Our helpers...lifesavers!

We had so many friends come and help us with our move. I was really bad about taking pictures...I was kinda busy...but I wanted to take a moment to recognize those who helped us. I am sure I will be missing someone. If I do, please leave a comment so I can edit this post and included them! The most amazing part is all of this help was voluntarily! These friends offered to help and were so kind.

Several friends helped with childcare so I could pack and clean the old house. Our friends; Jennifer, Christine, Kim, Jaimie and Michelle were all so kind to have our kids over. Mostly Ben and Andrew. Nick and Tatiana were either in school or helping me!

I had a few friends help get us boxes; thank you to Carla, Jaimie, and Christine!

I had some friends come over and help clean the old house too. Thank you Mary, Edith, and Katrina. Katrina's husband, Max, came at that time too and help take apart the trampoline and loaded up the back of the Dodge with boxes along with other "manly" tasks. ;-)

Several men came and helped too with the moving and heavy work. Max and his sons and Bruce and his sons. So nice!

I have to say that the Montgomerys; Max, Katrina, and their boys, were there for us every step of the way and worked their tails off! I don't think we can ever repay them. Max even helped Nathan take a u-haul load over to the new house one evening and they didn't get back until midnight! They waited and left after the boys' school band concert and were there late. Nathan was pretty tired the next day, I am sure Max was too.

I think it was really nice that they were able to stay for the band concert. It was Nick's last concert at NAMS. Max's son, one of Nick's best friends, is also in the band. Nick is having friend withdrawals pretty serious!

Nathan's parents were also a HUGE help in our move! The arrived on the "main" moving day. We had moved a few loads over during the days before, but they were here for a lot of it. Those two work so hard! I was starting to feel guilty because of all the hard work they were doing!

I had friends help at the new house too! My friend, Angie, came and helped clean and unpack my kitchen. That was number one priority so it was so kind of her to do that. She even took the day off of work to help me! Wow! And my friend, Michelle, brought her kids over to hang out (they are some of my children's best friends) and she helped me unpack too. So kind!

We are truly blessed with such amazing friends! Like I said in a previous post, it was really really hard to leave our Albany friends. They are so good to us and have been there for us through the years in so many ways. I just LOVE MY FRIENDS!!!

Here is Michelle helping me unpack...

Nathan's parents putting together our dining room table...what work ethic!

Grandpa and Nick putting together our bed. I also have to give a shout out to Nick and Tatiana. They were extremely helpful throughout the whole move, both during the packing and selling of our old house, the moving process, and unpacking and putting together the new house. They helped with the boys and with the actually moving tasks. I am so proud of them!

Here are "the men" sitting down to some hot soup for lunch after working on moving us in. Perry, Max, and two of Max's sons are there along with Nathan and two of our boys. Now this is a hard working bunch!

THANK YOU EVERYONE!

Our farewell...

Well, I feel funny calling it a farewell because we were not saying any final good bye's, just a lot of "see you soon!" But I have to post about this because it meant so much to us and it was a lot of fun. Plus I think it is a good way to start our new blog about living in our new home.

Our friends, the Bergs, offered to throw us an open house so we could see everyone before we left. I never did count how many people came, but it was a lot. We pretty well filled their home. They were very gracious and kind to take time out of their very busy holiday schedule to do this for us. It was a great night and good times were had by all. See you later Albany!

The kids were pretty crazy. No one got hurt and nothing got broken, that's always a good thing!

Andrew was pretty overwhelmed so he spent some time in daddy's arms. You see him in this photo. Tatiana and her little girl friends were upstairs the whole night so I actually do not have a picture of her at the party. How terrible.

My mother-in-law had the idea to take a picture of the pile of shoes by the front door. This was only some of them.

During the party we were visited by carolers! How nice! They were led by Micheal Potter, a friend and our bishop.

It was a memorable and wonderful evening. We have so many amazing friends in Albany and it was really hard to leave them. Luckily we are not too far away.