Cheers to the New Year!

I LOVE New Years...I always have. There is nothing like the idea of a clean slate...A fresh start... whether real or imagined, to help you look at life in a new perspective. Its also a good time to slow down, look back and reflect on all the changes and blessings in our ever evolving lives. Looking back on this last year, 2012, was a mixture of change, emotions, chaos and more blessings than I can count. I haven't blogged since we moved into our new home but truthfully its been awesome madness. I put together this video of our BIG move to save some time. :)

Since we moved in 6 weeks ago, we have had Thanksgiving, Daniel's dad, then his mom, for a short period my mom, sister and Daniel's mom at the same time, Jensen's 1st Birthday, Christmas, and that brings us to now. Phew! It was really so awesome to see some of our family...we had missed them SO much! (especially the kids!) It was a great opportunity to explore some of the Dallas/Fort Worth area with them too since it was new to all of us.
Now that we are finally having a chance to experience what our new normal will be like here, its perfect that a New Year is upon us too. The last few years I have opted to create a theme for my new year rather than a resolution...one word that sums up what I want out of the year or to accomplish. It helps me to remember what I wanted to accomplish through out the year. This year my theme is Focus. I want to be better at focusing on what is most important in my life...faith, family, friends, health and get rid of all the nonsense that distracts me from those things. First on the agenda...social media apps...yikes! The ultimate time stealing addiction! I am going to continue to blog and have a Facebook page but I removed everything from my phone so it's not so readily available. Wish me luck! There is a lot more that I have to change to accomplish my goal but there are too many to be named. Maybe I'll blog about them as I come upon them.
So, as we say good bye to 2012 and say hello to 2013, I must say to all my friends and family thank you. You have all in some way or another been a huge support to us as we have transitioned into this new life and we are so grateful. Man, what a year of change. We are so looking forward to seeing what awesome plans He has in store for us in this New Year. A Happy and Healthy New Year to you all! XOXO

Pearce Family Update

Okay, I lag. I thought about blogging a bunch of times in the past month...that counts for something right?? So, I guess since the actual posts were never written I have A LOT of catching up to do. The truth is most of the time during the past month my feelings toward moving and our transition here have been so jumbled, you probably would have got whiplash from reading my emotional roller coaster. Lets just say its better I am starting here and looking back at the last month. Don't get me wrong, things have been awesome here and we are really happy but there is the occasional feelings of being homesick that creep in and the occasional melt down of still being in this apartment with two dogs, two kiddos and virtually none of our stuff. Stuff is stuff but when you miss home, having your own bed to sleep in at night makes it a little easier. All that aside, our transition has gone MUCH easier than I could have ever dreamed. We are nearing the home stretch of our new house being complete (9 days in case you're wondering), meeting so many wonderful people and having fun exploring our new surroundings.
It has been awesome getting to reconnect with my good friend Liz since she moved to the Dallas area over 5 years ago. Its been nice to have someone from home here. We met up with her and her hubby Josh at The Texas State Fair and to say Gigi had a good time is an understatment...she's still talking about the rides! She had such a great time! I have been able to meet up with Liz for some girl time too and her and Josh were so super sweet and came down to watch our kiddos for us so we could go out to dinner and celebrate our 5 year wedding anniversary.
We are still really loving our new church and people are probably sick of us saying how similar The Avenue and our home church in Fresno The Well are but seriously they are! In fact, there are a lot of things about The Avenue that I like better which I never thought I would say. One of the hardest things about leaving Fresno was leaving our church so finding a new home church so quickly has been heaven sent to say the least. We have joined a really awesome couples life group where we have met some great people and I have joined a women's bible study that has allowed me to meet some truly amazing and supportive women. The kids love the opportunity to get to play at church during the week too. (Let me rephrase...Gigi does. Jensen is entering the awesome phase of separation anxiety which is a story for another time.)
We participated in the churches Trunk or Treat Fall Festival which was so much fun! They had pony rides, bounce houses, food and of course candy so Gigi, I mean Snow White, was in heaven! Its awesome to see her meet new friends too...she really misses her buds back home. :( Daniel was in heaven too since our trunk was Cowboy themed. People here are shocked that a family from CA were Cowboy fans before we moved here but for those of you who know Daniels family you know they are life long fans so Daniel is totally excited.

 During the week, me and the kids scope out new parks and try and to find new things to get involved with. They already have their favorite and Jensen is getting old enough to where he is getting into the park thing too. As I have said before the weather here is so crazy! Its hard to tell at the beginning of the day what the weather will end up being by the end of the day so I have learned to keep a wide variety of extra clothing for us and the kids at all times.

