walk by faith

Finishing 2011

Posted by Brenna at 4:17 PM

We had a great Thanksgiving at my sister's house with my family, and then it was moving time. Quinn and Riley went to the Upstate to stay with Nana and Papa and then Grammie and Pop the Monday after Thanksgiving. My mom makes quilts and made a very special one for us to give to our neighbors (Aunt Cricket and Uncle Don) before we left. We have been blessed to have them as our neighbors, who became more like family. We are missing them, but know we will always keep in touch! Giving them the quilt:

Snuggling with daddy the last night we were all in our house!

Geoff and I stayed the week to get our things moved out, get some new flooring and a fence in for the buyers, and have closing. Then we were all off to the Upstate.

Our first weekend, we helped Grammie and Pop decorate their Christmas tree!

Going to visit Santa at "Chick a la"

Christmas morning :)

Loving new toys :)

Birthday cake to celebrate baby Jesus!

Quinn requested the orange frosting :)

Family photo :)

Osborn Family

Birkenstock Family

More fun with new baby!

Thomas the train :)

We had a great time celebrating Christmas and the birth of our Savior. It was especially sweet because Quinn and Riley started understanding much more about the true meaning of Christmas this year! They also really liked opening presents and were very excited about their new toys!

We also spent December looking for a house. After much looking, we decided to buy a lot that was still available in a neighborhood that kept us in the area that we wanted to be in and build there. There are a few lots owned by individuals in the neighborhood. We first started negotiating with one lady over her lot and when things didn't go very well we felt that the Lord was saying that one was not for us. So, we decided to make an offer on a different lot and finally had a contract. However, because it is owned by an individual we have to close on the lot before we can start building. In the meantime, we are staying with Geoff's parents, who very kindly took us in!

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We're having a...

Posted by Brenna at 10:41 AM

baby brother!

On November 3rd we had our big ultrasound for baby #3. We decided to bring both grandmothers as well as Quinn and Riley with us to find out what we were having. It was so fun having them all there and finding out that another little boy is on his way!

It took us a little while to settle on a name for our baby boy. We just were having a hard time committing to a name. One night before Christmas we were reading a book to the kids about baby Jesus and how he was called Emmanuel. We told Quinn and Riley that Emmanuel was another name for baby Jesus. Quinn responded with "but what's our baby's name?" We had just been referring to his as baby brother and it was so cute to have Quinn realize that he needed a name. His question was the prompting we needed to commit to the name that we had been thinking. So baby brother's name is

James Grayson Osborn, he will go by Grayson!

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Halloween 2011

Posted by Brenna at 3:53 PM

Since Quinn and Riley had really gotten into watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse I knew they would love dressing as Mickey and Minnie for Halloween. My mom made Riley's adorable skirt and I got my sister to bring them back hats from their trip to Disney world. Here they are trying on their outfits a few days before Halloween!

Nana also brought them back a stuffed Mickey and Minnie from Disney world!

Before Halloween we carved our pumpkin,

and let them practice ringing our doorbell and saying "trick or treat"!

On Halloween they were so excited to ring doorbells and get candy!

Aunt Cricket's house is always fun, she put lots of candy in their pumpkins!

After trick or treating, they were ready to go again, now we only have to wait for next year!

Around this time we also got an offer on our house. We went through some crazy negotiations with the buyers and eventually came to a contract we could agree on. It was difficult to say the least, but since it was the only offer we had gotten in the 5 months our house was for sale, we made it work. Geoff's law firm is moving us back to our home town for him to open a new office for them there. We are super excited to be back near grandparents and some good friends, but also sad to leave the family and friends we had in Columbia.

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Isle of Palms Trip 2011

Posted by Brenna at 5:31 PM

I am so very behind on blogging and am going to make an attempt to catch up. We'll see how this goes! These are from awhile back but I'm going to try to go in order...

The first week of October we took what has become our annual trip with Geoff's family to the Isle of Palms. We had a great week there with beautiful weather and lots of fun! Uncle Pete came for the 1st half of the week and Quinn and Riley just loved having him around, as well as Grammie and Pop. We love going in October, it's not crowded, and the weather is beautiful. It was a little chilly at the beginning of the week so we went into downtown Charleston, explored Boone Hall Pumpkin Patch, and played at the Palmetto Islands State Park playground. As the week warmed up it was perfect for spending days on the beach, without getting too hot!

Quinn loved the beach, playing in the sand, and the water. Riley was a different story, at least at the beginning of the week. She didn't like the sand on her feet, we had to force her to walk on it. She didn't care much for the waves and water at first either. However, by the end of the week she was playing in the sand and telling us she wanted to go walk in the water and let the water tickle her toes. She would walk and say "I like it, I like it" I guess convincing herself that she did in fact like it! We had great family time and enjoyed such a relaxing vacation!