Dr. Seuss Day

I was a little disappointed that I missed out on Read Across America this year.  For those that don't know, Read Across America is celebrated in March across the US in honor of Dr. Seuss's Birthday.  I've taken part in Read Across America for years.  It was one of the first "extracurricular" activities that I became a part of when I first started at ExxonMobil.  We partnered with elementary school's across the area and served as guest readers.  After reading to countless classes over the years, I was very excited to finally get to read for my own child's class.  So excited that I ended up leading the program last year for the kindergarten's.  It was a lot of fun for them and me and I looked forward to doing a similar program this year for our first graders.  Unfortunately, Read Across America was the same week that Jacob and I were in Canada on the house hunting trip, and without a volunteer to lead the program it was dubbed as part of the spring book fair with no special hoopla.

So, I was thrilled to hear that Canada has a similar celebration called Dr. Seuss Day, where the kids get to pick their favorite Dr. Seuss character and dress up.  I tried to talk Brenna into Sam I Am, since Green Eggs and Ham is her favorite Dr. Seuss book, but she asked to be The Cat in the Hat.  Then, just two days before, she decided she wanted to be Sally!  I thought that was a great idea, so we rummaged through her closet until we found a very Sally-ish outfit and completed it with her classic top-of-the-head bow.  However, before we left for school we had to winter-proofed the outfit.  She's the only Sally that ever had to wear a snow bib and snow boots, but we made it work.  Here's some pics I snapped before school!  Pickles always gets in on the action!

Canada, eh!

Oh my, where to begin?  Way back in October we received our first indication that a job transfer was in our future, expected sometime in early 2014.  Based on several factors, we initially thought we would be headed east to Baton Rouge.  So, for 4 months I searched the Baton Rouge real estate and researched schools with the anticipation that we would finish out Brenna's first grade year in Louisiana.  Christmas came and went with no further word on the new assignment.  Just when we were beginning to think that things may be slipping into the summer (which would have made for an easier move) we got the call.  Well, I got the call after Jacob got "the talk"!  The first day of February we got a big surprise!  We found out that the South would longer be our home!  Jacob was transferred to Imperial Oil in Sarnia, Ontario, Canada!  In 2013 ExxonMobil obtained 70 percent ownership of Imperial Oil and it falls under ExxonMobil's international trade name Esso.  Jacob was appointed as the Operation Manager of the Imperial Oil Chemical Plant effective March 1st!!!

And then our world was turned upside down!

To be honest, my initial reaction wasn't great!  All of you know I'm a planner and Canada was no where in my plan!  But, God knows better than I do, and oh boy did He have a plan for us!  After I had time to let the reality of the situation set in, I had no doubts that He was putting us where we needed to be, but this has been a practice of faith.  Between Jacob and me, the oil and gas industry has taken us from Mississippi to Louisiana, Georgia, Arkansas, and Texas.  But, this would be our first time out of the Southeast United States and the culture that we knew.

When we moved to Houston, Brenna wasn't even 2 years old and still very much a baby.  That move had no impact on her.  We've always been very honest with her about the fact that one day we would have to move.  With Jacob's job, movement is inevitable and while its not the kind of life he or I knew as children, it's the life we have.  When we broke the news to Brenna, of course her initial reaction was no better than mine!  LOL!  Can't really blame her for that!  But after talking things through she quickly picked up a positive attitude about the change.  Her biggest concern was leaving behind her friends.  We've grown so close to our "extended" family in Houston and I knew saying goodbye would be hard for both her and us.  But, we tried our best to look ahead to the new exciting changes that were coming.  Brenna has never seen snow and her favorite place is the beach.  Sarnia provides the best of both worlds for her.  Sarnia is located on one of the Great Lakes, Lake Huron.  So summers will be spent at the beach and obviously our winters will provide plenty of snow!  We even stopped in for a hockey game at Memorial City so Brenna could see the new (to us) sport of hockey.

Initially, there wasn't much we could do until Jacob's Visa was approved, so the first few weeks after we found out were spent preparing for the move.  It was a crazy race to purge the house of all unnecessary things.  The old saying is true, everything is bigger in Texas, especially the houses!  I knew that a portion of our stuff would have to be stored while we were away in Canada and that we would likely be downsizing.  After giving away, donating, and selling a ton of stuff, it was all to make room for a new bulky winter wardrobe!  My shopping suddenly included snow boots, snow pants, parkas, and insulating base layers!  Most of our winter clothes are now rated for 40 below!  And its a good thing too, because when the Visa was finally approved Jacob and I paid our first visit to Canada.  It was very cold and snowy!  It was a hectic week, but we manage to find a house and a school and get the basics set up for our permanent return in a few weeks.

Houston Rockets Basketball Season

It was another great basketball season at the YMCA this year!  Brenna sure will miss Saturdays with the Sanfords!  She did great and its amazing to watch the improvement in her.  She loves athletics and continues to improve her speed, coordination, and ability with each season we play.  This year we were the home team, Houston Rockets!  Here's a few of the highlights from the season.

The Run Down

1st Grade Hoedown!

I'm a little disappointed in myself.  I'm moving into my 5th year of blogging and I've never missed a month until February!  The "why" is a big deal and something I want to save for a post all on its own.  That will come a little later.  But, before I miss another month I want to catch up on what's been going on here!

