Still South of the Mason-Dixon - All is Well

Alexandria, Virginia is now the place we call home. Though my heart will always belong in Georgia, it's going to take a sabbatical somewhere else for now.

The blow of moving away was softened by knowing I was moving to a place where I could be with my darling husband again. I was giddy at the thought of being with him, so I barely cried as drove down the dirt driveway, leaving Buckeye Ranch with Jack saying "goodbye grammie's house, goodbye cows, goodbye caterpillars, goodbye ladybugs, goodbye friends". Yeah talk about rip your heart right out!!

With my car loaded down with my most precious belongings (minus the Tuck who was flying up with Grandpa and Grammie), my mom, and Pops right behind us, we ventured toward our new place. My dad commented at one point over the ham that every mile we drove was a mile farther from home. I cannot even tell you how hard it was the 5 months building up to knowing I was leaving. But I'm brave and was excited for a new adventure despite leaving my family behind.

We had an unsuccessful house hunting trip in DC back in October, so I was moving up here having never seen our new place. And.....Jon did good! We're renting a townhouse in a great area and a great ward. And let me just tell ya, there is something to be said for renting. I'm loving that none of this broken crap is my responsibility. Just call good ol' Gus and he'll take care of it. Sweet!

Happy graduation day honey!! I was so proud of him I was absolutely beaming. Can I just tell you how excited Jack was to be back with daddy??






Graduation day was also Jack's birthday!! So we celebrated with some of Jack's favorite people, (his grandparents!) Toy Story decor and cupcakes. YUM!

You see the tongue?? Yeah...you see where this is going...




And yes that's a dinosaur costume he's wearing. After finding it in a box he wore it for like 3 days what can I say?

Since we've been here, we've had a good time finding our way around, and battling traffic to go down town. Everything has to be in very short spurts though to keep from having babies loose it. First stop - Capitol Hill!




Thanksgiving. What can I say about Thanksgiving. It's my favorite holiday and I start looking forward to it as soon as the leaves start changing and there's a chill in the air. I had to make the most of it this year seeing as there was no chance of making it to the beach to be with my family and grandparents. And would you believe it actually turned out awesome!? We got invited to a friends house who were having a few other people over. I had a BLAST cooking a gluten free feast for my husband and impressed even myself with a pumpkin cheescake deluxe. (Perhaps my baking curse is over??? Or perhaps not...) Anyway, we woke up, I cooked and cooked and cooked and we all watched the parade. We headed to our friends house and feasted more than any person should. Seriously...wow. It's amazing how much I can consume. 4 kinds of pie?? Must taste them all! Jack is a boy after my own heart I'm afraid and went straight for the good stuff.

Jack scowring the black friday ads, finding the best deals.






The weekend after Thanksgiving, we went over to Mt. Vernon where we saw the Christmas camel and turkey pardoned by Pres. Obama. Though we decided that's a pretty anti-climatic end for a turkey who's fought his whole life to be the biggest fattest Thanksgiving day turkey. Just to be pardoned and sent to live the remainder of his pitiful days on some farm. Poor thing. Anyway, the house was all decorated for Christmas and we got to see sheep!