Next Stop...Kingman Arizona!

Lots has happened since I last blogged, so this will be an update of our life in the last month!  I should be posting more since I get to be a stay at home Mom/Blogger now! :)  See details below...

Jeffrey did it...he graduated from ASU on May 13, 2011!!!!  Hip hip HOORAY for him!!!  Not only was I impressed with his hard working pioneer qualities prior to us even dating, but I'm still in awe of everything he has done and continues to do for our little family.  I'm strengthened by his ability to always get everything done no matter the time it takes to tackle the challenge.  He was the *cutest graduate* in the world, and I was so very proud of him that day!  He received his Bachelors in Mechanical Engineering with an emphasis on automotive.

Jeff's parents have been a constant support to him while in school, thank you 

for setting the example of how important education is! 

My sweet parents also traveled down from Sierra Vista to be there that day for Jeff, thank you for coming and for supporting us!

Thank you Reed, Zacky, Ethan & Megan for taking time out of your busy day to come and support Jeff at the graduation ceremony, it was great having you there! :)  

Later on we had a party at the Schaub's house to celebrate and many of our good friends/family showed up to wish us well, thank you everyone who came!  I wanted to do something sweet for Jeff to show my gratitude towards him.  Since he loves cars I made this little "Journey to Success" table decoration, I thought it turned out pretty cute.

Me and my 2 favorite Dad's!!   

My beautiful Mother who keeps getting skinnier and younger looking! 

Bro. Mooney (he was our Bishop in the singles ward), Jeffrey, & Derald Mullenaux

Jen Mullenaux, baby & Me (she since has had her precious little girl)

Like most graduates Jeff had been applying like crazy for any available jobs in engineering, but with no luck he hadn't heard back from most of them.  With the economy still being down and the competition out there with other unemployed individuals we were getting worried about where Jeff would be able to work.

We had been pondering, searching and praying for an answer of what our future held in store for us.  I just always prayed that no matter the outcome I would have the patience and understanding to continue to move forward with faith.  Jeff had a great professor at ASU who had kept in touch with him after he graduated and was able to give him some job leads, one of which was in Kingman Arizona.  We both wanted him to be able to work in his field and gain that experience in engineering that would hopefully guide us to other opportunities.

The position was for a durability engineer at the proving grounds for Chrysler where he would be testing cars.  He landed the interview and after a couple weeks of anxiously waiting they offered him the job!!  This was a huge blessing for Jeff to get a job offer; considering he had only graduated 2 months before.  We felt very humbled that we had received an answer to our prayers, even though it wasn't the most perfect situation we had to take advantage of this experience.

*SURPRISE*---> we are now residents of Kingman AZ...it's that glorified truck stop right before you get to Vegas! :)   Yes, it's very small and a bit different, and an adjustment for both of us..,but it will be ok.  When I want to sit here and throw a pity party for myself (which I have done many times already) I have to remember that I can't doubt the strong feelings Jeff and I had about moving here and accepting the job.  This was the right decision for us and it's only temporary and we hope to move back to the Valley or somewhere bigger in the next couple of years.  We had been praying that I could stay home with baby girl and hello....who could forget this also meant my time at UNIVERSITY OF PHX CAME TO AN END....FINALLY!!!!!  YAHOO!!!! 


I'm sorry if we were not able to tell you personally that we had moved, but it all happened so fast and they wanted Jeff to start right away.  Jeff has been a huge *Positive Polly* through this all and I'm thankful for his happiness and constant support to me that things will be ok...even if we do see weird people all over the place!!  He loves his job and that's another huge blessing...he gets to play with cars all day long!!  I know that the small sacrifices we make usually result in receiving those precious tender mercies from the Lord too.  The cool thing about living here is that we are only an hour and thirty mins from Vegas and closer to Cali too.  Please make us your pit stop if you are ever headed this way, we welcome any visitors!!

I do love our house that we found to rent, and we got a pretty good deal on it!  It's a lot fancier compared to our old military ASU housing we were at.  I will take more pics of the inside once we are all unpacked and settled in.  It's a 3 bedroom, 2 bath, & 2 car garage.

*Mia the Kia*

Jeff's mustang was having lots of problems and we knew that we needed a dependable car for when we moved because we would be doing lots of traveling.  Plus we needed more of a "family car" for baby too.  Jeff once again researched his little heart out and was able to get a great deal on this Kia Sportage, we needed something that would be covered under warranty for a long time and Kia's definitely are.  We ended up trading in both our cars and are down to only 1 but it works for now, there are not many places to go here in Kingman anyways!

*33 Weeks*

Baby girl will now be born in Kingman, there is no sense in me traveling all the way to Phx to labor there.  They surprisingly have a really nice and new hospital here which I have heard good things about.  I was sad to switch Dr's, but I didn't know what to expect and how things would go anyways during labor, the plus side is we are a lot closer to the hospital here too.  In Phx I was going to deliver at Banner Good Sam and that was 40 mins away from where we lived.  We've also heard that the labor, delivery, and recovery is all done in the same room so that will be nice.  I have my first Dr. appt this week with them.

I'm feeling great still and am fortunate that I've had such a good pregnancy.  I don't think we have mentioned this before, but we are keeping her name a secret...don't worry you will know soon enough!! I mainly wanted to keep her name a surprise because we really love it and I didn't want to hear that someone knew someone who had a dog named that, or that they hated someone with that name, or that it was the name of their mean aunt in Alabama!

I've noticed some kankles starting to form and she has def signed up for her kick boxing classes too!  I love knowing that she is alive and well in my tummy.  At my last Dr's appt in Phx I had only put on 13 lbs...which I am so thankful for because I was overweight to begin with.  Not that I'm eating super healthy or anything, but I'm not using the pregnancy as an excuse to binge.  I hope to not put on more than 20 lbs with her.   Ewwwww...I hate taking pics as I get bigger, but everyone keeps asking so here is the most recent one.

If you made it this far thanks for reading...you can have a free night's stay at Hotel Schaub on your next trip to Veg or UT!! :)  I also wanted to say thanks for all the comments on the cribs, strollers and car seats...it definitely helped us decide on what we wanted.