Christmas, Jake's 6th Birthday and Our Upcoming Move

I hope everyone had a VERY Merry Christmas! We had a GREAT Christmas with our families!! First we got to spend time with Drew's parents the week before Christmas. It was suppose to be our year to go out to Bama for Christmas, but since we have to move in a few days and everything has been kinda up-in-the-air until recently, we knew it would be best if we didn't make another road trip. So Ken and Judy were nice enough to come out here. They helped us with a lot of packing and got to spend time with Jake. He had fun teaching them both how to play the Wii. We got to have Christmas with them before they left and had a really great visit!

Timber loved playing with the paper and bows as we opened presents. This was when he discovered he had a piece of paper taped to his tail.....And this is him trying to get it off.........

I am still working nights at my job in Dallas and this year I had to work Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. It was kinda stinky, but Mom, Dad and Clayton came to our house on Christmas Eve, so they were here with Drew and Jake. When I got home from work on Christmas morning, everyone got up to see what Santa brought Jake and we did our family Christmas together. We had a great time and it was hard for me to go to bed later that morning, but I was really tired and had to go back to work that night. So I went to sleep and my parents and Drew took Jake to the "big movies."

The fun doesn't end on Christmas around here..... Jake's birthday is December 26th. This year he turned SIX years old! I still can't believe my baby is six.... going on 26 :) My parents wrote that in his birthday card and it is SOO true. He's gettin a lil big for his britches.... but thats another story. Actually, I could write a book ;) Here's Paw Paw trying to help Jake figure out a new toy, and Jake telling Paw Paw what he wants it to do. (And Paw Paw telling Jake why it can't do what he wants it to do:) For his birthday, we wanted to do somethis different and special so we went to Medieval Times. It was a blast and Jake loved it! Ours was the Black & White Knight, who defeated the Green Knight and won in the end. (Jake was very excited about that)

Me & my brother, Clayton

Carissa, Mom, Dad, Me, Clayton, Drew, Jake & his buddy Derrion

Aunt Carissa & Jake

The coolest part..... Jake got KNIGHTED by the King!!!!! (He looks a little concerned here:)

This past weekend, we all went up to Grandma & Poppa's house in Aubrey for our big family Christmas. Grandma made a really great lunch with turkey and dressing and all kinds of good stuff. We hung out all day, played games, played with baby Gracie (who is so cute and has gotten so big), and had a really great time together. I forgot my camera, so I didn't get any pictures. We have been so blessed with amazing families here in Texas and in Alabama and we are so thankful for that!

And, to update everyone on our moving situation.... We decided to go to Alaska, but it turned out to be too late... the position at the hospital had already been filled. There aren't any other travel nurse positions open right now in any mountain areas so..... plan B: We are moving into an apartment in Las Colinas (North Dallas) for now. If a travel position comes up somewhere that we want to go in the next month, then we will jump on it. If not, we will stay in the apartment until the summer and then figure out plan C.

Whats been going on...............

Its been almost a month since my last post.... that's because things have been really busy around our house. I wanted to update everyone on whats been going on. First of all, we SOLD our house and officially closed two days before Thanksgiving!! Our prayer was that a family would fall in love with our house and buy it quickly, but wouldn't want to move in until January. That's exactly what happened! We are so thankful for that! We are praying for direction and hoping that we can end up doing a whole lot of this......................... (This is a picture of Andrew at Snow Basin in Utah earlier this year)

Now the big question (that we've heard A LOT:) is "Where are we going???" Well, thats a goooood question and as soon as we figure out our plans, we cant wait to let everyone know! Turns out, there aren't many travel nursing jobs available for NICU right now, especially in the mountains which is where we want to be. We are considering an assignment in Anchorage, Alaska (which would be AWESOME). Whats holding us back is how difficult (and expensive) it would be to get out there. Its over 4100 miles from Dallas, meaning really expensive plane tickets or about an 8 to 10 day drive. If we choose not to go to Alaska and nothing else comes up in the next week or so, we plan to move into an apartment in North Dallas until we figure out the next step. So, stay tuned......