Updates...

Since my Mom's passing I have promised several of her friends that I would blog more to keep them up to date on the kids and family. So here I go trying my best to keep my promise! Us Shortalls have had a busy start to the school year- from dance, soccer, and tball to Girl Scouts, Indian Princesses, and Indian Papooses to homework, spelling tests, job promotions for both Patrick and I, and lots of trips out to visit "Nana's special box"- we have been busy!! We miss Mom terribly but know she would want us to pick up and keep on going. The kids talk a lot about what Nana might be doing in Heaven and it's been such a blessing to hear their perspective on things. We have also decided to not go forward with the renovation/expansion on the "tiny" house we bought in April. Instead we are going to keep it as rental property and purchase a new home that has the size we need/want without major construction! Patrick and I have had to continually remind ourselves to be patient in this process as we have a pretty particular list of "must haves" and there is very very little on the market in the zip code we want. We had been eyeing a property since early September and it finally went on the market last week and we currently have a contract on it. The inspection is scheduled for tomorrow so praying all goes well!! It needs new flooring and paint so we'll take our time getting that done and getting moved out of the "tiny" house...hope is that we'll be in to celebrate Christmas!! But if I have learned anything over the past several months it is that a majority of the time the timing is out of my hands and completely beyond my control. (needless to say there have been lots of serenity prayers said!) I've been bad about taking pics lately but here are a few recent ones...promise I will get better!!!

We are moving. . .

Kind of out of the blue, but we decided a few weeks ago that it would be nice to be closer to Emma's school (and eventually Bryan's school) and my work. We found a couple homes that peaked out interest and decided to put our house on the market and give it a go. Well, we had an awesome offer on the house within a day of it being on the market and very motivated buyer who wanted to close ASAP. So we've spent the past two weeks scrambling around for a house...after a dead end attempt to negotiate on one house we finally gave it up and started to discuss buying a lot to build on- only problem is there are maybe 4 open residential lots in the zip code we were looking in. So what's the next best thing...buy a tiny home built in 1926 on a half acre lot and add on! CRAZY, yes I know, but that's what we've decided to do. It's a charming, almost 100 year old home in the Oak Hill neighborhood (close to UTA) and it's TINY!! But the plan is the start the addition as soon as we move in so we will be doubling and eventually tripling the size in the next year. We've quickly become fans of the "This Old House" magazine and it will definitely be an adventure but we're pretty excited about the journey!! Pics to come!!

THE BIG BDAY SURPRISE!!!

Patrick's very first car was an old CJ5 Jeep...he still had it when we first started dating in college and at times I thought he liked the Jeep more than me (jk!) But I heard so many stories about how he spent weekends fixing it up and riding it around. Unfortunately the jeep eventually had to go as it wasn't the most reliable car for getting back and forth between Lubbock and Dallas. But for the past 10 years Patrick has talked about getting another one. So a few months ago I decided I would look for a jeep to buy Patrick for his 30th birthday...and never in a million years did I think I would find one that was the exact same colors as his old jeep. It isn't an old CJ5 but it looks pretty similar. I found it at a dealership while we were out of town over New Years Eve and thought I'd buy it and keep it at my sisters until his bday but I knew he would find out so I decided to just give it to him the night I bought it. He took Emma to dance and he thought Bryan and I were going to the grocery store...little did he know "grocery store" was code for "jeep dealership"! Needless to say he was shocked when he went to pull his car in and another was in it's spot!! He still has his Saab to drive back and forth to work but on those super nice days, which we've had more of this January then every before, he takes the jeep out!!

Catch up time...NY eve in Missouri

Two days after Christmas we loaded up the van for it's first road trip and headed up to Missouri. First we stopped in Columbia a spent a few days with Chelsey and Brandon. Then we headed on to Kansas City for one of my best friends from high school's, Sara, wedding. The weather was beautiful (considering if could have been below freezing and snowing this time of year) and the kids were great travelers!!

Catch up time...Christmas!

January has flown by...seems like Christmas was forever ago but I don't want to skip a Christmas post so here are some pics for our Christmas. The whole family came down with strep throat the Wednesday before Christmas so we did a lot of hanging around the house in the days before Christmas eve...thus the pic where we made a billion cookies!! We went to Christmas eve mass at SMG and then spent Christmas morning at Nana and Boompas and Christmas afternoon/evening at Grandma and Grandpas and then the Weeds house. Both kids really got into Santa this year and it was so fun to see their excitement!!

Santa Claus is coming to town...

Christmas preparation is in full swing at the Shortall house...the house has been decorated since the weekend after Thanksgiving and Elfy has been hanging around since then too. Hear are a couple pics of what we've been up to!

YMCA's breakfast with Santa...breakfast, performance by the Martin Show Choir, puppet show, and visit from Santa, the kids had a blast!!

Holiday parties last weekend with the Shortall triplets and then the Harvey's

Patrick made this stable as a gift for Bryan's preschool teacher Mrs. Terry...now she'll have a home for her live nativity scene (aka 3 year olds dressed as Mary & Joseph) for years to come. I hope she enjoys it as much as Patrick enjoyed making it for her!!A couple of the places that we've caught Elfy "hanging out" over the past few weeks...

(I should preface this one with the fact that Emma forgot to wear her underwear to school one day- apparently "I" forgot to set them out so she just put on her tights and jumper and went to school commando- thank goodness they were super thick cable knit tights you couldn't see through because she didn't put on shorts either...)

Busy, busy, busy...

Where has this fall gone, I swear we were just starting the school year the other day. Here's a few pics of what we've been up to lately (in reverse chronological order :))

We celebrated Bryan's 3rd birthday this past weekend with a train party on the Forest Park Mini Train

Trick-or-Treating with the Brigg's girls

A couple of the many friend's birthday parties that we've attended...

Emma and Patrick have really enjoyed their Indian Princess tribe this year (it's mainly SMG girls and their dads) from the Fall Camp-out to the Turkey Shoot to the monthly meetings they've enjoyed some good father-daughter times!!

Emma has continued her dance class and had a small performance at the Levitt in October, think she may add a class in the Spring and go twice a week (dance seems to be her favorite activity right now!)

I coached Emma's soccer team this fall, it was made up of mainly SMG kindergartners, was a learning experience for me but I think the kids had a good time (we were undefeated!!)

My first niece was born in October, LOVE her soooo much!!!

Bryan finished out his season with Soccer Tots, think we are going to try for a T-ball league in the spring!

Bryan's bike-a-thon at school to raise money for St. Judes

SMG Kountry Karnival

Uncle Chris and Michele's wedding in New Orleans

We are looking forward to the holidays and some restful time with family!!!