Sonic

Unusual title for a blog post, but I realized how significant Sonic is in our lives tonight.

A few hours ago, we sat down to eat our last dinner in our current house. This should have been a memorable meal, lovingly prepared by me for our wonderful family. However, the walk-through at the new house took longer than we expected and we had tons of packing ahead of us, so the Sonic drive-thru was pretty appealing. At first, I felt pretty guilty about this. But then I started thinking about all of the times we've had Sonic on important dates.... Chance and I moved into this house 4 days before Valentine's Day in 2003. We didn't have much money to spend on eating out that year, so we celebrated our first married Valentine's Day with a Sonic picnic on our back porch. I started eating Sonic as my pre-game meal when Chance was coaching in Hearne, and I haven't missed many Friday night meals (only during football season!) there since then. Not only coaches and players can be superstitious! And, when we brought Cade home from the hospital 4 1/2 years ago, we treated ourselves to a Sonic lunch while he slept in his carseat. And Sonic drinks? Well, they make any day special!!

So, perhaps it is fitting that we are closing out this chapter in our lives with a simple Sonic meal. Looking at the smiles on my boys' faces makes me never want it any other way.

Our House

**WARNING** Overly-emotional post below about our move. The combination of pregnancy and moving has been kind of hard for me and I'm having a difficult time saying goodbye to the house that we've lived in for 10 years and where we've made a lifetime of memories. We have so much to look forward to in our new home, but first, a tribute to our life on Neuburg Court...

We closed on this house on February 10, 2003. Look how young we were!



Our first home improvement project was cleaning out the front landscaping. We really didn't know what we were doing, so we had our own names for the plants - river plant, sad plant, pokey plant, and fluffy grasses. Amazingly, almost everything survived, even this "sad plant" that Chris and Chance transplanted into a new spot by the garage. It is now taller than the house!



After a couple of years in the house we also ambitiously tackled re-doing the floors during Chance's spring break. We ripped up carpet and scraped up linoleum to put down tile and laminate floors. We were thrilled with the results! The floors have since been re-done again thanks to a "slight" problem with the water heater in 2008. Chance and his coaching friends from Hearne actually did a better job than the professionals.



One of our favorite features of this house is the open floor plan that makes it perfect for entertaining. We've been blessed to host several family gatherings. Our first one was Mother's Day with Chance's family in May 2003.



We've also hosted family Thanksgivings, Easters, baby showers, and birthdays. It was great to see family traditions come full circle when we taught Cade how to play Wahoo at our kitchen table last year with Great Oma, after having great memories playing that game at my Oma and Opa's house.



Our pets are such an important part of our family, and we started our life in this house with Blue and Sarge. Sarge actually joined us immediately after we moved in, fulfilling a promise that Chance made to me while we were engaged.



After Blue passed in 2004, Holly joined our family. This is one of the few pictures of her sitting calmly... after 8 years we are still waiting for her to grow out of the puppy phase!



Friend gatherings have been another very fun memory here! Long, long ago, before any of us had kids, we hosted lots of weekend get togethers for our college friends where we would pretend we were younger than we actually were. This was before my crazy photo-taking days, so I don't have many pictures of all of the football weekends, Super Bowl parties, and cookouts we hosted. But we sure had fun!



We also could not ask for better neighbors than the Goodletts! We've traveled to countless football games with them, solved the problems of the world from the safety of our cul-de-sac, shared meals, and watched our boys grow up together. The 4 grown ups do get out of our houses sometimes and love to go to Aaron Watson concerts. Our new neighbors have already introduced themselves to us at the new house and I'm sure they are nice people, but no one will ever compare to Nathan, Bridget, Hayden, and Cole!



What are gatherings without food? Chance has probably grilled 100s of pounds of meat on his grill.



And Alyssa has baked 100s of dozens of cookies in the kitchen.



Decorating has also been so much fun, especially during the fall - Christmas season. Thanks to several years of selling Southern Living at HOME products we have quite a stash of home decor that Chance is oh-so-excited to carry to the new house with us.





