Nouveau Commencement

Wow! It’s been a long time since I’ve done my blog! Christmas has gone by, as well as my baby sister – Audrey’s – birthday. We’ve ushered in a New Year and it’s time to focus on the future and reflect on the past. There really are so many things to be thankful for this past year. Josh re-enlisted in the Army to continue to provide a better future for our family. Braden had another illness free year! Kendall continued to cheerlead & play basketball. And I’ve managed to survive another year with all these crazies in my house! Like the title of this blog post suggests, 2010 is all about a new beginning .

(Braden & Kendall @ the Christmas Tree Farm)

Christmas was great. Hectic & chaotic as usual. We traveled all over the place and saw all our family. The kids were ridiculously spoiled and Santa brought far too many toys! The weekend before Christmas Braden, Ben & Kendall had a Polar Express pajama party at our house. The boys & Kendall wore their pj’s, drank hot cocoa, ate sugar cookies & watched the movie Polar Express. It was a lot of fun! I think this will have to be something we do every year! --I'm putting the Christmas pictures at the very bottom of this post--

Ben & Brady eat their sugar cookies!

(Best Friends)

New Year’s was a little different this year for us. We actually went to see the Alabama Symphony Orchestra at the historic Alabama Theatre. For anyone who hasn’t been to the Alabama Theatre, I would say it’s a MUST on anyone’s visit to Birmingham. Josh & I went with my friend Bonnie and the music was wonderful. They had champagne at intermission and then when we were done listening to the ASO we took our old selves to Waffle House at 8:45 p.m.! After that we went back to Bonnie’s house and watched t.v. and talked until midnight. Not long after midnight we decided we’d had enough fun and went home. It was all very exciting (I typed that last sentence using sarcasm, LOL).

(Me & Josh at the end of the night)

(Looking down from the second floor into the main area)

watching the symphony from the cheap seats

(Me & Bonnie)

So, what lies ahead for us in the New Year? Well, for obvious reasons I have almost no clue. I know what things are supposed to happen, and I know things that I WANT to happen…overall I hope it’s a good year, and an even better year than 2009.

Here’s a few things I anticipate will happen (no definite’s, but they are absolutely listed as SHOULD occur);

**Me, Josh, Diana, KB and several other friends are turning 30 this year. ARGHH!! I’ll miss my 20’s, but I have a feeling that I’m REALLY going to miss my 30’s one day.

**Going to West Virginia in May for Josh’s brother Nathan’s graduation from medical school. GO NATE!

**Braden starts kindergarten at Bagley Elementary. Believe it or not, I’ve got to do pre-registration for him in April! And he’ll start K-5 just a couple weeks after he turns 5. So, I get to turn 30 AND my only baby starts school. How very sad for me.

**A trip to Wyoming is in the works. An old friend of mine lives in Cheyenne and it seemed like a great reason to visit a part of the country we’d love to see. Then there’s the added bonus that I’ll get quality time with a friend that I miss.

**We’re SUPPOSED to finish putting the house in decent order so we can put the house on the market. A lot of that hinges on our job security & financial situation, but I know this needs to happen very soon if we want to have another baby one of these days. With the 30th birthday on the immediate horizon, I’m starting to feel like there is a deadline looming over my head. J

Obviously we’ll have another busy year. There’s no way around it. Just continue to keep us in your prayers. Lord knows we need them every single day.

Love you ALL, and HAPPY NEW YEAR!! I promise to keep up with the blog better than I did last month!

(Braden & his Papaw on Christmas Eve)

(Kendall opens her gift next to Josh & Audrey)

(Kendall opens her gifts Christmas morning)

(All the stockings lined up in a row...and our 100's of Christmas cards from friends & family)

(Braden would get SO excited about everything he opened!)

(Josh handed out the presents while I took pictures & Memaw & Papaw Moody watched)

Jan. 5th 2010-

Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end.

-Seneca (Roman philosopher)