Christmas and some big news

The holidays were a blur this year! Overall, they were good and an awesome time to thank our Father for His son! But, they looked so different this year with our recent loss of Heath's mom and other crazy life situations going on!

I want to post the few pictures I got - hopefully in the next few years I won't be SO pregnant (pretty sure I won't :)) and lazy with the camera.

The week before Christmas we went as a family to the zoo for Zoolight Safari. Evidently the rest of Birmingham (and surrounding cities) had the same idea! Crazy, but fun. Actually, 2 days before we had gone to the zoo with some friends because of the mild weather. Turner spotted his obsession - the train, but I told him that you can't ride the train without your daddy there. So, the never-forgetful little monkey asked Heath for the next 48 hours if he was ready to go ride the train. Heath loved me for that! Thus, we did an abridged version of Zoolight Safari. Park the car, run in, stand in the long line for the train, witness the magic (which he did LOVE) and then run out for dinner!

Our favorite view from the train. Only fitting! Our favorite girls at Chick-fil-A surprised us with a gift for the boys on Christmas Eve. We drove through and they asked us to pull over, and they brought a bag full of Thomas the Train toys and Cars night lights for the boys. Have I mentioned that we love that place? And that I understand how ridiculous it is that we go that much! Maybe we will cut back in 2012!

Christmas Eve we went to our church service and then headed to Mom and Dad's for dinner with our family friends, the Moores. This was the best picture we could get! I wish you could have heard my loving brother Derek as he kept sarcastically proclaiming "Kelly - you don't even look pregnant." Such a jerk - I wish I could see him pregnant and make fun of him! Good thing I think he is funny.

John Burke entertained everyone at dinner with how neatly he ate. That led to bath time at Gigi and Pop Pop's!

This was the scene Christmas morning. We had to wake Turner up at 7:30 because we had sort of downplayed Christmas morning for hopefully one more year. Anyway, he was thrilled that Santa brought him a train table!!

After breakfast, we headed back to my parents' house for lunch. This is the best pic I got of the kids, though John Burke looks like he has a toupee on. Santa's big gifts for the grandkids were riding toys. He brought 2 jeeps and a tractor and they were a HIT! Even in the rain. In the few minutes of the unveiling, though, the rain held off for a few minutes!

They are beginning to look a lot more alike to me...especially when I dress them alike

Kate and Chloe driving a Jeep

After lunch, we headed down to Andalusia for Christmas dinner. Somehow, this is the only picture I got with cousin Ellie.

Santa was good to us down in Andalusia, too. Pap gave John Burke his own riding jeep to bring home (to match Turner's tractor from last year) and Turner got a bicycle! Also, Pap gave them some farm clothes. So, we had to try them out the next day at the farm!

Kate and I did a little shopping while Frank and the boys took the kids to the farm. They rode around in the Rustler, watched Jay do some fishing and then helped load the skeet shooter. We watched Heath take some good shots before we left him on the farm to go home for naps. They had a ball!

We didn't waste much time getting back to Birmingham because we ended up MOVING on December 30th! It was a crazy, crazy process and very stressful at times because we did not know if the deal would go through. Really - an hour before closing on the 29th we weren't sure if it was going to work out!! We traded our house with a guy (plus some extra money of course!) who didn't live in it, but had bought it for an investment, so there were several hoops to jump through. When we told our old across the street neighbor we were leaving the next day, he asked if we were in trouble with the law. Ha! Nothing like that, but I guess it did look like that a little bit. The deal was contingent on closing by the end of the year, so we jumped and ran!! 34 weeks pregnant and all :) I truly feel like it was completely orchestrated by the Lord and such a wonderful blessing!! And, our new house is next to our dear friends, the Harlesses!!!

My favorite view of my old house. :) It served us well - the house saw us as newlyweds for several years and then as we brought Turner and then John Burke home. I wasn't sure how we were going to bring another baby there! There was no sadness as we moved and cleaned out, which I was glad about!

Here is our new house!! So much more space and wonderful neighbors!!

We finally got our acts together to spend the first night on New Year's Eve. We didn't have cable yet, so we watched the game next door. After the "little" boys went to bed, York and Turner settled in at our back window to watch the fireworks behind our house. It was so cool and such a fun surprise for our first night there!!

Then, Wes put on a fireworks show. So fun and very professional looking. We were extremely impressed!!

on the ground

and in the sky!!

So, basically 2011 was a memorable year in happy and sad ways. We experienced loss like we never had before, and I learned more about total dependence on the Lord than I have in a while! But, he blessed us through loss and through gain! We found out about baby girl on the way, he granted Heath a new job, we got a new car, and a new house. Looks like we are growing up in 2012!! Happy New Year!!