All Things Christmas~

Trimming the tree, well, hanging carefully selected new ornaments on the decorative metal tree from crate and barrel. The kids had a lot of fun buying new ornaments, Mikayla chose penguins, Zach chose sports balls.

We had a fun event at the church we are attending. They had sledding hills with actual snow and hot cocoa and a tree lighting and we met Bob Eubanks!

We baked tons of sugar cookies!

Out of order but here is the tree all a glow.

We got to go to a gingerbread decorating party for all new families at Jeff's work. Yes, Landen wore shorts that day. It's a pretty rough life here in T.O.

And a perfect picture with Santa to culminate the Christmas fun!

Mikayla and I also got to go see the Nutcracker Ballet and it was awesome! I think despite not having all our Christmas decorations and being in a new city we still were able to do a lot of great Christmas activities.

Tubbie Time~

Landen is watching Ahbow(Elmo), Zach is playing legos, Mikayla is reading. Kind of what they all love to do right now. We should probably be at the post office or doing something Christmasy, but I am giving my attention to these sweet pictures of my baby. I still can't believe I get to be the one to see this sweet smile all day.

I guess bath toys didn't make it in to the temp housing boxes. He doesn't seem to mind.=)

Love you my sweet boy!

Ventura Beach~

These are the pictures from last month that I never blogged about. It was the perfect reprieve from the craziness of moving and house hunting.

I think we must have looked at 60 houses in 3 weeks. Our first two offers were not accepted, but last week our third one was! I am not going to hold my breath until we get through inspections this week, though.

Our house in Indy sold in 5 days! We found out while we were waiting to board our flight to CA! We feel so blessed that God has worked out everything so well and so quickly.

The move has been hard on the kids. They have really been missing their friends. This day at the beach really helped them just have fun and get excited about being in California.

On top of everything else I have been temporarily homeschooling the kids so they don't have to switch schools once we find a house. We have actually really enjoyed it!

Landen had a blast playing in the sand. Poor little guy was burning up with fever every night we were in the hotel in Indy and was just fit full on the plane ride to CA. But we survived.

Landen turned 17 months right before we moved so I guess these are his 17 month pictures.

On the plane Zach said, "We aren't Indians anymore. Indians? Indianans?" And then at our layover in Chicago the kids said we were homeless. They by the time we landed in California they said we are officially Californians and that we were "home!"

God has been so good to us through this whole process and we are very excited to get into our house and get settled. Thank you everyone for your prayers!

" Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory..."

Ephesians 3:20-21a

A Year & A Half~

So I know there are a lot of happenings that I haven't blogged about yet. Looking back at pictures from right before and after the move is just too hard right now. So I am just going to jump in here with Landen's 18 month birthday. I can't believe it. My baby is closer to 2 than to newly born. I could just cry that the baby days have gone so fast, but I am thrilled to be where we are. Having a toddler in the house/apartment/condo is one of the sweetest things in life. Landen is trying to say lots of words now and runs through the house trying to keep up with the big kids. I don't have a very sunny window for right now, so this just had to do. He is the most smoochable 1.5 year old I know!

And just for my memory he was 24lbs. 5oz. at his Dr.'s appt. a couple of weeks ago.

We Made it~

Goodbye Indiana~

We will miss you~

But we are headed off on a new adventure~

We are sad to go~

But excited for what God has in store for us~

"In his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps."

~Proverbs 16:9

The 8th Halloween~

Jeff's Grinch~He wasn't even trying to carve the grinch, it just ended up like this. He always does amazing carvings. The kids tried to carve their own this year and weren't happy with the results, so I am not allowed to post pictures of them. You can see mine in the background, I just drew a Charlie Brown face.

Our sweet bumblebee! Mikayla actually went trick or treating with a friend this year in a neighborhood that gave out full size candy bars. She scored a ton of loot!

Scary Clone Trooper! Zach went around our neighborhood and came home after about 10 houses, but still managed to get plenty candy. It was quite chilly here.

Charlie Brown~I finally got to call him Charlie for a day. Still think it's a cute name. But he is for sure our Landen.

He was not impressed with trick or treating at all, but was a great help in passing out candy. He never actually got the courage to put candy in anyone's bags, but he greeted everyone.

Seriously, is he precious or what!?!

You can see here that we have a lock box on the door now. The house will be on the market in a few days. Movers are scheduled for next week. Temporary housing is secured in California. We have a short list of houses to see once we get there late next week. The kids have been doing their last few field trips and play dates. Lots of cleaning, lots of goodbyes, lots of tears, but lots of excitement too! It's hard to be so excited and sad at the same time, but we are and that's ok. God is taking good care of us(as always) and we are so thankful for new opportunities and to be close to family. We had 8 great halloweens here and it has been quite an adventure, but I think we are ready for our next one!

Trick or Treat~

~Sigh~We love this house.

Chef Landen~

One day Landen decided he needed to lick everything. These are all the things he licked that day. Obviously this dining room chair, the cart at Target, a green bean can at Target(ew!), every spoon at dinner, Zachary's dirty socks, his own socks and toes, and I think a few more things. Such a goof!

He loves his walker now. These are just two random pictures.

Love the concentration. He loves brobros toys and I think he has pretty phenomenal dexterity.

He is obsessed with all things kitchen and cooking.

He is so funny! He loves oven mitts and I guess thinks anything can be one. These are all the funny things he tried to use as an oven mitt. Above is a toilet paper roll.

My coin purse. This one really irritated him because he couldn't grab the lid.

Some other things were a glasses cleaning cloth and again, Zach's dirty socks. Here he insisted I put his own socks on his hands.

Such a sweetie and a smartie!

He really would rather play with things from the kitchen than his own toys! Any time I try to cook he insists I hold him and wants be right in the middle of what I am trying to do. If I don't pick him up he will just grab my pant leg and fuss until I do. He has discovered Mikayla's old play kitchen in the basement and loves it! That thing is 9 years old. I'd say we are getting our money's worth. Landen doesn't even mind that it is pink and purple. Well this is a completely random post, but I don't want to forget all these precious moments!