Ethan and one of his best friends

This is Kade one of Ethan's best friends and our great neighbor. Ethan is going to miss his great friends that he has made recently. Ethan has had a great social life since our move to this house.

The special times

Ethan and I were having some "mommy time", we were going through a package that we received today in the mail. (we receive "freebies", promotional items that my awesome friend Leigh signs us up for). Well, one of the things was a tube of night time cream for my face. He wanted to know what it was so I read him the directions on the outside which read, "for younger looking skin". I looked at him and said, do I need this cream? He laughed his sweet little laugh and said, "I don't know". That was the perfect answer! He knows what to say to girls already....

Carolina here we come!!!!!

During our recent trip to South Carolina to visit our family and friends I realized how much our family was missing out on sharing such a precious time in our lives together. One week before our trip was planned, I received a call from one of the physicians that I worked with in the past. He was excited to tell me that he had a position for me in his office. After a few weeks of working out the details and coming to an agreement we have made our decision to head back to our roots. The boys are very excited, not to mention our family and friends in South Carolina. It is so bitter sweet, because we finally after 3 years feel content here and have a great church family and some wonderful friends. Our trip home just solidified how home sick the boys and I really are. Please pray for our family as we begin this journey of packing and moving.

Soccer

Ashton has really enjoyed playing soccer. He has been with the same team for 3 seasons now. They will be playing indoor for the summer.

Ethan without training wheels

Ethan and one of his new friends Kade love playing together. One day Kade, who is Ethan's same age was riding his bike without training wheels. I had to bribe Ethan to try it on Kade's bike, which was a little smaller. The first time, and off he went. It was so natural for him. So, off came the training wheels on Ethan's bike. He was so proud of himself. He is very cautious, unlike others in our home. We take great joy in knowing the the Lord would give us children with totally different personalities!

Soccer

Yes, We are still alive

What a long 3 months it has been for our family. I always come back to Jeremiah 29:11 which has been my personal verse for about 9 years now. For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, Plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Ashton has spend 3 weeks inpatient and 2 weeks outpatient at Cooks Childrens for his depression. Praise the Lord for great physicians because Ashton is very stable right now. Ashton had to change schools becasue of our move. He misses his classmates from his old school but has a great teacher and has made new friends already. Ashton is playing soccer again with the same team. He really enjoys soccer and usually play goaly the seconde half of the game. Anna Grace is doing well, she has had 1 ear infection a month for the past 3 months. She is not a happy camper when her ears hurt. Ethan just holds on for the ride. He has been testing the waters and boundries lately. He has a halo held up with horns. Ethan is also playing soccer and scored 6 goals last week. He is really starting to catch on to the rules and has finally gotten aggressive with the ball. We have hired a nanny that comes 2 days a week. The children love her, she is doing a great job. Mark is still loving his job, he was recently moved to manage the warehouse and receiving. I am working 2 days a week at work and working as much as I can from home. I am so blessed to have the capability to do this. I have wonderful managers at work. I decided that we have been in Texas for 3 years and have never taken the Texas tradition "bluebonnet" pictures. Well,,,, we took bluebonnet pictures last week. It was the first and may be the last. I think that my children though it was torcher.

Relaxing at the Park

It was a beautiful day to spend at the park. Sat. was in the 70's and absolutley beautiful. Two days before it was in the 30's for a high. We met a friend of my and her children at the park. Ashton took his rollerblades and had a great time. Ethan; well, he played in the sandbox the entire time we were there.

Anna Grace's play date

Anna Grace had her first play date over the Christmas break. Ava is the granddaughter of one of my employees, Jihan. Ava is from Austin and was here visiting her grandma. Jihan had us over for a wonderful lunch. Ashton and Ethan had a great time playing with Jihan's son.

Christmas Morning....

It was wonderful to spend Christmas in our new home. Christmas eve we went to look at lights. Our church did not have a Christmas Eve service. We did miss going to church. Next year we are going to find a church that has a Christmas Eve service. That is one our our family traditions. We traveled to Carrollton in the evening to spend it with my cousin, Sandy. My aunt Nole was there from PA. We all enjoyed spending time together.

Christmas Eve in our new home!

Mark and I can both say that we are so increadibly blessed this Christmas season. It has been a very hectic month with Mark working 6, 10 hour days a week. Moving during Christmas and the busiest shopping time for retail was very interesting. I was very fortunate to be able to take an entire week off so that we could get unpacked and organized. We love our new home and have met several of our new neighbors. We have all been very healthy and we are excited about what God is going to do in our lives this coming year.

Leigh Leigh strikes again!

What is a friend? When I think of Leigh these are some things that come to mind: 1. The fun and crazy times we had together in high school 2. Leaving math class because we were talking about the prom and the teacher asked us to take it to the hall if we weren't going to pay attention. 3. Toilet papering her new car. 4. Having parties and at one point the port a potty getting over turned down the street from my new house. 5. Riding around on a Friday nights in my VW bug. 6. Leigh throwing her shoe out the window because my coke spilled on it. 7. Getting pulled over in my VW because my back light was out. 8. Going to the races at Summerville Speedway. 9. Leigh being there for me when I had the call about my mother passing away. When I look back and remember all of the fun and crazy times that we have had in the past, it makes me wonder what we will be like when we are gray and sitting in the mall people watching????

Anna Grace crawling and sitting up

The army crawl is the greatest, she does get up on her knees and rock. It is so sweet to watch her get so excited about being able to move about.

Christmas parties

We have had the chance to be very social this Christmas season. We had several Christmas parties that we attended. It was very nice to be able to enjoy our friends and co-workers.