Merry Christmas 2013!

Feeling so blessed to be surrounded by love and laughter this Christmas! 

Halloween 2006-2013

This is a little story about a lion, a zebra, and a bumblebee...  

family fotos, a pumpkin patch, & other fall goodies

Saturday we had our family photos taken. Big E's first grade teacher is also a photographer on the side, and former students get a discount - score! It was great to see her again and I'm so excited to see all the photos after the sneak peek we got! 

This photo captures my babies perfectly...

 And here's the family shot! This was taken in the pasture just behind our house. I love it back there.

We turned out pretty close to my fashion mockup. :) Turns out yellow is not the most slimming color -who knew? Em wears it well anyway.

Sunday we headed to the little U-pick pumpkin patch near our home. I am so over all the big pumpkin patch productions. It was refreshing to just go wander around a little patch. While it was a little picked over in mid October, the kids did find some fun little green pumpkins to pick. Of course there were also some nice pre-picked ones still for sale so we'll have one to carve this weekend.

Em is sporting big brother's old halloween shirt, and a headband she never wore as a baby, tied with a gift box ribbon.  The result?  The cutest little pumpkin at the patch!

We're loving fall around here!  It's been busy though!

Here are the boys planting the fall fiesta maple (also pictured: sawtooth maple and Big E's nectarine)...

Big E roasting some marshmallows at Aunt Brenda's...

And my handsome man as a ring bearer...

Happy Fall Y'all!

My awesome two year old.

Miss Em at 2 years, 3 months...

She's starting to speak in sentences, and cracks us up with her Italian accent. "I wash-a ma hands!" "I poop-a da potty!" "I drink-a ma juice!"

She loves to dance (a lot!), loves to draw (still calls it "ess" for some reason), loves to play with her baby (whom she has named Baby Julie), and loves to play and wrestle with big brother - always.

She enjoys going to school each morning. Her favorite teacher Miss Jenny just left for school, but she's quickly become attached to Miss Carley and Miss Beth. On the way to school, she'll say "Eric hit me" or "Sut-Sut pull ma hair".  This morning I responded, "he just pulled your hair 'cause you're so cute." To which she said "I'm not cute." When I glanced back she said in her just kidding voice: "I'm cuuute!" (I don't think she's often abused by her classmates - but she's hung up on the couple of times she got picked on by the boys.)

She can say her alphabet, count down backwards from 10 (blastoff!!), and can sing or hum twinkle twinkle little star.  She loves music, but is also very opinionated about it.  I'll often have to flip through several songs ("don't like it") before we land on one she can be-bop to. Her current favorite? Icona Pop - I love it

If I could freeze time right now I would, but unfortunately I don't have the super power yet. However I know that she'll just get funnier and cuter and smarter as time goes by, and I've got a front row seat!

ReStore goodies

Habitat ReStore is one of my favorite places for DIY home stuff.  They recently posted on facebook that they had received a large donation of new carpet. We were able to pick out a couple rolls that looked pretty good together, and voila! The unfinished basement is now a cozy playroom for the kids. We also got some carpet squares for the steps. It's not all the same pattern, but it goes together pretty well.  

I was also finally able to get these guys out of my mom's garage - my blue lobster chairs!

Another Habitat ReStore find, these came out of a Red Lobster of all places.  They had blue, green, and red chairs to choose from and I fell in love with the blue for my coastal theme. They have kind of a blue stain over the wood.  We had to wait 30 days before putting anything on the wood floor, so I was really excited to finally use them for dinner last night. They're super sturdy and comfy. The table is my splurge.  It came from Pier 1. It was too perfect and I was able to get a little bit of a discount, so I went for it. The area rug comes tomorrow and the couch on Thursday. Then I think we'll be ready to commit to hanging some decor on the walls. It's fun to finally be in decorating mode!

fast forward

I got caught up in all the craziness that was our May/June and haven't posted any house or kiddo updates in a while.  But if you fast forward to now, Em is two and can sing the alphabet, Big E is seven and finished his first season of machine pitch baseball, and we're all moved in! Ta-da! We celebrated our 11th anniversary by moving into our new home.

[Actually, we did a little pre-celebration the night before with a box of wine at our new kitchen island (known now as the Buckshot Bend Bar).  Note to self: don't drink half a box the wine the night before you move.]

The past week as been a blur, but we're finally settled in.

Thank goodness for paid help! All our stuff was out of storage and into our house in an hour and a half.

The lovely stair carpet. 

Formal dining still needs some help with decor.

If I could marry a refrigerator, it would be that GE with french doors over there.
However I might cheat on it with that pantry.

Obsessed with my beachy mantle!
Vase, candles and rope knot from target; mini trunk from my garage-saling mom;
and tropical plant from our first house guests!

This past week (other than unpack and clean) we watched fireworks almost every evening from our front porch and back deck. We went swimming three or four times in the community pool (aka grammy's house). And sometimes we just sat and just listened to the frogs, birds, and wind.

