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!

First Time at Church

We took Ellianna to church for the first time last Sunday, November 1. With Noah I think we were back at church in two or three weeks, but with a preemie (and swine flu lurking about) it's a totally different story! I was still hesitant to take her when we did, but we have to soak up all the Kingsland teaching while we can!

Pumpkin Patch Pics

Our playgroup scheduled a photographer to come do mini-photo shoots at the pumpkin patch again this year. Here are some of our pictures!

Big Brother

When Ellianna first came home, Noah thought she was precious. When she overstayed her welcome, he got a little annoyed with her and with us for paying attention to her. Now, he's slowly coming around and accepting the fact that baby sister is here to stay.

Here he is playing with her on the play mat. Whatever she was doing was absolutely hilarious to him, he was laughing so hard.

This is the first time he held her (10/15/09). We offered to let him hold her many times, this was the first time he was willing.
Proud big brother.
These next pictures melt my heart. We took these last week at my parent's house. He was in such a sweet and loving mood. I just wish she would've been properly accessorized. Ha!


He laughs at her little sounds and imitates them. I think he thinks she's doing it for his entertainment.

He loves to kiss her head. He kisses her before he goes to bed each night, but lately he's been giving her some spontaneous kisses.

Precious.

For good measure, a couple of Ellianna with the bow: He loves and adores her, he just doesn't want us to. Here are some funny things Noah has said since baby sister has been home:

"No mommy feed Ellianna!"

"No take Ellianna in the house!" (he suggests that we leave her in the car)

"No mommy check on Ellianna!"

"No daddy hold Ellianna!"

"Ellianna's not hungry!"

"Ellianna has a tummy ache."

"No Ellianna on Noah's bed" (if I take her with me to put him to bed)

Brandon: "Who do you want to pray for?"

Noah: "Nana, pawpaw, memaw, pappaw, grandpa Gary...."

Brandon: "Should we pray for Ellianna that she'll get stronger and bigger so she can play with you?"

Noah: (Very matter of fact) "No."

"No daddy look at Ellianna."

"Pat Ellianna."

"She needs a burp" (patting her bottom)

All Aboard!

Noah loves to play with, watch, and read books about trains. So of course, my choice for his costume for the Fall Fest at church was a train conductor.
There's a little red caboose and railway museum in town and anytime we drive by it Noah says, "go see it". So I thought this was the perfect opportunity to let him "see it" and take some pictures!
He did NOT want to wear the hat so some people thought he was a farmer. Here's the angry conductor in his hat:
All aboard!!
After taking pictures, we went to church to play games! This was the first year that Noah really got excited about everything. He had a little trouble with the waiting in line concept, but was pretty patient once we explained how he needed to wait his turn.He loved any and all games that involved a ball.

Goooooooooal!
Little pitcher:
He picked up a jump rope and knew exactly what to do with it. What in the world?
Hilarious:
It takes such concentration to go down the slide: This was my last minute costume for Ellianna. I had a little "Baby's 1st Boo" onesie for her to wear, but then came across this gingham jumper when my mom and I were looking through my brother's baby clothes (from 1981). One of Brandon's co-workers bought these ruby slippers for her before she was born. When I saw the jumper I thought of the shoes and decided she could be Dorothy for Halloween. I regret that I didn't get a better picture of her.