Christmas with Friends!

My how things have changed!  If you would have told any of us several years ago that our get togethers would now look like this, we might have laughed!  But now two of our closest couple friends that we knew before we had kids, now also have kids of their own!  This year everyone was around on Christmas and didn't have any plans before hand.  So we all had a chance to get together and have a great Christmas meal while the kids played.

Caroline is a little older, but Keegan and Tristan are just about 5 months older than Cooper.  

The Lastovica's were wonderful hosts!

Our full table!  SO blessed!

These two are trouble!

Uncle Spencer sure is fun!

The Birthday Boy!!

So I usually make fun of Josh for making such a big deal about separating birthdays from Christmas.  Well this year I can absolutely say, it is no fun to have a December birthday!  With so much going on around our house, it was really hard for me to focus on doing anything special for Josh turning 33!!  I was pretty busy and had to take everything one day at a time.  We ended up having Doug and Karla and Joanna up here and were able to have a nice family dinner and open presents.  Then once everything was cleaned up, we were able to celebrate Christmas with them!

It was all Caroline's idea to surprise Josh when he walked in the door.  I had gone in my bedroom and in all of the excitement, Caroline pushed Cooper right off of her stool.  So we had a little bit of crying and a little bit of confusion, but all in all, I think he was surprised!  :)

 Poor Coop!

 Josh got some help opening all of his presents!

We had such a great visit!  Thank you guys for coming up here!

HO HO HO!

 My wonderful friend Melissa hosted a Moms Club Christmas party!  She did an amazing job and it was so fun to go back and see everyone.  Unbeknown to us, Santa was even there!!  The kids had a great time sitting on his lap and telling him all about what they wanted for Christmas!

 Cooper wasn't quite sure about Santa and stayed pretty far back.  That was of course, BEFORE he figured out he was giving out stuffed animals!  He got close enough with Dad to give Santa a fist pump.  That was as much as he was doing!

Even Lauren and I got a chance to tell Santa what we wanted for Christmas!

Silly Elves!

Its beginning to look "a little" like Christmas...

Caroline was really into decorating for Christmas this year!  Of course Josh wasted no time and started setting up the tree the first weekend we had in the new house!  If I had my choice, I would have probably skipped all of decorating, but once it was up, I did enjoy things feeling a little more like Christmas.

Everyone got to pick out their own special ornament this year.  Caroline chose a white kitty with a pink collar and feathers, Cooper picked a basketball, Josh got an ornament with 4 frogs on it and my choice was a silver frame with 2012 written on it.  

Every year I say we're going to have a "pretty" tree and every year we go back to the same old ornaments we have.  One day I'll have my tree!  Sigh...

Mary had a Baby Boy!

Although we moved the first weekend of December, we decided to have Caroline finish out the year at her current school.  They had a Christmas performance the last week of school and she sang her little heart out!  The three year old class sang Mary Had a Baby Boy, Jingle Bells, Happy Birthday Jesus and We wish you a Merry Christmas.  She did great!

She still talks every day about all of her friends and keeps talking about wanting to go back and see them.  I know she will be so sad to start another school, but I know she'll jump right in and loves meeting new friends.

saying goodbye!

We spent the entire first weekend of December moving out of our house!  It took a lot of work, but we did it!  I never imagined you could accumulate so much stuff in 5 years!  It was a little sad to leave, but mostly we were ready!  So many memories were made in this house.  We moved in with nothing and are now leaving with a dog, 2 children, a house full of stuff and SO much love in between!  We're ready for the next chapter of our lives!  I'm sad to have left the area where we made so many friends.  Caroline and Cooper have grown up with the same group of kids since they were tiny and its sad that we won't be so close to see them almost every day.  But the good thing is, it isn't that far!

Josh and I spent Saturday night and Sunday cleaning up the house and making sure everything was out.      We thought we would end the way we came by eating Blue Fish Sushi on the floor and watching the last TCU home game!  (notice we left the tv...)  It was simply wonderful!

2007

2012

I think the saddest part of it all would have had to be taking down the decals in the kid's rooms.  Those rooms were all the kids had ever known and they had no idea we were leaving.  

My parents brought the kids over later that day and we were all able to run around a little bit.  The kids had a blast and were not even phased by their empty house!

Caroline's Room

Cooper in his Room

Goodbye Drayton Drive!

SO many good memories!

(Can you believe it is December 2nd and we are wearing shorts???)