You may have noticed it's been pretty quiet around these parts for awhile. Occasional movie reviews but nothing consistent. Well there's a good reason for that lack of commitment:

We MOVED!
 
Completely NOT in the plans for the year when we made goals, NOT in even our minds really but here we are hahaha

I've said here before that the house we were in was not our forever house. It was the perfect starter home and we loved it dearly. We started to feel the nudge sometime in the end of March. First week of April we just decided to look around at some houses nearby to see what was even on the market. On a whim we saw this house (I had hated the pictures of it online) and we fell in love with it. And that's when the madness started hahaha

Within a week we had our house up on the market. Guys I've never worked so hard for so long on something (other than growing babies) and we had multiple offers come in which was great. We also knew that we couldn't afford this new house without selling ours first. Basically take the equity and roll it over into our down payment. So we took a cash offer that seemed to give us the most wiggle room in a new budget to work.

After the inspection period, these buyers got difficult. They now wanted pictures of the EMPTY house 3 days before close, lowered their price to "help them with upgrades to the property", and a few other things that I've honestly blocked from memory.

We could have backed out and put it back up and seen what would happen. We could have done that, but Andrew and I both felt prompted to just keep going. We didn't want to lose THIS house. It had been on the market for about 50 days when we saw it, and we were the only offer on it but it was contingent upon the sale of our house. And if we had put ours back up and waited, this house would probably be out of reach because they were waiting for a certain period of time before they  would open this house for more financing options.

And so, we plugged on. The week leading up to Memorial Day was moving week. We had to pack the truck on Wednesday so we could take pictures of the empty house for them to wire the money on Friday so we could simultaneously close on the new one same day.

Guys, THIS WAS SO STRESSFUL!

We had plans to pack the truck and leave room for the mattresses so we could sleep one more night there and then be out by Thursday. Well our water had other ideas and we were kinda forced out Wednesday night. THANK GOODNESS for amazing ward members and neighbors who allowed us to crash at their house and helped us with this move. We lived out of our car for most of Thursday, stayed the night with some friends, and most of the day on Friday while we waited for the green light to move into the new house.

Oh and did I mention this was also Rory's last week of school???? My poor girl didn't get a proper last week of school and quite frankly I felt really bad that her teacher didn't get the same amount of gifts or attention that her kinder teachers did last year. All because of this move hahahaha

But as I sit here in my new office and type this, I am BEYOND grateful.
We know for a fact that the Lord's hand was in this.
We've felt His promptings and love and peace while in the midst of chaos.
We're both so grateful to everyone that helped us in any way with this new adventure.

My saddest part of this move however was leaving my sweet girls. My Young Women have been in my life for the 5 1/2 years we lived in that house. I grew up with them as their teacher and I have loved them as though they were my own (and still do don't you worry girls!).

They surprised me on our last week at church with signed posters, a Sodalicious gift card (it's like they know me), treats and lots of tears and hugs. They're my "babies" and I am sad that I won't be there every week to see them anymore. Lucky for us, we only moved like 5 minutes away so they are still stuck with me as a friend and ally!

So there ya have it! Now you know why it's been kinda silent on here for awhile  and it may continue to be so while I unpack and get everything settled away. So bare with me while I try to work some pixie magic on this house and make it into our true forever home!

I will try to control myself to NOT burst out in "Arabian Nights" as I write this because believe me, 
it's a very strong temptation! Last night I went with my mom to a screening of Aladdin.

I'll be honest. I walked into this with zero expectations because I LOVE the animated version of this movie so much I was skeptical.

Guys I was blown away by how good it was! It was its own movie. They weren't trying to make it completely the same way, they made it their own! I loved it.
 
The MUSIC! Let's talk about this for a minute. The music is INCREDIBLE! Naomi Scott was my biggest surprise of the entire thing, her voice is amazing, her portrayal of Jasmine just made me so happy.
We already knew that Jasmine was "NOT a prize to be won", and Naomi portrays her with such grace and power that I was happily stunned by.

The dancing! They combined Bollywood with hip hop and I DIED! IT WAS SOOOOOOO GOOD! It's amazing to see different cultures meld into one beautiful interpretation of events.
 
On that note, let's mention how AMAZING it is to see actors that are actually FROM the culture being represented!? This casting was done incredibly, including Will Smith. A few naysayers have mentioned that he doesn't fit this or that mold, or belong in the cast because he himself is not of the same culture. Um guys, he plays THE GENIE. The BLUE Genie for crying out loud! He belongs just fine.
 
I fell in love with this movie and 100% recommend it for kids and adults alike ;) It's super fun and very entertaining, and you'll be singing "Friend Like Me" for days!