Christmas Part 1

...a weekend of early Christmas celebrations. Now that we live closer I guess our families could finally schedule Christmas celebrations at more convenient times for everyone else. It was really nice because for the first time we were able to spread out our extended family Christmases and spend more time with everybody. It also provided a welcome break from unpacking moving boxes.

Christmas has always been an important part of mine and Amanda's relationship. We start celebrating the day after Amanda's birthday (November 3rd), so we can make sure to have enough time to enjoy it. It definitely rubbed off on Kate. What do you think...does she look excited?



Jude wasn't old enough to quite understand what was going on beforehand. I have no doubt he will be joining in the festivities in a couple of years.



Usually we are traveling and staying with family for the holidays so we never really get a chance to have much of a Christmas with just our little family. We definitely haven't had Christmas in our own house before, so living close finally gave us a chance to spend some great time just relaxing and being in our house together during the holiday.



Everybody is happy about the new house. Jude and the dogs love laying together in the floor soaking up the sunlight.



We got to add a new stocking to our lineup this year. We are so blessed to have Jude in our family.



We made a herculean effort just to get the tree up this year with the move and all. The only reason we did it was because Kate was so insistent on having a tree. We only put part of our ornaments out, and Kate kept asking when we were going to finish the tree. I guess it did look a little sparse.



Kate playing with her cousin Jace. While we were at GG Debbies, Jace and Kate were in the backyard playing in leaves. At one point Jace started playing with a bat and baseball (of the nerf variety). My Dad asked Jace, "Jace, will you let a girl play ball with you?" Jace: "Um, yes." Kate: "No thanks, I'm just looking pretty." My Dad: "Did she just say that???" Me: "You have no idea."



Jude started to figure out that there were fun things under the wrapping paper. Here he is with his puppy dog eyes trying to convince his momma that he should get to open one more.


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Home for the Holidays

...a busy several weeks, to say the least. I promise there are tons of great holiday pics to come, but I thought we would start with a few pictures of us finally enjoying our neighborhood. There are 4 ponds and 2 playgrounds in our neighborhood. One playground has the typical climbing structure, but the one we spend most of the time in is basically swings, trees, and a basketball court. I can see us exploring the creek this summer and swinging until the kids fall asleep in the swings. To say we love our neighborhood would be an understatement. We are excited for people to come see us so feel free to make your reservations at the Harrington House. I hear it's rated pretty high with our most frequent guests (Brandy and TT).

Leaving Lubbock

...whew...it's been so busy I don't even know what's going on. Nevertheless, we need to blog. I have not yet blogged about saying goodbye to our dear friends the Hill family. Shortly before our departure Logan and Kristi came to Kate's Special Friend's Brunch at school. As you can see Kate and Logan are the best of friends. She's even pouring his coffee. We will truly miss the Hill family. We just all got along so well and genuinely care for one another. They welcomed us in to their family and gave us a sense of tradition in a place where we had none. I will especially miss my friend Kristi because she was my first "mom friend." I learned so much from her about how to be a patient mother (although these last few days have not reflected what I learned from her). She is the kindest, most patient person I know. I am really going to miss her.




We've had tons going on with the move too. My parents came down for Thanksgiving to help us pack up and get out of the house. Michael started his job the following Monday and Mom and I left Lubbock on Tuesday. I don't think I've ever been so tired in my life! I can't imagine what it would have been like without my parents. I'm pretty sure it would not have gotten done.

Now I am in the holding pattern. Michael is already in Tulsa and I at my parent's house with the kids and dogs. Yikes! On Friday we will all be under the same roof again and not a moment too soon. We are super excited about our new house in Bixby!

I have posted a bunch of random pictures. I'm pretty sure you can guess what's going on in each of them! Kate finally got to have a bath with Jude. She's been asking for it for quite some time. It's how they said goodbye to their Lubbock bath tub.

Ya Ya Judy, Booty

...my complete infatuation with this little guy. However, I'm not alone. He's got pretty much everyone around him in love, including his sister. We all like to sing a song to the tune of Roly Poly from the classic film Pillow Talk but we say Judy Booty instead of roly poly.
Jude is currently in love with Kate's American Girl Bitty Baby Cindy. At least someone plays with her!

We WILL Keep Blogging, No Matter How Busy

..a few things going on around here. I didn't want to go too much longer without posting Halloween pictures. Kate was a princess and Jude was Raider Red. Just as we got to the church Kate vomited all over the place. Nevertheless, she rallied and it seemed she already lives by the show biz phrase, "the show must go on." She held it together for a while and we had a great time. However, it was once again a reminder how we had no family here because once we saw the Hill family at church we realized we had nobody else to show off our kids to. That will soon change though!



