Moving to Notre Dame!

  Wow ...so much has changed in the last year! We Moved 1,478 miles away, my brother Josh left on a mission, met lots of amazing new friends, and Porter started and finished a Masters of Business Administration. On May 28th 2011 We loaded up this 20" U Haul truck, hooked up our car to the tow dolly and made our trek to Notre Dame, IN! Oaklee and Smoot had lots of fun playing with the camera while we were packing!

 

My brother Josh was leaving on his mission in a couple weeks so he decided to come help move us in. Since Josh was leaving and we also had a Smoot Family reunion the next week, we decided to leave Oaklee and Smoot behind with Ema and Papa, while we drove the 24hour drive and moved in. Once we got everything moved in I flew back with Josh to spend more time with our families. The drive was long but I couldn't help thinking how grateful I was that we had a moving truck and didn't have to make the trek on foot pulling a handcart! When we finally pulled off the interstate into South Bend around 11pm the next night it was so dark and the GPS wouldn't pull up The University Village apt. complex. We had to call the reactor and have him meet us at a nearby Subway! We spent Monday moving in and unpacking and Porter started Orientation on Tuesday!

MBA Mendoza Building 

 After Porter's 1st day of orientation Josh and I were able to meet up with him and the Football Stadium. We got to tour it and have a wonderful lunch up in the press box!

 The view from the press box!

 I wish I had taken more pictures that week that we were here. We had a lot of fun with Josh and I was able to plant a Garden! The fellow MBA candidates and other ward members had a Potluck in the back yard of the complex one of the days so we were able to meet everyone! I had a lot of fun and couldn't wait to get the kids there to start our new Life!

Smoot Family Pictures!

We had family pictures taken the day before we left for Notre Dame.
The whole Fam!


The Grand kids!




The Boys!




The Girls


Fun back shot of everyone goofing off! I love Korbin and Casey holding hands. I never realized they were so close!!!

Sydnee had to have one with Shadow (the Dog)

Aunt Sadie and Sydnee with Oaklee and Maggie


Oaklee really wanted Smooty to look!

The Dearinger Family!

Smooty and Oaklee!



Our little Family!

Oaklee's 3rd Birthday!

On May 24th 2011 Oaklee turned 3 years old! Holy cow..I can't believe how old she is!! All she wanted for her birthday was a bike and a Cinderella cake! Of course her grandparents spoiled her and she got lots more! Initially, I was going to make the cake but things were a little crazy trying to get everything packed up and ready to move to Indiana on the 27th. So, we looked and looked for a Cinderella cake but all the cheaper bakery's didn't have one so we just bought this "I love shoe's" cake and added Cinderella on it! She loved it!

Singing Happy Birthday!

Blowing out the candles!



Presents!

A Soccer Ball!

Puzzles yay!

A new Swimming Suit.. and Hot Wheels!


A baby, a bubble blowing machine...

a bike helmet and ....

A BIKE!!! Oaklee was so funny! She got so excited and ran over to it, as she was getting on her foot got stuck on the peddle. She fell to the ground and started crying! I'm so glad we got it on Video because it was so cute and sad at the same time!


Uncle Korbin sucked the Helium from the ballon! Oaklee thought it was really funny!

The next day we had a little party with Oaklee's friends Luke, Brendan and Ben! We had left the camera at the house so we took video and then went and grabbed the camera. Ben had to leave early so we didn't get a picture with him! Oaklee is really going to miss these guys!