Moving Down the Road

We are moving! Scott has accepted a position as pastor at Peace Presbyterian Church in West Pearland, and so we have put our house on the market, got it under contract, found a house in Pearland, got it under contract, I have a job at the DAEP for Pearland ISD, and we are set to move on or around August 3rd.

The kids are handling it very differently, but as I expected: Jake is angry and anxious about moving away from his familiar school and friends and church. He regularly says he's not moving, but then at times seems to be interested in the idea. When we're in Pearland visiting, I can see him trying to find things about it to be excited about, which I appreciate. Luckily, there are plenty of things about Pearland that are enticing to my kids. There are two inflatable jumping places. The neighborhood that we're moving to has a giant park and pool just a couple blocks from our house, plus we have access to other parks, splash parks and pools within the larger neighborhood. The school that they will both go to is an exemplary school, and Ben has already had a tour of the school by the head principal, who I really liked, and who came to Pearland from Conroe ISD. There's lots of restaurants, retail (including Jake's and my favorite, Half Price Books). The Houston Zoo, Children's Museum, and Museum of Natural Science are all about 15 minutes away. Minute Maid Park is about 20 minutes away, and Reliant Stadium is about 15 minutes away. There are endless possibilities of things to do. Scott's mom only lives about 30 minutes away, and Donna is just about an hour away, which is no different than here. My parents will technically be further away, but the route to get to us is faster, and so the distance difference will essentially be erased. It's a good set up. Ben is cautiously excited. He'll miss his preschool and friends, but they were all headed to Kindergarten anyway, so it was the split up year already. We will certainly miss our dear neighbors here. Hopefully we'll quickly make new neighbor friends in Pearland. Scott senses that a master gardener lives next door, so he's hoping to get some lessons! Caroline, of course, doesn't know the difference between this house and another, and I know she's going to like having stairs to climb up and down (yikes!!). My only trepidation with her is that I really want her to like the Mother's Day Out that I have her in - St. Andrew's Episcopal. I hope that it is a place where she looks forward to going to each day, like the Presbyterian Day School has been for the boys. I'm nervous about the demands of my new job, but also excited about the opportunity. We're ready for this new adventure!

Sights from the Season

I want to post some pictures from our Christmas season - no captions, just pictures, most of them have already been viewed on Facebook, but I wanted them here too. We had a WONDERFUL Christmas!

Happy Birthday to Me, early morning style!

So today is my birthday and the third person to wish me a Happy Birthday (first Scott's sister Cay facebook'd me at 12am her time - East Coast - and then Scott kissed me goodnight just after midnight) was Caroline crying in her crib at 12:45 am. And gave me my first birthday present of the day - her first tooth! I totally understand why she was crying - and I'm so lucky - with her, there's always a reason, always! I'll try to get a picture of it, when it's a little more prominent. I'm so relieved we'll be going to her 9 mo. appt. with a tooth.

Ben's Thanksgiving Program

Here's a link to the 5 minute video from Ben's Thanksgiving Program that was today. He was a Pilgrim, and they sang songs like "This Land is Your Land", "God Bless America", "Turkey in the Brown Straw", and "I'm Very Very Thankful". It was sweet. The video is on You Tube - it was too long to upload here.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFUcLb30PaU

If you can't view it, let me know and I'll "invite" you. Here's a couple of pictures from the morning as well. Ben was VERY serious during the entire program, and barely cracked a smile at all......that's not like him at all, and I was stunned that he didn't try to charm the audience. But I think he gets shy in large crowds, and plus he was concentrating very hard on all of the words that he had to remember. It was a cute program. Afterwards, we ate a Thanksgiving feast with him, and it was delicious!

And She's Off!

Caroline has been trying so hard to crawl for the last couple of weeks, and just over the weekend, she started putting all of the steps together, and today I was able to capture her most successful crawling yet. She wanted Mommy's hair clip which was strategically placed out of her reach. And she got it!

Playdate with Anna Vera

On the morning of Halloween, Caroline and I headed down to The Woodlands to visit my friend Anna Klara and her baby girl Anna Vera, who was born two months after Caroline. Anna Klara was the high school math teacher at the Juvenile Justice Discipline program for Conroe ISD (a step above where I teach at the Discipline Alternative Education Program). She and I have enjoyed each other's company at professional development workshops, staff meetings, and were both pregnant during the same school year. We got together with the girls when I was still on maternity leave, and throughout the summer. She stays home with her daughter now, but we'd been trying to get together and let the babies see each other, and Saturday worked out perfectly. Anna Vera was born 6 weeks early, so she technically would have been over 3 mos. younger than Caroline, but she holds her own. These are some pictures from our play time together. It was looking very civilized and sweet, until Miss Dominator took matters into her own hands (or mouth!).

Enjoying the civilized activity of chewing on the same toys

Looking at the mommies making silly sounds to get their attention.

Caroline gives kisses now - with tongue - slimy!

Poor Anna Vera didn't know what she was getting into when she rolled forward.

A Package from Grandma

These were waiting for the boys in a package from Grandma that arrived on our doorstep this afternoon via UPS. They loved all of their little treats (and Caroline loved her ruffled jeans and her new finger puppet book!). Caroline even got in on the glasses action, although she got so excited about them that she wouldn't sit still for the picture. But also, I had to include this video of Ben riding his little bike down the sidewalk - he gets going and I think the adrenaline starts pumping, and he just tunes us out. This video shows a "legal" version of that, whereas earlier this week, he proceeded to go down the driveway, INTO the street, and down the middle of the street, while Scott ran after him, chasing the Big Wheel and Ben while in flipflops. Needless to say, Ben spent some time in his room after that little escapade.

Crazy Halloween glasses from Grandma in the mail

Caroline wanted to try them on for size!