"Twas the Night Before Christmas"

'Twas a few days before Christmas, when all through the house not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse - thanks to our mouse houses out in the garage!
The stockings were hung by the TV Armoire with care (no chimney in the barn house for us) in hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there.

The children were nestled all snug in their beds,while visions of Wii games and Barbies and Babies danced in their heads. And Mama in her flannels, and I in boxers,had just settled our brains for a long winter's nap.

No such luck for the nap - I did mention only a few days before Christmas didn't I?!

In place of the napping I am getting some kid free time. Robert took Caleb and Kelsey to work with him today and Chloe stayed with Aunt Ashley while I ran a few errands. Any free time is better than none even if you have to deal with Walmart shoppers three days before Christmas!

We are here for Christmas Eve and Day and then will head up to Tennessee on Friday to see Robert's parents. No fun to drive up on Christmas Day unless you really want Subway or a pecan log to count for your Christmas dinner!!

The kids have two whole weeks off for Christmas break - maybe Robert should have waited till next week to take the kids to work - would probably really need the alone time by then!

Hope everyone has a Wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year. With the Tennessee trip and the preparations for Christmas (baking, wrapping, cleaning, etc.) I will post again in the New Year!

Merry Christmas to all and to all a goodnight or at least one good night of sleep!

Chloe Turns 1!

November was a busy time for the Heller household! Chloe turned one on November 20th, we had her birthday party the weekend of Thanksgiving and prior to that we also had Thanksgiving at our new home. Note to self - do not have two things at our house in one weekend!

Hard to believe but our youngest is already one years old. Not walking yet but getting very close. She is standing up and crawling all over the place. She is into everything of course but she is still a very calm baby - nothing like Kelsey was! Maybe she has to be with her brother and sister always running around. Her birthday party was alot of fun - we did a hayride and bonfire - firsts at the new home. We love living in the country! Have to also mention mom and I were quite impressed with ourselves on the cake. I decided this year since it was a barnyard theme and also on Thanksgiving weekend (not too many cake stores open) that I should make the cake. Didn't we do a good job??!!

As I said before we also had Thanksgiving at our house. It was a lot of fun. I am so excited about our new home and it is nice to show it off. We were happy to have some new people come this year and we were also a little sad about some that couldn't make it! I know my dad missed out on our Nanny's cornbread dressing. Busying working up in Denver! It was a very relaxing day. Everyone got a chance to ride around on the four-wheeler or the truck and explore our land! Did I already say how much I love living out here?! Memaw and Pepaw Heller along with Mimi all stayed the night that night and got to play on the Wii with the kids! They had a blast along with a few laughs on trying to get the hang of it!

It is beginning to feel a lot like Christmas. With the temperatures dropping we are also getting into the Christmas spirit. I am baking lots of cookies and the kids are constantly wanting Hot Chocolate. Along with the low temperatures the wind is pretty strong out here too especially with no trees to block it out. We will be working on the tree situation in the spring! The kids are loving their warm cozy pj's and I am loving tucking them in earlier than usual and getting myself into a warm bed early too! Hope everyone has a Merry Christmas!

Halloween

As you can tell from the picture the theme for Halloween this year was Longhorns!! Caleb was a football player and Kelsey and Chloe were his cheerleaders! We had a somewhat quite Halloween this year with only 6 kids trick or treating - quite different from our usual number. We went to Fort Worth and trick or treated at my cousins neighborhood. Kind of hard to trick or treat where we live unless we go into town and do it there. We will have to try that next year.
Christmas is fast approaching and of course the little holiday in between always gets left out. This year however it will be a big weekend for us. We are having Thanksgiving at our new home here in Maypearl and then that Saturday we are going to celebrate Chloe's 1st Birthday. She will be 1 on November 20th - this year went by very quickly! We hope to have a real down on the farm birthday party complete with a hayride and bonfire. We will have to see how that goes - little nervous about the fire part!
Yesterday my mother-in-law returned from Germany where she was stationed for six months. We will get to see her Thanksgiving. I know she is excited about seeing her grandkids and us too of course! Funny thing about her returning because today my dad just headed out to Denver for six months for his new job at Southwest Airlines. We will miss him tons and my mom will be a real empty nester with him gone and us down here. Luckily Jason and his family are around the corner and of course we always have room for her down here anytime she wants to come and stay. Lots of new things going on in our family! We will update again hopefully before the holidays overtake us!!

I have joined the world of blogging!

With my first official blog I thought I would give an update on how we are doing in our new hometown!
Robert is currently working very hard at D6 Consulting and at home putting the finishing touches on our new home. He drives to work several days a week and then works from home the rest - his commute is over an hour when he does go in! He is able to start relaxing a little more since the house is almost finished and we are now actually living in it. (We have one functioning shower, potty and bathroom sink - kitchen sink is hopefully going to be put in this week - waiting on the kitchen counters to be completed!)
For most of you who did not know we were living in our travel trailer for about six weeks while our house was being built. Very hectic and stressful with three kids (one who is crawling), two adults and a dog!
Caleb is doing well in 2nd grade. He loves his new school. He has joined Boy Scouts and is making lots of new friends.
Kelsey is in her second year of preschool. She is actually going to a new school in Waxahachie - Maypearl doesn't have any preschools. She is ornery as ever but then again with her age (3) and her personality there was no getting away from it!
Chloe is 11 months old now. Has a mouth full of teeth and is crawling and pulling up on everything. Now that we have moved into a house minus carpet I am having to looked past some of my cleanliness issues and let her get around on the floor even when it is not so clean. We use a lot of baby wipes on the hands!
As for me I am adjusting to being in a new place - getting used to having to drive 15 minutes away for most of the conveniences that used to be just down the street from us in Arlington. I love the quiteness and the beautiful sunsets we have each night out our back window. Hope to get involved more soon with the kids schools and get out and meet people however right now I am just focusing on getting completely moved into the house. One step at a time!