That drive....

The hate I have for the drive from our home in Texas to our families in Alabama has now officially surpassed my hate of ketchup. Like I would eat straight ketchup (i just gagged) if it meant I would never have to be a part of that drive again.

When we are here in Texas we want to be here, we love everything here..my job (1 in a million), our home (love love love our home), our church (our family) and all that entails.
However, when we are driving there and are in Alabama we want to be there so bad. I'm begging God to either calm my spirit and give me a love for that heinous drive or to give Adam a job closer to Alabama if not right smack dab in the middle of it.

Our house looks like a tornado came through and all the blessings/trash/decorations/newness of Christmas is everywhere. When we got here at 6 this morning we made a playpen out of our luggage and furniture to corral the kids. I put down tons of pillows and blankets, popped a bottle in Little Man's mouth and handed the remote to Goober (netflix only). I then laid in the middle of that playpen for 2 hours in and out of consciousness. Adam went straight to bed...he drove the last 10 hours straight. Then the kids and I ventured our for lunch and two stops at two different grocery stores...we were out of everything, including diapers and formula :).

Our visit to Alabama was wonderful. Unlike other trips there were only a handful of people that we didn't end up seeing. We received way tooo many nice gifts and blessings. The kids had lots of fun and of course were asking us when we could go back the whole way here.  The whole "want and need" gift giving went great. They still got wayyyyyy too many things but I wasn't disgusted and I felt like they didn't get the "gimmies". 

It was also nice to take naps during the day and go out by ourselves some. We actually got to have about 3 or 4 dates...I am not sure if I am counting our romantic dinner at Cracker Barrel with my brother as a date :).

Goober remembered the cost of 2 gifts and revealed those to the 2 recipients....he thought he was super funny and fortunately both of the recipients did too :). He also fell asleep one night with a big wad of gum in his mouth. He claims to not have known what to do with it so he just held it in his hand. Yeah, you can imagine the mess that he and the bed were in the morning. He got lots of beyblade equipment..lots of books and football things.

Ribbit was charming and whiny...her usual self. She told me that she loved me a lot during the trip and reminded me of our best friend status. She had a hard time sleeping but then again we all do when we aren't in our own bed....and when our older brother is encouraging the bad behavior :). She got lots of princess things, stuffed animals and cute clothes. She has not stopped carrying around her build a bear Hello Kitty....except for she calls it "Hello Cat".

Little man did really well for teething and being sick the whole trip. He had every adults attention and got lots of snuggles and bounces. He got a walker and has been scooting everywhere. He also got a mobile for his carseat...that has helped out the car ride a lot!!He started pointing during our trip so now we know exactly what he wants. He also starting wrinkling his nose when he laughs or smiles.

Thats all I can recall for right now....I'm feeling the medication I took take effect and we have lots to do tomorrow.....thank you notes/bank deposits/laundry/cleaning out the playroom/superhero costume gathering....i'm tired just thinking about it ;).


Santa makes us a deal. He will come visit us early if we make him his favorite peanut butter reindeer cookies!

He had fun at dinner that night....those two dots were cracking me up!

Test tasting Santa's cookie!

Santa left each child a note encouraging them in their strengths and reminding them to love their family and to obey :). Did you know that Santa's favorite instrument is the violin?

Unwrapping so fast that I couldn't capture it :)