The orange hue on the left side of her top is a bit smelly!

Random Pictures from Our Life

...Kate and her affinity for her brother Jude. We have had some rough, and I mean rough, days with Kate over the past week. We think it has something to do with a growth spurt and the uncertainty of moving. She is going to figure out that moving to where we are going is a good thing for her, but it is going to take some time I think. That said, Kate really loves her little brother Jude and she is so good with him. We are thankful and hopeful it will last.

We have some good news about Jude--he is finally eating good and feeling so much better! It is amazing how happy he is now that he is able to eat a full serving, which he has never done. He is eating his formula and baby food now, and it is great to see him doing so well. Now he is really going to grow!

The biggest thing we are going to miss about Lubbock are the friends we have all made. We don't have a lot of friends left here, but the ones we do have we will all miss tremendously. Below is a picture of Kate and her friend Izzy. Izzy's mom is Amanda's hairdresser and long-time friend here in Lubbock. These girls are only a couple of weeks apart, and we actually have a picture on the blog of them when they were only a few weeks old. They are so grown up looking now!





Sadly, my Grandpa (my mom's dad) died a couple of weeks ago, and we went back for the funeral. Why is it that funerals seem like the only time we really get to see all of our relatives? It was so good to see everybody, despite the circumstances--I just wish my Grandpa was there to be in the middle of all of it like normal. We are really going to miss him. This is my great-aunt Maxine. I have always loved Maxine and my parents used to fly me to San Antonio for a week during the summers as a kid to spend time with her. She is in her 90's. She looks amazing for 60, let alone 90! She has lived such a neat life--I wish I knew more of her stories. She got some good one-on-one time with Jude, her great-great-nephew.



Kate also adores Maxine.


After a long weekend (this was also the trip Amanda and I drove to Tulsa the day before the funeral and I interviewed for the TU job) it was nice to unwind on "the farm." Jude spent a lot of time swinging with Grandma Donna while Kate curled up under a quilt and watched movies with Papa Ron. It is strange (and very, very exciting) to think we only have one more round-trip from Lubbock to Choctaw and for this weekend. Wish us luck as we try to find a house to buy in Tulsa!

Pumpkins!

...being a bit busy of late! Between keeping up with the kids, traveling to Oklahoma for my grandpa's funeral, interviewing for a new job, getting said job, and packing up the house to sell and trying to plan a move to Tulsa in a month we feel like we are running around while getting nowhere. That's our excuse for taking so long to post pictures. Sooooo, here are some long overdue pictures of the family at a couple of farms--the Orr family farm in Norman, and the Harrington family farm in Choctaw.

This was our 2nd visit to the Orr Family Farm, and it is definitely a family favorite of ours. Kate loves pumpkins, train rides, hay rides, and carousels--so it is the perfect outing for Kate. Jude just likes being with his mommy and daddy, so he could have cared less where we were. He enjoyed himself just fine.



We spent a lot of time on this carousel. Luckily they weren't very busy because we were there during the OU v. Texas football game, so Kate got to ride again and again. We still had to pry her away from that thing at the end of the day.



"Hello ladies. I don't always like to take my picture with pumpkins. But when I do, I prefer Orr Family Farms. I am the most interesting baby in the world."




Settle down everybody! No, she is not sitting on his shoulders. That is merely a strange camera angle, but as pictures with both of them at the same time are rare we posted anyway.




"Ginny" --that's pronounced with a hard "G"--with Kate and Jude on the hay ride to the pumpkin patch.





Kate after her appointment with the eye specialist. Her eyes were dialated, but it just gave her a chance to rock some sunglasses.






Jude (above, in case you didn't know) and Kate (below) at the Harrington Family Farm. "The farm" is one of Kate's favorite places on earth and will no doubt be high on Jude's list too. As you can tell from Kate's dress there are no "don't get messy" rules at the farm. I think that is one of the reasons she loves it so much--she gets to be a kid with full reign of the farm. She plays with abandon there, but she does make sure and check often with Papa Ron and Gamma Donna that she's not getting unknowingly close to Porky's pen. Ask her about Porky sometime, she loves to tell the story of how Porky got to the farm. She also loves to talk about how much she loves Porky. Until she sees Porky, which causes her to scream and/or cry and go in the opposite direction. She still has a little city left in her.