How It's Going . . . .

Since I am no longer on Facebook, and I rarely post anything on Insta, I thought a blog post would be appropriate, and quite frankly, long overdue.  Lots has happened with our family over the last year and half.  Most of it you probably already know, but I thought I would do a Phillips family update, mostly for my sake.  You all know how terrible I am about journaling, but I really do have good intentions and this is my little way of keeping on top of that.

I finally decided that I would write out Grayson's birth story, which you can find HERE.  As I'm sure some other mothers out there can relate, I just didn't have much of a desire to share it right away because I think I was a bit traumatized from his delivery.

Speaking of Grayson, he turned one on March 10th of this year.  I have yet to write about that, but I have plans to!  He is still a very needy baby who constantly wants to be held.  Over a year later and I still have chronic pain in my wrist, which I've come to the conclusion may never fully heal.  

He FINALLY started walking at 14 months.  My oldest baby yet to do that.  He's borderline obsessed with balls and cries for one EVERY SINGLE TIME we pass one in the stores until I finally cave and let him play with one only to then have to apologize to every single person he accidentally throws it at.

Evan is still in the terrible twos (my babies terrible twos phase lasts from 18 months - 4 years).  So we're doing our best to hold strong and pray he starts to even out around November.

Charlotte turned 7 and graduated 1st grade.  She made some wonderful friends at her homeschool co op and enjoyed most of her studies.  I also have plans to write about her birthday and the party she had with friends.

Our next family update is something that I never would have thought we would do.  We have made the very difficult decision to take a GINORMOUS leap of faith and move our family across the country to eastern Tennessee.  This decision came after what felt like a domino effect of various things happening in our lives.  I fought the promptings for as long as I could until I could no longer deny the obvious answer. Every door was closing in our faces in Colorado, while literally every door was opening in Tennessee.  It was almost like there was a huge neon sign pointing us there.

While I had received my answer, I was nonetheless heartbroken to leave behind the life we had built in Colorado, along with some dear friends.  And hearing the news of a temple coming to Grand Junction felt like salt being poured into an open wound.  We had just made our decision to move one week prior to hearing that news.  But, when the Lord calls, we obey.  Maybe our next mission is to get a temple in Knoxville? Our new assigned temple is Nashville - over 200 miles away :(

{I just started getting to know this family right before we moved - Ashlee took our family photos and our girls both attended the co op.  Such a wonderful family.}

{I am missing this family so much!}

Many people may think that we are "fleeing" Colorado, or are "political refugees" (a term our realtor used to describe the amount of people moving to TN), but I wouldn't necessarily call ourselves that.  While we are disappointed with the failed policies coming out of Denver, we had looked into Tennessee as an option back in 2018 when Luke first graduated from PT school.  So it had been in the back of our minds for a few years now, and I do have a sister in Chattanooga.  She did a pretty stellar job advertising it.  

We moved here the first week of June and have been overwhelmed with the beauty surrounding us.  We live in a small town called Maryville just south of Knoxville and nestled at the foot of the Smoky Mountains.  My children have never seen so many trees in their life and always comment on the "cute forests" when we are out and about IN TOWN.  Haha.  We have plans to hike in the Smokeys this weekend so I am excited to show them what a real forest looks like!

We have also bought our first home!  It is currently being built and we are very much looking forward to seeing it all finished.

I still cannot believe that we live here.  There are days that are hard for me and I sob uncontrollably missing our friends in Grand Junction, but overall I am looking forward to the new adventures that await us.  We have moved maaany times in our 9 years of marriage, but the gypsy in me kind of likes that.  And while I am missing the West hard right now, I love exploring other parts of the country I have never been to.  

If any of ya'll (that caught on quick) are out this way, we would love a visit!  In the meantime, I will truly try to do better about posting more.

Much love,

Robyn