Brenna had her first ever school dance, the Adolphus Rocking Rodeo Hoedown!  She may have had more fun that I did at my Senior Prom!  There was dancing, hula hoops, jump ropes, limbo, and games!  Brenna got all dressed-up in her cowgirl duds and we had dinner with friends and then headed to the dance!

Ringing in the New Year

We rang in the New Year snug and warm, snoozing away in our beds!  But we did manage to squeeze in some daylight fun with friends to celebrate the occasion!  Brenna attended a New Years party at one of her friends house and her mom passed along a few pictures from their day!

Blessington Farms

The day after Christmas we made a trip to Blessington Farms for some Christmas strawberries.  We visited Blessington in the Spring, but we were never able to pick strawberries because they were all picked out!  This time we got there right as it opened and were some of the first in the field.  The weather was beautiful and the temperature was just right.  The strawberries are amazingly sweet!

Roller Skating

Just before Christmas, Brenna attended a friends roller skating party.  This was her first time to visit a roller skating rink and she loved it!  There were several wipe outs, but no tears.  She quickly moved from the skate walker to independent skating.  I even rented a pair and did a little skating myself.  Turns out, its like riding a bike!  You never forget how!  And I'm proud to say I had no falls, which is good because not only would it have been embarrassing, I'm certain some injury would have likely occurred.  There would have been a lot more hitting the floor than there was 20 years ago!  Brenna enjoyed it so much that she's already asking to go back, so I see return trip in our future.

Kansas City Soccer - The Best Season Yet!

While looking ahead to the upcoming basketball season, I realized I never closed out our 2013 Soccer season.  The season ended in November, but with all the rush of the holidays, somehow I missed posting our team pictures.  This season was our best yet, with an actual winning record!  Brenna enjoyed it as always and we're so proud of our little athlete!

Everything Christmas and Two Front Teeth

Wow!  December was a big month!  It was fun, but busy!  In all our merry-making, I got a little behind on blogging so I've decided to roll everything into one really big Christmas post.  So here's how our holiday went!

We kicked off the holiday festivities with a Mom and Me Christmas PJ Party.  Three friends of mine hosted the party and it was for just the moms and kids.  They asked that everyone wear their pjs and instead of bringing food for the party, to bring an unwrapped toy to be donated to the Star Foundation Holiday Toy Drive.  It was a fun way to help teach a good lesson on giving!  Both the kids and the moms and a fantastic time!

The Run Down

As Christmas quickly approaches, our free time has been consumed with decorating, shopping, holiday parties, hay rides, and tons of fun in general!  That's left little time for blogging.  Before I get too far behind, here's the instagram run down for October and November and a short video that makes me laugh.

Kemah Boardwalk

A few weekends ago, Jacob surprised me and Brenna with a fun day trip to Kemah.  It's been years since I've been to Kemah and Brenna had never been.  The weather was beautiful, the temperature was just right, and our little family had a fantastic day.  We got there right when it opened and started off the morning at the carnival rides.  The crowds hadn't showed up, so we practically had the entire place to ourselves at least for a little while.

Gorgeous Day!

Bulldog of the Week

Brenna was Bulldog of the Week last week at school.  She had to make a poster about some of her favorite things.  After looking over all the things that she picked to include, I would have to agree that she nailed it!

Brenna's Favorites:
Color - pink and purple
Food - spaghetti
Thing to do - draw
TV Show - My Little Pony
Place - the beach
Activities - sports

Happy Halloween

Halloween was a lot of fun this year!  Things that we've done every year seems to get more fun the older Brenna gets.  We got boo'd this year by a school friend.  Brenna suddenly turned into Nancy Drew on the case to discover who the culprit was.  But this time the boo'ing was more fun than being boo'd.  We made a special shopping trip to fill our boo baskets with fun halloween treats and then we developed our boo plan.  DRRD!  Drop, Ring, Run, Drive!  Drop the basket!  Ring the doorbell!  Run like crazy as fast as you can back to the car!  Drive away ASAP!  Needless to say she thought the whole thing was fantastic fun!

Dewberry Farms

Dewberry Farms has become a favorite Fall tradition for us.  This makes our 4th year to attend with friends and enjoy all the fun that the farms has to offer.  However, this year was slightly different for a couple of reasons.  This is the first year Jacob got to go with us and Brenna enjoyed showing Daddy all the fun.  Also, this was the first year we had to go on the weekend when the farm was open to the public.  In past years we've always attended on a weekday when the farm is only open to private groups.  The farm was never crowded, always easy to maneuver, and we enjoyed each of activity as long as we liked.

This year was a tale of a different story.  We faced huge crowds that resembled a backwoods version of Disney World!  We arrived just before opening and waited in line for 30 minutes before we even made it through the gates.  Once inside we quickly hit the big ticket activities moving the kids from one to the other alittle quicker than they would have liked.  The kids would have definitely lingered on the jumping pillows longer if we had allowed it.  Within one hour lines were backed up and people were everywhere!  In the past, we've spent more than half a day at Dewberry, leaving only after the kids were completely spent.  This year we managed 2.5 hours before heading home.  The crowds were just too much.  On the way out we discovered that it pays off to be early because the line of cars to get to Dewberry was more than 2 miles long!!!!

Here's some pictures from our fun Fall day at Dewberry!