Christmas Band Concert

Updating my blog has been on my "to do" list for the last couple of weeks. I was determined today was the day so here is the last few weeks update.

The House
After going back and forth a few times then walking away for a week or so we went back into negotiations with the bank and the night before Thanksgiving we ended up getting the house. Yeah! we are all very excited. Having a home is definitely something I took for granted. One of those "you don't realize what you have until it is gone" type of things.  For some reason living in the duplex temporally has been really hard on all of us. A few weeks ago Teegan and I were out and I turned to him and said "lets go home".  "Home?" he said "you mean the duplex?"  "Yes, that's  home" I said. He said "that is not our home that is the landlords".   I know all of us will appreciate having a home a little bit more now.
Job
I started a new very part time job at a new clothing and home decor shop that just opened up. I actually spent a week or so helping them get thing set up and ready to open. I will only be working a few times a month as they need me.
Thanksgiving
This was our first year away from home for Thanksgiving. We had a lot of invitations from friends but in all honesty we were so excited to just have Thanksgiving together as a family. It was something we had been planning for a long time. In fact  Mike and I talked month ago when we first found out that we were moving that we had actually never made a turkey and Thanksgiving dinner before and we were excited to give it a try. Mike was in charge of the Turkey and he did a great job.

Whitney helped out in the kitchen to learn how to do it all. There was a little bit of messing around

Nice hat head Mike

and the boys had to get in on the fun too.

With all the messing around the next thing I knew the turkey was ready and the rest of the meal was not. Oops. I had started some of it the night before and we all pulled together and got it done. Everything turned out great.

Just ask Teegan :). I even got out my fine china that had never been used since we got it for our wedding 16 years ago. I love that kind of stuff (not).
After Thanksgiving we had Thankschristmas. When we were buying the house the first round we had decided we would not be going to Utah this year for Christmas. But when the deal didn't work out we went ahead and bought our tickets. So when we went back into negotiations we had already got the tickets but had not told the kids. We are all leaving on the Dec 20th. Whitney has to be back for soccer the 27th so she and Mike will fly home the 26th and the boys and I are staying until the 31st.  The bank was pushing to close in this calendar year so we are set to close on Dec 27th, yep I will be in Utah, and we told the landlord we will be out by Jan 1st , yep I will  still be in Utah until the afternoon of the 31st. Yep we are crazy! With things being so crazy we were slipping up and decided we needed to tell the kids. So that is where thankschristmas came in. We gave the kids their tickets.

 Check out Mike in the background LOL

They were so excited. Whitney was crying she was so excited.
Then we gave them annual passes to Six Flags and told them we were going to San Antonio for the weekend.

After dinner got cleaned up and the kids came off the ceiling we did our traditional gingerbread decorating.

Then watched a movie.

Weekend
Friday I worked half a day and then we headed off to San Antonio. It is really only 1 1/2 away but we decided to make it a fun weekend and stay the night down there. After driving down, getting checked into the hotel, we headed to Six flags for some fun.

Of course it just happened to be the coldest day since we moved to Texas but the kids didn't seem to mind.

Teegan made some friends.

Saturday we went downtown and walked around the river walk. It was such a neat place.

And the Alamo

Then spent the rest of the day at Six flags again

We had a great weekend!

But when we got home on Saturday night we found where that funny smell had been coming from.

Over the last few months the  master bath had been leaking and had been seeping through the wall into the master bedroom. There was a box on the floor (right where the hole is) and then our long dresser was next to it so we did not see that the baseboards were all swollen and the wall was growing mold. I won't tell you what the bottom of the box looked like. Joy! right when we were going to tell the landlord we were moving out. We decided it would need to be 2 different conversations and this one needed to be first.  The landlord decided to rip the whole tub out so needless to say it has been a week of workers coming in and out all day. And we eventually were able to have the "we are moving out conversation". So we are now onto inspections, appraisals, and loan crap stuff,  buying a house is a lot of work (that is a little reminder to myself for the next time I decided to move ;) ).
Church is keeping us busy. I am serving as the 2nd councilor in the Relief society, Mike is the 2nd councilor in the YM, and Whitney is the Mia Maid president and just got to speak in church. So between meetings, activities and teaching lessons we have a lot on our plate.
Yes, I would have to say things around here have been a little stressful but we are looking forward to going to Utah for Christmas. I have to keep reminding myself that it is even Christmas.

My first big spider (tarantula)

I don't think we could call him a spider. He, my friends was a small animal who was crossing the road while I was taking the carpool kids home. I wish I had a better camera and a better close up of him. I was so stunned I just sat and watched him. I DIDN'T EVEN RUN HIM OVER! nope I just watched him cross and go into the trees. He was so perfect it was like he was not even real. I didn't know we had roaming tarantulas

In the Spirit of Thanksgiving

Halloween

I am not sure what happened but I don't have one single picture from Halloween. To be honest I have to remind myself that Halloween actually came and went. I think it will take us a few years to get adjusted to the climate. The falls leaves and the crisp air that used to be the indicator that Halloween was around the corner were missing. We went from looking for Halloween costumes that were warm and fuzzy to keep the kids warm to finding something with less layers. Teegan wore the batman costume to our ward truck or treat and just about passed out.  It was a warm evening in the 90's :). Since Halloween fell on Sunday this year we didn't do any neighborhood trick or treating. As I mentioned we went to the ward truck or treat during the week and got plenty of candy and on Saturday we went to a Halloween party.  The kids were really good sports about it and didn't complain once (OK maybe Teegan did once).  It actually ended up opening some good experiences for the kids. The next day in Landon's class he was asked to read his journal entry in front of the class. He mentioned that he had not gone trick or treating. When he was walking back to his seat his teacher started to ask him why but then stopped and said "I guess I should not ask you that". Landon said "it's OK you can ask". She said "do you not trick or treat because of your religion"? He said "no, we can trick or treat, it was just Sunday".
Whitney was asked to give a talk at Evening in Excellence (a night for the girls and their parents) on integrity. She was able to use her experience in her talk. Here is what she said:

