Sledding in Texas!

We’ve got snow in Texas! The kids are so excited. I took them sledding on my BYU dining trays. Keller has a lot more hills than Frisco so sledding was a lot of fun. Gavin loved sledding, but was a little concerned about the creek at the bottom of the hill. No one fell in. Rene’e would only go down on my lap, which was a little tough on a serving try but we managed. Carter stayed in the stroller and watched.

Family room

I got a lot more rooms photographed today. Only a few more and my mom will stop bugging me. (I love you, Mom.)

Formal Living and Dining

Kitchen

Kids' Rooms

Toy Room

I know you want to see pictures of the rest of the house, but this is all I have so far. I got the downstairs unpacked, along with the kids' rooms, my next project was the toy room. It took a couple of days and now the rest of the house is messy again. I am hoping to photograph the rest of the house tomorrow. Anyway, this is the toy room. I don't think it will stay this organized, so I took the pictures as soon as I finished last night. We still have the computer room/game room and the garage left to unpack, so we are slowly but surely getting settled.

Jump Time 3.1.08

We got our kids a trampoline for Christmas, but when our contract on our house feel threw, we couldn't give it to them. We had no place to put it, so we just left it in the box in the garage. On Saturday we surprised them and boy do they love it!

The Attack of Trey 3.1.08

Trey, our nephew, was visiting on Saturday and found a red permanent marker. I guess he couldn't find any paper, so he used Carter's head as his canvas. I think Trey is going to be a lot like Gavin was. (We called him Destructo and sometimes Bam Bam.) I learned that rubbing alcohol will take permanent marker off of skin. The internet said toothpaste or perfume. I tried toothpaste, it didn't work. I didn't really want Carter to smell like a hooker for church, and I figured there is a lot of alcohol in perfume, so I tried the alcohol first. I thought some of you might end up having to remove permanent marker sometime.

Name in Print!

I was surprised to find my name printed in the Fort Worth newspaper on Sunday. I was listed as having won the under 17 women's division. Alycia got a good laugh about that. I contacted the race people and they said they will correct it in the results so I don't think they will be sending me a division wining medal.

We are waiting on the funding of our house today. As soon as it goes threw we can get our keys. We are really excited. We spent all of last week packing our pods and cleaning the house. Our church, Sam's brother John, Alycia, and Nick were a ton of help to us. (Thanks so much!) Nick and Sam finished the last of the loading and cleaning on Saturday. I had to stay at Alycia's and lay on the couch:) I am feeling a lot better now but am still a little sore.

I will post pictures of our new house when we get internet again. We are getting fiber optic. Sam is excited!

26.2 Miles

I ran the Cowtown Marathon today. I ran 26.2 miles in 4:30:24. I even got a metal for finishing the race! Sam, Gavin, Rene'e, Carter, Alycia, Nick, Blake, Sydney, and Trey all came to cheer me on with signs and balloons.

29 Candles 2.14.08

I am not happy to be this close to 30 but I plan on enjoying this last year of my 20s. We had ice cream cake to celebrate my birthday. Thank you to all of you who called, emailed, sent cards or sent gifts. You made me feel very special.

Moving Pods 2.14.08

Our moving pods were delivered yesterday. Gavin and Renée were thrilled to watch the fork lift operator arrange them. This is Gavin directing the fork lift operator. Now the real fun begins and we have move. John, Sam’s brother, is going to spend the weekend here to help us load the pods. Thanks John!

Birthday Dinner 2.12.08

My friend Melissa organized a birthday dinner for me at Pei Wei on Tuesday. It was so much fun to get together with the girls. It makes me so sad to be leaving all these good friends behind. Luckily I won’t be that far away and will still be able to come to the occasional book club or something. From the left and around the table: Tammie Slay, Tiffany Moses, Kychelle Chino, Andera Woolley, Sarita Gilchrist, Melissa Walker, and Me. Megan Tilton and Debbie Harris were also there but I forgot to take a picture before they left. Thank you everyone for coming!

Dog Toy

I grabbed the camera when I heard Carter's giggling. I guess Carter was a good chew toy until Rene'e's sandwich came along.

Writing Valentines

I sat down with Gavin on Sunday to help him fill out his valentines for his preschool class. I swear it took him an hour to fill out the six he needed. He is so easily distracted. Gavin picked out Transformer valentines that came with penciles. After he was finished he had me write down the names of all his cousins so he could give valentines to them. He ran out the stamina and never got past Blake and Bennette. Bennette does have a really long name though. Gavin's Valentines party is today so I am sure he will have fun.

The Packing Begins

We will close on our house in two weeks! I am in full packing mode now. I did get a lot packed back in December when we were supposed to close the first time. We are going with a POD type moving containers because our buyer is not willing to let us rent the house back for two days. We wanted to just do the Uhaul thing, but oh well. The pods come on Thursday and we will have a week and a half to load them. Sam took apart the swing set last weekend and the kids took advantage of their fence climbing abilities. I don’t know what Carter is doing. At least he does stuff nowJ

Geneticist

Carter had his appointment with the geneticist today. I have never felt so bad about our family’s genes. Every question the doctor asked, there was some sort of disorder. The doctor looked Carter over and doesn’t think that he has a syndrome of any kind. He is going to get blood work done to make sure though. He did tell me that growth hormone is produced while you sleep and I have a feeling that Carter’s adenoids were preventing quality sleep. Hopefully we will see a big change in him.

As for the result of the adenoidectomy and getting tubes in his ears, Carter is a different child. He broke the 17lb. mark today! He is more mobile and even can stand for a few seconds if I trick him into it. He is babbling more and seems to be trying to talk. His eating has really improved. Carter has started throwing fits and voicing his opinion (in the form of squawking.) I am used to having a VERY easy baby. I am very happy that Carter is doing so well, but I have to get used to the new fit throwing Carter.

Closing

It looks like we won't be closing until the 25th of February, which works out better since Sam will be in Maryland all next week for work.

Offer

We accepted on offer on our house yesterday. We are still waiting on when closing will be but as of now we are set to close on Feb. 14th (Happy Birthday to me!) If that works out we will close on the new house the following day and take the weekend to move.

Rocket Party 1.26.08

The weather cleared enough for the kids to launch rockets on Saturday. Everyone got to take a turn pressing the button. The wind wasn't too bad so we didn't have to go far to get the rocket back. Sam even caught it when it was parachuting down.

Rocket Cake 1.25.08

Gavin requested a rocket party this year. Alycia and her kids came for the party on Friday. Unfortunately the weather didn’t cooperate and it was rainy. We still had the rocket cake, which Gavin loved. Thanks for the ideas Joi.