I love the weekends since moving here because we have a new little tradition of getting up Saturday morning and driving over to our new house and seeing what progress has been made on it. We feel so blessed to be able to buy a new home and its nice that with home prices the way they are here in Texas we are able to buy a house with a little more room than our house in CA. We really love the neighborhood to and have heard from many people that the schools in Midlothian (where are new house will be) are awesome. In fact the elementary school that Gigi will go to, Longbranch, is just up the road from us. We are scheduled (fingers crossed that nothing hold up the process) to do our walk through on the 19th and move in on the 21st. I said I hoped that we would be in by Thanksgiving and we will be just one day shy!  I CAN'T wait to get in and start getting settled. I feel like a home is the final piece to our transition and it has been a crazy almost 8 weeks of transition.

Then it will be the holidays and Jensens birthday (NO, I can't believe he will be 1!) and we have family coming at various times throughout November and December and January and I feel like that will definitely be the icing on the cake.
Overall I can't say enough how blessed we have been to have had so much love and support from our friends, new and old and our family and can I just say thank goodness for FaceTime! We are really loving Texas but are equally really missing California at times. I know the next month or so will be crazy busy but I will definitely try to blog more often to keep everyone posted on all thats going on. Thanks for the prayers and love! xoxo

Life As We Know It

To be honest with you, moving to Texas hasn't been the easiest thing I have ever done but I do have faith that its one of the best things I have ever done. Leaving behind everything you know, all of your comforts, all of your routines, everyone that knows and loves you and trading it in for the unknown, a bunch of faces that don't know you or your story, definitely exposes any weanesses or insecurities you have harbored in your heart. I have asked myself a million times, did we do the right thing? Are we going to be able to make this a home? Will we make new friends? Will we find a new church we will call home? Will my kids be okay here? But, when I lay in bed at night and talk to God, I know the answer to all of those questions is yes! I know this because I have faith that we are right where we are supposed to be. Ultimately, we as a family decide all of those things I listed above. This experience is what we make of it but thats not to say that it won't be hard and that we won't miss the life we left behind either. That being said, there has been a lot more smiles than tears and a lot more laughter than anything else.
This last weekend was really the first time that we were able to get a glimpse at what our new normal will be here and I must say it was so refreshing. We met some really nice people and their families that Daniel works with at his company picnic that just so happen to be members at the church we had planned on attending Sunday. Sunday we showed up to The Avenue Church and experienced a mixture of relief and surprise at how similar it was to The Well, our church in California. We were invited to join a couples life group that evening which we went to and met some more wonderful people and then we went out to dinner afterward with a couple of the families. It was nice to have some adult conversation with someone other than Daniel and I know Gianna really enjoyed being around other kids. The whole experience gave me hope that this place might actually start to feel like home soon.
I can tell you what will really help this place feel like home will be having a home...which as of yet we still don't have. We did go into escrow on a new home that will hopefully be finished in the middle of next month if all goes well which is definitely a step in the right direction! Buying a home unleashes a bunch of its own stresses but I am trying my hardest to focus my mind on the end result...a home! I know that life shouldn't consist of stuff but having your own stuff when everything around you is so unfamiliar would definitely help. I know this to be true for Gianna...there are a lot of times she asks for some of her toys that are in storage and I know that she would feel a little more secure if she had all of her things that make her feel like she is at home...her bed especially. It has been hard to explain to her where all of her stuff is.
It is a HUGE relief to have found a house! Its a step in the right direction for sure! And I must say I really do love the new house and the community it is in. It is definitely much more house than we are used to and a much bigger yard too. I can't wait to get into it and to start making it a home. While we are very fortunate to have this apartment, it has been a challenge to make it feel like home. I do wish we had found something in Waxahachie, but we ended up buying in neighboring Midlothian. Its so close to Waxahachie it may as well be in it though. (By the way...we were mistaken on the pronounciation of Waxahachie...perhaps thrown off by the accents but we have been informed that it isn't Wuh-xahachie but Waxahachie with the "a" sounding like the a in walk. Truthfully, our California accent can't really make that sound so we try in all cases to just avoid saying it. Dead give away that we aren't from around here. lol So, perhaps its a good thing we are moving to Midlothian.)
So, thats whats new with us. Life as we know it is changing and evolving daily and its exciting to see where this journey will take us and who we will meet along the way. So very grateful for the internet and FaceTime though because communication with our friends and family in CA has helped keep things more normal and helped me maintain my sanity. We definitely miss everyone so much! Until next time.... :)

Welcome to Texas!

