Catch Up With Pictures

I don't want to get too behind on picture posting, so here is a very random assortment of pictures from the last couple of months.....

Did everyone go to Chickfila on Friday night dressed as a cow to get some free chicken? We sure did! Our cow get-ups may have been ghetto (uh, we used duck tape), but we had fun and got free food. Works for me!

These were some friends we went with. Sorry, but these cows wish to remain anonymous. =)

Here's Daddy Cow along with two Kid Cows.

Aulora was not a very happy cow when this picture was taken. Can't remember why. I'm sure we were mistreating her in some way or another.

Julia was especially proud of her rainbow cow.

And then there was our Fourth of July celebration. The day started out very rainy and I thought my plans were ruined. The kids thought it was great fun, however, to play in the mud and the puddles out back (I've got funny pictures for that but they're on my other camera.) and then later on Daddy put out the new slip'n'slide. They all had SO much fun, but it did mean that we got cleaned up just in time for fireworks. All that to say, please excuse the messy hair. The kids were fresh out of the tub!

I was showing Aulora how to do a Sparkler. It was dropping hot ashes on me though - ouch!

Here's the drama queen in one of her favorite poses. (crud - I chose the thumbnail with her eyes closed. arghhhh.)

Those two monkeys raced over and over again.

Ummmm, hello? Can anyone look at the camera???

I just think this picture is hilarious. Sorry.

Joshua was the judge - check out that big diaper! Pretty soon after this picture was taken, we just took it off. Much cuter that way.

This is the back of the valentine's mailbox John David made.

And here's the front of his robot box. I loved it and thought he was so creative! Hopefully, his romantic side will kick in better one day. =)

This is one of the last breakfasts I made at our house in WF. It was good! I actually brought this to John in bed. He told me I should take a picture. You don't have to tell me twice!

I know I posted video of Joshua's first haircut, but I never put any of the pictures up.

It was apparently a horrendous thing to endure.

This is our family (minus Joshua who was with a sitter) when we went to see The Lion King in Oklahoma City. We had seen it before when John David was almost 2 and we wanted the other kids to see it! We went with Clay, Sandy, and Mimi.

This picture should be framed to go over the new mantel. For sure.

This is the best picture I have to show Julia's missing two bottom teeth. Her big teeth have already come in a lot now so it's hardly even noticeable. I'm glad I got this shot when I did.

Julia and Gran at dinner before the show.

Julia's preschool class hosted a special Mother's Day breakfast for the moms. It was really sweet!

Later tonight I'll be posting about the surprise I got for our 10th anniversary! =)

Same Song, Second Verse, Could Get Better.....

.....but it's getting worse!

Obviously, my kids are competing in some contest I know not of. I'm actually wondering what the name of the competion might be.

I'm sure Aulora's cocktail drink is still fresh on everyone's mind, but Joshua was not to be outdone.

The next day, as we were playing in the backyard, he must have gotten hungry. He picked up dog poop (the ONE piece I managed to miss when I de-pooped the yard!) and stuck the whole thing in his mouth! He didn't seem to mind the taste too much. I wonder if he thought it tasted like cheesecake?

Surely my kids aren't the only ones doing this stuff. ARE THEY???

Sonic (UN)-Happy Hour

I drove up to the Tulsa area a couple of days ago with just John David. My in-laws already had the other three kids and John was to join us later. So me and my boy hit the road and Momma didn't want to stop.

But then John David had to go to the bathroom. And he's not really one to give much notice. Plus, we were in the middle of nowhere. Plus, there was road construction. Plus, there were no exits.

And he really had to go.

So, being the Momma that I am, I handed him my mostly empty Sonic cup with careful instructions of what to do while I slowed to about 50 on the highway.

All went well and life was good. We arrived at the grandparents' house and had a happy reunion with the younger three. We hugged and played in the front yard and we were all smiles.

But then John David needed somthing out of the car.

(Can you see where this is going already???)

He opened the door and while he was getting whatever he needed, Aulora decided she too needed to get in the van. Now, I promise I was watching my kids - really I was, but my brain was obviously not operating at full capicity. I was a little too slow to stop her as she lifted the very "used" Sonic cup to her lips and took a swig from the straw.

Oh the horror. So. Totally. GROSS!!!

