Christmas Story

Here are a few more pictures of the boys doing the Christmas re-enactment. They had a good time and loved to hold "baby Jesus." It was a sweet time. A little different when there are not that many people, but the Spirit was still there.

The 2 wise men presenting their gifts to Jesus.

Brian really wanted to hold baby Jesus and was so sweet about the whole thing.
Aaron wanted to crawl in the basket. He wouldn't wear his shepard costume. He kept pulling the head thing off. So he was just himself.

The boys had a good time with this. I am glad that it is a family tradition!!

 

Christmas Pajamas

It is Yorke tradition to get pajamas before Christmas to wear on Christmas Morning. Since we were not in Texas for the traditional pajama party, we held one here for the boys this past weekend. Weston, Brian and Aaron thought that it was fun to get to open the packages from Grandma and Grandpa Yorke and to eat Christmas cookies just like their cousins far away!! Thanks Grandma and Grandpa for the fun jammies. They look so cute and matching!! We love you!

Getting ready to open the packages.

Here we go...

Aren't we so cute?

The boys with their pj's in front of the tree. Our tree touches the ceiling!

 

Decorating the Tree

Well, we actually decorated the tree last week, but I am just now getting around to posting these pictures. The boys had lots of fun picking out and decorating the tree. Our tree is really tall this year. It smells really good too. Barth is such a good sport. When we went out looking for trees, I had him dragging trees from here to there so that I could compare them. I told him to shake the trees to see how many needles would come off so that I could tell how fresh they were. Barth happily appeased me while sneezing his head off. He is allergic to our tree, but is suffering through it for me. What a good guy! I sure do love him!!!

Weston and Brian had lots of fun with the decorations. Aaron, took off the decorations almost as fast as his brothers put them on. It was so cute. The ornaments on our tree are gradually getting higher and higher so that Aaron can't reach them. :) He thinks that the ornaments are there for him to take off and carry around. I hope you enjoy our tree decorating!!

Here is Aaron with some of the ornaments that he has just taken off the tree!!

 

Beach Pictures

Here are the last of the pictures from Jacksonville. It was a beautiful day at the beach when we went last Sunday afternoon. I had hoped to get a good picture of the boys for our Christmas card, but none of the pictures of all three of the boys turned out!! Oh well! We had a wonderful time walking along the beach and picking up shells. The waves were pretty large (for Jacksonville) and the ocean was beautiful to look out on. I was glad to get to go one last time.

 

Good Friends

I was sad to leave some of my really good friends in Florida. Hopefully, we will always keep in touch and remain friends over the years. Two of my best friends in Florida are Mary Fox, and Annette Woodruff. Before I left, I had to take pictures with both of them. The have both helped me out so much over the last few years and I greatly value their friendship!!!

This first picture is of Mary Fox. She has 6 kids and her 2 youngest are the same ages as Weston and Aaron. I can remember when I first met Mary. She was in the kitchen at church on Sunday talking to someone and I came up to RSVP for Weston to come to her son's party. (We actually didn't make it though because Brian ended up in the hospital) She was saying how much she missed Maryland and I was feeling the exact same way about Texas!! As the years went on we became better friends. This year, as we moved away, she took vigilant care of our house!! I am so thankful to have Mary as my friend!!

This picture is of Anette and I! I first met Annette when we very first moved into the ward. She and her family came over one of the first Mondays that we were in the ward to deliver some cookies for Family Home Evening treats! After that, she was always calling to see if we wanted to come to the park, come and play, or just whatever. I know that Heavenly Father sent her into my life at just the right time to help me be able to adjust to the fact that I was a thousand miles from home and sad! Her three kids are almost the exact same ages as mine and they always had a ball playing together. I am lucky to have a friend like her!

Orange Trees

When we moved to Florida, I really wanted to plant an orange and lemon tree. As a house warming gift, LaMonte and Emily got us a gift certificate to a citrus nursery where we picked out our trees!! This year was the first year that we were to let our orange tree get oranges. I knew that there were a few buds when we left, but when we got back for our closing, we had 11 oranges on our tree! The lemon tree didn't get any lemons this year, but did grow a ton! Sorry, there are no lemon tree pictures. I guess that I just forgot. Anyway, here are some pictures of our oranges. They are not ripe yet, as you can see, but I picked them anyway and they are ripening on the counter here in NC! I can't wait to eat them!!

