It's Been Awhile...Because We've Been INSANELY BUSY!!

Well, a lot has happened to the Borchard family in the past three weeks.  We moved out of Stanford in mid-December.  Joe finished his final quarter of school, he just has a couple of tests to take online in the next month or so, and then he'll officially be a Stanford grad!!  I couldn't be more proud of him.  What an accomplishment!  I can't believe he survived 21 units of schoolwork, plus rehab for his elbow, training to be ready for Spring Training, and being a husband and a dad.  He's a special guy.  Leaving Stanford was definitely bittersweet for us...the apartment provided super tight, kind of icky quarters, but living on campus was such a treat.  Stanford is really just a little slice of heaven for us.  Joe's parents are saints, and came up to Palo Alto for one day to help us move our belongings down to Camarillo...in three cars!!!...two trucks and one SUV...talk about Beverly Hillbillies!  

Next, we invaded the Borchard house for about a week and a half and loved the downtime with them before the hustle and bustle of the holidays.  We cooked dinners at home and loved watching the kids play.  Then it was down to the Sones household for the remaining two weeks of Christmas and New Year's.  I LOVE being with my parents!!!  It's amazing how much I miss them and love sharing the kids with them.  Annie and John were in town and staying at the house, too.  Ellie LOVES her Auntie Noni.  We got to visit with all sorts of my girlfriends and their kids, too...Steph and Luke and Natalie and Ben and Will.  Ellie's still talking about all of them and asking whether or not I remember them and had fun with them.  

Joe left on 12/28 to drive cross-country back to Charlotte in 48 hours!!  The kids and I stayed in Pasadena until early morning of the 1st and flew back to meet Joe in Charlotte that afternoon.  It was the first time I'd flown with two kiddos, and it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, but it really was NO FUN AT ALL.  What an accomplishment to be done with that!  Next time will be no problem...way less stress...since I'll have done it once already before.  Ellie was such a good girl, sitting in her seat the entire time without too much protest...she was just so tired from our 3:30am wake-up call that she was super whiney...ugh, there's really nothing worse than a loud, whiney toddler on an airplane.  And Charlie's just plain too big for my lap!  We did it, though, and what a treat to see Joe at the end of it all...and our home!  Charlie'd never even been to the Charlotte house before.  We were there for a total of three days to unpack and repack for Spring Training.  We got to see our dear friends Tim and Denise and their toddler son, Sloan, two nights in a row, and that was a certain highlight.  We'll miss them terribly.  

We drove the 9 hours to Orlando in two cars on the morning of the 5th, and we're still unpacking clothes and getting settled into our little rental home here.  We love our location and our space.  Kids are adjusting amazingly to all of the changes....oh, except for Charlie's massive outbreak in hives!!...stress related, maybe??

Enjoy some of our favorite pics from Christmas, etc.  What great memories!  

P.S. We just bought a new car yesterday!  Our life is crazy...change after change after change!  It's a used silver Tahoe with a DVD system (!....mommy doesn't have to listen to Dora anymore!)...I'm in heaven!