"Welcome to Texas!" This is the first thing everyone says as soon as they find out we aren't from here. I swear Texans are the nicest people. Its made me realize that I really need to work on my eye contact. I am so accustomed to just shuffling along doing my own thing, people bumping into me and not saying excuse me, that people here must question my shocked expression with all the eye contact and "how y'all doing?" Its refreshing.
So, we are here in Waxahachie, Texas (pronounced WUH-xahachie) a LONG way from home and I think we are settling in okay. Its definitely different. For one, we are in corporate housing for the time being (a furnished apartment) and all of our stuff is in storage while we search for a home. Daniel will be working in Corsicana which is about 35 minutes south of here and Dallas is about 25 minutes north. Its a town of about 29,000 people and for the most part its pretty country compared to what we are used to. Everything you need is on one stretch of road or in the downtown area and everything else is just open land and small subdivisions of homes. Most of the homes are on acre lots or more which is so much land compared to our 9,000 sqft. lot we had in CA.
The downtown area is really cool! The buildings are beautiful and there are a lot of old victorian homes surrounding it. On Friday nights everyone goes to the enormous high school football stadium for the game a la "Friday Night Lights" and we hear there are tons of traditions and markets and parades that go on that everyone is apart of. Its definitely different than anywhere we thought we would ever live but are so excited that we have ended up here. It definitely seems like the perfect place to raise our family not to mention the schools are awesome here!
Really, getting here was the hardest part of the move. We had all of our stuff packed up and on the truck a whole week before our actual move date. We needed time to have the house and carpets cleaned to prep for our renters to move in and we had the wedding of our good friends Vinny and Jenn in beautiful Santa Margarita the weekend before. So, we literally were living out of suitcases and homeless for a week but between the hotels and my parents house we tried to make it as comfortable and normal as possible for the kids. Daniel left in the car with the dogs on Monday and made the long trek to Texas by himself while I tied up some loose ends and flew out with the kids Wednesday. There were a lot of sad good byes, stress and making sure we had everything before we left that had me a little frazzled but I think we all did pretty good and made it out here in one piece.
The kids did great on the flight over here and Daniel did awesome and made sure to be here by Wednesday just in time to pick us up from the airport. My good friend Liz who lives in Dallas was sweet enough to take time off from work to come help us out too. It's SO awesome that we will be able to see more of her now!
When we got to our apartment we were relieved to see that it was decorated nice and we had pretty much everything we needed except of course food and toiletries. We pretty much bought the entire Walmart our first night here. We had to buy everything from salt to soap and everything in between. Our apartment is in a nice area off the one street that has everything which makes it pretty convenient. Gianna loves it and calls it our "hotel house". She has her own room and bed but Jensen has a little pack n play in a corner of it where he sleeps for the time being. She is not a fan of him sleeping in her room but it's temporary and a good lesson in sharing. While its a much better living situation than we anticipated, I am anxious to get a house and get out of here. We could only pack so much stuff with us in a few suitcases.
I think Gianna is doing pretty well adjusting although she still hasn't fully grasped how far away Texas is from California. She has asked to go to her grandma's a few times and when I said she is in CA she said she could just get on the plane and come here. Tonight was great because Daniel's brother and our sister in law, Derrick and Nikki, were actually in Dallas to go to the Monday night football game tomorrow (a trip planned before our move) so they came down and had dinner and saw our place. Gigi was super excited but I think she was a little confused at how they could stop by after I just explained that people won't be able to just stop by. lol. She will get it. Its an adjustment for all of us.
I really do think we are going to like it here once we get settled. It is definitely a nice change of pace. I will say that I am for sure not in a hurry to go through a cross country move again. It was definitely one of the most stressful things I have ever done and I must say I am more than relieved that it is over. Fingers crossed we find a home soon and can get back to normal. Well...a new normal....

