Move IN Day

We finally got to move into our house on December 28th. The movers showed up bright and early and got busy. There were boxes everywhere but a few things finally found their home. Like this beauty I've been waiting FOREVER to open!She fit perfectly into her new home. We fell in love with each other all over again!!!!!

We have a lot of stuff! There were 10 of those crates plus the 4-wheeler.

The couch in it's new home. And all those boxes which thankfully are now unboxed and out of my house!
When the movers left for the day this is what my kitchen looked like! LOTS to do.
But Aaron and I got busy and got a lot done really fast. Of course we still have tons to do but everything is falling into place. One good thing about unpacking is you find all this junk that you DO NOT need. We have already donated a lot of boxes and I still have stuff to take to Goodwill. You really collect a lot of stuff over the years.

Also on moving day some of the new furniture we had ordered showed up. The boys got a new bunk bed. There are drawers in the stairs!We all slept really good that first night in our new house.

The boys got Logan's truck out and went for a ride. They had been waiting a long time to cruise around that backyard.And they found all their old toys where were brand new all over again. They have played in their costumes almost everyday!!! You can also see part of the entertainment center and our new TV in this pic. The rest of the entertainment center was on back order so I'll post a better pic once it gets here...hopefully next week!!!I'll get some better pics of the house soon.

Christmas Morning...picture overload!

So when I tell you Santa came...I really mean Santa came to Grammy's! We spent Christmas morning at my parents house and Santa did not disappoint. There were presents everywhere. From Santa, Aaron and I, but I think most were from Grammy and PaPaw!!! LOL The boys were so excited and didn't even open presents for a bit because they got busy with their new train table and tool bench that Santa brought and had all set up for them!Of course wild Lane thinks everything is way more fun if you climb ON it! He gets in lots of trouble for this!
He was saying, "Chu Chu." Too cute!
Both boys are obsessed with trains and everytime we see one I hear, "THOMAS!!!!!!"
We got busy opening presents. Mom was shocked by Trevor's present if you can't tell by her expression. He bought her a beautiful white and black diamond ring. That boy's got taste and will make some woman a very happy lady one of these days...of course that's YEARS down the road and she will have to meet ALL of my criteria!!! Hahaha! No really, I'm serious!!!
We got PaPaw a new case for his cross bow...
Logan and Lane loaded up on light sabers. They LOVE Star Wars. We now have a grand total of 5 light sabers and 2 swords in our house. Needless to say, Daddy gets beat up A LOT!!!!
I had fixed up a little gag gift for Trevor. Like most teenage boys his Christmas list included a lot of high priced items that the ole' sister just couldn't get for him. So I did my best to get him everything he wanted...just a smaller scale of it! Hahaha. He wanted clothes...so I found him some sweet Ken doll clothes! He wanted a gun so of course I found him one of those...just not the kind he was thinking...he didn't specify you know. He really wanted a punching bag...so he got that too!!!!Santa didn't disappoint Aaron either...here he's opening his new scope for his gun...he was pretty excited!

Daddy had gotten a special gift for Logan. I can't say it's his first gun because Papaw gave him his first a few years ago...but this is his first 22 which is what he's been wanting. This is also his first gun that is his size. Did I mention he got a BB gun from Papaw too...he is ready for the woods for sure.

So after presents they boys got busy checking them all out. They had both gotten shaving kits so it was off to the bathroom to "shave like Daddy!!!"

There was lots of play time as I didn't even get dressed on Christmas day. We enjoyed lounging around and playing with the kids. It was a wonderful day!

Michigan Trip

On December 1st we headed off to Michigan to visit with Aaron's family. (Keep in mind this post is out of order because I didn't have Aaron's computer which had the pictures from this trip...now the computer is home from the doctor and working great!) What we had planned for it to be a very long straight through drive to upper Michigan but it turned out to be way more! We knew that on the way up we needed to stop in Campbell and get a tag for our car. So once we got there they informed us that since we had not closed on our house and since Aaron had not signed in off leave we could not get a TN tag. Big problem!!! After talking with a few different people they let us have a temp tag for $10 to hold us over until we closed and Aaron signed in off leave. So after eating lunch and spending about two hours in Campbell we headed towards Michigan. Driving all the way to upper Michigan should be about a 16 hr drive from my mom's. Why we even thought of driving that in one day when we didn't HAVE to I have yet to figure out but we did. We had only been on the road for a few hours when we decided to go our normal route. Driving to Aaron's sister's house in lower Michigan, staying the night, and then heading the rest of the way. Well we get to Indianapolis which is always our nemeses and we get lost. We drove around there for almost two hours. Needless to say when we got off the road 13 hours after we started driving...we were exhausted. The boys however were so excited to see their cousins.

Logan and Haylee who are only 4 months apart stayed up all night playing. We THOUGHT they went to sleep but once everyone else closed their eyes those little stinkers were up. They managed to keep their little eyes open til 11AM the next day and then took a very long nap. We stayed at Amy's for two night before getting back on the road and heading north.

The next drive was only about 6 more hours. Since we had left super early in the morning and the boys and I slept almost the whole way it seemed to fly by for us! It was so nice to see everyone. Everyone ended up staying at Art's house (Aaron's older brother) so it was good to see all the brothers and sisters together. Aaron has 5 siblings so getting everyone together is pretty hard. So having 5 of the 6 together and Aaron's dad was really nice. All the kids played so well together. I don't think I even saw Logan for more than 10 minutes a day while we were there. He was off playing and having a wonderful time. Aaron wasn't too happy about this picture but it's too cute. Amber dressed Lane up. He was walking around all smiles. We got to meet two little nephews...Liam and Brody who are completely adorable. It was such a nice visit.

