Highlights from the trip to Utah

We did so many fun things on our 2 1/2 week trip to Utah. Here are some of the highlights...
Thanks to everyone for the fun times.

Slip sliding at Grandma Despains

Hanging out with Grandpa

Going to the aquarium and touching the sting rays (Cameron loves this place!)

The Dino Museum with Gma Bell and our cousins--always a great time!

Seeing some of my BEST friends Penny, and Shelley and their adorable kids. You're my girls always guys! LOVED seeing you.


A sleepover at the Moore's new house in Highland (miss you guys!)

My sweet, beautiful niece Nicole got married to a great guy Darrin. What a GREAT day--even if there was a little rain...

My cute girls at the reception. You better believe they loved the little flowery headbands Aunt Cyrrena made them.

Blood family at the Salt Lake Temple---where we were married nearly 10 years ago. Now here we are with 4 kids!!


My other cute niece Caitlin with her new BFF Ellie. Our cute bubba chubba Isaac.

Shooting off rockets with Grandpa Bell--thanks Grandpa for the fun!

Isaac's blessing

We blessed Isaac Philip while we were in Utah. It was wonderful. We blessed him at Grandma and Grandpa Bell's house which really was nice. We had almost all of our family and some of our best friends there which was really special for us since we don't live around our family and get to share these events with them very often. Isaac is truly a joy in our family. Blaine gave him a very special blessing. It took all those strong men to hold him up to give him the blessing--he's a big boy! He's named after Isaac Morley--my 3rd great grandfather, and 3 great men all named Philip--my dad, his great-grandpa Blood, and his Uncle Phil.

Aunt Sto and Isaac

B & J with their sweet boy

My dear, much missed friend Natalie
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The Blood Family

Isaac in his big 9 month old sized blessing outfit from Gma Bell.

Love those baby smiles!!

Our new house!

We are buying this house! Our offer was accepted today. It's in Crestwood, KY just 3 miles from the temple there and we love it. I actually have only seen pictures of it since I'm still in Virginia but Blaine tells me its nice! I'm so excited and mostly we just feel so grateful for the blessings we have received over the last few weeks. Blaine started his job and they've put him right to work which is great. We'll close on it the end of June and I'll move out there! Can't wait--we miss our dad sooOOoooOO much.

I'm way excited for this kitchen and for the backyard----it will be heaven to have a yard again after living in a townhome with no yard this last year!!

We did it!

We did it! We made it through this LAST (and I mean LAST) year of school. Blaine is officially done with his LLM Program--and graduation would have been this last Sunday, but we missed it to go to Pittsburgh instead. I made him promise he would let me take some pictures of him by the law school instead.
I'm so proud of Blaine for doing this--a lot of people thought we were crazy for doing this program but it all paid off. I know we won't ever regret this year. Way to go Blaine!!
Blaine left today to move to Kentucky and start work on Tuesday. Good Luck B! We miss you already.

Chubba--bubba!

Here's some pictures of Isaac---weighing in at 16 pounds now at 2 months old. Is that a record?? He's so cuddly and cute! His arms look like the Michelin Tire Man.

Quick trip to Pitt...

We took at quick trip to Pittsburgh last weekend to visit Phil and Lisa before Blaine moves to Kentucky. It was also the Fathers and Sons campout--so Blaine, Cameron, Phil, and Jacob all went together while the girls stayed home for a "Girl Party". It was a fun weekend. We also got to visit our great friends the Westovers and meet their new twins--they couldn't be any cuter!! Kelsey was thrilled to see their girls too! We had a great time!

Joseph, Talee, and Tate--they are sooo cute!

The girls back together for fun!

Isaac Philip with his Uncle Philip---one of the great "Philips" he's named after!

Fun with our family--we're so glad we got to see them!

We have a job!!!

We are so happy to say that Blaine was offered (and accepted) a great job last Wednesday in Louisville, Kentucky!! We are so excited! This job is a miracle for our family following MONTHS of looking for a job. Pretty much since we moved here to Virginia last August, Blaine has been searching for a job and sent out hundreds of resumes, and talked to just about everyone we knew (and didn't know) about a job--without ANY luck. Most law firms are not hiring at all right now, which makes every other attorney job totally saturated with thousands of applicants. Blaine saw a rare posting for a job with a big law firm in Louisville--he sent his resume to them on Tuesday, and they called him on Wednesday to arrange an interview for the next Wednesday in Louisville. He flew out there, had a great interview, and flew home Wednesday night and on the way home from the airport they called him to offer him the job. I was shaking my head in the car to say "TAKE IT!!" We both felt before he left for Louisville that this would be great and was the right thing. Its amazing this job came up, because Blaine sent the same firm a resume a few months ago and they responded that they were not hiring.

I can honestly say that this was one of the hardest things we've had to go through--the stress of not having a job or a way to provide for FOUR children was truly such a worry and a trial of faith for us. We knew we were supposed to come to Virginia for Blaine to do the LLM program, and we had faith that the Lord had a plan for our family, but that time of not knowing when or what or where that plan would take us really stretched our faith. We hope we've become better by going through this--I know we have. The Lord doesn't leave us--just often makes us stretch till we are about ready to give up! I'm grateful for my sweet husband who didn't give up and had faith to carry me through the last few months. Thank you to everyone who has prayed for us to find a job---you're prayers made all the difference.

So....we are moving to Louisville. The only thing I could want more was if this job was in Lexington....but Louisville isn't too far!!! We are still far from family and great friends in Utah which is hard, but Kentucky is such a great place with many great friends there. Blaine starts on the 26th of May, and I'll stay here in Virginia till we find and close on a house. So hopefully we'll be all moved in by July! We are excited! (And, we have movers to move us---thank heavens!!)