          This Halloween I decided to not go trick or treating because it fell on a Sunday . Living in Utah they go trick or treating Saturday night when this happens. That Monday I went to school and was asked by my friend in class if I had gone trick or treating. When I said no, she had a look on her face like are you serious? Then the words that came out of her mouth were “Oh is it because your mormon?” I told her yes and she understood. The next day in soccer I was getting ready when I  got a zip lock sandwich bag of candy thrown at me. I looked up and it had came from my friend that I told I had not gone trick or treating. She said "I got plenty and I want to share".  Standing up for who I am and what I believe has a whole new meaning for me. Moving here from Utah has been a really eye opening experience.  Not just the questions people have asked me but also choosing the right when you are asked to do something that you know is wrong. I feel like I have  integrity now but know that it will keep growing stronger as I choose the right.

So since I have no pictures from this Halloween I decided to share some from Halloweens past. 

We laughed till we cried

Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

Wish us luck

We made an offer on this house today. Kind of scary! It is a lot like our old house in that it will keep me busy for years to come. But you know me, I love a project :).

2010 Football season ends

Lake Travis Homecoming Parade

I had to include a picture of the dance team and their outfits

JV Soccer Team Float

Grandma and Grandpa Maxfield Visit

Grandma Susan and Grandpa Laurie came to visit us
They explored downtown Austin while the kids were in school. We visited a few restaurants,  made a visit to Hamilton Pool and watched Landon's last football game. I hate to say we spent an entire day at the biggest outlet mall I have ever seen (and I have seen a few in my day).  The trip went way to quick and we are already planning on having them back soon.

Mormons ?!?!

My 3 short months being a member of the LDS church and living outside of Utah have been a very eye opening experience. Not only for me but for our whole family. It never ceases to amaze me the misconceptions people have about our religion. One of the first few days of school Whitney overheard a group of boys talking next to her in class. 3 boys were talking about making the basketball team. One asked if another friend had made the team and the other one replied "no because he is Mormon". The other one said "didn't he move here from Utah?" The other one replied "yes, that's were all those Mormons live". 
Things were different here and we were going to have to be strong. There are curious people that have heard crazy things and we were going to have to be good examples and share the truth.
Whitney has had numerous situations where once they realize she is Mormon they ask her things like, what does your family "make" (like the Amish),  I heard they don't use protection (she was not even sure what they were saying let alone how to answer that), I heard you can't date, once while sitting by a friend from the ward, another friend of Whitney's asked how they knew each other, Whitney told her church, She said "wait you guys are Mormons? I didn't think you could touch the opposite sex?" Whitney poked him "touch", one of the best yet is, I heard you can't look at boys! (her parents wish :)). I do feel that although people are misinformed they seem very accepting of it and don't judge you.
The interesting thing to me is that they know (or think they know) a lot about us but yet we are still so small in numbers. We live in a pretty big neighborhood and there are no members right around here. I could not wrap my mind around this. I knew it was not going to be like Utah by any means but I figured they were planted around at least 1 in a neighborhood.  And like any city there are definitely neighborhoods in our ward where a large group of members ended up (interesting note, my observations are the neighborhoods that have the "family" feel) . I learned from a conference talk that the Book of Mormon makes it clear that we never will dominate by numbers. At 14 million members, we are a tiny fraction when compared to the billions of people on the earth. But, we are who we are, and we know what we know and we are to go and preach the gospel. -Pres Boyd K. Packer.   So where are these people getting all their information?  (light bulb moment) This is why it is so important for their to be members out in the mission field. There have been 2 incidences where I have felt very strongly and have shared with Whitney that this is why we are here, so that one girl who thought Mormons couldn't look at each other can say she meet a Mormon and they are normal, they are OK and maybe one day when she meets the missionaries she may take a second to listen to them because she once knew a cute, nice, fun, NORMAL girl who was Mormon. And as Landon says "Mom we didn't move here for the church" (no light bulb moment for him). I realize what a blessing it is.
So, I ask myself "have I taught my kids well enough that they can answer the questions?" The answer is no, because although basic, these are questions I have not really ever been asked and had to explain. So we take the opportunity to find out the answers, teach in family home evening, ask our friends "how would you answer this?", Listen better in Seminary and church classes because we aren't somewhere where everyone knows and doesn't ask the hard questions. We are in a sea of fish and instead of swimming downstream with everyone else we are now swimming up stream against everyone. We are being asked "what do you believe?" and we have to be strong enough to answer that even though we are 11. We have to learn to share that burning feeling in our hearts.
I never expected to have this kind of experience living my religion outside of Utah. I realize how naive I was and although I have a strong testomony, how easy it was to be a member and attend meeting when everyone else was. Last Sunday I sat next to an investigator and got an opportunity to listen to why she wants to join the church and all that she has been through and is willing to give up. I  watched her as the relief society lesson was being taught and as she kept nodding in agreement as the spirit testified to her that it was true. I was so impressed with her spirit and her enthusiasm. I don't think I have ever had that kind of experience before. I am thankful that my family has the opportunity to live in the mission field, to be good examples and learn the answer all those hard questions.

Football 2010