Whoa! May?!? When Kyle said I should really update our blog he wasn't kidding that it'd been awhile. I didn't realize my last post was in May. Lot's of changes in the White household have occurred in the past few months and we keep asking ourselves and other more seasoned parents when or if life ever slows down/gets easier. Where do I even begin?

We are no longer Arizona White's for one. A change that has been REALLY hard for the whole family. I can't even put into words how in LOVE we are with Arizona. The state, the people, the wards we've been in there, the schools, THE PEOPLE, and yes, even the weather. I know what a shocker that must be for some people who think it's like living in a furnace...on the sun. If you can live through the 2-3 months of the year that are set to broil then the rest of the year is awesome! We just love that place and I'm pretty sure people here are getting tired of us using sentences like this , "well in Arizona...there's no tax on food," or "well in Arizona...you never have to worry about driving on ice or snow", or "well in Arizona road construction is almost always done at night..." OR "well in Arizona Landon had an amazingly awesome (totally free) preschool and Chase was having the Kindergarten experience of a life time!" You get the idea. We find ourselves sorely missing our friends quite often and we've come to the conclusion that people are just different in AZ. Both Chase and I have had our tears over missing our sweet friends there.

Anyhow! A few months ago we started thinking that we need to be closer to family though. We felt the need for our kids to live closer to some grandparents. We needed that, and the timing felt right. Kyle had just got yet another promotion at Apollo Group but as usual, compensation wasn't competitive enough for his position across the board and where he felt he should be with a Master's Degree. So we thought we'd send out some resumes! A few in Idaho, a few in Arkansas (both places where the grandparents are). We were in no hurry, but just thought we'd reach out and see what happens. Within a matter of a couple weeks we were off enjoying ourselves during a family reunion in Idaho when Kyle was called and asked to come in for a couple of interviews at Melaleuca while we were in town. We were so excited! Everything sounded absolutely amazing...but the job they really wanted him for was not currently open. A few days later Kyle got a call from Wal-Mart's corporate office in Bentonville, AR. He had a phone interview, then less than a week later had a web interview, then they flew him out for a face to face interview about 2 weeks after that. It seems like everything went so fast during that time and soon they were calling him with an offer and a start date for his employment. So just as we were getting into a picture perfect schedule with Chase being in Kindergarten and LOVING his friends and his amazing teacher; Landon being in a wonderful preschool and getting to ride the bus 4 days a week (the highlight of his life)...we moved!

We are now here still adjusting to life in Arkansas and falling in "like" with out new stomping grounds. There's no question that it is BEAUTIFUL here. I mean, really. The leaves are changing colors and there are so many trees for miles that as you drive all you can see is a thick canopy of reds oranges, yellows, and greens. When I drive Chase to preschool in the morning there is mist coming out of the forest of trees on either side of the road making it look like a scene straight out of a magazine. I've never seen anything like it! We've heard nothing but good about the Bentonville school district and we're excited for Chase to start Kindergarten (again) next fall. It's supposedly one of the top school districts in the nation because of the insane funding it receives from the Walton family (Wal-mart). The state however just set forth a new law that requires that a child needs to have turned 5 on or before August 1st which made Chase 7 days too short of making that deadline. He was a little confused to be going to preschool again, but has been really enjoying it. He makes friends SO easily and is such a good boy in class. He's the total opposite of Landon in personality and is quite a bit more dependent on us and others. So he tends to be a bit of a follower, but we've noticed that he is great at picking out good friends.

Landon goes to the same preschool as Chase but on alternating days and has been loving it. He was getting speech therapy at his preschool in Arizona and had qualified to go to school for free there. We tried to get him in the same situation here but they had to re-test him and he didn't qualify anymore. He went through a little developmental spurt during the time we made the move and his speech just took off! They said he had articulation and pronunciation at a 5-6 year old level and where he'd qualified in Arizona because of his expressive language (lacking certain vocabulary) he's now at a 4-5 yr old range for expressive. We're so proud of his independence! We had been holding off on toilet training him because he seemed so disinterested. I finally thought I'd just take him to the store and let him pick out a package of special underwear, a toilet, and some toilet treats. We got home and he was so excited to put on his new underwear and test out his Lightening McQueen toilet! He hasn't looked back ever since. He was seriously the easiest toilet training experience EVER. He has literally had maybe 5 accidents total in 5 months! Amazing!

Kellan started crawling about 3 weeks ago FINALLY! He didn't stop there though and has quickly picked up on pulling himself up on anything and everything and cruising around the house. He loves his new mobility! He is SO chubby and has the cutest little personality. We are all still under his adorable spell. He still makes us all melt with those chubby kissable cheeks of his, and pink pouty lips, and head full of BLONDE fluffy hair, and deep beautiful blue eyes. We can't get enough of this cutie!!! He's been babbling and talking more lately too. He says, "Momma", "Dadda", "Ni-Ni" (night night), "Babba" (bottle) and "Nana". He has 6 teeth with more coming in all the time now and is DROOLING like a fool! We've never had a drooler so this is a whole new experience for us.

I'm sorry I don't have time to post pictures right now. I know posts aren't half as fun without pictures but I'm just impressed that I'm even posting something right now period! Baby steps.