Of course, our most significant memory in our house is getting ready for the birth of our sweet boy. In what seemed like a heartbeat, we went from two twenty-somethings who thought we had everything all together...



To two brand-new parents that brought this tiny little bundle home and realized we didn't know anything at all!



We watched his room grow from a peaceful, yet sporty, nursery...



To a dinosaur habitat for a preschool boy.



It has been amazing to watch Cade grow up in our home. We had his first year pictures taken in our backyard.



And he rode his first truck down our driveway!



A significant, but not so great, memory with Cade at home is administering his PICC line treatments on the couch after his knee surgery in November 2009. Even though this was a tough time, we were so thankful for the comfort of our home when we returned from the hospital.



Cade's leg took less than two months to completely heal, and a few months later, Chance put up Cade's brand new swingset up in the backyard. This has provided hours of entertainment for him, his cousins, and his friends!



We've also had a few snowstorms! And replaced the fence a few times too.



Sounds of laughter fill the house when friends come to visit. We enjoyed weekly playdates with Natalie and her family for several years, and even though we don't see her as often now that the Johnsons live in Houston, Cade and Natalie always enjoy their fun and messes together!



We've tried to teach Cade that exercise is fun! He loved working out with Daddy in the garage this summer.



Jumping is fabulous exercise too!



Our last hurrah was the Monster Mash last October. We hosted 51 people for a fun-filled start to Halloween. We are so thankful for our family and friend for all of the celebrations we've had together!



One thing that has, and always will, remain constant, is the love that Chance and I have for each other. There is no one I would rather laugh with, cry with, learn with, dance with (yes, I make him dance in the living room!), or move with than my husband. We cannot wait to start the next chapter in our lives.

Party, Party

Life is rough for our 4 year old... spend Saturday going to 2 birthday parties, have beautiful weather on Sunday to finally enjoy some outside playtime, and spend Monday with at home with both parents because we ALL had off of work and school! It was truly a great weekend for all of us.

Saturday was Chance's first CSHS powerlifting meet and the athletes did really well, with the girls winning the overall meet. Cade and I were not bored while Daddy was gone - we had 2 birthday parties and Oma and Opa came to visit!

We started Saturday afternoon with Davis's 5th birthday at Powersports. Cade was ready to jump into the fun!



The boys had tons of fun in the blocks.



Down the slide! *side note - last year, I climbed UP this slide to rescue Cade because he refused to slide down. This year, he must have gone up and down it at least 15 times. What a difference a year makes!



Happy Birthday, Davis!



A rather successful group picture after Davis opened presents



About 10 minutes after leaving Powersports, this happened in my backseat...



Notice he is still holding onto his party favor - orange playdoh! After a little car siesta and picking up Oma and Opa, the next stop was Cooper's 1st birthday at Aerofit! And more jumping!



Cade and Cooper - cousins!



Cade was definitely the oldest kid at this party and the only boy besides Cooper, so he enjoyed hamming it up for the grandparents while the "little kids" played in the balls



Cooper practiced walking at his party! He took a few steps toward his Oma and it was so sweet.



Who doesn't love wearing all their party favors at once?



Cooper (aka The Smurf) REALLY enjoyed his smash cake! He actually had a bath in the sink before he opened presents.



We had so much fun celebrating with our family and friends.

So far, this year...

We have taken very few pictures but have been really busy!

I will finish my first week of the spring semester tomorrow and this whole working thing really gets in the way of my free time! It is also REALLY tiring this pregnant lady out! I'm fortunate to be able to condense my semester into 10 weeks and finish teaching on April 1, but that means that my classes meet for a longer time than usual and I don't really have any breaks. Chance and Cade have been great about entertaining themselves in the evenings so I can put my feet up (literally... legs up the wall from yoga is where I spent most of my time tonight)

Anyway, here are a few pictures of what has been keeping us busy recently.

Our friends Lorinda and Dan had a little get together for the Cotton Bowl. In between watching Johnny Manziel's prancing touchdowns and cheering on the Aggies, we braved the cold weather to make smores on their new fire pit. The kids really just liked lighting their marshmallows on fire; very few were actually eaten.



