Tessie 4 months and Utah

Happy 4-month birthday to our sweet W. Elizabeth! As you can see from the picture, she is so wonderful! More on that at the end of this post.

As a general update, we made it safely to Utah after a very long drive (53+ hours) through blizzards in Texas and New Mexico. We chose the southern route (Louisiana to Utah by way of I-10) to try to avoid the worst of the winter storm that shut down I-40 from Oklahoma to Arizona due to snow, floods and tornadoes. Unfortunately, the storm reached so far south that we could only travel 25 miles per hour for nearly 1000 miles. Here is a picture of Lucy in Colorado helping us kick snow off the trailer. We arrived Dec 28th, in time for Grandpa Carr's birthday party, despite several harrowing moments.

We have found Utah to be very welcoming towards us-- family letting us live with them while we look for a house, friendly ward members, nice school teachers, etc... Here is Ruth modeling our favorite Utah treats: the BYU Creamery and snow. We are in the process of trying to buy a house (more on that later) and hope to have a home beginning in February.

Tessie turned 4 months old on September 20th. Here she is standing in the corner, where she stood for nearly a minute while I fumbled with the camera to get a picture. She is such a sweet and loving little baby; friendly and patient. Her sweet spirit has helped all of us during this time of transition. We love her!