I was up late. The full moon was glowing above the post oaks in the backyard as I swept the kitchen floor. Tired after a day of packing and cleaning, I headed into the same bedroom I had slept in for the last 18 years.

But this time would be different; it was my last night in our Southlake home.

The furniture was gone except for our old king mattress, and that would be picked up by the junkman in the morning. Drifting off to sleep, I mentally flipped through memories our family had made inside these four walls.

We moved here in the summer of 2002. The house stood out from others we had toured because it had a leafy backyard; I wanted shade in the Texas summer. It also had a family-friendly layout with two bedrooms and a game room upstairs for our three boys. There were two downstairs bedrooms — one for me and my husband and one for the nursery we would soon need for our fourth child.

The house seemed so big back then. On move-in day, our oldest sons — then ages 10 and 7 — raced up the circular stairs in the entry to call dibs on their rooms.

Meanwhile, our 5-year-old lingered downstairs with me. We strolled past the home’s double fireplaces — one in the living room and one in the family room. He started to smile.

“Two fireplaces,” he said. “That means Santa Claus will come here twice.”

There were other things that made the house special, like the way the afternoon sun spilled into the living room. There was a small porch out back that was just large enough for us all to take refuge from a Texas gully washer. Through the years, our yard’s spindly post oaks grew into towering trees that sheltered us from the blazing sun.

And I’ll miss the massive downstairs bathtub, where our kids indulged in bubble baths more often than I did. I’ll always remember being awakened from an afternoon nap by my oldest son singing “If I Were a Rich Man” with the Jacuzzi on full blast.

Our kids went from me packing their school lunches to me packing luggage as they left for college. By then, the three-car garage that seemed enormous in the beginning was overflowing with sports equipment, home improvement tools and five vehicles.

Through all of this, the house remained a constant in our lives — the only address our youngest had ever known. It was the place where we hunkered down when tornado sirens blared, and where we baked Thanksgiving turkeys and Christmas cookies each holiday season.

A job promotion for my husband and a chance for me to move closer to my family on the East Coast brought us to this moment. Tonight, it’s quiet — no sounds of laughing children or singing in the bathtub. Just me sweeping up before the closing tomorrow.

Soon a new family with little ones will be moving in. The house again will be filled with the sounds of children’s squeals and little bare feet running up the staircase.

I hope they appreciate and enjoy all the comforts and joys this home has to give. I hope they can fill it with as much, or even more, laughter and memories as we have.

And now, it’s time to say goodbye.

Kathryn Hopper has been writing about life in Southlake for 76092 for the last six years. We wish her good luck in her new adventures and happiness in her new home.