Christmas of the Sock Monkey

Christmas of 2011 will always be the Christmas I will remember as the time all Camden asked for was a sock monkey. And that was practically all he got since part of our family Christmas was going to Sandra Dodd's conference from Dec. 27-31st and paying for the 5 nights in a hotel (one of the nights was a stop at Ft. Stockton, TX to get to ABQ, NM). It was still a really good Christmas since we were with family. ;-)

Carlsbad Caverns

We have a travel dilemma. Should we go to Carlsbad Caverns next week on the way to Albuquerque, NM? It is a 13 hour drive to ABQ from where we are in Texas. We could stay in a motel in western Texas and get up and go to the caverns the next day. It is kinda on the way for us to go to the caverns. I really wanted to hit White Sands and Carlsbad, but if I am not sure that is doable. Anyone out there have any suggestions on any of this?

Thanks for any advice or thoughts. It is going to be out of the way for us to go there later. We will be staying about 5 or more hours away at another date and then heading west or north from those locations. It is almost too much thinking for me. LOL. I hate to add more expense to our trip, but I think it may be a fun side trip worth considering.

~Heather

A good weekend

 It was a busy weekend but it ended with a visit with my special Aunt and cousin. We hang out at a park in Spring which had nutria rats, which are are like beavers and are from South America. The weather was very nice and Santa even showed up to say hello!

More horsing around photos

All is going fine here in Texas, as you can see. We went off roading on on our mountain bikes a few times and have been soaking in the fresh air at least a little bit each day. Our time with family is coming to an end soon and we are keeping Christmas very basic, as always.

Love to all!
~Heather

Holden is 10!

I'm so proud of my sons and Holden is having a great birthday today! He has changed me in so many ways and I look forward to many more wonderful adventures with my sons and husband!!!

Just us ghouls

It was a really busy, but fun weekend! Several kids in the neighborhood went with us to go door to door and to see the haunted house at the lake. I felt ill so I missed most of the trick or treating, but I had a nice dinner in the oven when they got home. Cliff, Tammy and I went to a party on Saturday night. That was a lot of fun! Love to all!

~Heather♥

Howl o'ween fun

 

On Friday, my sister-in-law, Tammy (here from Seattle) took the boys to Howell's Pumpkin Patch for some fun! I usually take them, but she offered to so dear husband and I could have a much needed date. They had a great time with her and she got them to pose for lots of photos for us. It was a great idea she had!

Last night the adults got dressed up for a Halloween party and tonight we will all dress up for trick or treating and a neighborhood party at the lake. It is going to be a fun filled night here.

Tammy (sister-in-law)  is also helping with the Jack o lanterns and she is doing a great job with her creativity. She had the idea to have the kids do their own design on construction paper and then she drew the design onto their pumpkins. Very neat!

Also, we are gathering boxes for our impending move. We plan to be in Texas for Thanksgiving weekend. Cliff is giving his notice to his job this week. We are getting excited and trying not to think of all the friends we will be missing here. Everyone is being so supportive and loving to us. It makes this transition so much happier and easier.

Love to all!
~Heather

Maybe today!

We are keeping our fingers crossed that we get an offer tonight on the house! In the meantime, we have a website we are working on. It is helping us to stay focused on our future goals and where we want to be as a family. We are all very excited. We have worked really hard to maintain our ideals. The kids are happy and can't wait to see where the future leads. But they are happy in the moment as well. They are our little zen masters.

Here's the new website (click for link).We are still working on edits, but it is coming along. We hope it makes you smile! Feel free to share it and check back in a few months to see changes and check out the calendar. We have a plan for the next 8 months or so. There's a guest book as well. It is located at the bottom of all the pages. If you have any suggestions, please let us know.


Love to all,
Heather

My baby is turning 7

A rose for this rose

Man, has it been a long time since I sat down to write a blog post. I have lots of things I want to write and detail. Just can't seem to get it down here. I have been doing lots of writing in other places though, between friends and my husband and I. Lots of things are going on here. The for sale sign is in the yard. We have had people coming thru. We are just going with the flow and slowly going thru more stuff. We are dreaming and gathering lots of ideas for what we will do next. We found a great website with lots of ideas for where we could head to: http://www.caretaker.org/  The video is really cool also and it is not just caretaking jobs, but house sitting stuff. We are also reading some books about Gap Years. The dreams are really endless for us and we are very excited and hopeful.

Camden is turning 7 a week from today. He is so much fun and full of life. His spirit and happy energy is a force for good in our life and the lives of many others he touches everyday with his smile and laughter and love. Holden is also a joy and always full of wisdom and ideas. Their eyes sparkle with love and joy. It makes me feel so proud to be their mama.

My husband gave me the rose in this photo the day our house went on the market. He is so proud of the choices we are making and direction we are going with our lives. He is supporting my dreams fully and making them his dreams. It feels good to be on the same page after awhile of him not totally understanding. I was patient and it paid off big time. We are still fighting some inner demons, but overall we have made a lot of progress in our marriage and in other areas of our life. We know the next year will bring about some new challenges and things we need to focus on. We are ready for it!

At the moment we are plotting the direction we would like to be in the next year. We have decided to head south and west first. There is a conference in NM we would like to go to the end of December. We have not been to the SW U.S. and can see some inner growth happening for us there. And then we would like to be at the LIFE is Good conference in May. And if all works out we would like to be in the NE part of next summer. We will see how everything plays out. And then hit the east coast on the way to Florida and wind back around to Texas for Christmas 2012.

Love to all and may your days be filled with love and light!
~Heather