Happy Thanksgiving!

This past Thursday was Thanksgiving and marked our first holiday here in Houston. It was pretty different being just the three of us compared to previous years, but we enjoyed ourselves. Erin made lots of great food including a pumpkin pie, broccoli casserole, and homemade mashed potatoes, while I deep fried the turkey in the back yard. Caden even tried to help by getting in the turkey fryer and acting like a turkey himself, but ended up missing dinner because of nap time. The best part of the day was being able to eat our turkey dinner on the patio wearing shorts and flip flops since it was warm and sunny all day long! We also spent a lot of time doing video Skype with everyone back home so it didn’t feel like we were so alone.

Compared to previous years where I took tons of pictures this year I took a grand total of five, seven if you count the ones of Caden in the fryer that technically I took the night before. But if you are interested you can find them on the Greatlandings Photo Site under the Holidays category in the Thanksgiving 2011 album.

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Howdy Partners!

Hello from Houston Texas everyone! We have finished our big move and have been in Texas now about a week so I thought it was a good time to give everyone a quick update. To start with the road trip here was… well it just was. Traveling for three days in the car with Erin, myself, Caden, and the cat was a heck of an experience but we lived and arrived in Houston last Friday afternoon. We were hoping the moving guys would be able to deliver our stuff on Saturday, but it ended up being Sunday before they could come. So our first official night in Houston was spent in a hotel about three miles from our new house. But on Sunday morning the guys arrived and delivered our stuff safe and sound. All told I was very impressed with the moving company (Allied). They worked their butts off and did a fantastic job. Not a single thing was broke, missing, or other during this entire move. Well nothing besides the lamp I dropped and broke, but that was after they were here and gone so I guess I can’t really blame that on them.

The first few days here in Houston were spent unpacking… unpacking… and more unpacking. Lucky for me just like the packing side of things, Erin did the majority of the unpacking too. We did get a chance to meet several of the neighbors. Everyone has been extremely friendly and welcoming to us. The house is in a cul-de-sac and there are a number of younger kids in the circle with us so Caden has been having a blast playing with everyone.

Next up we did some exploring around our house. Mostly finding the important stuff like a new GameStop for me to buy my video games at, and a BestBuy so I know where to get new toys from. Erin also wanted to find a grocery store and other boring stuff so we did that too. We also went and bought Erin a new car. Since her old job provided her with a car and they made her give that back when she left we needed to get her something new to get around in. After a lot of research Erin decided she wanted a Chevy Equinox. So we headed up to the local Lone Star Chevy dealership and she picked out her new car. It is really nice and I am pretty jealous of the coolness.

We also had our first official visitors at the new house. Kay and Dick came over on Thursday to welcome us to Houston. They even brought gifts, cards, and a sweet chocolate cake! It was nice to have them here and Caden really enjoyed hanging out and playing with them. I am looking forward to hanging out more with them as well as their daughter and grand kids real soon.

With this being the last of Erin’s days off before starting her new job on Monday we wanted to do something fun this weekend. Kay and Dick told us about a nice place on the gulf coast just north of Galveston called Kemah, TX where they have a really nice little boardwalk area with restaurants, shops, and rides. Since it is only about an hour from here we took a ride in Erin’s fancy new car and checked it out today.

That pretty much brings us up to date so far. Texas is nice, but this whole move has been an adjustment for everyone and we are still getting settled. I will say it was pretty nice to see all our friends and family posting about snow flurries in Cincinnati while we were wearing shorts and looking at a forecast for 80 degrees this weekend. I will probably feel differently when it is August and 120 degrees in the shade, but for now I’ll take this weather all day long!

I added an album with some pictures of the new house. You can find them on the Greatlandings Photo Site in the Other category under the album named Texas House. See ya~

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Caden 18 Month Update

Caden had his 18 Month check up at the doctor a couple weeks early this month. Stats were 34.12 lbs and 36 inches tall. Doc says hes a big boy and is doing fantastic. Caden is really becoming quite independent and such a boy with all the rough housing and bruises he has collected on his knees. It really is something watching our baby turn in to a little boy. He likes to climb on things, play outside, go for walks in his wagon, and just be with other kids. We are so grateful for our little boy and look forward to watching all that he does in the future.

We don’t think Caden realizes what is about to happen next week when our house is empty and we start our 17 hour journey to Texas. It will be interesting to see how that car ride goes. The first day will be the longest as we will try and make it the 8 hours to Memphis and spend a day there checking out Graceland and other fun things. Then a couple more stops and plan to be in Houston on November 5th. I think once we are settled and after the holidays I would like to get Caden in to a preschool of some sort a couple days a week. We are all looking forward to this new adventure and can’t wait to see what life has in store for us in the future!!

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Farewell Party!

This last Friday Tom, Kathy, Adam, and Sarah threw us a huge Farewell Party in the clubhouse at Tom and Kathy’s house. Lots and lots of our friends and family came to wish us farewell on our upcoming move to Texas. It was really awesome to see everyone and it felt great that so many people would come out to say goodbye to us. We ate, drank, and partied till the wee hours of the morning and had a great time!

Part of the deal for it being a party for us was that I didn’t spend the whole night taking pictures. In fact I didn’t take a single picture the whole night. But lots of other people did! I uploaded the ones that were on Erin’s camera to the Greatlandings Photo Site. You can find them in the Events category under the Going Away Party album. Kathy has also uploaded the pictures from here camera to her Picassa Album here.

Thank you to Tom, Kathy, Adam, and Sarah for throwing us such an awesome party and thank you to everyone who came. We are going to miss everyone very much and it means a lot that you all came to say goodbye to us!

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Fun Fall Family Fhotos!

Yesterday a bunch of us went up to Devou park, near the Drees Pavilion and took some fun family fall pictures. The plan was to get some cool shots with the city in the back ground as well and get some with the little kids. In the end we got some of what we were after. Caden and Jackson were not in the mood for posing for pictures so most of the ones of them were just grab shots while they were running around playing. But we did get some cool family photos of Adam, Sarah, Sky, and Cole that I really like. I wish there was more of the fall colors around that we had during the middle of the week, but thanks to two days of 80 mph winds there wasn’t much left. All and all though it was a fun time at a new place I hadn’t been to in a long time.

I separated the pictures into two separate albums on the Greatlandings photo site under the People category. The first is called Ashpaw 2011 Fall Pictures and the second is Stouffer 2011 Fall Pictures, but there is some cross over between the two. Anyway, check them out and let me know what y’all think. Thanks for a fun time everyone!

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