Christmas

Christmas has come and gone so fast, I barely remember it. We had a great Christmas and Brayden was so into it this year. He looked forward to opening up each day on the advent calendar and eating the Hershey kiss inside. He could hardly wait for Santa to come. All he really wanted was Hiro the train from the new Thomas movie, Hero of the Rails. He watches this movie at least once a day and has it fully memorized. We would see the train at Target and he wanted to buy it so badly but I kept telling him that he asked Santa for it and he needed to wait to see if he brought it. We were watching tv one night and the commercial came on where Santa is running into Target for last minute presents and Brayden said, "Mom, Santa is going to Target to buy Hiro for me!" So cute.

Christmas Eve we went to my brother and sister-in-law's house for a wonderful and delicious turkey dinner. We had our mom's broccoli and cheese casserole which is a staple at any holiday meal. Then we went to their church's Christmas Eve service and watched my other brother and sister-in-law, Jon and Amy play in the worship band. And then the fun part, opening gifts! Brayden was very excited to get one of the new trains from the new movie, Victor, along with CARS stuff, and another train, Edward. He was so funny to watch opening his gifts, the excitement just oozed out of him and he didn't understand that he could take his gifts home. Cambelle and Chloe were just as excited to open presents and it is so cool to see how our family has grown over the past few years.

On our way home, Santa made his first stop at our house to drop off presents for Brayden. He came a little early since we were leaving for Florida the next day. Brayden walked in still excited about his new trains that he totally ignored the presents under the tree. (Thanks to Grandma and Grandpa) So when he finally saw everything he gasped. He began opening up his presents and was thrilled and beyond excited that Santa remembered to bring Hiro and Kevin. Now he keeps saying, "Mom, I don't have to buy Hiro now." He had been saving his money for a long time to buy a new train, so now he bought a new Thomas movie instead.

Cold Season & A New Job

Cold Season is upon us. All 3 of us have had colds for the past month with it getting better and then coming back. I don't think it is going to leave us. We finally took Brayden to the pediatrician on Thurs. because he kept complaining his mouth hurt so naturally I thought he had a sore throat. He tested neg. for strept and his throat looked fine, but low and behold he had an ear infection. I'm hoping his antibiotic will help relieve him of his cold symptoms at least a little bit. I think I had a sinus infection but I think I am finally getting better. Now Eric's cold sounds like it is getting worse. I hope we will get over this but it is really dragging out.

Friday was my last day working in the lab. On Monday I start my new job as a clinical research associate. It feels good and nerve racking to make this change. I have been ready to leave the lab for a while but I am nervous about doing something completely different. The unknown is always scary. I will miss those I've worked with these last two years and am excited to meet new people. My new job will be more administrative where I will be monitoring data obtained from patients in clinical trials and putting this data into databases so I'm looking forward to being more involved with the patient side of cancer research. This position will open up a lot more opportunities for me in the future as far as job selection and better pay. If you think of it, pray for me this week as I start a new routine!

Our weekend

This past weekend we were pretty busy. Saturday morning Brayden played his last soccer game for the Fall '09 season. He needed a little encouragement to get on the field but once he was out there he had fun. Then we headed to a friend's birthday party where Brayden met Santa. He has been asking to go see Santa for a week now because he wants to tell him that he wants Hiro the train. But he thinks that Santa is going to give it to him right there. Up until this year, he has not been interested in sitting on Santa's lap so we were real surprised how excited he was to see Santa and sit on his lap. He told him he wanted Hiro the train and Santa asked him who cut his hair. I cut his hair people!!!!! It only looks like he cut it because there is a V in the middle of his hairline. His hair does NOT grow there for some reason and it has always been that way. We are going to try and grow it longer for the winter but we'll see how long that lasts. I can't stand the awkward stage and he hates it when I try to wet it in the morning because it's sticking up. Then we headed to my niece, Chloe's, 2nd birthday. We had a great time with family celebrating her and watching her open her gifts and blow out the candles. She is so sweet.

We are back from the cruise and back to reality. Back to the cold air, having to make us dinners, doing laundry, going to work, and wiping noses. We had a great time on our cruise. The ship was awesome! Would highly recommend the Freedom of the Seas. The cruise director who is in charge of all the entertainment was hilarious. You can see him on youtube, Richard Spacey. Some highlights were the zip line in Haiti, our Jamaican taxi driver, Mr. Super, and crashing on our rented scooter right in front of the scooter rental guys in Cozumel. We enjoyed hanging out with our good friends Joe and Kelly and just resting in the warm sun for seven days. We missed our kids and that was the only motivation to come home.

Back to Blogging!

Hi All! I'm back and want to stay committed to blogging. I haven't written anything on our blog for the past 8 months and now I'm sad that I didn't record anything that happened during that time. So I'm back and will hopefully be consistent with it.

So what is going on with us: We are getting ready to go on a 7 day cruise with our good friends, The Carters, to celebrate both of our 10 yr. wedding anniversaries. We will be sailing to Haiti, Jamaica, Grand Cayman, and Mexico. We are very excited but that also comes with anxiety on my part. I will miss Brayden a lot. I know he will have a great time with the grandparents but I will still miss him. Pray that we all stay healthy and safe!

We are selling or renting our house, whichever comes first. We found an acre of land in Mullica Hill where we are going to build the house of our dreams for a reasonable price. We are very excited but I get a little sentimental about leaving this house. We have great neighbors, this was our first house, and this house is all Brayden knows. But I know God has great things in store for us.

We are looking into foster care and will be attending a meeting in a couple of weeks to get more information and see what the next step is. There is a lot of training involved along with inspections and background checks. We are excited to take care of God's children and feel like God has laid it on our hearts to do this. As an FYI, there are approximately 500,000 of God's children in the foster care system.