All Things Arizona Update!

We have finally made it! About a week ago Mason and I flew into Vegas and made our way to our new home in Lake Havasu City, Arizona. Mason did SO WELL on his first plane ride!

He was so smiley in the airport and caught all of the passenger's attention. He only slept for about the first 30 minutes (including during take off) and the rest of the flight (3 more hours) he was awake and happy! We read some stories, got him his first pair of "wings", played with Mickey Mouse, and watched some cartoons.

The flight attendants even went as far as to say that he was one of the best babies they've seen in a while! We definitely got a few looks of fear from fellow flyers when they see a little baby on their plane ride. Which is understandable, because I wouldn't want to sit next to a crying baby during my entire 3.5 hour flight either.

So, in order to avoid that situation I made these candy bags to hand out to our flying neighbors just in case... They say: "Hello! My name is Mason. I am 6 months old and this is my first time on a plane. I'm moving to Arizona with my mommy and daddy! I may cry, but I'll try not to. If I can't win you over with my smile, maybe this candy will help!" These are super cute and not to mention fun to make! Definitely a life saver and make you feel that much better about being "that mom" who brings her practically newborn baby on a plane.

He looked out the window a few times but it was mostly too bright for his little eyes to handle. He did a lot of eating, too. Some mommy advice: when flying with a baby give them a bottle or pacifier to suck on to help with the pressure during take-off and landing. Mason doesn't take a pacifier (which I'm no wheres near mad about) so he had a bottle instead and it seemed to work great! No fussing here! 

After landing on the 22nd, the next day Garrett and my dad arrived with the Uhaul truck (driving 36 hours straight with no naps, my hero's!), and we were finally able to settle into our new place.

Unpacking wasn't the most pleasant thing of my life, but it wasn't the worst either. Unpacking is exciting in its own way because you can arrange everything the way you want to all over again! It's like a new start all on its own. One of my favorite memories so far in Arizona is our first night that we spent in our new house together. We spent it with Mason (of course) but when he went to bed we popped in a movie and drank a bottle of wine while we were surrounded by boxes.

It's so nice to have little 'date nights' every once in a while because they become very few and far between when you bring a baby into the mix. Now, because we took this first week off of everything and just spent it on unpacking and family time- obviously we had to make a few trips over to my dad's pool!

Mason learned how to splash! 

And he kicks his little legs in the cutest way because he always has so many places to be

All in all, he just loves the water more than any baby I've ever seen. He would stay in there all day if we let him. I swear he really is the perfect baby. Although, we spent a lot of time outside and in the pool, we also spent a lot of time doing the whole 'decorating and unpacking' thing. When Garrett and I moved into our apartment in Grand Rapids, we were able to unpack everything withing a 24 hour time span. But that was before we had a baby, and not to mention I was pregnant during that time and was also going through the whole nesting phase (which I'm sure helped tremendously). You never really realize how much more difficult everything becomes when you have a baby, until you have a baby. Yes, unpacking did take us about a week instead of a day, but I wouldn't trade it for the world. Now for the fun stuff, enjoy these few pictures of OUR perfect, little HOUSE!:

Master Bedroom

A little home decorating!

Dining Room

Kitchen

Kitchen

One of the two bathrooms

Living Room

Mason's nursery (he has the coolest room in the whole house)

Mason's nursery continued... Our little reading corner!

Mason's fun corner! I really love his nautical theme. 

...just a little bit more home decorating to top it all off

Our breezeway

Our perfect, single family, 3 bed, 2 bath house! :)

Our beautiful view! These sunsets will never get old. 

Now that we are all unpacked (for the most part), we can enjoy Labor Day weekend as a family and start looking for jobs early next week! We knew coming to Arizona was a chance, and a risk, and yes it was going to be hard at first, and stressful, and exciting, but we knew we had to do it. Because what if we didn't? We'd regret it for the rest of our lives. So as a family we have made this decision, and as a family we have grown so strong throughout this whole experience, and it's only just begun! Of course we miss all of our friends and family from Michigan, but just think of it this way: now you guys always have a place to come vacation since it's paradise here all year round! ;) We can't wait to have company! Also, we are getting married in 358 days! Life never slows down, but as long as I have my little family, I'll always be okay. Stay tuned for many more adventures that I'm sure we will share! If any of my readers/ followers are from Arizona, (or if you just want to get a hold of me) you can contact me at dressestomesses@gmail.com! Thanks for reading!