Merry Christmas 2009!

We just celebrated another wonderful Christmas!

A few days before Christmas we went to Bloomfield to exchange gifts with Jason's family. I have to start this by saying that it was a hectic night because Jason called me 1hr before we should be in Bloomfield to tell me the ambulance was on it's way to his work to pick him up and take him to the ER because he had dislocated his knee. After some scrambling around, my mother-in-law picked up the boys to take them to the family get together, and Rebecca and I headed to the hospital to pick Jason up. (He is fine now, just sore). We made it out to Bloomfield just in time to grab a quick bite to eat, open gifts, and head home.

On Christmas Eve we drove to Durango, CO to have dinner and exchange gifts with my step-dad's family. It was a great night (well except for the fact that my brother and sister both came down with the stomach flu that day so they weren't feeling very well that evening). The kids had a blast! ....

Snowflakes are falling on my tongue!

When we returned home the other night it was snowing out and I caught Jason, Ryan, and Dylan catching snowflakes on their tongues. Couldn't resist taking a picture!!

25 Days of Christmas!

Well with a little extra planning we managed to do one festive activity with the kids throughout the month of December. Some activities celebrated the Christmas holiday and others just helped celebrate winter. I defiantly want to continue doing this with our kids as a family tradition. It really was a great way to get in the mood for the season, especially considering how hectic everything has been trying to get the details of the upcoming move worked out. Anyhow here are a few more pictures of activities we did during the month.

Here the boys are playing in the snow!

We had several holiday parties to attend...this picture was taken at Ryan's class party.

Ofcourse we had to drive around and look at Christmas lights!

We are moving!

Well it's official we will be moving to Odessa, Texas. After a little fighting with Jason's work we were finally able to get our transfer approved last Friday. It looks like Jason will go to Odessa to begin working the first part of January. The kids and I will stay behind to pack and to try to sell our house. We are hopeful that our house will sell by or before the middle of February but if it doesn't then we will look for good renters instead. In either case Jason will come back the last week of February to help me and the kids move to Odessa.

We aren't sure that we will get a chance to all go down there before we move but we have until the end of March to find a house because the company will be paying for us to stay in a hotel until then. I'm not thrilled about living in a hotel with three kids...I'm just staying hopeful that we will find a house quickly that we can move into once we are there.

I think we are all excited, nervous, anxious, and most of all relieved this all went through. I am really looking forward to purging stuff before we leave since it seems you begin to collect junk you don't need when you've been in the same house for 4 years. Not sure that I am looking forward to all the cleaning and boxing up of everything that is going to take place over the next month! I'm also happy that we are not moving that far away from family. My sister, Liana and her husband, are stationed in White Sands, NM which is only about a 5 hour drive from Odessa. Plus we have family in San Antonio and friends all around that area.

We are all looking forward to this next chapter in our lives. I know that it all worked out the way it should have and I'm grateful for the changes that are about to take place with Jason's job. This transfer means that Jason will be able to advance into bigger and better things within his company which is all we have ever wanted for him.

So for all that live here in/around Farmington we will miss you terribly!!!! We never thought we would be moving so this is a big step for us. I hope we get lots of visitors in Odessa!! I'll keep everyone posted through this blog over the next couple months! Wish us luck with this move...we will need it!!

Advent Calendar: Ice Hangings

Today's activity with the kids is one that I saw in Family Fun magazine. We took out all of our Christmas cookie cutters and placed them in a cake pan, strung a string through each cookie cutter, added some cold water and placed the pan in the freezer for a couple of hours. Once they were frozen we ran the pan under a little hot water to break the ice free from the cookie cutters. Then I got a long stick, tied the ice hangings along the stick, and hung the stick on our back porch.

We put the stick in a place where the boys can see their ice hangings from our back door each day! This was a fun, simple activity that I plan to do again and again!!

(A FEW THINGS WE LEARNED: The simple cookie cutters were easiest to get the ice out of without cracking them...we accidental broke Rudolph's antlers off and his head was hanging separately from his body...oops. And it would have been neat to have a little color so I would add a few drops of food coloring next time.)