2014

Well hello and Happy New Year to all you readers out there. All 3 of you!! Christmas was a success and New Years went off with out a hitch. In fact, New Years Day arrived with a sweet little surprise for us: WE SOLD OUR HOUSE!!!!! Praise the Lord. We were somewhat expecting an offer around the 1st week of January but were not expecting the first day. And let me just say it was rather interesting wheeling and dealing from 500 miles away. But we got it all worked out and that’s all that matters. We sign the contract tomorrow and will have 60 days till closing. Yeah, it’s kind of a long closing but it at least gives us time to pack, have a yard sale and paint the other house. Paint, you say? Well, did you expect any less from us? Have we ever moved into a house that we did not feel the need to paint every.single.room? The good news is this house is much smaller so there won’t be a months worth of just painting 8 hours a day, 7 days a week to accomplish. And we are just renting this house for now so no other extreme makeovers are on our agenda. Just me, a paint brush, a few gallons of paint in various colors and a 2 1/2 year old running around saying “Mama, can I hep you?” Sounds fun, doesn’t it?

We will be in school during this time of course so the normal school routine will be in effect which always throws a little more stress into a busy, hectic situation. Olivia is at the prime of her little toddlerhood and I don’t want to miss any of it. I was blessed to be able to buy a new camera (which has a huge learning curve) and my coveted 85mm lens after Christmas so I have lots of reading (and as always practicing on my horizon.) I want/need to have a yard sale before we move. I’ve already mentioned the painting at the new house but first of all I have to decide on colors. And lets not forget the most vital part in all this, the PACKING of the boxes. Not looking forward to that but I am looking forward to purging our stuff. Something I like to do every January any way it’s just this time will be on a much higher level!!

2 months is a long time for a closing but it’s really not a long time in the grand scheme of things. I mean, think about how quickly November and December just passed??

I plan on making time for this blog like I did before the holidays hit cause like I said, I don’t want to miss a moment of Sassafras’s toddlerhood. And James and Audrey will have a few field trips and things coming up in school that I want record of. I intend to write about our Christmas break which was FABULOUS and I of course have tons of pictures to share. So, sometime this week I am going to be taking another hiatus from Facebook land that could end up lasting through the move. I know, I know. Laugh all you want but it’s seriously the only way for me to not somehow end up wasting much more time on there than intended. And I don’t have time to waste.

Here are a few pics from New Years in Hattiesburg. We stayed with Jon’s sister Emily and her husband Ryan this year (peeps over there are always fighting on who gets to keep us. It’s quite the ego boost!). We had a great time as usual and the kids had a blast. It was the perfect way to round out our magical holiday.

Uncle Ryan

SuSu and her girls with their matching American Girl gowns

Water colors

Somebody got a new camera for Christmas as well!

One of my favorite shots of the week

Sweet, precious almost grown Hughston “feeding” the "puppies"

Aunt Beck getting some quality conversation in

Poor Nenie was cold

 ***Just as a side note for any one who may be interested. I’m playing around with creating my own black and white conversions and didn’t see the huge difference in some of these B&W’s until I loaded them on here. And I didn’t feel like messing around with them any more to get them more consistent with each other. It’s all about those tones. Always learning :)