Merry Christmas!

Love, The Risingers

Just 'Cause

Just 'cause I think she looks adorable in this little outfit from my cousin Tab...

I love how little girls are just born knowing how to do that over-the-shoulder-charming-wrap-me-around-your-finger smile.

Bright eyes:Tired of pictures.

Thanksgiving

Because I couldn't skip Thanksgiving and go straight to Christmas, here are a few pics of our Thanksgiving weekend.

These were taken a couple days before Thanksgiving while we were staying with my parents. My girl is getting so much bigger! She has precious cheeks and awesome leg rolls. She started smiling (on purpose) around 7 weeks, but these are some of the first smiles I was able to capture. She started cooing and "talking" shortly thereafter. She talks a lot! I don't remember Noah being so vocal so early...just one more of the many differences between boys and girls.

Nana and pawpaw got Noah a tricycle for a belated birthday present. He logged so many miles on that thing on Thanksgiving day. He LOVES it!! I loved his shirt, it says: I'm thankful for mom and dad, yummy turkey and football!

Ellianna and great grandma Naomi:

Little turkey:

Thanksgiving at my grandma's house. We celebrated with them on Saturday (Bedlam day). My silly grandma doesn't have Fox Sports so we didn't get to watch the game live and made everyone keep quiet about the outcome. We managed to not find out and watched the game later that night.

Ellianna in her OSU shirt and bow:

Ellianna and Aunt Elaine:

Elli and Aunt Phyllis:

Sweet cousin Alexis. Such a beautiful baby:
Noah and Uncle Ryan:
Watching the game that night at Memaw and Pappaw's house. We couldn't get Noah to get in the picture, I guess daddy has already brainwashed him!

Moving Day

Well, moving day came and went without too many glitches. We couldn't find the hardware to put the beds, tables, etc. together for about 24 hours. The guys that packed us up in Katy didn't label or inventory it properly, thank goodness we ran across it when we did.

Noah LOVED having a giant semi-truck at his house. He kept saying, "a BIG semi-truck!!" He even got to get in it and look around. So sad I didn't get pictures.(UPDATED: My parents got some pictures and I didn't know.) I was inside checking off each box/item as it came in the door. It was FREEZING that day and of course they had to keep the door open. Memaw was in charge of keeping Ellianna warm and snuggly (tough job).

We've been in our house for almost two weeks now and have the majority of boxes unpacked, but are far from settled in. Such a bummer that we didn't get to use any of Brandon's time off between jobs to move. Thanks to the gov't, we had to wait until after. My parents have helped us SOOO much though, we'd still be unpacking next Christmas if they weren't here to help out. I wish I could wiggle my nose and have the curtains hung, pictures on the wall (and dinner in the oven would be nice too!).When we moved to Katy two and a half years ago, Noah was seven months old with scrumptious cheeks, arms, and legs.

Three birthdays and another baby later, moving is no easy feat!
I think 50% of the boxes contained toys (slight exaggeration). Terrible. The labels would say, living room decor, lamp, toys...Office software, pictures, toys. It's very interesting when someone else packs you. It was like a surprise in every box. I mean, they wrapped up hilarious things like P*pa John's coupons and a page from our Sunday School class roster.

(The giant bruise across his nose and eyes is from a little accident he had with the coffee table at memaw and pappaw's house. The bridge of his nose/forehead was so swolen, he looked like one of those characters from Avatar. Poor little guy.)

I know you are anxiously awaiting (*wink wink*) pictures of my girl since I haven't posted any since November 12th! I'll get them posted soon!

So Long, Ya'll

It's official, we're no longer Texas residents. The last few days have been CRAZY! Brandon drove me and the kids up here, flew back, "supervised" the movers for two days, unlocked the door for the cleaners, did a walk-through with our former property manager then drove back up here. We enjoyed Thanksgiving with both families and are now enjoying a day at home (well our temporary home anyway). Thanks to the government and good ol' Fannie Mae, there's a new law that won't allow us to close on our house until AFTER Brandon starts his job. So, our belongings are in a warehouse somewhere and we're staying with my parents for the next week.

My blog will probably be pretty quiet and lonely for a while. There's no telling when I'll locate my camera's USB cord and have time to download pictures and blog about them. In the meantime, I'll leave you with a list of a few reasons we're excited to move back to Oklahoma!

-Our families are here! (did I mention the 9+ hour drive?)

-It's comfortable, it's familiar, it's home!

-I know where everything is. I won't have to use Mapquest, the phone book, or Google to learn my way around.

-We'll have "cheap" babysitters (a.k.a. grandparents). Hello date night!!

-Building fires (in the fireplace, of course)

-Taco Bueno (BR made me add that one)

-Hunting and fishing (BR suggested that one too)

-Lots and lots of yummy restaurants that are just a short drive across town rather than a long, traffic filled journey across the city.