So happy we were able to keep focused and make this dream a reality.  It wasn't long ago (Thanksgiving Day) that we were standing in that empty field thinking what it could be. I wouldn't move to the country with just anyone, but with this crew? Heck yeah!

deck, trim and cabinets! [weeks 17-19]

In the past couple of weeks we have had some big updates! We now have a deck, trim, interior doors, hardwood floor and cabinets!  There were two brothers who did our trim work and they were amazing.  Their work is so seamless and smooth.  And they moved fast - completed the whole house in about four days!

covered deck with a view

the mantle: just add stockings

the kitchen and hidden pantry.
the corner cabinet has been left open for seeded glass.
if you look closely, there are some hardwoods down as well!

my favorite upgrade so far - the center stack in the master bath!

drop zone - so i can be pinterest approved!

the banister with metal balusters

drywall in a day [week 16]

I seem to have lost track of what week it is on our house updates because we've had a few weeks of little activity.  There have been some updates, but nothing too exciting.  HVAC, electrical, inspections, septic pond, water line, blah blah blah.  All very important for sure, but I'm ready for the pretty stuff now!

So I counted and we're at Week 16!  Insulation and drywall.  The crew managed to hang all the drywall in one day - impressive! The enclosed walls make it look even bigger for some reason.  People keep telling me it's all going to move really quickly now.  That is a good thing since we're moving out of our house in six weeks!

living room: bring on the paint and flooring!

entry: railing cannot come soon enough

We found our first couple of issues - light switch on wrong side of door and smaller tub than planned - but I think we can live with both.

While planting some tall grasses around the septic pond this weekend I noticed that our little easter redbud is sprouting leaves! I hadn't expected to do anything this year or maybe ever, so this was a very exciting discovery!

leaping

We have found an awesome renter for our house. (yay!) However, she's set to move in approximately two weeks before our new house is complete.  The good news is that we'll be able to save a month or two's worth of mortgage.  The not-so-good news is that we'll be displaced for a couple weeks. But the saving grace is we'll be staying with my mom and she has a pool.

This whole process has been one giant leap of faith.  It's been a while since I've done something that has scared me; it's good for the soul I think.

-------


Ok it's kid story time...

We're out for Sunday errands and Big E yells from the back seat: "Hey the balls fell off of dicks!"

What's that son?  Well, sure enough.  The balls had fallen off of our local Dick's Sporting Goods sign.  I don't have an actual pic, but here's a visual for you...

They just fell plum off.  Of course we also just bought his "wiener helmet" (aka jock strap & cup) from Dick's.  The size? Peewee large. Ok I'll stop now.

march kidstagram

Cute kids + Instagram = Obsessed!  (albeit a little late)

riding back from visiting family in Illinois

working on some dance moves

story time with Big E

loves to make mustaches

taken by her big brother

finally warm enough for the park

sick again at the doctor's office

playing jeff's piano

easter morning funny faces

peeking out of em's new window!

helping daddy with yardwork

horsing around

watching elmo videos on youtube

Week 12-13 house update & Easter recap

These past two weeks have gone by so quickly that I missed last week's house update.  As of week 12, our garage doors were installed and the house is officially dry inside. Bring on the snowy weather! Oh wait - it's nice outside now.  Oh well that's good too.  I'm glad we sprung for the window inserts in the garage doors because they look fantastic and let the natural light in.  

Week 12: garage doors!

Week 13 brought the HVAC, electrical and plumbing installation. We also got our septic pond dug and the water/sewer lines trenched. Not a huge fan of the septic pond, but we didn't have a choice, so we'll just have to plant tall grasses and trees to camouflage it.

Speaking of trees... we planted our first one on Easter!  It's a red bud sapling we dug up at mom's house.  I don't know at this point if it's going to survive or not, but we've made several trips out to water the twiggy little thing.

Easter red bud

And speaking of Easter...  we had a really wonderful day.  Morning egg hunt at our house and then lunch and afternoon egg hunt at Grammy's house.  The weather cooperated and the kids had a blast.  Em only wanted to pick up eggs; she would scoff at a little toy or anything that wasn't egg-shaped.  My brother, sister-in-law, and nephew all joined us and it was one of those days where everything felt right in the world. 

Easter 2013

week 11 house progress

A lot of progress on the house last week.  They finished framing the roof and added the gable over the entry.  The gable isn't quite like the original drawing because the drawing wouldn't structurally work, so there were a few moments of going back and forth and uncertainty on what to do.  The builder suggested closing the triangle in to keep birds from nesting in the beams, but we decided to go with our original idea of keeping it open. And I'm so glad we did! It's perfect!

The covered deck overhang also got put into place.  Can't wait to see the deck on it.  As my dad would say, watch that first step, it's a doozy!

Week 11: Entry gable & covered deck

We stopped in mid-week this week and took some more pics.  How about a roof in a day?  Those guys move fast!  They also have all the windows in place now.  There are 25 windows just on the back, plus two doors you can't see. Helloooo pretty creek and pond view!

Week 11 1/2: Shingles

close-up of entry

Looking out of Miss Em's room to see a couple of funny guys in the guest room.

so much room to run!

I'm a little late with this, but March 7 was the 13-year anniversary of the night we met! It was Spring Break. We met at some swanky place called Charlie's in South Padre Island. Young MC was headlining. I was wearing a tube top. We danced to Mambo #5. I thought he looked like Bill Clinton. Who would have guessed how it would all unfold.

(Yes I still have the tube top. No I haven't worn it since.)

 so excited for our next chapter!