Moving, getting lost, school, church and Christmas

It has now been 2 weeks since we moved here. The move went really well, thanks Brett for driving us up here and to all our friends for helping us pack up! The drive was much easier than I anticipated and the boys did fantastically! We got here and unloaded the trailer the same night.

The house is better than I could have imagined. I saw many pictures prior to getting here, but you can't really get a feel for a place through pictures. The house is so neat in its layout and has such a "home" feeling. Its a warm, comfortable feeling! The house is tri-level and the boys have their own floor with their room and playroom! The house is on the top of a hill in a cul-de-sac with a pathway to a park that is 1 minute walking distance away! Out our back deck we have amazing views of pine trees and a creek, with blackberry bushes behind our fence!


I've been trying to figure out the town on my own. Which one might assume is easy, with a population of 8,000 and all. However, I have proven this theory wrong on multiple levels. What I did learn though, is when you don't know where you are or where you are going, don't allow your Dad to follow you to the restaurant. This will create plentiful oppportunities for him to tease you! I took what could have been a 3 minute highway drive to a restuarant directly off of the highway into a scenic 15 minute mountain drive past our local jail! I'm still learning. I have been able to figure more of the streets out recently and I'm doing better!

Austin is enrolled in school and will start back on January 3rd! He is excited and a little nervous. The school he is going to is absolutely great! It is so small. It's only a K-4th grade, and he is in a class with 24 students!!! His last class had 34 kids. All of the people we met at the school were so friendly...small towns are really nice! His school is a 5 minute drive down a wooded, winding little road past old farm homes and pastures, with a creek running through! My school also happens to be directly next to his, and it has a daycare facility on campus, which is triple amazing for us!

While we were still down south and Matt was up here, he did a lot of footwork for a new church for us. He listened to a lot of podcasts of local churches, looked online for their information and statements of faith and found a church he thought would be perfect for us. We went the first Sunday we got here and......He was right! This is a mini HDC with awesome worship, a great Pastor and amazing local mission efforts! The kids program is wonderful and the boys loved it. We are so excited to keep going and get involved.


Christmas came and went very quickly for us this year. We had a wonderful Christmas though and hope you all did as well! Christmas Eve was spent at my Dad and Michelle's home and was great as usual! We had a great dinner, followed by great fun, presents and games! Matt and I hosted Christmas Day at our house for my Mom, Grandma, Brynna, Aimee and her boyfriend Alpha. We had a great dinner of Roast Beef (I cooked it, not Matt this time...so I am very proud of myself!) We enjoyed visiting with all of our family, but sorely missed Sienna who was at her Dad's this year. The boys got Hiking packs from Santa, decked out with lots of gear. Ryland got his "noculars" from Santa too, plus about 5-6 puzzles! Austin recieved his first BB gun and loves it! They also got lots of warm weather gear, cars, trucks, trains and video games (literally!). We were so happy to just be together and celebrate as a family!

Now on to the New Year!