December went really fast and was kind-a a blur with so much going on, but I still made sure to take Brooklyn to see Santa Claus!
We were able to have some really cold weather and some snow before we left for Texas. :)
My sister, Tara and her daughter Tamara, came over from Seattle to help me pack up. (I think she could sense that I was lacking the modivation) Thanks Sis! :)
Brooklyn liked having her mattress on the floor for the last couple of nights. She thought it was "fun" :)
Lots of packing, with the help from my sister and niece, and my in-laws!
Got some bowling in with some friends :)
We took Brooklyn downtown Spokane to see the huge Christmas tree!
She loved all the "skyscrapers", she kept referring it to bubble guppies when they visit Umi-City! :)
Smelvington, our elf, made sure to trick us all month long! :) He even snuck in our bags and played tricks in our hotel rooms when we were traveling to Texas. :)
Then came the awesome cleaning lady...... also known as my mom-in-law! Diana was a BIG help with the dirty stuff!
Brooklyn was also... "helpful" :)
Brooklyn was amazed at how BIG the truck was :) I was too, and even more amazed that we filled the whole thing up!!
Me trying to entertain Brooklyn and give her a safe place away from the noisy vacuum and carpet cleaner.
Thank goodness for the tablet this day! Poor girl.
We are all feeling a bit tired at this point.
Brooklyn saying goodbye to her best friend, Ella!
Me saying goodbye to my good friends! :(
Who like to sporadically break out in dance sometimes! :) HAHA!
FINALLY, after I throw a few fits and make sure things are done my way, we are ready to leave Moscow! SAD DAY! :*( We were very grateful that Mike's parents came with us, to help with the driving and stuff!
We left a little later than we wanted, so it was cold, wet, and already starting to get dark, but at least we had Pringles, headphones, and movies! ;)
Brooklyn did SO GOOD driving in the car! I was so proud of her! She was SOOOO excited when we would arrive to the hotels each night! She would run and jump on the beds! And of course, after being seat belted in her car-seat, with the 5 point buckle even, I was not about to stop her! :)
Our first night, we stopped in Pendleton Oregon.
We ate lots of restaurant foods and convenient store crap
Stayed in 5 different Hotels, some better than others! ;)
And looked at the butt of this big yellow truck for miles upon miles!! (At least I never had to drive the big yellow beast!! (Mike and David drove that) :)
We found some pretty cool rest stops along the way. This one had a little arcade in it!
Sydney LOVED riding in the truck, which surprised me! She would've spent the entire 5 days in there if we would've let her! But she had to take turns :) Livia didn't like it much, she pretty much claimed the back seats in the Suburban so she could stretch her legs out and sleep. :) And poor Brooklyn wanted to ride in the truck so bad, but she stayed in her car seat in the Suburban as well! :)
We drove through Salt Lake City during a really bad snow storm so we couldn't walk around temple square like we wanted, and since we arrived there later than we wanted, we just did the lame drive-bys.
Here's the Salt Lake City Temple.
Here's Las Vegas, which the girls LOVED!!!! I think Diana loved it just as much, if not more! ;)
This was Brooklyn's favorite building.... the Princess Castle. :)
Brooklyn was so happy to be out of the car, she laid herself down on the chair and was singing and kicking her legs. It was cute :)
Mike wanted the girls to stay in a fancy 5-star hotel at least once during our travel, so we did in Vegas. It was nice, and right down town, close to everything.
Unfortunately, I didn't enjoy Vegas very well, or any of our "road trip" for that matter, because I got sick! So in Vegas, Brooklyn and I stayed in the hotel room and order room service and took a bubble bath, while Mike and the girls, and Nana and Papa went to play on the town! They didn't come home until late! I think David and Diana stayed out until 2AM even! Who knows WHAT they did!? hahaha!
After I held everyone up for a couple of hours going to the Dr to get antibiotics for my Sinus Infection, we were finally on the road again, heading to Flagstaff Arizona!
