Utah

Julianna with cousin Levi. Yes that is "coffee" they are drinking.

Norah and Audric playing with a new toy.

Some would say that Audric needs a dog.



Christmas morning. Audric woke up and cuddled with Gus(a dog) for a half an hour before realizing that it was Christmas and that there were toys in his stocking. He ran down stairs, woke up Julie and came in our room yelling that Santa got him a Harrier Jet plane. Once we all got up stairs it took him climbing over his bike to get another present and for Julie to say "hey Audric look at your bike" before he noticed the bike. I guess you could say he was a little out of it that morning. They had so much fun opening gifts.

Before we left Audric brought home a nasty bug and gave it to Tim and Julie. Everyone was better by the time we left for Utah except for me who got it on the ride up. Having a fever and a cough while spending two days driving sucks. It took five days of feeling miserable before I felt like I could do anything. Of course that was the last day we were there. We spent it playing in the snow and roasting marshmallows. The kids felt better than me during the trip but as you can see some days wiped them out.

funny videos

This was taken in Mississippi at a rest stop. I could have more fun with it but I felt bad.

The kids had just openned presents on skype with gramy and poppy Wilson. Julie loved her new PJs and Audric thought she would like to dance with it on.

Albuquerque, NM

This is our Xmas tree so far. All the ornaments are home made.

Julie wrote her name on her own.

Audric First bus ride at his new school.

Kids making ornaments for our tree.

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Tim made a card board kitchen for the kids. Audric and Julie got to color on it. Audric's flowers on the fridge were really good.

Audric wanted to make a shoe so he did. He sewn it through his sock but it was a really good shoe for making it all by his self

Julie feeding her little bear.

view from kitchen window

Living room window view. Looks better in person.

Night view, we can see all of Albuquerque and our heated pool and spa.

Snow day!

Our moving experence

At ballet recital with friends.

At Xmas tree lighting with friends.

This was a great climbing tree by our temporary Lodging.

This has been a big move for us. Before the movers came we had to make three different piles for where our stuff would be going: England, long term storage and Albuquerque. We were very stressed not know how it was going to be having all the movers here on the first day. We were lucky and the movers were good. Only three time we thought they packed the laptop, the binder and pool key that needed to stay in the house ($100 fee) and our passports but there were no problems. I did cost a lot to feed people lunch for three days but they deserved it. We have so much stuff. I am to good at organizing and fill all and any storage places. My goal is to have a big yard sale when we get to England. I just hate to throw something away that I might need there.

Moving out of our house took eight days. Two days packing, Thanksgiving, one day to move the stuff out, two days of camping out on air mattress and sleeping bags (thank you Crystal and Jill) and two days of cleaning our butts off (thank you everyone who let us barrow cleaning stuff). We stayed in temporary lodging while cleaning and a few days after. We got to see Pope's Christmas tree lighting for the first time and visit with friends one last time.

It's always exciting to go to new places but this was the first time with kids. Most of our friends have always moved out before us so that was hard to leave them behind (even though they will be moving soon too). We had a Nerf dart war in our empty house with Audric's friends(he earned it for all the books he has read since June). Audric and Julie had a going away party at school the day before we left, we had a couple dinners with friends and Tim had a going away party at work. We miss everyone, it's hard to to leave home and Family; our friends.

It took five days of driving two cars from North Carolina to New Mexico. Our plan was to put a kid in each car but after seeing how much stuff we had packed that it wouldn't fit safely. The Rav4 got packed full of our clothes and thing we would need for the next six months, not even the front seat was empty. The Subaru had the kids, our travel clothes and bikes on top. (Sarah's struggles) If you don't already know driving long distances make me fall asleep. I trained myself to do that as a kid so I would get to places quicker. Well it's a pain in the butt now. The first day I was fighting myself to stay awake. The kids were in the back watching movies so I couldn't even sing to music to stay awake, I resorted to slapping myself. I tried eating sunflower seeds; that helped. Now I will forever use 5hour energy when driving. It was great.

Day 1: Left 8:30am, checked out of TLF. 8 hours drive, with a lunch stop, we stayed just outside of Atlanta, GA. We drove through NC on 95, SC on 20, and ended in GA. Stayed at Holiday Inn express. Audric got two spider bites.

Day 2: Woke up 7:00am ate free breakfast yum. Packed the car, loaded the bikes left around 8:30am. Drove on 20 through GA, AL (pretty state) and stayed in Mississippi right outside of Memphis in another Holiday Inn express. Julianna, we realized, had a UTI. She's on meds daily already and I knew what dose to give her to take care of it.

Day 3: Woke up ?? time change. ate free breakfast, I love free. Drove through Memphis and to Little Rock, AR for lunch. We met up with two good family friends for lunch at Jason's deli. A long lunch but it was worth it. We drove to Oklahoma City to another Holiday Inn express. It was nice staying in the same hotels every night. It made us feel like we were not driving all day. Tim did a good job.

Day 4: Good breakfast, no real butter. Poor Julie didn't eat much because she still felt sick. Short drove to Amarillo, Tx. OK was nice the day before but now it was bear and flat; Tx looked the same. We went swimming in the hotel pool, ate at Texas road house for dinner. I got carded for drinks and got to use my Texas drivers licence.

Day 5: stopped at Santa Rosa, NM for lunch. Got to new Apartment by 1:30pm. No more driving!

I forgot to say that this whole move we were all sick. Coughing, runny noses, just crappy feeling.

Our daily trip to the car with all our stuff plus one more with the bikes.

Portraits by Min Harding

Min sells the copy rights to the portraits so I was able to make our Christmas cards. Her website is: http://web.me.com/msk22373/Site/Home.html

Picture Joy Christmas

Make a statement with custom Christmas cards at Shutterfly.

View the entire collection of cards.

Halloween

Every year I make the kids Halloween costumes. This year I only made one but no one wore it. Julie wanted to be a witch so a made this really cool dress that I sized down a formal from the thrift shop. She hated it. So she was a ballerina, a princess, a butterfly and a monster. Oh wait, Julie's always my little monster. Audric was a fighter Jet pilot and a burnt-up pilot. It's amazing what Elmer's glue and some make-up can do. We went trick-or-treating three times but not on Halloween. I did make to coolest Halloween pancakes in the morning. My trick is to turn the burner up high and use a medicine syringe for the details.

Fall Pictures