Hi.  Today was a good day. There have been quite a few days recently that didn't feel so good.  It is really difficult all this sorting, packing, getting rid of, saying goodbyes, etc.   I went shopping today and had a lot of fun at Old Navy.  It was almost as good as a garage sale with the clearance prices.  I think I came home from shopping with an action packer full of stuff. Life is pretty crazy now.  It is unreal to think that next week this time we'll be on a plane heading to the other side of the world.  Will life ever be normal again? 

I am sitting in our hotel room after a lovely night of sleep.  Brian is up, but the children are still sleeping.  I guess I should get them up so we can get on our way.  We have 6 or 7 hours to go today to get to Mom & Dad King's where we plan to celebrate a lovely Christmas with all the family.  The children did a lovely job of traveling yesterday.  Hopefully today goes as well.  Sometimes the second day can kind of get to you.  Becca listened to one tape over and over.  We should dub it off so we have an extra in case she wears it out.  Thankfully she had headphones so we weren't all listening to it.  Elliot is the hardest one to travel with.  That is where the pacifier comes in handy.  So I don't think we will take it away until after we are settled in our new home. 

Merry Christmas everyone!!

Very busy day today.  Brian worked half a day.  So since it didn't feel like a weekend I got started on Trent's schoolwork for next week.  Then I made sugar cookies with the children.  When I was in SC my neighbor let the children make sugar cookies and they had such a fun time, so I thought what a great thing to do.  My neighbor sat on her couch with her baby and the children rolled and cut out the cookies.  Maybe it would have gone better if I would have just gone and sat on the couch.  It wasn't the cozy, Christmasy activity that I was imagining.  I guess since I was hoping to give some for the jail cookies it was more stressful.  Like trying to keep them from licking the knife with icing on and then using it again.  And trying to keep Elliot from spilling the flour, etc.  Anyway, I think they had fun.  Mom is the one who needs to relax.  I also baked two other batches of cookies and made the rest of my Christmas candy.  And I got some of our gifts wrapped tonight.  Now hopefully next week I can get ready for our Iowa trip.  Right now there is so much to think about and to do.  So I am just trying to take one day at a time and when that day is over just go to bed and the rest of the stuff will wait for another day.  So that is what I am going to do now.  Good night! 

So much has happened since I posted last.  The biggest news is that as of yesterday we purchased plane tickets.  Moving day is scheduled for Jan. 24th!  So incredible to see how God brought things together for this to happen. 

We had  a wonderful visit to SC this past weekend and Becca celebrated her 4th b-day. 

We celebrated her birthday with my family before we left for SC.  She chose a butterfly cake this year.  She got the idea from her friend Tori's b-day cake.

Then we celebrated again with her friends in SC.  Thanks, Elaine, for a great b-day party! One handy tip to pass on--wait until at least the 5th b-day party to try duck duck goose.

Making sugar cookies with friends from the village.  We had so much fun seeing our friends and hanging out again.

Becca & Aubri--quite the pair.

We went to see the Christmas lights at Hopeland Gardens in Aiken.

It is good to be home again.  We finally got a good day of school in again.  In a little over a week we plan to leave for Iowa.  A lot of things need to happen between now and then.  We made some of our Christmas candy last night.  Somehow our Christmas shopping needs to be completed.  Plus lots of other good stuff.  So that's all the news for now.  Later!