Thanksgiving

WOW.  It's kind of ironic that a post from the night we moved into our "new" house, five years ago popped up on Nick's facebook page this morning.  It was a video of Gracie, who was three at the time, and Owen, who was one, dancing around the new house avoiding the furniture that was scattered.  It was also exactly one year ago that Nick spent his last night in that house as an Iowa resident.  How quickly things can change.  Sometimes life doesn't care about the plans you have in your head.  Now here we are, getting ready to close on land and start building again.  We get an opportunity to fix everything that we didn't like in our first house!  Not that there was a lot that would be changed.  I have been hesitant to post anything because I am so worried that something might not work out.  We have been working on this for a couple months now, and we finally have a closing date of December 27.  We are pretty excited and hoping that everything works out as smoothly as possible.  However, having been through this process before, I know that is probably not going to happen.  Let the praying begin!

 

Here are several pictures from a couple months ago when we started seriously looking at this land.  There are about 11 acres with about a 1/2 acre pond.  Nick will probably correct me with the exact acreage.  Owen has found a snapping turtle already and Gracie and Nick said that they saw a huge deer when they were out there taking some measurements.  The land sits a couple miles southeast of Ashland, MO, which is about 10 minutes south of Columbia.  We are hoping that our kids will be able to start school down there next fall.  They are so excited to have their own rooms again, even though Owen said he still wants to sleep with Gracie.

 

This is a picture looking east toward our new property

 

This photo is looking north toward the pond.  I think this is approximately where the house will sit.

 

Up closer to the pond.

 

The next few pictures are from Thanksgiving Day when we took my side of the family out there to take a look.  It was fun watching the kids run around and play out there.  I can't wait until there's a house and a barn.  I think my parents actually like walking around out there, too!

 

River and Gracie walking through the tall grass.

 

Gracie, Owen, and River hanging out in the wagon.

 

I don't think Owen is getting too far trying to pull Gracie.

 

River gets to drive with Uncle Nick!

 

It's a little overwhelming, thinking about the next year or so.  Nick has started putting together a budget and calling contractors and subcontractors.  I know that we will have to really start thinking about making decisions in the next couple months.  Thankfully we are using our previous house plan and just making the changes where we messed up before.  We will have a little more space and a little more efficiency, hopefully.  We will probably end up doing a little more of the work this time, and hopefully that will save us a little in the long run.  We are all pretty excited to get going.

 

 



Fall evenings

This evening was about as perfect as fall can get.  I think I took this a couple weeks ago when the kids were doing chores and walking Dancer around the yard.  You can see the big thoroughbred in the background (Jet).  He is always very interested in Dancer when we have her out.

Owen and Gracie had a Veterans' Day program at their school, and Owen helped lead in the color guard.  He is really enjoying his cub scout group and loves getting to do all the fun stuff with his dad.

 

A visit from family!

 

Nick's mom and Amber came to visit a couple weeks ago.  Stephanie also brought her kids down for a night.  We got to go to a football game and ride horses.  The kids had so much fun playing together!

Mallory, Gracie, Ryleigh, and Afton at the Mizzou football game

Afton and me

Gracie and Ryleigh

Lucas, Ryleigh, Gracie, Amber, and Owen

Lucas and Owen

The next morning, Nick got the horses out for the kids to play with.  It was a cool start to the day, but the sun quickly warmed everything up.

Owen in his cozy new robe from Grandma Deb.  He wears it all the time.

 

Thanksgiving Feast!

 

Nick and I hosted Thanksgiving for my family this year.  Chad, Annie, and River came up early for breakfast, and mom and dad came a little later.  Everybody contributed to the cooking, but we were so happy to have everyone here.  Nick cooked the turkey and mashed potatoes and I did desserts and rolls.  Annie and mom both made dishes, as well, to round out the menu.  

My first pie!  I have never had to make pie before.  Usually there are other veterans who take on the task, but this year, I took on the responsibility.  The kids said it tasted great!  They also had a mountain of whipped topping on their slices.

 

 

Getting ready to eat.  So glad that we bought a new dining set!  The table takes up the whole dining area in this house, but hopefully next year, there will be a lot more room!  When I see pictures like this, I also notice how bare the walls are right now.

Burning off some calories.  This is pretty normal at our house.  Gracie and Owen don't seem to mind wrestling on the hardwood.  I think a wrestling mat would hurt a lot less.

Gracie is starting to figure it out, I think.  She doesn't get pinned by Owen every time anymore.

Sweaty, red faces.

 

We have had a really great Thanksgiving break and  have gotten to see a lot of family in the past month.   After our family left, we spent the rest of our evening with our landlord.  We took drinks and desserts over to her house.  We have been so lucky to find good people down here that we can have fun with. We're looking forward to the holidays, which I'm sure will pass all too quickly.

 

There are three weeks left in the University semester for me, then I have a whole month off.  I have never had this before, and I'm not sure that I'm looking forward to that much time off again.  I really like working with the students and am looking forward to continuing this.  The kids and I went to the last Mizzou football game of the year and came out with a win!  A couple of the football players I work with had a really good game!  Can't believe the season is done.  I'm so happy that the weather cooperated and there weren't any really cold games!  The kids and I made it to every home game, only leaving early for a couple because it was so late.  Now we move on to wrestling and basketball.

This picture was taken this morning after my run.  It was one of those mornings that was chilly, but no wind.  There was frozen fog and frost on the ground that I knew would burn off within an hour of the sun coming up.  A year from now, we won't be here anymore, but will have different, beautiful scenery to enjoy that will be ours.  Things are constantly changing, but I really can't complain.  This is where we are now, and we have so much to be thankful for.