It's not my plan!

Just when you think your "plan" for life is a great idea and doing well ... Heavenly Father reminds you it is really his plan.  We are moving to Alamogordo, NM.  But I'll get to that later.
The Gneitings came for Christmas.  I have been so stressed and told myself I'm not thinking about the future till after Christmas.  So it was so nice to have the fun and distraction.  Family always makes the holidays sweeter!  We got a babysitter (Olivia thank you thank you!) and went to the BYU vs Baylor basketball game.  It was really fun the first quarter when they were winning, then we got quieter.  But it was still fun to watch.  We were dressed in blue for Braiden!  But I'm still a Baylor fan from that football game!

 Then we decided to go to San Antonio.  We went to the Natural Bridge Caverns on the way.  They were gorgeous and a fun tour.  Kids had their moments, but overall it was fun.

Then we checked into the Wyndam downtown and went to the Riverwalk.  It's like a whole different city under the skyscrapers.  It feels like you are in a venitian town with Restaurants on every corner and slow moving boats floating down small channels.  We ate at 2 good restaurants.  We visited the Alamo and the market district which is a bunch of mexican shops.  It was fun!  I ate something bad and was in bed one morning but I was glad it quickly passed.

 We got back for Christmas eve to make some more food.  I can't control my cooking.  I'm always cooking too much!  We ate some poppyseed sliders and then drove around to see some Christmas lights.  Dev found some good houses that were unbelievable.  We opened a few presents Christmas eve: pajamas and the book The Oranges.  We read the book then everyone went to bed after a few chores and cleaning up.  Then I woke up early cause I coldn't wait for Brynlee to open her presents!  Finally she woke up and our house is so small that I had to usher her and block her from seeing everything to wake everyone up.

This is a priceless picture of her yelling, "Dad, Santa really came!"  Brynlee has been asking for a Kitchen for 2 years now and Santa brought her one.  She has been playing with it non-stop.  Mom got a giant clock that actually works.  Everyone who has visited knows we have a beautiful big clock with haunted hands.  And Dev picked out a bunch of tools from black friday.  We invited the missionaries over for our brunch.  Then we got to talk to Dev's twin brothers on skype from Peru and Mexico.  It was such a fun and relaxing day of food and gifts.  I was a little dissapointed that I didn't incoorporate Christ a little more this year.  I have some ideas for next year.

 Brynlee is in such a sweet phase.  She has really responded to our "no more physical" punishing.  She just likes to talk through things.  And time out is working well.  Her hair is beautiful and I love it.  It is really getting long.  She just looks so old to me.  The other day I was cuddling with her as she fell asleep and she looked so old to me.  She is very developed verbally for her age and because of it she really likes the question why answered.  She is so helpful with chores around the house.  I love working with her.  She loved Santa and elfy this season.  And rehearsed the story of Christ birth very well.
Callen is growing huge.  He was so skinny at first compared to Brynlee but now his little muscular body has fat everywhere!  He is looking more and more like Brynlee.  He can take about 10 steps but still isn't venturing into full out walking.  He LOVES Devin!  Both kids run and meet him at the door when he comes home.  Callen talks in a foreign language that only he understands.  But he is animated it isn't hard to guess what he wants or is laughing about.  He teases and laughs with Brynlee a lot but love to put his head down and charge Dad.  He loves a hug when he is crying and just holding him for 5 seconds usually stops his hurt feelings.  When I hit is hand in punishment he looks for my hand to hit.  I can't figure out how to create structure and consequences for him.
So to the future .... I am in love with Waco.  The shopping, people, ward, neighborhood, Baylor, etc. And Devin's office and staff are amazing.  We have complete respect for Dr Thrasher and Patty (his wife) has been so so so kind to the kids and I.  She is always calling and taking us to fun places around town.  The office is top of the line in everything and the possibility to make a ton of money is there.  The problem is scheduling.  The office has scheduled patients a little differently than what was portrayed to us originally.  The stress of loan payments is looming in the future and we don't have the time to invest in the office long term.  Whoever is willing to take a hit though is very lucky to have that job!  Anways we have a great job opportunity in Alamogordo, NM with some good friends the Westovers.  (Thank you thank you Joseph and Lisa for your hospitality, patience and kindness in all this!) So we are moving in the next month.  I have loved it here and and having a hard time packing up again to move.  With that said I have now seen how hard it is for someone to work every day at a frustrating job and I'm excited for Devin to be happy and productive.  Besides my parents this post is the most I've really talked about this.  I keep thinking things might change again.  It's not that I'm ungrateful for this new job, I just had 6 months to prep for a move and the change and now I have a month or 2 to move and prep for this change.  You know me an how crazy I am with organization and preparation.  Things will work out and I'm sure we will be happy there.  We haven't moved somewhere where we haven't loved it so I'm sure we will love it there too.  The comfort in this is first the answers to prayers that we have received and second that we trust where the contract and job opportunity is coming from this time.  We aren't signing a contract and hearing numbers from a stranger again.  So this month is going to be crazy.  Devin and I finally got smart phones so we've been trying to figure out our scheduling and layouts of our new phones.  Which is always fun and frustrating!  Just like I say in my journal ever entry ... I wonder what the next entry will entail.  I'm guessing caos!