Visiting Cousins

The day after Christmas we went to Aaron and Joylyn's for dinner and games. The kids had so much fun together. Austin LOVED baby Thayne. He kept trying to hug and kiss him. It was a lot of fun.

Christmas

This was a really weird Christmas. Every year since I can remember I have gotten up on Christmas at 3 am sharp and all the presents are open by 6 am. This year, my internal clock once again woke me up right at 3 but this time I decided I would let everyone sleep in. We had church at 9:30 am and the kids slept in way too late for us to open presents before then. So, we really just got to see that Santa did get the kids change of address form. Santa brought Elaina a new princess bike and then we got the trike out for Austin to prevent any fighting. Grandpa Twitchell had tithing work to do after church so we had to then wait on him to open the presents. We didn't start opening presents until like 1 in the afternoon. It was so weird to have the sun up!

This year Austin was all about cars and the only thing Elaina asked for was a elephant pillow pet, but she was really excited about the bike.

After presents we got to skype Avram from Brazil. It was great seeing him!

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve finally made it!

Live Nativity Scene

Tonight we were able to go see a live set up of Bethlehem and see a reenactment of the Baby Jesus story and it was really nice. They had the angel that visits the Shepherds and he was like 30 feet off the ground. Elaina was so amazed by him. The highlight of the evening for Elaina was Baby Jesus. When they were reenacting the manger scene we watched, but because of the crowd we couldn’t see very well. When it was over we took the kids over to see the live camel they had there and mean while Elaina was just throwing a fit because she wanted to see Baby Jesus. She didn’t even care about the camel a couple of feet in front of her. She had her priorities straight.

Where there's water, you'll find my kids.

Utah Trip / Thanksgiving

For Thanksgiving, the kids, Grandma Twitchell, Autumn and I drove out to Utah. We went to see Alicia and her Adam because they were moving soon to Tennessee. As an added bonus, my Adam made the drive from Fort Huachuca to see us. It was a full week of visiting family, Thanksgiving and see the Temple Square lights. It was a lot fun and the time with Adam went to quick, as usual. Austin was Adam's little shadow the whole week. He's missed his daddy.

Oakland Zoo

Adam is leaving soon for Fort Huachuca, so we decided to go on a family outing to the Oakland Zoo. It was a really nice zoo. Elaina discovered that her favorite animal is a zebra and Austin liked the giant orange frogs the most. Elaina also got to see the "Lion King" and then told us all about his baby Simba and the mean lion, Scar. It was a good time.

Moving... Again

Moving... again. Moving is something our little family is very accustom to, I figured it out and in the five years Adam and I have been married we have moved 12 times and since Elaina (who is 3) was born we've changed locations 10 times. Our longest at a location was 15 months and our shortest was 3 months. 3 of our moves, Adam has lived in a separate state as the kids and I. (I do not count his moves as separate from ours.)

This last place, Thorneberry Apartments, has been the first time that we have lived in our own place since Elaina was born. We really enjoyed it! We made some great friends and really enjoyed the ward and our apartment. Now it's off to California for the kids and I, and Adam is off to Fort Huachuca in Arizona to go through military intelligence school. We are really hoping our move after this one will be a little more permanent.

Austin was not too keen on the whole packing thing. He did not like me packing things up and many boxes had to be packed multiple times because he would undo them. Often Austin would disappear and I would find him in an empty box or the cupboard. Silly little boy!


Moving... again.