Moving, Family, and New School....Life is Busy for the Jackson's!

We hope life finds each and every one of you doing well!

Since we are further away from family and friends than ever before, I have decided to set up this blog in an effort to give updates on how the Jackson 5 are adjusting to our new life in Arizona. So enjoy and I will try to update often!

Edmond house being all packed up and loaded!

Our cars being loaded and transferred to Arizona!

So here begins a new journey...

We are still in the process of getting settled into our new home. It has been a long and tiring process so far. Ha! We have been in the new house for about 2 weeks now...and just trying to get unpacked. The new house is great! There are a few things that need to be updated and painted, but all in all, it was move-in-ready! Let's just say, the previous homeowners liked the color blue in the bedrooms! Haha! The kid's rooms are great...nice and big! The girls have a Jack & Jill bathroom...which I love...and Zane has his own bathroom (YAY!) :) We also have a great guest bedroom! So all is welcome to come and visit anytime! The kids also have a great TV/living room upstairs! :) The downstairs is similar to our old house in Edmond....2 living areas, formal dining, breakfast nook, and laundry room (bigger & better laundry room ha!) Oh and a wonderful office with lots of built-ins!! Chad and I's room is bigger, but I sure do miss having a fireplace! Not that we will need it. Ha! The master bathroom is nice...we each have our own walk-in closet, which is nice...but we want to redo them in the very near future :) The kitchen is okay. We are struggling to find room for all of our things!

Now onto the fun part of the house...the BACKYARD!!! Our house has a "resort style" backyard with LOTS of great features! We have an awesome pool with a water slide/rock feature and waterfall PLUS a hot tub! There are lots of flagstone walking paths, landscape lighting, and palm trees :) We also have an outdoor kitchen, complete with grill, refrigerator, and sink. Our patio has a built-in TV, retractable awnings, and misters for those crazy HOT days! There is a swingset for the kids...which Presley and Shelby love to swing on everyday! I know it's crazy, but the swingset has built-in misters too! The girls have been swimming everyday!! Haha!

We absolutely love it!

The kids in the hot tub for the first time!

The pool at night!

Shelby sitting on one of the rock features...pool light on green now :)

Zane and Presley enjoying a night swim!

Chad cooking out for the first time on his new outdoor kitchen!

The neighborhood community is wonderful! It has 2 parks with catch & release fishing lakes...Zane and Shelby would live there if they could haha...they have really fell in love with fishing! There are 2 community pools: a 25 meter swimming pool with a shallow play pool for kids and resort pool with water features. There is also a splash pad! :) We have lots of lakeside walking/running trails (cant wait to get back into running) with many playgrounds and full basketball & sand volleyball courts. Our neighborhood even has its own YMCA.

Shelby's first fish...it was tiny, but she was excited!

Zane's catch!

PJ's first catch!

The kids all go to the same school, Power Ranch Elementary, it is K-8th grade...which is nice! It has an “A” Rating as a school district as determined by the Arizona Department of Education in their new accountability system. The new system was developed to better reflect academic growth from one grade level to the next on a school-by school basis. As one of only nine PreK-12 school districts across the state to receive an “A” rating and ranked 6th in the state in overall points, this is quite an honor to bestow on the instructional staff across our ten campuses. This rating reflects the hard work and team approach across our entire community to drive student achievement. So that was great to hear...it was one of our first concerns when deciding where we wanted to live...the schools had to be GREAT! The girls are liking school and even Zane is getting used to it, slowly but surely. We are just getting a lot of "I don't want to go to school" moments in the mornings. Haha! I think they had too long of a break between school in OK and here in AZ! Haha! Everyone will do great once they get adjusted and start meeting new friends.

10/23/11~Sunday FUNday....We went to Costco for the first time (its like a Sam's Club) We didn't leave until the basket was full haha!! Then we went to Walmart...there is nothing like restocking your fridge and pantry, when you move!

10/24/11~Tonight we got a nice little surprise at the door...our sweet new neighbors from across the street brought us over some yummy "welcome treats!"

Homemade chocolate chip cookies...as you can see, we couldn't stop eating them hehe & homemade pumpkin bread...yummy!!

Enjoy the few pictures...once we get unpacked, I will post more pictures of the house!!

Love and miss you all!