-Four Seasons. Winter, Spring, Summer AND Fall, not just summer, summer, summer, and summer!

-Being able to wear fall and winter clothes and not sweat (oooh! And hiding under big winter clothes until I lose my baby weight)

-My favorite salon and stylist

-College football!! Close proximity to our alma maters will allow us the opportunity to go to games! Before we moved, Brandon had season tickets for OU football and I had them for OSU, people thought we were crazy that we didn't go to each other's games.

-Because it's just like Carrie Underwood sings..."oh, there's nothing like Oklahoma" :)

Top 10 at 10

Some things I'll miss about Katy:

1. Kingsland Baptist Church. Our WONDERFUL church. I'll miss the teaching, our pastors, ABF-Adult Bible Fellowship (aka Sunday School class), precious friends, playgroup, and Women's Bible Study. I have learned SO incredibly much at KBC. The Lord truly blessed us when he lead us to that church. I was weepy through the entire service on Sunday knowing it was our last Sunday there!

2. My HEB Plus. Grocery shopping will never be the same.

3. The beautiful, clean, perfectly landscaped and manicured streets of Cinco Ranch.

4. The convenience of the master planned community. Everything I need is within a 5 mile radius.

5. The wonderful walking trails, parks, and pools on every corner (oh how my Noey will miss that). Our new neighborhood has zero parks and zero pools.

6. Lush tropical landscaping year round and just the thought that I could have a palm tree in my yard if I wanted to.

7. Mild, almost warm winters (although I am looking forward to a cold Christmas season!).

8. Our pediatrician. We finally found one we really like and we have to leave her. Plus, she has the coolest accent so even when she says things like spitting up and pooping, it sounds good.

9. Our key access mailbox. When we first moved here, I thought it was such a hassle to have to walk three doors down to get my mail, but now I love knowing that it's secure and no one can tamper with it.

10. Curb side recycling

Some things I will NOT miss about Katy:

1. Humidity! The air you can wear.

2. Towels that never dry (see number 1).

3. Bad hair days (see number 1).

4. The threat of hurricanes.

5. Fireants!

6. Bumpy, crunchy, non-barefoot friendly grass.

7. Having to brave Houston traffic to get to the zoo, aquarium, museums, sporting events, work, etc.

8. Our house. We decided to rent a house when we moved here because we didn't think it made financial sense to buy if we weren't going to be here for more than three years. I think I'm a nester by nature so it has been very hard not to be able to decorate and do my own thing to this house. Add pregnancy to the mix and I was about to go nuts.

9. Hearing about the Rockets, Dynamo (soccer, seriously?), and Texans year-round, off-season, on-season, you name it. Gimme some college sports!

10. It's a nine hour drive from our family.

Oklahoma Trip Part II

We ended up staying in Oklahoma for the week after Noah's birthday. Brandon got the job offer and we stayed to house hunt! It was a fun, but hectic week.

Who needs a train table? Pappaw rigged up this Macgyver-esque train track for Noah's battery operated trains to go around. Noah spent HOURS with this thing.

The tunnel (football seat cushions):

Our nightly entertainment:

Swingin'

We got to enjoy some beautiful Oklahoma fall weather and changing leaves.

Noah had fun playing in the leaves!

The picture is probably too small too tell, but pappaw hooked a rope to a plastic sled and was pulling Noah through the leaves.

We also got to visit a pumpkin patch one day. Noah had fun, but it was too cool and windy to get Ellianna out for very long.

The kids with memaw and pappaw. It's still so weird to me to be able to say kids. :)

The trip home. Time for an SUV? I think so.

Thomas the Tank Engine Party

We had Noah's birthday party in Oklahoma a couple weeks ago. We knew more of our family would be able to attend if we did it there. It was so fun to see everybody!! We hadn't been home in five months and hadn't seen some of them for seven months! And of course they wanted to meet miss Ellianna.
I got to meet my brother and sis-in-law's baby, Alexis! She is PRECIOUS! (Ryan has Elli, Lindsey has Alexis)

Every party has a pooper! My son fell asleep at the table at his own birthday party! That's what happens when you sleep 30 minutes of a 10 1/2 hour car trip one day and then play hard (napless) the next with your pappaw and cousins.

At the table!!! I can't get over it. That has never happened. Hilarious.

Opening presents with daddy!

How many cousins does it take to help open presents? Noah's cousins Sinjin and Mac were excited to see what he got.

Lindsey, Ryan, Alexis, Ellianna, me, and Brandon. It's gonna be so fun to watch these girls grow up together! Glad we get to live closer to them!

Thank you for helping Noah celebrate!