Needless to say, life in Florida is good. :) Still waiting on internet. I will update when we get it (and when I get out of the hot tub). God is so good.

Amidst all the packing we found time to take a trip to the "Christmas Mall" to see Santa. They closed the line in front of us and we had to wait for Santa to take his break. Wes was kind enough to hold our place at the front of the line while we had dinner. After leaving and retrieving John from the top of the escalator, we sent Wes off to get his dinner before Santa returned. Note: Do not let a two year old step onto the escalator. He will let go of your hand and you will be running back up the down escalator in a packed mall to retrieve him. :) Santa came and we toured the polar express and hen took a turn on his lap. No tears so it was a success.

Quick up date:

We have a house. Eric is living there and our stuff will arrive there after Christmas. While he has been away the kids and i continued our routine. Mom and Dad came to visit and see Ella in the Christmas parade. Dad left to do a little Christmas shopping and returned with Eric. The kids and i were so surprised. It was great to see him even if it was only for a day. Rain washed out the parade but we still had a nice visit. The kids, Melissa and I made gingerbread houses. One word..patience. Ella had a party at snack time at school and it snowed. Wes arrived and we left for Clanton. I am positive that i have left out a million things but this is all i can remember. Pictures and more details when i get settled in the house in FL. All the kids have a cough and i hope they will shed it soon.

Ben's 9 Month Check-Up

Wednesday the 9th, Ben had his 9 month check up. Technically he was 9 and a half months. He weighted in at 18.5 lbs which is about the 20th percentile and was 30 inches tall, a little over the 90th percentile. He has 5 teeth and will bite the hand that feeds him. HA! He eats. All the time. He is crawling all over and now pulls up on the furniture and walks down to the end, or cruises (for those familiar with baby terms). He eats. He is super handsome and still loves his mommy. Did i mention he eats?? He is a great sleeper but hates when i put him down. He is healthy and lots of fun. What more could i ask for?

Happy Thanksgiving

I hope everyone had a very happy Thanksgiving. Eric, the kids and I had a lovely quiet day here. Last year i did a list of all the things i was thankful for. This year (probably due to the lack of time) i will keep it brief.

I am thankful for this:

and the rest of our family that weren't around our table. We are very blessed.

Farms and Fun

I am really slacking on my blogging.

That was a line i wrote Wednesday. You can tell that we are very busy here. I barely have time to turn around.

Quick update and then i am off to bed.

Eric flew to Birmingham on the 12th and excepted the award at the ABC ceremony. Friday morning he headed to Mississippi to try his hand at farming. Just reading that makes me laugh. Anyway, it was time to harvest the soy beans. I think it was past time but the rain had held everyone off. Eric and Wes got out to the field to find a dead snake that came from ?? maybe the header. Knowing Eric's FEAR of snakes, Wes snuck up behind him with it and rubbed it's twitching tail on him. HA! Wish i could have seen his face. Wes and my uncle got a good laugh. Welcome to the farm. Eric helped where he could Saturday and Sunday and got behind the wheel of the tractor and Dad's combine on Monday. He came back a changed man. I got him back in line though. :) He had a blast and is already itching to go back. Probably a bad sign. He arrived back home late Tuesday night. He will leave Sunday for Sebastian.

Kim flew into town to keep me company while Eric was hanging out, i mean farming. She helped me get all my lists in order and then came down with strep. She stayed confined to her room Saturday and i sprayed lots of lysol. Her antibiotics kicked in and she was feeling better the rest of her trip. We had a good time visiting and got some cleaning done. So glad she came to visit. She had a rough flight home so i am not sure she feels the same way. HA! Thanks for everything Kimmie!

Friday Eric and i attended Ella's Thanksgiving program at school. She was a pilgrim girl or a 'mercy me' girl as she calls it. Probably because that was her line. They sang a few songs, recited a poem, her teacher read us some of the class' work and then the play. It was really cute. We were then invited to stay for lunch in the cafeteria. Many parents took their children home and i even offered to take Ella to a restaurant but she declined. She would like us to stay and eat. We did. We were some kids behind Ella in line and when she was paying for her lunch with her lunch card she told the lady she was paying for ours too. :) The lady took her card and told her she would use it when we checked out. Ella smiled. She looked like she felt so grown up showing us how it all worked. :) So proud of her.

The boys are good. Jack keeps asking if we can sign up for soccer. John is all over and loves saying "uh-uh, no". Imagine that. He is all over and into everything. Potty training is great. Depends on his mood. I haven't changed a dirty diaper on him in...i don't even remember. Glad he took on the potty training task. Now if i could just get him to keep his clothes on. Ben is all over. Constantly pulling up on everything and following me around. He is always so happy to see me. Probably because he want's to nurse but i still love the smile. 4 teeth and has revolted against baby food. He likes to eat real food and loves biter biscuits. We are still trying to figure out his eating. He will be 9 months old in a couple of days. Time flys. He goes for a check-up in December.

Tentative plans for the move are in place. We will be moving out on the 22nd of December. To where exactly is still undetermined. We are looking at houses but in no rush. This will be move number 5 and i think i have the hang of it. Everything is in order and estimates are in. Still have a lot to do to prepare. Mostly getting it done around the school, gymnastics, cheerleading, Christmas parade, along with day to day activities without Eric will be a task. It is so strange to have a month to prepare. This is the longest time we have had. I think i like it better when it is 2 weeks notice. Anyway, everything is up in the air so i will keep you all posted. I can't wait to get down to the warm weather.

Goodbye Statesville....

Hello sunny Sebastian, FL. Eric got a call asking him to go to Sebastian for a job. Not even sure what they are doing but we are more than happy to go. We got the call as I was dropping Eric off at the airport so we don't have any firm ideas yet but I think we have agreed to stay put until Ella gets out for Christmas break. By "we" I mean the kids and me. Eric will probably go before us and get started. The job has already started so he is behind from the get go, not too bad though. We will find out more in the coming weeks and firm out our plans to make this another successful move for all of us. Will keep you posted!

Things to come

This is how we found John tonight. His bedtime protest had failed but he wasn't going out like that. HA! I hope this is not an indication of things to come.