Just what am I thinking. . .: Merry Christmas 2012! Our Digital Christmas Card!

Once upon a year . . .

January - We started the year living in New Canaan, CT. Trent started the year continuing on as a practice fellow at the FASB. It was cold. Jamie wrote on her blog all the things we do to keep from going crazy when the high is only 22 degrees. Jamie had a birthday and Catherine turned 10 years old. We still own our home in Katy, TX and afreaky hail storm totaled the roof. Jamie set 2 New Year Resolutions. She wants to run a marathon and she wants to make it through the year with no library fines. She lasts 22 days before the first library fine hits.

February - Our children turned into TV junkies and so Jamie made the unilateral (and very unpopular) decision to cancel cable television. We headed on a road trip to Disney World in Florida to escape the cold. Trent celebrated his birthday at Animal Kingdom! The kid's BARELY survived without television, but Trent not so much. We discovered that nearly everything the kids watch on television they could access online through a variety of web resources, but the only thing Trent watches is an occasional sporting event and there are very few ways to see those events live online so we had the cable back on before the start of March Madness.

March - Jamie's Dad and Tyler come to visit and after 3 1/2 years of living close to Broadway, Jamie finally made it to see Wicked. Then Trent joined them and the four of them went to see Spider Man. Then Trent took the three girls into the city 2 weeks later and they saw wicked too! We got ready for Easter and Jamie resurrected an old family hobby of hers from growing up -- making pysanky Easter eggs. Everyone really got into decorating these eggs.

April - We had our spring break and enjoyed time together in Connecticut and New York. We enjoyed the Bronx Zoo one day. Trent's parents and his sister Melissa came to visit. And we finally crossed another "big" milestone off our New York to do list. We went to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. We celebrated Easter with them in town. We geared up for the start of soccer and softball season (where Jamie was coaching 2 soccer teams and 1 softball team, all the girls played both soccer and softball and Adam played soccer) We added 180 games and practices to the calendar. Jamie's Dad turned 60 and Jamie presented him with a book about his life that she had been working on for months.

May - Julianne and Jamie headed to Houston for a weekend of fun. We participated (and with Jamie's whole family) helped sponsor this year's Sprint for Life in honor of Jamie's mom. We also had the big 60th birthday party. We made it to our town's darling May Fair. Trent is officially made a partner at Ernst & Young! And for the first time we didn't just watch our town's traditional Memorial Day parade, we walked in it!!! We finished off the month with Carrie (Jamie's sister) coming for a quick weekend visit.

June - Carrie (Jamie's sister) and Jamie started the month off with a bang by doing the Pawling Triathlon, grabbing lunch, and then driving into the city for dinner and Evita. (I'll be honest-- that was one long exhausting day!!!!!) Of course we didn't miss the town's ice cream social (one of our favorite events!) There were end of year school events (like band concerts, art shows, and fair thee well's) and there was one crazy broken arm day (courtesy of Catherine). And then there was the completely unexpected, job relocation offer that was made to Trent and we accepted it. We were moving to Dallas. This meant selling our home in Katy, TX and frantically starting the house hunting. Julianne had her 12th birthday. And we traveled to Utah for summer vacation, a family reunion, and so we could leave the kids and go to Dallas to find a home. Jamie took all of Trent's family's photos before she and Trent headed to Dallas and found a house (after hours and hours of time with a realtor!)

July - We made it back to Utah in time for the 4th of July and the family reunion. We had a great time (the highlight being a photo scavenger hunt!) We went back to New Canaan where Julianne went to Girl's Camp. We started following Jamie's Dad's blog as he and Tyler traveled around the world. Realizing that our time in New England was coming to a close we asked ourselves is there anything we haven't done yet that we want to do. And so we took a last minute trip to upstate New York. We went to the Palmyra Pageant. Then we continued on to Niagara Falls. We came home and tried to soak up all the beauty of a New England summer while at the same time planning to move, designing swimming pools, dealing with some changes to the new house and more. Madelyn turned 8 years old. And as if there wasn't enough going on. . . Owen decided he wanted to be potty trained.

