Moving to Houston, TX

HOUSTON! JP just received a promotion at work and therefore we will now be moving to Houston.  It seems like we just got to Austin...Oh wait... we did!   We figured we wanted to know what it was like to really live in Texas and Houston would do just that.  :) When? You might ask.  Before the New Yea!. :) Yup ya heard me. So our lives have been nothing less than exciting the last couple of weeks.  Trying to rent out our place in Austin, securing a home in Houston, Utilities, Schools, Christmas(need I say more), packing up our home, being sick, teaching preschool, and fulfilling the everyday duties of a mother and wife.  I'm tired just thinking about all of it.  We are so grateful for all of the love and help that we are receiving at this time. However, we feel very blessed and are excited for our next adventure.
Before moving on to the adventures in Houston, let me share of few of the most recent adventures...
For Thanksgiving we took a road trip back to SC.  Yup an 18 hour drive(at least). The kids really did an amazing job and it was fun to have JP's undivided attention. We had so much fun seeing all of JP's family and spending much needed time with them all.  We had fun eating a Southern Thanksgiving meal, and spending time at their lake house. While there Michelle took some really cute pics.. let me share.

In Austin we have been having many wonderful Christmas experiences!
We started the season an amazing dessert Christmas party.  Our friends here hold a Christmas party every year where they spend all day gathering the different desserts around Austin for everyone to sample at their home.  Oh my it was so fun.  My only regret was getting full.  My stomach made me stop, but my appetite wanted to keep going forever.  You can't imagine how incredible the display was.

We then had a get together at our house for JP's 30th birthday party! Yup he's 30.  We played games with our friends and ate delicious brisket tacos.  My friend took pictures of this evening, so when I get them I will add them to this post.  A friend of mine here is a professional cake decorator and she made JP's cake. Wait til you see the pics. It not only looked incredible but tasted incredible too!

Then I got crazy and decided to run a mud run! It was called the Warrior Dash.  I love any excuse to get dirty!

Next we took a trip on the "Polar Express".  This was a train ride we took with Santa and Mrs. Clause.  They served hot chocolate, sang songs, and shared Christmas stories.  It was a great way to start off the season.  Kayla kept asking "If we're going to the North Pole, why is there no snow?"  We went with our friends from JP's work, and Davina's two kids Aurora, and Diego.

 Then we got to go to this amazing parade downtown Austin.  Inbetween the floats and entertainment they had donation trucks.  The trucks were for everyone to donate toys to give to children of families in need.  You cannot imagine how many trucks were overflowing with toys! It was a site to see. It really was one of the most incredible acts of service I have ever seen.  An entire city bringing together all these new toys and filling these trucks. So cool!

Then I decided to be crazy again and joined a race called "Color Me Rad" A huge group of women here in Austin all did this race together.  These have been some of my closest friends I have made while being here.  I will love these ladies forever!

The next thing that we did was by far the most incredible thing I have ever had the opportunity to do during the Christmas season.  Me describing it now will do it no justice.  We went to "Bethlehem"  The city of Burnett(not far outside of Austin) creates the entire city of Bethlehem.  It was magical!  Because it was at night I only got a few pictures.  They had everything from that time period and place.  They recreated the barn where the baby Jesus would have been layed. Actors and actresses were all walking around playing the part of the people who would have lived there at the time.  They had Camels, blacksmith, families in their homes, leather shops, bread making, weaving shops, and so much more.  You really can't imagine how incredible it was.  It was something that I would highly recommend to come to. We will be back every year that we can. Did I mention they do this entire thing for free?  A local church puts it on every year with volunteers.  It was easy to teach the kids the true meaning of Christmas after such a life-like display of the birth of the Savior.  INCREDIBLE!

 

My friend and I then took our sons to a Christmas symphony.  A beautiful choir and orchestra displayed Christmas music from all ages.  We sang along and enjoyed the spirit of Christmas from music.

Last weekend we took the kids to the Sea World Christmas celebration. We had a blast.  It never ceases to amaze me the things they do, like a beluga whale doing a back flip on command. Crazy!  The light display was nothing less than spectacular!  They had brought in a Broadway crew of singers that performed all evening at different locations. So Fun!

Tonight we are going to see the famous Wimberly lights!
I don't think I have ever done so many things at Christmas time. I think this is what you do when you're not around your family.  You fill your time with everything you can think of.

Austin has been such an incredible experience.  We can honestly say that we have had so much fun! There has never been a dull moment.  Did I mention we caught three Anole lizards for pets?

This city is filled with adventures, culture, great food, bugs, music, wonderful people, and so much more!  We have made many forever friends. We are broken hearted to leave, but grateful for the time that we have had here. 

Need Your Help

Friends and Family,

Great news!!  We are launching our new blog called "Eponym"

http://eponymrevival.wordpress.com/

Kindness is contagious, help us spread the news!

Eponym has been created to provide a network of creative inspiration, opportunities, and resources to serve.  We feel by uniting with a community of others working together to make a difference we can create a continuum of kindness.  We hope to give a restoration of life to individuals all around us by simple acts of kindness.

We hope you find the inspiration to go out and help, as well as opportunities that will allow you to help others. If you have an upcoming service opportunity you would like to have featured on our site or an inspirational story to share email us.

We have been talking about ways to bring our thoughts to life, and by doing this blog we hope to spread our message to as many people as we can. We are going to need your help to initially get this out there. 

Please help us in doing this by sharing this site with your friends and family, or through any of your social networking resources.  We hope that united we can spread the message of this site. 

Thank you for your help.. We are so excited to get this out there.

Love,

Amber Giles, Natalie Anderton, Macy Robison

Floating the River in Austin, TX

We did this a little while back... It was super fun, I just forgot to post pics.  The river was calm, but at the end there were a few rapids that you could go down again and again.  Corbin wasn't so sure about doing this, but he had fun with some of the other kids adventuring at the end. We even dove off rocks right into the rapids.  So fun!  These are a lot of our friends in Austin... all a part of the Hill Country Ward.