We bundled up Monday night and went to the Christmas parade.


I made J this jacket over the weekend. It is out of fleece and was so easy to put together.


When JD saw that they were throwing candy, he was LOVING the parade.

Waving at Santa, actually wondering why he didn't throw candy!

Its not a parade till the monster truck rolls through town.

I finished up J and her doll's matching snowman outfits. I am not loving the bow on J's so I will probably do some work on it tomorrow.

I love this picture. I can't tell you how many nights I went to sleep just like this as a little girl. I thought everyone my age went to sleep in sponge rollers!!

I figured since I made J a jacket that her doll needed a matching one. Yes I have a obsession now! But she did not complain a bit when I woke her up to try it on!!

Whew!

We thought Wednesday was going to last forever, but they finally arrived! We were ready with our "Welcome to Texas" signs.

They are here , they are here!!

We had a great Thanksgiving meal. This was the most I have ever been involved in hosting a Turkey Day but not to worry I left the important things, like the turkey, up to the expert!

J even got in on the action.

Our day was full of talking around the table and listening to the kiddos soak up every minute of each other.

Movies and popcorn!

On Friday we did a little early celebrating for this girls 5th birthday!

Thanks Aunt Sus and crew and Uncle Hal! I am sure the neighbors will love to see her riding her bike in this!!

and for Nate's happys too, JD was asleep but loved his too:)

Her gift from Nanny and Pa, she was thrilled.

She got a salon set from Nana to go with her doll. We had the chair so now she is all set.

She is a whole hand!

Whats a family photo without someone picking their nose...

Auntie's gift was yards of this fabric, so we got busy and made the girls and their dolls matching pjs. There was enough left for me to make matching pants for J and her girl also. We love the polka dots:)

Donuts for birthday morning, complete with silly straws from nana.

Our sweet neighbors from TN moved the same time that we did. They live in Shreveport now. We brought some of their boxes with us to help them out so they came Sat to get them. They brought Miss J a huge cupcake for her birthday.

We have had enough cake for 6 birthdays!! JD loves blowing out the candles and lucky for him sis didn't mind.

The night before Nanny and Pa left, she had the kiddos circle toys that they would like to get for Christmas. This was a very serious task:)

We finished up the weekend by getting our Christmas up. Hubs lit a fire last night ( after I kindly asked him to move the stockings). It was a great way to end a great weekend.

So Thankful

I have been getting this room ready for all the coffee talk I am anticipating with our Thanksgiving guests! The weather has been very warm here and we love having this room to enjoy it.


Last year I bought these little Christmas trees at Hobby Lobby for about 3 dollars apiece. The kiddos wanted to go ahead and decorate them. We haven't brought out all the Christmas decor, I am not looking forward to seeing more boxes!












Oh yes they did! This was Sunday after church. Don't worry they did not stay long but they just couldn't stand it any longer:)

We made thankful trees the other day (daddy called them thankful volcanoes because my leaves did not turn out!) and here is what my trio is thankful for.
Nate: Daddy, Marcus, Games, Nanny & Pa, Jon David and David
Jenna: Halle, Jesus, Emma, family, daddy, friends
Jon David: choo choos, Percy, Nate, Mommy, Jenna
I am sure if you asked them today it would be a different list!

We are so thankful to be under the same roof again. Although this move has been hard leaving dear friends and family, we are so thankful for our little family and for the plan that we know the Lord has for us.

"being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus" Phil 1:6 ... and for this we are truly thankful.

This and That

We had a pretty quiet weekend. Daddy got the trampoline up just in time for all the rain. Sunday we went to church, then sunday afternoon I finally got in a long run. Brian and I are both running the St. Jude half but this is worst that either of us have done as far as training goes. Monday night I went to a GNO with the ladies of the SS class we are visiting. Gotta start somewhere right?! We are over the moon excited about our Thanksgiving guests. I still have a little work to do to get everything ready, but we are counting down the days!
Here are few shots from the past week..

There has been alot of this since the band is back together!


JD wanted to take a picture. You can see 2 boxes in the background. Those are books that I want Hubs to go through to see if we "really" need to keep them but other than that the living room is box free!


This boy is my hero. He is doing great in school. He has made friends and knows more people than any of the rest of us!!

Settling in

We have had a very productive week. Last Sat we drove to Shreveport and bought a new couch (that has a bed for our visitors!) and new bunk beds for the boys. They are being delivered tomorrow and I am excited to be able to get the living room in order. Since we will no longer be using the twin beds that we had the boys in, we are using one of them in the guest/sewing room. We got up Sunday morning and went to church. Brian has been visiting a church while he has been down here so we loaded up and went there. We have settled into our school routine. We don't have to leave the house until about 7:40, so our mornings are little less rushed. On Tues we ventured out to story time at the library. There were lots of little kids there but Jenna didn't seem to mind. The countdown is on for Miss J's birthday so hubs and I decided to go ahead and give her our present. We let her pick out a new bike. She was riding Nate's and he was riding hers, not good for meeting other boys to play with in the neighborhood! So now everyone has their own wheels.


It has a place so Barbie can ride along!





Here is a pic of our house. It is all one level, those windows are just for looks:)

Second "first" day of kindergarten!

I am sure she was imparting great first day wisdom.



Walking in, Daddy meet us there

the kindergarten hallway

Nate and his new teacher!

We are so excited for Nate. The school seems very laid back and everyone has been so friendly. Can't wait to hear all about his day this afternoon. He asked if we were going to get milkshakes because that is what we did his first day in Medina. I told him that was a great idea:)

We are here!!

We are officially Texans! After 3 days of watching movers pack up our house and visiting with sweet friends and family (and crying many tears), we left Medina at 10 pm last Thursday. We drove until around 2 in the morning, stopped and slept, then arrived in town about 2:30 on Friday. The kids were fantastic! Our truck came Sat morning and we unpacked and unpacked and unpacked. We are getting settled in and the boxes are getting fewer and fewer. I was homesick on Halloween but these three cuties made it much better!








This was Nate's last day at his school. We brought his class doughnuts. We went today and met his new teacher and toured his school. It is much smaller but we like smaller:) Tomorrow is his first day and I truly believe you should not have to send your baby to kindergarten twice! Hopefully I will do better than I did the first time...we'll see