Empty Nest Syndrome Already?!

Lyle and I just became empty nesters.... For those of you who don't know, we have been living with Lyle's sister and her family for the last 9 months (ish, give or take a little time). They just moved out of our rental home this last Saturday and boy do we miss the extra company! It is just crazy to me how lonely and big the house we are in feels now.

Just over a year ago, we packed up our little apartment in Rexburg, as I blogged about here....

....and moved to South Dakota to live with Lyle's parents while he did an internship.

(Yay, Sodak.....)

And when that was done, we moved into a rental house with Tyrel, Vandy, and Kemry. 

As Lyle and I sat together trying to dry any tears over the removal of our favorite playmate...

(Not the best picture, you can see better pics on Vandy's Blog, here)

...we realized that it has been over a year since we have lived in a house all by ourselves. This new found aloneness is exciting and frightening at the same time. We moved all of our things upstairs and now occupy the master bedroom, which is lovely because of the connected bathroom and huge closet (Lyle keeps walking into it and saying, "There's just so much room in here."). But, it is extremely empty and lonely feeling now. 

I'm constantly trying to baby proof everything (shutting the door when I leave the bathroom, securing the cabinets so Kemry can't get into them, automatically feeling for a baby gate at the top of the stairs....) and then I realize it doesn't matter. I think I know a little about how my parents felt when we all moved out. It is so sad to look around and realize that Kemry isn't going to come running out of Vandy and Tyrel's room just to give me a hug or to take whatever she thinks I'm eating. 

I miss hearing her yell, "Lyle, Lyle, Lyle...." at the top of the stairs (she says his name really well, and it melts his heart every time). I really miss chasing her around the house and her screaming and giggling while she is  trying to run away. 

While I am sad about all of that, I am very happy for Vandy and Tyrel to move to the next stage of their lives, and I am excited for us to move on as well. We only have 64 days left!

I'm glad that we decided to be crazy (as many people thought) and live with our in-laws for a little while. I'm grateful for the chance it gave us to love our little niece and to watch her grow right before our eyes. We were fortunate to be part of some of her really fun milestones like her first steps, her first words, her first Monkey Dance.......

I don't want to ramble too much. So, thanks Tyrel and Vandy for living with us for a little while and sharing your little bundle of joy with us. We will miss you! Good luck! And you'd better come visit us soon! And we need to skype with you guys soon so we can see the Kembot. :)

And to Bryan, who gets to live with them for a little while now, we need to send you a list of things we were going to teach her to say and do before they left.