I was grabbing the cup away by now, but that poor baby had the worst look on her face and was gagging and couging and saying in the most pathetic way - "I don't like it!"

You know what though? The next day we went to The Cheesecake Factory and she asked for a bite of my turtle cheesecake. I gave her a bite and she had the exact same reaction as when she drank pee. Seriously.

That made me feel a little better at least. =)

Pictures of our New House

I just can't say how happy I am about our new house! Is it a dream in every possible way? No. But it is perfect for us and I'm so thankful for God's blessing every step of the way in getting it! 

The owners, who we got to visit with quite a bit, received multiple other offers - higher than our offer even! - and decided to sell the house to us. If we had taken our trip to Indiana when we originally planned to, this house wouldn't have been available. Any earlier and it wouldn't have been listed. Any later and it would have been sold. Everything lined up perfectly and there's no doubt in our minds who arranged all of it. =)

The house, ahem, our home has four bedrooms that are all upstairs along with two bathrooms. Downstairs has a half bath plus all the living areas. The basement is large and we will finish it out to make a family room, and an office area. A third of the basement will be left unfinished for the laundry area and storage. I'm excited about how we will make a long wall with two levels of hanging space for clothes! This was a must since the bedrooms all have pretty small closets. All in all we will have over 2500 square feet of finished living space. 

At the end of our street are two really nice parks, a big community swimming pool with slides and all, and even a small zoo! There's a farmer's market within walking distance too. It's just a really neat area and everyone we've talked to agrees. 

We're having fun thinking about paint colors and furniture arrangement, but we'll mostly concentrate on that once we're done here in Texas with everything. So on that note, I better get back to packing! =)

Moving On

We just returned from a week in Indiana where we searched high and low for the perfect house to buy. I'm happy to say we were successful! God certainly blessed us and guided us. We just happened to check listings one last time before heading out to see the last couple of choices with our realtor and a new listing popped up. It had been listed just then and didn't even have all the photos, but our realtor knew the neighborhood and said it was a great area and immediately set up a showing for us.

We were the first ones to see it and we loved it! Even so, we decided to sleep on it and go back to see one other house before making a decision. Not so smart to wait (we didn't realize just how great the deal was at the time) but even so, we got our offer in just minutes before several other offers started coming in. One offer was even $10,000 more than ours but the owners liked us and the kids and they wanted our family to have the house. They are a super sweet older couple who are downsizing to an apartment.

I'm not so sad to leave my home now, because I really love our new house. Thank you, Jesus, for helping us find something we love!

By the way, if you have a blog that I normally comment on and you haven't heard from me in a while, it may be because I no longer have your blog address on the computer I'm having to use for now. Or it might just be because I'm busy packing boxes. Either way, in a month or so I'll have my own computer again and my comment love will resume. ;)

The Boy's First Pimples

It seems our 8 year old is growing up even faster than I thought. (sniffle, sniffle) He has been proudly sporting his first pimples over the past couple of months. (Why in the world do I not have a picture of this???)

At first I thought it was just a flukey thing, but he's now had about 4 of them all together. He's not as fond of the idea now as he was at first. Even so, I still think he feels kind of cool and grown up. 

 

On one of my last trips to Walmart, I wandered up and down the face wash isle trying to figure out what to buy him. I've experienced many moments that have made me feel old, but never a moment like this one. I was picking out "acne wash" for my son! 

The good news is that his pimple friend is gone. 

I suppose a nightly armpit hair inspection will need to be added to the bedtime routine....

Blessed

Blessed.

That really sums up how I feel today. I find my eyes watering throughout the day just thinking about it. 

This morning I was out pretty early driving around for garage sales. (I haven't enjoyed this hobby in quite awhile! It was great and I think I may go back out tomorrow morning!) Everywhere I went there were for sale signs in yards. For sale by owner. For sale by a realtor. It's all the same and they were everywhere. 

In exactly two weeks our house had a contract on it. For a good price. The option period ended today and I stopped holding my breath. It's as good as done now. Blessed, I tell you. 

How silly of me to worry about things - all the millions of things that go along with moving far away - when every single time God works it out. 

Another reason I feel so blessed today is our roof. The roof we're going to have, anyway. 

