee.

While in Tennessee we stopped at an Arby's for lunch and there was this beautiful park with a gazebo that we ate lunch at. We talked about how much fun Brooklyn and Jacey would have if they could play at the gazebo.This state is McKenzie's favorite she really wants to go back and visit with Brooklyn and Jacey. She also says that she is going to live in Tennessee someday.

Welcome to Virginia! We are finally getting closer one more state left to go. Virginia was by far the most beautiful state we traveled through. We didn't get any pictures of Washington DC or Maryland because of how crazy traffic was, we will get many more picture of the area so you can see it.

Over all it was a good trip. We made it safe and sound, and McKenzie did great. We got to see some beautiful scenery and meet some interesting people along the way. We do miss our family and friends back in Arizona and our own home.

Finally settling down!

Well as many of you know we have taken a little "adventure" to the East Coast. Greg's schooling has taken him to Washington DC and Baltimore, Maryland. Let's just say it has been a growing experience thus far. Let's start from the beginning. We left Arizona on May 30th and drove out to DC (I will post the trip next!).

We arrived in DC on Wednesday afternoon traffic was crazy and Greg made a wrong turn and we drove right down town. It was cool cause we got to see Washington monument, but it was a 2 1/2 hour mistake. We ended up staying at a really nice hotel (Thanks Jamie Pieper).

On Thursday morning we went to look at the place we had arranged to stay in with a real estate agent we worked with from Phoenix. She unlocked the door and someone's stuff was still in it. We didn't know if it was furnished or not. Finally the real estate agent called the owner and they told us it wasn't available until July 1st. They told her that they had two other properties that were close, and available for move in. The first one was in the same complex, we went to look at it and once again had someone's stuff still in it. I guess that is Heavenly Father's way of telling us that we weren't supposed to be there. The other place was awful. I started crying because I didn't know what was going to happen with us. I really just wanted to drive home to Arizona.

We ended up staying in a hotel until Friday night. On Friday Greg went to the Hospital to meet is preceptor and see where it was at. One of the perfusionists was moving out and had his place until June 30 and he had already moved most of his stuff out and told us we could stay there until we had secured a place.

It has been crazy for the last 3 weeks running around trying to find something that will work for us. There is something about student loans that people don't like. Everything was good except that we didn't have a job. We finally found something on Craigslist that we looked into and it worked out really smoothly. We moved in last weekend. We are in a city called McLean Virginia, its is about 20 minutes to Greg's first rotation and an hour to his second. But it's only for a year.

Now that we are back online I am going to try and update every Sunday (as my journal). It is beautiful out here to see all the green and some historical sites. The girls like it too. We have found there Elementary School and we got to meet our ward family today.

We sure do miss "home" including our family and friends. We are safe and together and that is most important right now. Sorry for such a long post. Hope all is well.

Hapy Birthday Jacey!

Well can you believe it my baby is 3. At least on February 16th. It seems like just yesterday when we brought her home to her two big sisters. Wow how time sure flies by. Jacey we are so glad you are in our family. You sure do make us smile.

That three is just sooo hard to do, I can't get that finger to stay down and the other to stay up all the way.

So for every birthday in our house we decorate the family room with streamers and balloons and let the kids have fun on their birthdays with the balloons (sometimes the funnest part).

Just playin around!


We had such a great time and Jacey sure loved making cupcakes with me. I let her do as much as she could and assisted with the rest.

"First you put in the wet ingredients, them you add the dry ingredients."

"Make sure you beat it for 4 minutes, not 3 or 5 but must be 4, or else it doesn't turn out right."

"You must decorate them with your favorite colors, one for the cupcake and one in my mouth, YUM!"

"If you do it correctly you end up with a masterpiece of cupcakes!"
Jacey loved her cupcakes and especially blowing out the candle.
Make a wish!

"And I'll huff and I'll puff and I'll blow the candle out."

Jacey with all of her birthday presents, thanks grandma and grandpa for my gifts it sure was fun going shopping with you to pick out all of my presents.

Jacey we are so glad that you are in our family, You make our days more adventurous.
We love you.

Let's go to the zoo!

For Jacey's birthday we went to the zoo, unfortunately Greg couldn't come with us but we had a lot of fun. As you can see we ended the day with cotton candy (Jacey modeling for you).

Snack Time!

At the zoo there was an exhibit that had sting rays, the girls loved petting them. I think they also enjoyed putting their hands in the water.

McKenzie in the petting zoo loved to comb the goat's hair.

Brooklyn always finds the runt of the liter and follows it to make sure it is taken care of. It is so cute.

When I saw this I had to take this picture they remind me of Ariel and her sisters. They thought they were cool stuff inside this shell.

Brooklyn and McKenzie petting the sting ray. We had such a great time at the zoo. Thank You Jacey for having a birthday so we could have such a fun day.

Day at the farm

Brooklyn and I got to go on a field trip to the farm that is in Glendale for preschool. We had such a good time. We even got to dress like farmers.

Brooklyn really liked planting the seeds. She even got to bring some home.

We got to pick some veggies and bring them home. She is a great farmer

Her favorite part of the day was holding the baby chicks that they had at the farm. At the end of the day they got to take a trip around the farm in a train of barrels pulled by a tractor. We had such a good time. I can't wait for the next field trip.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Every Valentine's Day the girls get a little basket of goodies. Here is McKenzie with her goodies

Brooklyn with her basket.

Jacey with her goodies

The girls had the most fun with the meals that we had. I got some little plastic glasses that they absolutely loved. They had to use them at each meal of the day.

Me and McKenzie with our orange juice for breakfast making a toast.

We also had special pancakes for breakfast. Here is Jacey showing off her pancake

Brooklyn with two pancakes

McKenzie especially liked the strawberries on top of her pancake.

Here is breakfast. they turned out really good they were pink inside. We had a great lunch too, heart shaped pasta. It is so much fun having holidays that you can celebrate with your families. I sure love my girls.