Moving to Florida and Back to Texas! Say What???

In June we packed up our house in Abilene and got it ready to sell. We were moving all our stuff back to Florida. We decided to stay in Baker, Florida for the time being at Tarek's dad's hanger, which has an apartment attached to it. 

It got closer and closer to school starting here in Florida so we enrolled Dallin into Baker School. This town has only one school for pre-k thru 12th grade. Luckily they have the older kids separated from the younger ones. Dallin was very reluctant to go to school since Keely wasn't going to daycare anymore. He wanted to stay home with us too. 

Since we got to Baker, Tarek has been applying for jobs and he got an interview with a really good company. Bell Helicopter asked him to do a phone interview then they asked him to come out and have a face to face interview. A short time later they gave him a job offer, which he accepted. This also meant that we were going to relocate again back to Texas. This time we will be moving to Amarillo, Texas.  There is more to this story, so try to keep up. Tarek left a few days ago to drive to Amarillo for orientation, he will stay there for about 2 weeks. Then they will send him to Fort Worth to start working on the project, he will be there probably until March of next year. He will get to fly back to see us every 2-3 weeks. We decided it would be best for me and the kids to stay in Baker, Florida until Dallin has a long enough break in school to get us moved and enrolled in a school in Amarillo. So in December after Christmas we will be relocating to Amarillo, and Tarek will then fly back and forth to visit us from Fort Worth.  Crazy huh??? Hopefully everything goes smoothly and we will get adjusted quickly in Amarillo. 

I never thought we would be going back to Texas but I guess there is a plan for our family and part of that plan is to be in Amarillo for awhile. We shall see where it takes us and what new adventures we can have in this new place. 

Dallin's 6th Birthday

This was the year that Dallin was having a family party at home. We decided awhile ago that we would parties that the kids invited friends would be on the odd number birthdays. But I also wanted Dallin to have a fun day. I knew he wanted Transformers as a theme so I decided to go a little further and give him some games and more than the usual decorations. His birthday was on a Saturday so it was a perfect day to have his party. Tarek took the kids out for a little bit so I could get everything ready for the birthday boy.

First came the cake, not it is partly my fault that I started so late but I waited until 8:30pm on Friday to start baking cakes. So 7 hours later I had this to show him that morning.

So after Tarek took the kids out for a little bit I got busy decorating.

Since we moved here Suzi and Dylan have always been at the kids

birthday parties. And now they have Tanner so he came too. They are 

part of our Abilene family. Tanner loved all the Transformer things and 

playing the games with the kids. 

The first game Dallin was super excited to play, pin the symbol on

Bumblebee.

Tarek even took a turn

I made an Autobot bean bag toss for the kids to play with. They loved it. 

Finding the Allspark

I made little paper all spark cubes and put them into a box with 

shredded paper. Dallin wore a blind fold and the younger two 

just had fun digging them out. 

Optimus Piñata

Having Fun

Leapster Explorer Mayhem

Dallin owns a Leapster Explorer from Leapfrog. It is a game system kinda like a Nintendo DS but all the games are Educational. So he ends up doing reading, math, science and history on it instead of those other video games, I am trying to not get into those for a very long time. Keely even likes playing on it. The one advantage to this system is that as the kids knowledge grows the games become more complex. It grows with them by the age level I set. Anyways the games for this thing are very small and I was always finding them everywhere.

So I went on an internet search and tried to find something that I could make to keep these little buggers all together. I came across this site and under Kid stuff I found what I was looking for. A Leapster cartridge roll-up. http://www.deliliahdesigns.blogspot.com  I got to work looking for the things that I needed to make one of these for Dallin.

 I cut two pieces of fabric, one for the back and the other for the inside. 

I found this net bag in the bathroom for some toys that I wasn't using 

and decided I can use this as my pockets so you can see thru it to see 

the games.

I measured how big I wanted the pockets to be so that I could fit the 

games.  The example that I found on the web was for the older

 Leapster and those games are much bigger than what we have. 

So I had to adjust my sizes. 

The pockets are pinned to the right side of this fabric for the inside. I also

added some elastic to the bottom so it would close. I stitched across the 

bottom of each pocket and then down the middle of the whole thing.

Then I put the other piece of fabric on top with right sides together and 

stitched around, turned it ride side out and stitched around it again. 

 Now he has a small case to keep his games together and it

 is easy for him to use.  Keely even likes to use this too.

A Little Catch Up from 2011

I have not been very good with keeping up with this blog, but here is what the rest of last year was all about in the Thomas house. First up is a little day trip to Fort Worth, Texas. We went to the stockyards to see what was happening there. The first thing that Keely saw were the ponies. Right away she asked Daddy if she could ride the pony. She was so excited to ride, Dallin was a little nervous but was cool when he got on the pony. We stayed long enough for the walking of the bulls down the street. It was a fun little adventure for the day, which we drove their in Bumblebee, the car.

The Pumpkin Patch 

We take the kids here every year. And they love going back. This year we

 let them pick out small pumpkins. They got to ride on the hay 

ride pulled by the tractor. The kids never get tired of going on that ride.

Halloween

This year Dallin decided to be Optimus Prime, and Keely wanted to be 

Cinderella. We opted out of trunk or treat this year and only went around 

our  neighborhood. Keely's little friend Tanner came along 

as Frankenstein to  Trick or Treat with us. All the kids had fun

 and got lots of candy. 

Time for Christmas Pictures

It was that time again to take the kids somewhere to get some pictures 

for Christmas cards. This year I chose to go to another University in town. 

ACU has this place called Jacob's Dream, with stones and many places to 

pose for pictures. I will definitely go back here for other pictures this spring. 

Tarek took this one of Dallin next to Bumblebee, he didn't really 

want to take another picture but I think it turned out pretty good.

Thanksgiving

Dallin had his first kindergarten program and I took the day off from 

work so that I could go see him dance and sing. It was to cute.

 Especially the turkey tango. 

For Thanksgiving this year we went to San Antonio and stayed in an 

awesome hotel and Grandad came too. The kids had fun visiting and

seeing all the lights that lit up the river walk.

Keely Turns 3

This was Keely's year to have a friend party, since we only do

 them every other year. So it ended up being the odd number years

 that they get a friend party. Of course she wanted a Hello Kitty party, 

and I decided to make it small and do it at McDonalds play place. 

We invited some of her friends that were going to be in

her new class at church and most of them came to have fun with her. 

She loved her cake and I think she loved her gifts, by the 

looks on her face while opening them. 

Christmas 2011

This year we decided to stay in Abilene for Christmas.

 It has been a long time since we had a Texas Christmas. 

Mommy and Keely wearing their Hello Kitty 

Christmas shirts. She picked it out for me. 

Christmas Eve

Christmas morning, Dallin woke up Keely and she was 

not ready to get up.

After opening all the presents and destroying the living room with 

paper we had cinnamon rolls for breakfast. I think they enjoyed their Texas 

Christmas.