Countdown to Texas

In less than a week a bunch of movers are going to come into my house and pack up my entire life and relocate it to Texas. We will be left behind for a week to tie up some loose ends but then we will  board a plane and a short 3 hours later we will officially be Texans. How did having almost 4 months to plan and get ready become 12 days so quickly? Rather than checking things off my list, I feel as though my list of things to do are growing exponentially. It's crazy what all is involved in moving a family of 4 plus 2 dogs to another state. I must say as much as I know I will miss California, I will be in no hurry to do all of this again and move back.
Despite having a little stress and a little more chaos than usual there is a lot of good coming in the next 12 days. Spending as much time with family and friends including our going away party this weekend is definitely on the top of our list of things to do. Leaving somewhere you have been all your life really makes you appreciate the wonderful people that surround you even more than you usually do and as much as you normally should. We are truly, truly blessed with the best parents two people could ask for and I think more than anyone, we (especially Gigi) will miss both sets of parents so much. But no doubt they will be out to visit, we will back to visit and thank goodness for modern technology such as FaceTime which will for sure make this transition easier. The same goes for our families and friends and all of their kiddos....life won't be the same but we know visiting will be that much more fun because we will get to see all of them too! And so I guess from these last few sentences you can see where my heart has been focused lately. Despite the excitement of our new life ahead of us, the trust in the Lord's plan for us and the million and one things still left to do before we board that plane, my heart is continously focused not just on how much we will miss everyone that we are leaving behind but how truly blessed we are to have them in our life. The love and support that we have recieved as we embark on this journey has made our decision to take the plunge that much more easier. To know that despite the miles between us we still have an awesome support team here that will be sending us there love and prayers to Texas is so great.
My head is in a million places at once while we are on this home stretch but I can tell you my heart has been focused on trusting in the path that has been laid out for us and this scripture has been my constant mantra: "For I know the plans I have for you...plans to prosper you and not harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." Jeremiah 29:11 Of course the adventurer in me is thrilled at the opportunity ahead of us and for the new people we will meet and new experiences we will get to be apart of. I know that home will always be here but opportunities may not be so we are excited to partake in this new journey together as a family and make a new home in Texas but knowing full well our hearts will always be at home in California.

I Wish For More

As a child in school when December 7th would roll around, my teachers would sometimes but not always mention Pearl Harbor. Truthfully, it sounded like a sad, scary, action packed story but of course I had no real emotional connection to it. If it wasn't for my history classes in college the date would probably never stick in my head unless I would hear a blip of it on the evening news on the day of.
Of course the actual story of Pearl Harbor is one we all know now as adults and most anyone can quote that part of FDR's speech, "...a day that will live in infamy..." Oh and of course there was the Hollywood movie starring Mr. Ben Affleck that helps us to get a better understanding of that day. But have you ever seen an interview or talked to someone that was there, or someone that could just tell you where they were when it happened? Have you ever noticed the unmistakeable glint of pain in their eyes when they speak of that day? It's always there.
If it weren't for September 11, 2001, I may have never understood that look but I am sad to say that I do. I know it well. It's the same look our generation gets in their eyes every September 11th when the day inevitably rolls around and the news starts in with the clips and everyone starts in with their "I was (here) when I first heard (or saw)" stories. It's the one day when we can therapeutically talk about the pain that still lies hidden in us these 11 years later. A pain that's still quietly visible in our ongoing war and our still unsure citizens even though we have come so far. It's a pain that has and inevitably still is shaping our country and generation and a similar pain that shaped the Pearl Harbor generation even though it's not obvious in our daily lives.
But truthfully, who wants to live in a world shaped continuously by pain, fear and anger? I know what's done is done and tragically we cannot undo the past and we cannot fully reshape our views of the world as the real damage has already been done but as the years pass by I pray with all that I am that our generation can find healing for our minds and our hearts and that above all that my children's generation will watch documentaries and news clips of December 7th and September 11th and never fully understand our reminiscent looks of pain as we remember and never forget. They will never fully understand because they will live in a world void of terrorist, the threat of airplanes flying into buildings or wars threatening nuclear weapons and ultimate destruction of entire countries.
I know this is an absolute peaches and cream vision and that ultimately pain and suffering will always be known to us in some degree. So, I guess what I really hope is that whatever it is that my children's generation has to endure its not bad enough to redefine and completely reshape them as September 11th has done to us. I simply wish for more for them.
So tomorrow is the day that cannot help but flood all of us with emotions that often time take us by surprise and memories that we wish we could just wash away. But it brings optimism too! The glint of hope that I have seen grow year by year is a resolve to remember that day but to never have to experience that day or a day like it again. So many of us can say that we are stronger for it and I pray we are. Because I want nothing more than for my children to grow up in a world that wishes for more for its children and knows a greater peace than we were able to know.

Gianna Leigh Just Turned 3!