 

More Moving Pictures

Here are a few more pictures from packing up.

Aaron loved to follow me from room to room and "help!"

Brian thought sitting in this box while watching a video was pretty fun!!
I didn't want the boys to spill on the floor, so they sat in the extra boxes that we had.
The boys made their boxes into cars and colored them all up. They had great fun!

Brian in his car!! Since Brian doesn't eat cereal, we got him donuts for a special treat breakfast while we were there!!

 

Packing up

Here are a few pictures from packing up for our big move!! Weston and Brian had lots of fun with all the toys that they hadn't seen in months. It was like Christmas!! They toys were the last thing to get packed so that the boys had something to do while Barth and I were busy getting the boxes all packed!!

Weston and Brian playing.

The boys' bedroom all packed and ready to load!
Aaron's room. Weston liked to have me take pictures with him in it!!

The guest room! Anyone want to visit? Packing is such a mess and hard work!! I am glad that it is done!!!!

 

Goodbye Lake Cunningham!!!!

As many of you know, our house is selling. We will be headed back to finish the packing and clean and close!! The closing will be a week from today. In some ways, I am very happy that our house has finally sold and that the stress of this whole thing will be winding down. In other ways I am sad. Sad to leave all the good friends that I have made in FL. Sad to not have the beach close by anymore and a pond to fish in, in my own back yard! Sad to not be able to walk to the school, or pool, or whatever. Sad to leave, but happy that I have some good memories from our 2 and a half years there. So- as this will be my last post until I get back, I thought that I would share some pictures of what our house looked like since most of you have not seen it in person. It has been a great house and we have really enjoyed living there. When I moved there, I never thought that I would have been sad to leave, but I am. I wish that our move was taking us closer to family, but I guess that is not what the Lord has in mind for us right now. Until the time comes that we get to be closer, I will just trust in the Lord and know that he will direct my life and path for good. He knows better than I do. And in the meantime, I will enjoy all of the new and exciting experiences that the Lord is blessing me with everyday!!!! Goodbye Lake Cunningham and goodbye Florida!!

Our house!! These pictures were taken in January of this year (so they are almost a year old) when we thought that we were going to move to West Palm Beach and put up our house FSBO!! We lived in a cul-de-sac and LOVED it!!!!!!

This was taken from our back porch, looking out to the pond! There are pond everywhere in FL- that is where all the run off water goes!! In our sub-division, they stocked the ponds once a year! Click on the picture to make it bigger so that you can see the pond. The fence is kind of hiding it! Oh- and the little green tree that is just inside the fence is the orange tree that we planted when we moved in!!

This is the formal living room- more commonly referred to as "the piano room." This is where I kept most of my girly things!!!! Had to have one girly room in a house full of boys!!! This is obviously where I did piano lessons. It was a great room for lessons too because the kids could play in the family room while I did the lessons in here.

Our formal dining room. Hardly ever got used!! Our beautiful table was bought at a garage sale just down the street for $100!! What a steal. Half the chairs still had the plastic from the manufacturer on it!! It had hardly been used. I just love garage sales!!! :)

 

Goodbye!! Part 2

Here are some more pictures of our lovely house for those of you that never got to see it!

Our family room! I loved the built in shelves!!

Our kitchen- from the angle that overlooks the family room!

Looking into the kitchen from the family room! All the plant shelves were wasted on me. I never got up plants!!

This is just a cute picture of Aaron that was taken in January of this year, the same time as the rest of the pictures. My how he has grown!!

 

Slushing up their blood!!

Last night I was telling the boys about how Grandma Cameron had taught me how to slush up my blood when I was a kid. There is even a picture of Grandma and all of us kids doing it I think. The boys thought that it sounded like fun and wanted to give it a try. They kept falling down when they tried to do it the right way (where you are facing the other way and balancing up against the wall). So, this was their inventive way of doing it. They got down and walked their feet up the wall! They thought that it was fun, but Weston said that it made his head hurt!! Anyway, here are some pictures!

Brian getting his blood all slushed up!!

Weston and Brian together. Notice the pillows under their heads. That was supposed to help their heads not to hurt!!

Weston says- I'm done Mommy!!

Aaron says- What about me? I can do it too!!!! He always tries to do what his big brothers are doing!!