Christmas Festivities at Grandma's House

In the small town where my parents live, the Kansas City Railroad brought a Christmas train for people to tour and meet Santa Claus. Mrs. Claus was with him, and she was really cute.

Decorating Grandma's tree, which she has not done for five years because Grandma and Grandpa are always in Washington for Christmas.

'Tis the Beginning of the Magic of the Season

Our First Texas Thanksgiving

John has a brother and a sister who both live in the Dallas area with their families, so we spent Thanksgiving Day with them and their kids. We had a nice dinner together and let the kids just play. Since the weather was nice, they played outside a lot, and our kids loved the dogs. We had a very nice, relaxed Thanksgiving, and the kids got cousin time with cousins they have not previously known very well. And Uncle Michael shared his tractor collection with Seth. In the outside pictures you can see a new fence around the yard. A tornado blew down the old fence. It just went around the yard and ripped the whole thing out!

San Antonio

Our ward had a planned temple trip to San Antonio on Saturday. Since it is about 1 1/2 hours down to the temple, they had made arrangements for some couples to attend an early session, and then watch kids at a chapel nearby while people with kids did a session. It was a great arrangement! We took pictures with the kids and then went and met my cousin, Kimberly, and her family for dinner and some time downtown. We visited the Alamo, walked downtown along the Riverwalk, ate at the Rainforest Cafe, and then John had food poisoning the next two days! I doubt we'll eat there again!

Happy Halloween!

Halloween in Texas is a little different. For example, notice the short sleeves on the girls. This is the first year we didn't have to wear coats over our costumes.

Seth was a magician, and he has a rabbit that actually comes out of a secret pocket in his hat. He was awesome! The girls were black cats.

In Austin, the whole town is overcome with "Longhorn Fever" in the fall. The University of Texas is here, and football is a lifestyle, not a sport.

Making friends with a ghost in the trees. No rain, no coats.

Waiting for their treats.

Good Friends

Moving has been good for our family. Since leaving everything behind, we have been forced to spend LOTS of time together. Our kids really enjoy each other and they play together like this almost all the time. We have a few sibling squabbles, but mostly, we have really GREAT kids! This experience is bonding them as friends, and that is priceless.

Still Swimming!

It's October 23rd, and we just got back from the pool. I think we might really like Texas!

We're Building a House!

This is Seth, standing in the back corner of our new lot. All of those live oak trees will stay when they build. Hannah wanted a house with "climbing trees" and she's going to get quite a few! While trees in the yard are not exactly rare in Texas, it is VERY desirable. When we were looking at homes, all the listings with old trees ALWAYS state them as a selling point.

Our Little Apartment

John and I have never lived in an apartment together, since we bought our first house the week before our wedding. This has been a new experience. With most of our stuff in storage and very difficult to retrieve, our life is much simpler. It's easier to clean, easier to find things, and we live with much less stuff than we thought we could. We do say, "That's in storage, we'll get it back in a few months." But really, you can live quite comfortably with less stuff. REALLY!

Our apartment is pretty nice--it's new and has about 1400 square feet. The kitchen is small, but the bathrooms, closets and laundry room are quite large. We have 3 bedrooms, which are also good-sized, and my parents even stayed here comfortably with us for a couple of days. Seth moved into our closet on an air mattress. Our closet is bigger than the one we had in Washington! We even have a little computer desk that is functioning as our "office". Because the kitchen is small, I had to improvise a pantry, using shelves from our house and the hall closet to store food. The real drawback to apartment living is that the kids don't have a yard to play in and I can't just let them outside by themselves. The pool makes up for some of that. But all in all, we are enjoying the simplicity of apartment living. I think it's easier knowing that we'll eventually have a home again.

Our front door and little dining room. I want a new dining set, but we didn't want to buy one just to move it, so we are using folding chairs until we get into our home.

Our living room--somehow it looks the same when you put all the same furniture into it!

Our TINY kitchen and little office area to the left.

Decorating for Halloween

The kids are so excited about Halloween this year! While it is NOT my favorite holiday, we decided to decorate a little to make the apartment more fun for them. I hung the spider webs, but they did the rest. Seth likes to wander around at 4:30 in the morning, for some reason, and now he always plugs in the pumpkin lights. Maybe he can't sleep because he's so excited.

My Roommate Kristen

I met Kristen at BYU my freshman year in Deseret Towers, and shared an apartment with her for 2 years. She was the girl with parents close enough that we could visit for the weekend occasionally. They always welcomed a large group of students with open arms, open house, open refrigerator! We had our moments, but I loved her dearly. She finally married last year, and they welcomed their first baby in May. My friend died unexpectedly this week. She touched my life for good, encouraged me to serve a mission, and was a really good girl. I am sad tonight, and I will miss her. My thoughts and prayers are with her family.

Her obituary can be found here:

http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/deseretnews/obituary.aspx?n=kristen-reynolds&pid=134542520

Rain

It's been raining on and off all day in Austin, with more rain predicted for most of the next five days. Those of you in Washington would think that's not a big deal. But here, where they are in drought conditions, with the big lakes at 39% full with no waterskiing and no lawn-watering, this is a big deal. May I just add that the stake presidents here asked all the Saints to fast on Sunday for rain. The people here must be really faithful, because they are being blessed. What a great experience to witness a miracle that we can share with our kids.

Grandpa Time!

On Saturday, my parents offered to stay with the kids in the morning so we could go down to the temple in San Antonio. It's a small temple, so you have to call ahead to get into a session. Built all on one floor and full of stained glass, it was truly beautiful. When we got home, my parents were making cookies with the kids. It was a good morning for all of us!

Packing Up and Saying Goodbye

We were literally surrounded by boxes for three days. The packers that came were amazingly efficient and professional, and they stress a whole lot less about what goes in each box. They just fit in stuff from each room without any emotional debate about whether it should go there or be thrown out. We told them what went to storage and what was for the apartment, and they went to town! Unpacking was actually simple, too, because they'd done such a good job. And 2/3 of it went to storage....




This is the time you ask yourself, over and over, how much STUFF does one family need? John kept saying, "Throw it out, unless you're going to make me buy it again."


When this rig pulled up, I couldn't believe it was all for us! Well, it wasn't, we filled about 2/3 of it. Our ENTIRE house fit in 2/3 of this truck. How crazy is that?
Then another company came to pick up our car. It went on a car carrier. They delivered it one week after we got to Texas. I was so glad to see it! A car truly represents freedom, even if it looks crappy, like mine does.

After all the stuff had been packed, I had cleaned the house (with Beth's help, of course) and the new owners had come by, John picked up the kids to go to the hotel while I went out one last time with my fabulous girlfriends. Luckily, they weren't all mopey and stuff! I love each of you, and am so grateful to have had you influence my life for good. I will miss you terribly.

The next morning before we pulled out for good, we went home and picked up the last of our stuff. We found three little cameras on the porch and assumed they were for the kids for our trip. I don't know who left them, but THANK YOU! They had a great time deciding what to shoot, and it kept them busy for a while. Then we drove around the neighborhood to say goodbye one last time. SO SAD!