It's hard to believe that Gianna has already celebrated her 3rd birthday. It was such an awesome birthday for her because this is the first year that she really understood that her birthday was coming and what it entailed and she fully enjoyed the whole experience. Seriously, the weeks leading up to it we got to hear ALL about what she wanted for her birthday..."A Unicorn Dream Lite and a princess dress." She sang the theme song to Dream Lite constantly and pretty much had a heart attack everytime the commercial came on. This year we decided to throw her party at the inflatable party house Pump It Up which she was SO excited about as was I...little to no planning, set up or clean up....what's NOT to love!? What I loved most about her birthday though was continuing traditions and creating new ones. I LOVE birthdays and nothing makes me more happy than being able to remind Gigi how special the day she was born is and how special it is to us too.
Gigi got a cute princess piggy bank when she was born and it has become the depository for all lose change in our house. On her first birthday we emptied it out and put the change in her bank account but last year and this year we let her take the change out and by something at the toy store. This year she was REALLY excited to do this as she had $57 whole dollars to spend. It was fun to see how seriously she considered each toy and asked how much it was and if she had enough money. After picking a few toys (notice from the below picture that she is into ALL things girly!) she had money left over and absolutely melted my heart when she said that Handsome could pick out something with her money. (By the way she pretty much only calls Jensen Handsome...this is the cutest thing to me. xoxo)

On the night before her birthday Daniel and I decorated her room with streamers and balloons in hopes to suprise her on her birthday. However, she woke up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night and came into my room to let me know that someone had left a bunch of balloons in her room while she was sleeping and then went back to sleep. :) So, the suprise wasn't as big as I had hoped but she still loved it. In the morning we gave her Dream Lite and as you can see from the picture she was in shock. lol I must say it is actually a really cool toy! We also gave her a bunch of new dresses because as I mentioned earlier that is all she wears so I have given in and only buy her dresses. She was in heaven!

Then we dressed her up in her favorite new dress from Grammy that said, "Gigi Leigh Cute & 3" and we took a few pics of her with her birthday balloons. It was so much fun!

This year we started a new tradition that I found on none other than Pinterest that I am SO excited to continue and do with both Gianna and Jensen. Basically, I came up with 20 questions that I will ask the kids every year and each year I will put there answers into a book along with a picture from their birthday. They recommend that you start at 3 so I started this year with Gigi and it was so much fun! She is used to me asking her lots of questions as I get a total kick out of her answers and its a fun way I quiz her on colors and numbers and what not so here are the questions I chose:

1. What's your favorite color? Pink and Red
2. What's your favorite show? Doc McStuffins
3. What's your favorite snack? Turkey Sandwiches
4. What's your favorite thing to wear? Dresses (SHOCKER)
5. What's your favorite book? Penny Loves Pink
6. What's your favorite toy? Princess Castle
7. If you could be an animal which one would you be? Giraffe
8. What is your favorite ice cream flavor? Strawberry
9. What is your favorite movie? Snow White
10. What game do you like to play? "I Get You I Get You" with Dad (This is a game that they play every day when Daniel gets home from work which consists of Daniel throwing Gigi in the air.)
11. Who's your best friend? Vinny
12. What makes you laugh? Funny Jokes
13. What's your favorite song? Old McDonald
14. Which holiday do you like the best? Easter
15. What do you like best about your brother? Helping to feed him his bottle.
16. What is your favorite thing to do with mom? Bake cupcakes
17. What is your favorite thing to do with dad? Play "I Get You I Get You"
18. What is your favorite thing to do outside? Play in the pool
19. What is your favorite thing to do inside? Play hide and seek
20. What do you want to be when you grow up? Ice Cream Lady

I absolutely cannot wait to see how these answers change every year!

Than we went to the big party! Gigi and all her little friends had a blast bouncing the night away! She got more dress up clothes and awesome toys than a little girl could dream of. I loved watching her expressions as she opened each gift...so happy so appreciative. The best part of the day to me was thinking she had fallen asleep in her bed only to see that she was laying in her bed with her hands behind her head with a sweet smile on her face staring at her princess dresses laid out in front of her. She was on cloud 9! Then she looked at me and asked me, "Mom, I get to turn 4 too?!" I laughed and told her that she did but she has a whole year to enjoy being 3. I know I will do my best to enjoy every moment of it too because I still can't believe that its been 3 years since I held my 7lb. 13oz. baby girl for the first time. What a truly amazing 3 years it has been.