Every new beginning...

"Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end"

I think this lyric is more than appropriate for this blog entry. In the next week our little family will be making some major life changes. The changes are not bad, but exciting and new. For the past five years Matt and I have called Jacksonville home. I will admit that when I first found out we were moving down here I was not too excited. I knew nothing of the city and we knew absolutely no one down here. Well, things have changed. That new beginning ended Matt's med school days and propelled us into his residency. It sent us to a place where we would spend the next five years growing as a couple and as a family. Jacksonville has become home to us and it will definitely be bittersweet to leave. 

The past five years have been challenging, but rewarding. We have made so many friends and memories while living here that it will be hard to say good bye. These close friends have helped us survive the hardships of residency. Neither of us really knew what we were getting ourselves in to when we started this journey and without our family of friends that we have down here it would have been almost impossible. I will miss getting together with everyone to just hang out and celebrating holidays with them because we couldn't make it home to celebrate with our own families.

When this journey first started I didn't think it would ever end. However, time flies and here we are five years later. Matt has accepted a new job and we will be moving closer to family. We are very excited about this move, but we also understand that this will start a new beginning in our lives without the people we've relied on so heavily over the past few years. 

I have chosen a few of my favorite pictures of our time here in Jacksonville to share. They are in no particular order at all!

In Vegas waiting for Britney 

Headed to the Trauma One dinner 

Andrea and me before the Trauma One dinner 

Hanging with Lenny at the wax museum 

The two of us at the Trauma One dinner. I think we clean up nicely :-) 

Family picture when Nate was six months old 

Newborn Nate 

Family pictures February 2013 

My fifth grade team at Amanda's wedding last year. 

Matt, Eric, Andrea, Kristy, and Nate chilling at Black Finn 

Kristy and Nate 

Matt has to represent in the OR 

We will miss being 15 minutes from the beach when we move. 

These awesome friends of mine made inservices much more fun!

Scary, I know...

This is what happens when Matt participates in No Shave November and then gets creative with the clippers on the last day.

Cousins

My sweet friend Bianca who helped me through my year of teaching third grade! 

So if you have the best team name at trivia you win a pitcher of beer. I was pregnant with Abby and Matt got called in to work so Andrea had to handle it herself!

Fuzzy shot of us on our first limo ride :-)

Girls night!

Andrea's 30th birthday bash!

Amanda and Catie came to see Miss Abby shortly after she was born

It's always great when we win at trivia!

Amanda and me at the Jags game. 

Newborn Abby courtesy of Tasha DeLoach

Andrea and Abby

Our new beginning will relocate us to Chelsea, Alabama. We will be within 2 hours of all parents and within 15-30 minutes of our siblings. This is a great move for us and the kids because we have been very isolated from our family over the past five years and we want the kids to have the chance to play with their cousins and see their grandparents more frequently. We are also going to finally be able to get out of this very cramped two bedroom apartment that he have called home for so long. Nate put in his request for a red house with stairs. We couldn't exactly deliver on the red part, but it does have stairs! It will also give us plenty of room to spread out and a nice yard for the kids to run and play.

Nate's 'red' house

We are very excited about this new chapter in our lives. Here's to the new beginning!