December Daily: 18-23

December 18: Troy's Birthday--I don't know why I have no pictures from our little celebration for him. We had meatloaf and baked potatoes at his request and he opened his presents.  His favorite was a pair of dinosaur socks from Luke.

 December 19: Doby wasn't feeling well.  LJ was very concerned about him and promptly went upstairs to get some of his stuffed animals to help Doby feel better.

 December 20: Celebrating Hannah's birthday with Grandma and Grandpa--she got a pair of red cowboy boots and the outfit you see her in to go with them.  She LOVES them!

 December 21: The aftermath of our ice storm

December 22: Hannah's birthday (longer solo post on this to come)

December 23: Going to see the CHK lights again

December Daily: 14-17

 December 14: Saturday at Devon--froze on outside train ride, saw some reindeer and choose not to wait over 2 hours to see Santa

 December 14: Johnson Birthday Fest--celebrated Georgia, Troy and Hannah's birthdays

 December 15: Johnson Christmas

 December 15: Make and decorate sugar cookies with Grandma

 December 16: Flying Doby

December 17: Our neighborhood had horse-drawn carriage rides to see the lights.  Santa was also there.  Hannah was quite hesitant about the man in the red suit.

December Daily: 7-13

 December 7: Elf Hannah

 December 8: Too cute

 December 9: Cheesy Snowman

 December 10: Advent calendar

 December 12: CHK Lights

December 13: Playing with Grandma

December Daily: 1-6

There are numerous different things I could blog about right now: moving, getting settled, unpacking, Thanksgiving, working through some things with the kids but I'm going to save those for later.  

Can you believe that Christmas is less than 3 weeks away????  Yikes, so much to do and accomplish before then.  That also means that Hannah is almost 2!!!  WHOA!  But both of those mean it's December and that means December Daily (a project from my favorite scrapbooker Ali Edwards).  I knew it would be hard to complete this project this year but again I'm going to attempt it here on my blog.

Sunday, December 1:  We went to get our Christmas tree.  Our house was/is still full of boxes and stuff needing a new home but we wanted to at least get our tree so we could feel some of the Christmas spirit more.  

They are just the sweetest!

Monday, December 2:  After Hannah woke up from her nap we decided to check out one of our neighborhood parks for the first time.  It was a relatively warm day and we really enjoyed the fresh air.

Still their favorite activity

Tuesday, December 3:  Our elf, Doby, arrived on the first.  Luke really loves waking up and finding him each morning to see what sort of mischief he has created overnight.  He dyed our milk and was sitting in the fridge with his arms crossed because he was good last night.

No judging the sugary marshmallow cereal please

Wednesday, December 4:  We were finally organized enough to decorate our tree.  We waited until Hannah was in bed and Luke, Troy and I had such a good time together.  Luke was really excited about helping this year which made it more fun for us adults.  Luke used a step stool so he could reach up higher and he made a point of asking if his placement was good for almost every ornament.  He and Troy always put the angel on together when we're all finished (makes me nervous each time too).

Carefully, carefully, carefully

Thursday, December 5:  It was a very normal day around here with the exception of the winter storm that came in during the afternoon.  It hit a few hours before I had to get the kids from school and I was glad I got them when I did.  In the short time in took me to go inside and get them both the roads deteriorated rapidly.  I was very happy to be home with them.  Troy was able to leave work early at 3:35 but he didn't get home until 5.  It was a long drive home.  After dinner we all snuggled on the couch and watched "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer."

Still early on in the storm

December 6:  Snow day!!!  Troy's office was closed so we got to stay home and be warm.  We waited to go play in the snow until after lunch.  It was still very cold (wind chill about 8).  We knew we wouldn't be staying out long because of the temperature.  I think it is a requirement that it take longer to get ready to go outside than the time you spend outside.  We had a blast!  Luke and Hannah were running and jumping and kicking the snow everywhere.  There is a small hill on one side of our yard that worked perfectly for a short sled ride.  

2 Houses, 1 Home

So we officially own two houses now.  We signed the papers on our new house this morning.  Gotta love signing your name a gazillion times.  

Troy and I went out to lunch to celebrate.  He didn't have time to go with me to the house after lunch so I went over by myself to check it out again.  It was definitely a different feeling walking in knowing it was ours now.  A quick side note: The alarm was set--I didn't know that.  It went off for what felt like forever (maybe 5 minutes).  Our realtor was pretty quick at getting me the code thankfully!  I found it interesting that the police never came though.  

It was really nice and made me just that much more excited to walk through all by myself and imagine our stuff there.  I really tried to plan out where I'm going to put everything in the kitchen.  It has more storage space (I think) than our current one which will be awesome.

I have to say that this move is totally different than any of our previous moves.  First off, it was completely voluntary.  Second, we are doing all the packing (YUCK!) and the stress has been higher for that reason I think.  Third, we've never moved within the same city (unless you count from an apartment to a house in Houston which I don't really).  And I can't really put into words why but this one is just different emotionally.  I don't know why but it just is for me.  

I had a meltdown on Tuesday night.  Troy and I were talking about moving next Thursday and I said that we should probably have one more really nice dinner here at this house before we move.  He agreed and we decided that Sunday night we would do a nice meal for the 4 of us.  I just started crying.  I'm so ready for this process to be over but at the same time moving out of this house is going to be hard.  There are so many big memories here!  Not that there aren't in any house but I don't handle big change too well and memories/sentimental stuff is really important to me.  It will be tough to say goodbye on Thursday.

Troy made a very good point that a house is just a house it's the people in the house that make it a home.  I've heard this before and agree.  However, moving from one home to another is a big transition.  We are excited about our move; I'll be more excited and feel better once we are there and make some memories to make it feel like a home.  Troy and Luke have already decided that our first meal there should be French Toast.  So Friday morning before the craziness of unpacking begins we are going to have our first meal in our new house and create a memory to make it our home.

Park Time

Last Monday was a beautiful day.  Hannah didn't take a great nap so when she woke up early I decided to take advantage and go to the neighborhood park.  I haven't been very good about taking pictures lately so I grabbed the camera along with snack so we could play for a long while.  The kids had so much fun.  Luke was finally able to make it all the way across the monkey bars on his own.  He was very proud of himself.