Here's the group shot...

And the grandkids...

We had to head out a little early because we got word that we had to close on our house on the 11th. So we headed down to Amy's for a few more days. We got to see all of Aaron's mom's sisters (except Aunt Diane but she doesn't live in Michigan...she lives closer to where we are now) and one of his cousins. They are all the sweetest ladies ever.

Here is Lane...yes he is in the doll stroller...along with Haylee and Brianna

The snow kept trying to find us during this whole trip. The day we drove out was when a pretty big storm was hitting. The roads home were not really icy but the wind was horrible though. It felt like it was going to blow us off the road. Well we finally made it back to Campbell and had all our plans set for closing the next day. We got a hotel room there and my mom and grandmother drove up the next day to get the boys. After doing our walk through the morning of the 11th we find out the closing was canceled. We were so upset. It was such a headache because it was all due to things out of our hands. First it was the fireplace. The appraiser had waited and waited about turning in the appraisal so the VA didn't know we had a propane fireplace. Guess this is a big deal to the VA. So the builders pulled through and fixed that problem. Then it was because names were different on the VA builder code. This was something that should have been taken care of months ago but once again...a problem we couldn't do anything about. So there we were still waiting...and homeless!!! So that night we drove back to my mom's to wait for them to finally call us. Thankfully everything got cleared up quickly and we closed a few days later.

Christmas with Scotty's family

On Christmas Eve my step dad's family came over to my Mom's...where we were staying...to have a big dinner and open presents. We had a wonderful time and had some great food. The boys were so excited with their gifts. Lots of transformer stuff which they loved!!!Of course any chance to beat up on Daddy is taken full advantage of!!!This is my little (well he's bigger than me but he's 10 years younger!) brother Trevor and my Aunt Darla.Logan sweet talked his Grammy into letting him open a present early. More hunting stuff to add to his collection! This boy is rotten!!!!

Logan has been caught a few times with this little elf hat on but Lane just looked so sweet and innocent in it. Looked being the key word!!!You know I've always heard that Grandparents would do anything for their grandchildren and I have found that to be completely true. They just don't always expect their daughter to capture it on camera and post it for the world to see!!!! Hahahahahahaha.......Love you guys!!!!!

It took a lot of but finally got the boys in bed on Christmas Eve night. Logan wanted so bad to see Santa but he eventually fell asleep...and Santa came!!!!!

It's a little late...but Merry Christmas!

I promised myself when I first married that I would send out Christmas cards every year. I've done good so far but this year I almost dropped the ball. I managed to get a few out but didn't send them until December 23. But at least I sent them right!!! The past few years I have started putting a current picture of us in the card. It's usually not a professional picture but at least it's a picture. Thank God for timers on cameras!!! This year was a little tough getting a picture where all of us were looking. As you can imagine Logan and Lane don't always cooperate when it comes to picture taking. But we got one. I know that a lot of people were missed when I sent out the cards, but I only had a limited number of addresses with me so I'm sorry if you didn't get one. But here's your chance....sort of. Above is the picture we used. We hope you had a wonderful Christmas. It was a bit hectic for us since we were living out of a suitcase but next year should be a little less stressful and I promise to do a better on my cards!!!!

I just had to post this picture too though. As I was getting the camera ready for the picture I took this one of the boys. I just love the look on Lane's face. For those of you that have not met him...it's soooo him!!!!! He's a little pistol!!!

Mom's family Christmas

We had Christmas for my mom's side of the family on Sunday, December 20th. I have always been close to all of them so I was so happy to get to be there for the first time in 3 years. This Christmas was hard for all of us though. This was the first Christmas without my Uncle Jim and Matthew was still not able to come. I did get to go see Matt afterwards. He is slowly making progress. His hands were a lot more loose. He was very alert. He even said Mom and Hi on command!!! He has been taking some herbs that were prescribed to him and since he started them he has really started to make progress.

We always play Bingo with a dirty Santa theme. This year was a lot of fun. For once I Bingoed more than once!!! In fact I think I might have Bingoed the most!!! Aunt Sharon opened the gag gift that I brought. It was a fart machine!!! Her face was priceless!!!

And I got an updated picture of my mom, her sisters, and my Grandmother. They are all so beautiful!!!! God has blessed me with an amazing family!

House closing

Hello everyone. It's been awhile but I'm back...with internet...and ready to catch up as best I can. Due to a few technical difficulties...ie. Aaron's computer being in the shop and that computer is the one we took with us when we moved and of course it has lots of our pictures on it...I'm having to start my catching up kind of in the middle. Once his computer comes home...and who knows when that will be...I will go back and update the moving process and our trip to Michigan to visit Aaron's family.

We finally...after getting the run around and the closing date changing multiple times...closed on December 15. Mom stayed back in Alabama with the boys and Aaron and I drove up to do all the paperwork. We were sooooo excited. The day had FINALLY come. This whole process started on July 2 and here we were finished and about to become first time home owners. It's just a great feeling. Here are a few pictures of a our big day!!!

Getting our game faces on and our pins ready! All ready to own our first home...

The first signatures...

And the last....We are homeowners of a beautiful custom build house! We couldn't be more proud!!!!!

After the closing we headed out for a lovely dinner just the two of us. Something that rarely happens! Since of course we didn't have our household goods because they were still in route from Alaska we had to drive back to Bama. So our first night in our new house didn't come for a couple of weeks but it was ours and that's what mattered!!! I really do want to thank God for making all this possible. He has blessed us so much over the last few years and it is only through Him that this whole thing has been possible. God truly is amazing!