Thursday, December 22, 2011

We Believe in Santa!


The kids have never wanted to sit with Santa by themselves and for me I would rather forego the crying and just keep everyone happy. It's our 4th year to have a family photo with Santa so why change things up now?!? Unless they want to sit with him in the years to come we will just continue our family photos as long as it lasts! :)

We enjoyed the Santa Brunch with our friends, the Dwinell's and the Vicari's. Here is the whole gang!



Hope Santa is good to you all this year!

Monday, December 19, 2011

Our new home!

We moved into our new home on December 3rd, my 32nd birthday. Best birthday ever!! We love the house and neighborhood! The past two weeks we have been very busy unpacking and getting settled in. December is always such a busy month and adding the move has been crazy to say the least. :) Here are some pictures of the progress we have made..


The office

Downstairs bathroom

Breakfast nook

The kitchen

Living room



Dining room - the catch all room right now!

Master bedroom

Master bath

Morgan's room



Morgan's bathroom

Graham's room

Graham's bathroom

Playroom/Guest room

Backyard

Our precious kids! They have done excellent with the move! Such sweeties!!

The unpacking and decorating has been put on hold for now because I had to start my Christmas shopping. I am getting a late start but it will get done and be a great Christmas in our new home.

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Happy Owners of a New House

We closed on our new house yesterday, November 29th. Closing was a very smooth process, thanks to our good loan officer and title company. Also, a big shout out to our close friend and great realtor, Micah, for all of his help over the last year. It was a long search but we are confident we found the perfect house for our family.

Today the fun began...the cleaning process. Carpet cleaning is done and the carpet looks fantastic. We hired a friend to give the house a good deep clean before moving in. She worked the majority of the day on the kitchen. She had a issue with the gas stove, and it ate up more of her time than expected. Bless her heart! One of the burners got turned on while cleaning and the knob wouldn't turn it off. There was a period of panic as gas fumes filled the house. The fire department came out and shut off the gas. Everything is fine now, thank goodness. Hopefully that is all the BIG excitement we will have.

We had a Christmas lighting crew put up lights on the house this afternoon. I will post pics later. Tomorrow our storage compartments will be delivered and we will start unpacking on Friday. Sounds like it will be a fun moving weekend -- Lots of rain in the forecast. :)

The kids are beyond excited about the new house and their new rooms. I can't wait to turn this house into our home!

Friday, November 25, 2011

One Tough Month

On November 18th my grandma, 79, passed away after a very short battle with lymphoma cancer. She became sick very suddenly and spent two weeks in the hospital before passing away. Her passing hit me hard! She was my last living grandparent! She was a very special person in my life. We did all the normal stuff a grandma and her granddaughter would do. I will miss her so much!! We buried my sweet grandma on November 21st, the 14 year anniversary of buring my dad. What an emotional day it was!!! Still to this day--fourteen years later, it is still very hard for me without my dad. I think about him all the time and miss him so much. I know this will be case with my grandma, as well.

On the morning of November 18th, before my grandma passed away, we welcomed a new baby into our family. My niece, Sadie Brooklyn was born. She and Kristie are doing great. She is just precious and perfect!! It was nice to get to spend Thanksgiving with our new little blessing.

Sleeping Beauty

Nonny and Sadie

Love her to pieces!

Smiling already!

Morgan is one big proud cousin!

All the kids hanging with Sadie!


It was good to spend all of Thanksgiving week in El Campo with my family. Holidays are especially tough after the loss of a family member. I am very thankful for the close and supportive family I have. We had a good Thanksgiving together. It was very different without Grandma but we are thankful she is no longer suffering. She is in a great place. We love her and will miss her dearly!!

I thank God everyday for each and every blessing in my life. Life is one big adventure ~ You never know what tomorrow will bring!

I am so thankful for my wonderful husband....

and my two little turkeys...


and so much more!!

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Halloween 2011

On Sunday, October 30st our church had their annual picnic at Rose Park. The kids loved the bounce houses and big slides. It was a beautiful day for this fun- filled afternoon spending time with our friends from church.









That night we did our 1st ever pumpkin carving with the kids. In the past I set our pumpkins out in October and left them through Thanksgiving. We figured Morgan would enjoy craving one so we started the tradition this year!

Pops was the carver and Morgan was his big helper!



Graham wasn't too sure about the big mess. He kept his distance from it!


Morgan drawing a face on the pumpkin...


Check out her drawing...


Then she worked on writing her name while Pops carved the pumpkin...


Graham was busy playing while everyone else worked on the pumpkin...


She was so excited about Pop's carving...


The finished product...




On Halloween morning Morgan woke up ready to Trick or Treat. She didn't understand why we had to wait until the end of the day. Thank goodness we had another activity planned. We went to Country Critters with MECPTA and spent the morning there. It is super croweded with field trips, etc. I guess we should have expected it since it was Halloween. The kids still had a good time!

Chasing the billy goats


Picking out a pumpkin


The kids with the turkey...


Listening to the storyteller...


After a good nap it was time to get ready for Trick or Treating. Our sweet neighbors in our old neighborhood invited us over for a cookout and to Trick or Treat. It was good to see all of our neighbors and their kids. We miss them like crazy and we've only been gone from the neighborhood 2 months.

Our little golfer and strawberry stortcake!


The kids (Lauren, Abby, Macy, Graham and Morgan)...The bigger boys were playing ball so Graham hung with the girls



Borrowing someone's trike to go for a spin...


Precious girl!

Cute boy!

Trick or Treat?

Daddy and his girl!

Me and my cuties!

The best family photo we got. The kids were busy enjoying some of their treats.


It was a very Happy Halloween for us and we hope it was for you too!!