August - This was a month of change. Catherine's arm was all healed so she didn't have to wear a sling anymore! Trent sold his beloved Honda Civic- after 13 years, it was practically a family member. We reluctantly said good-bye to so many of our friends and were loaded up. Trent and Jamie celebrated 16 years of marriage and we boarded a plane to take us to our new home! We closed on the new house (and played at the Great Wolf Lodge while everything was finishing up). We then started the rapid fire unpacking of the house. We might have set a speed record. We had 9 days until family arrived for Madelyn's baptism. It was crazy busy. Trent started work (and bought a new car). We started construction on a pool in our backyard (fulfilling a long ago made promise to the kids that if we ever moved back to Texas we would for sure have a pool!) The kids started school.

September -- Labor day weekend had Trent's parents and Jamie's entire family here for Madelyn's baptism. Everyone left except for Trent's mom who stayed on to learn the routines. She was joined by Trent's sister Melissa and then Trent and Jamie headed to Beijing, China for a week. (You can read the first of many blogposts here and then just keep clicking on newer posts if you want to see the whole trip!) We had a fabulous time. It was quite the capstone event to conclude our 8 weeks of craziness. After coming back, Jamie's sister Amber came up for a weekend. And the pool was finished!!!! Adam turned 6 years old (and is loving kindergarten by the way). We tried to swim every dayto make sure we enjoyed the warm Texas fall!

October -- Owen turned 2 years old. Jamie traveled to Utah for her Grandfather's funeral. She got to go to a BYU football game (which made Trent a tad jealous). Jamie decided to take the kids to the Texas State Fair (all by herself and 80,000 other people). She wasn't the biggest fan of the state fair, but she swears it was not her who burned Big Tex down. We started to check out Texas high school football (Our district is BIG into football). Jamie officially opened her photography business here in Southlake. We watched and waited to hear from all our friends in CT to see how they all made it through Hurricane Sandy. Of course we celebrated Halloween and enjoyed the nice weather.

November -- The backyard finally gets some grass!!!! We continued to swim in the Hot tub, get more settled into school and the community, attended band concerts and swim meets. We took in a Texas high school playoff game at Cowboy Stadium and began to cheer in earnest for the Southlake Carroll Dragons. Jamie's brother Tyler's high school (Houston Lamar) is also in the playoffs and if they both kept winning our two teams would meet at the Championship game. We traveled down to Houston for Thanksgiving. Decorated for Christmas (cursed at the Christmas lights) and kept marveling that the weather was still mild!

December -- Like always -- it is a busy month! The kids had their Piano recital. We got the trampoline set back up now that the grass is all growing! We volunteered at school, shopped, caught up with old friends AND ran a half marathon!!! Trent and Jamie both finished (and started) the Dallas Half Marathon. Jamie's sister came up and watched the kids. We are truly so proud of ourselves for doing this with all the other things going on in our lives. It was challenging to carve out times for both of us to run each day, but it was pretty amazing to cross that finish line! The Southlake Dragons lost in the State playoff, but Tyler's (Jamie's brother) team will be playing in the Championship game this weekend. And now you have caught up with us. (if any of you are still reading!)

Maybe next year will be calmer, but we doubt it! As always you can follow along our everyday escapades at Jamie's blog. http://just-what-am-i-thinking.blogspot.com/

We love and miss and cherish all of our friends and family. It seems as we move and meet new people our circle of friends just continues to expand. We are so grateful for all of our friends and family for the love and support you are to us. We couldn't do it without all of you and it certainly wouldn't be as much fun without all of you.

May your Christmas be calm, may your night's be silent, and may the New Year bring happiness, love, hope and faith.

Love,

The Handy Family

Trent, Jamie, Julianne, Catherine, Madelyn, Adam, and Owen.

All the details about reaching us (it's a ridiculous amount of info!)

3533 Matador Ranch Rd.

Southlake, TX 76092

682-502-4611 (home)

281-851-5558 (jamie's cell)

713-851-4739 (trent's cell)

832-726-6581 (julianne's cell)

832-726-6582 (catherine's cell)