Which was a HUGE let down. We went from a 5 star hotel to a 2 Star, although, technically it should've had ZERO stars cuz it was awful and gross! The girls saw all sides of hotel living now! ;) But, luckily, we survived the night and left bright and early for TEXAS!
I caught both the girls lying to me about being buckled, so I made them do push-ups outside in their PJ's at the next rest stop. Although, it didn't seem like much of a punishment, cuz they were laughing the whole time! :)
Sydney was meant for hotel living. She loves being waited on, being pampered, and dining out. She's so cute and funny! :) We made it to Fort Stockton Texas!
After 6 days of driving, 5 different hotels, and traveling over 2600 miles, over COUNTLESS hours! We FINALLY arrived! We were ALL overjoyed to arrive! We are now in Tomball Texas!
We had a whole army of men waiting in our lawn when we pulled up too! At least 20 people there to help unload. We had the whole truck unloaded so quickly.
We had surprises waiting for us inside as well! Mike left a house key with a sister in our ward, to check on things while he was gone and water the Christmas tree a few times; turns out she did a LOT more than just water a tree! :) They had gifts and surprises everywhere for us. I couldn't believe it! Such nice sisters and families in our ward! They all really came together to help us have a Christmas miracle! The Young Women and Faith in God girls left notes for the girls on the walls, welcoming them to Texas. They even made them a plate with all their signatures on it. There were gorgeous snowflakes and Christmas decorations everywhere. Crafts and surprises for the girls. A nice nativity, and treats and goodies everywhere. Even our little fridge, (that she loaned us) was full of food for us! My sister in law, Shalise even had a flower and pine arrangement delivered to us, waiting for us on our front porch. I feel so blessed to have had so much love poured out to all of us, especially at such a fragile, emotional time for us all. Thanks to EVERYONE!
We had two mini fridges stacked, for awhile. Which was really annoying during Christmas and New Year's. We basically had to go shopping daily.
Here's just a few pictures of our new home. The breakfast nook, although, it seems to be used more for homework and crafts. :)
Dining room
Kitchen
Livia's Room (and new full sized bed) :)
Brooklyn's Room (and new twin bed) :)
Sydney's Room (same twin bed) ;)
Family/Game Room upstairs
The front of our house. Diana photo-bombing us :)
We have a duck pond right by our house.
Brooklyn LOVES feeding the duckies, although, she seems to eat more of the bread than she gives the ducks :) And yes, this picture is in DECEMBER! We had several nice days outside!
Brooklyn was soooo happy to see her toys again. She was convinced that I was giving all her stuff away when we boxed them up.
The girls enjoying the new crafts that were given to them :)
A few Christmas Eve pictures, before bed! :)
We arrived to Tomball Texas just 2 days before Christmas! Which didn't give us much time to unpack. We unpacked the essentials on Christmas Eve, and then just played with our new Christmas toys on Christmas!
Here's Christmas morning:
After things were starting to wind-down, we heard a knock at the door. I could tell through my door and windows that it was a big, tall person wearing red and white! Sure enough! IT WAS! Santa had come to our house to see the girls (mostly Brooklyn) and give her one last gift! It made her day! He made a pretty good Santa too. Turns out he is from our ward, but Brooklyn still thinks he was the real deal! It was pretty cute! :)
For New Year's Eve, we stayed home and played some games and watched movies. I had just cleaned the floor, and I used this pledge cleaner that made the floor SUPER slippery! So the girls were slipping and sliding all over the place! We had to walk very careful for a few days. :)
We played a few minute to win it games. (I was the only one who could stack all 3 golf balls, (*cough cough*!)
We ended the night watching and listening to TONS of fireworks! They were everywhere! And there were firework stands everywhere as well. I wonder if they aren't allowed to use them in July cuz of the heat. Not sure. Guess we'll find out. It was a fun way to start the New Year! :)
HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE! Hope 2014 is even better than the last!