The next day, we attended the wedding of two of our most favorite people - Megan and Wesley Taylor. This is "Mr. Wesley" from our church and his sweet wife Megan, who was one of my students last semester. Yes, these are our "young friends". Their wedding was spectacular - all of our favorite people from church were there, along with Pastors Laurinda and Kip, who we miss dearly. Wes and Megan are both very involved with Young Life, so their wedding was full of young adults who truly love the Lord AND know how to have an amazing time on the dance floor! I unabashedly snagged this picture from facebook because I didn't get any photos of the wedding ceremony itself. They both looked so beautiful and we know that they will have a wonderful life together.



Cade has only attended a few weddings in his short 4 years and already has several expectations. First of all, he wanted to wear a tux like he wore to Matt and Shannon's wedding last summer. When he asked Mr. Wesley about this, Wes said "I won't even have on a tux, man, but you can wear one of you want to". In the interest of not up-staging the groom, we stuck to khaki pants. Cade also knew there would be cake. He was VERY excited about this and we actually sat right in front of the cake waiting for it to be cut for quite some time. Once it was finally cut, he got a piece of white cake and devoured it.



We planned to leave right after the cake because the wedding was an hour away and we had had a long day. But then the music and dancing started. And our boy got his 3rd wind of the night and danced up a storm!! He was out on the middle of the floor with all of the guys from the band at church and they even taught him a few moves. I was so incredibly proud I could barely contain myself! He asked me to dance numerous times and I happily said yes each time. There *may* be a photo of me floating around facebook (thanks to Laurinda!) where I am dancing up a storm with my pregnant belly and having a great time. Our little girl is bound to be a dancer too, right?

The week after the wedding is when everyone went back to work and school. Cade is nicely settled back into his Friendship class routine. This week they started something new - homework! At first I thought, "Homework for a 4 year old? Jeez!" But he is so proud to show us what he can do and actually looks forward to doing it after dinner. I will have to remember these moments when he is a teenager!



And finally, a baby update! I am 28 weeks along now and things are going well. Our little girl is still very active and I have my next doctor's appointment tomorrow. Our belly pics have been a little challenging lately, as Chance does not get home from work until after dark and it is freezing outside so we are limited to one or two pictures before my sign holder runs inside.



A little context about my belly size - a few nights ago I was sitting down and Cade told me that I look like the seal from the newest Ice Age movie (he is the character on the far left of the picture below)



Such flattery will get this kid no where! I know he didn't mean anything by it and I think Chance is very happy that I just laughed instead of having a very emotional reaction :) Ah, the honesty of a child!

Best Buds

Cade and Garrett have developed quite a little friendship and I think it is safe to say that they are best buds! Their friendship kind of baffles their parents and teachers because they are fiercely competitive with each other in EVERYTHING but seem to love playing together and are always so excited to see each other. Here are some highlights of their fun the past month:

Cade and I had our 3rd trip (don't judge!... I won the tickets on the radio!) to Santa's Wonderland with Garrett and his mom. It was too cute to see them experience the magic of the lights and fake snow with a friend. Our first stop was the hayride, where they were clearly excited about the lights!



Mischief?



Amazement and wonder



Then they rode the ponies.



One of the greatest blessings of Cade's friendship with Garrett is my new-found friend Vandi! She is one of the sweetest women I've ever met and I'm so thankful that we are raising our boys together!



And she helps make sure I am in at least one picture :)



Cade and Garrett spent an afternoon together on New Year's Eve so Chance and I could have an oh-so-romantic and uninterrupted trip to Lowe's. The boys ate popcorn and watched Polar Express. Hmmm.... who had more fun?



Garrett stayed with us yesterday because the daycare was still closed and his parents had to work (they are both physical therapists). We had tons of fun jumping on the trampoline in the freezing cold, playing with every toy Cade owns, and baking peanut butter cookies.



Cade and Garrett will go to the same school for kindergarten next year and are already looking forward to new adventures in the new year!