We had to have the roof replaced in order for the contract on the house to go through. (VA loans require a good roof and apparently ours is not so great.) The only question was who was going to pay for the roof - us or our insurance. 

The adjuster came out this morning. I know the roof was old when we got the house so I could only hope that there was enough storm damage to justify totaling it. I wasn't very hopeful. 

That insurance adjuster was so nice though and he said he knew how hard it was when you're selling your house and he was going to go ahead and total it! The check they are sending us is more than enough to replace the roof and have money leftover. (Leftover money is a good thing right now - it's expensive to move!!!) 

I'm telling you - blessed! 

Three Weeks

We've sold a house before.

We've bought a house before. Twice, actually.

But we've never tried selling one and buying the next at the same time. How in the world do people do this??? I'm so thankful we have family between here and our next hometown where we can crash for a week or two if necessary. They won't mind, I'm sure. =)

Today has been filled with inspections (all kinds), repairs, insurance stuff, mortage loan applications, and a dental appointment to top it all off!

I know everything will work out. I know that come August 20th, when school starts at Notre Dame, we will be there.

I just don't know how. Or when. Or where. Or even what, really.

All I know is that we have three weeks to get everything absolutely taken care of here, get packed up and moved out, and find somewhere new to live.

One day at a time is all I can do.

"Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." Matthew 6:34

Spray Paint

I've recently discovered the world of spray paint. I had no idea all a person could do! If only I had known all of this before we flipped our Piece - I think we would have saved a boatload of money on some new cabinets! Did you know you can spray paint your cabinets??? And they actually look GOOD.

I just saw this simple idea for spraying glass bottles. I can think of all kinds uses for this idea. Love it!!!

Jessamy is Here!

My most kindred spirit friend ever, Jessamy, came and visited me this weekend. (I think she's afraid we'll never see each other again once I'm all snowed in up in Indiana!) John went out of town so we had a good ol' sleepover and everything. In the "olden days", we would both sleep in my twin size day bed together. I suppose that's why we were so close and bonded so well - sleeping in a tiny bed with a friend will do that for you. After awhile, we figured out that we would each have more room if we put our heads at different ends. As a result, we are also very close to each others' feet.

Anyway, back to the point, she came to see me! We went out to eat, talked and talked, ate pizza, watched a movie, of course made homemade Maggie Moo treats, went shopping, and shopping some more, and we made blueberry waffles for breakfast. Jessamy tried her hardest to infuse some fashion sense into this stuck-in-a-rut-mommy, but I don't think it did much good. My apologies to all. I just can't figure out how to wear a royal blue fluttery knee length dress while I fill juice cups and change diapers and chase 1 year olds with permanent markers. Blue fluttery dress? Hmmmmm......

Soooo.....back to the point yet again..... Jessamy has only been married for a little over a year and I think her husband has been missing her. So I decided to let her send a little blog love his way. Isn't she beautiful???

Today's Shining Moment...

The buyers for our house (yes, we have a contract in!!!) called wanting to know if our dryer is 3 prong or 4 prong. When I got home I went to look and couldn't tell unless I unplugged it. Apparently, unplugging a dryer is much more complicated than it looks. I managed to electrocute my right arm pretty good. Wow! That hurt!!! I wish I had it on video - I bet I looked really cool.

It was 3 pronged in case you wanted to know.....

16 Month Portraits of Joshua

Joshua and I went out today to get some pictures since all the other monkeys are with John's parents. (They're having a fabulous, fun filled, frog catching, pizza eating, movie going, zoo visiting, aquarium loving time from what I hear!)

First of all, I'm without my own computer and any editing software (boo) and second of all, my FAVORITE picture refuses to upload to blogger correctly. Maybe I will have better luck with it later.

I'm out of excuses now, so on to the pictures of the most handsome little man in all of WF!

Update: I just noticed the snotty nose in some of the pictures. Arggggghhhhh! They will have to be edited later. My apologies. =)







This next picture cracks me up. Let's just say that one side of our (Longhorn loving) family will love this shot, while the other (Aggie loving) side will despise it. I just think it's funny! He did it all on his own!

Don't Miss This Blog Carnival

I'm too busy today to write my own "Works for me Wednesday" post, but I just had to link to the carnival anyway. If you have kids or even grandkids, you need to see this boatload of ideas for beating summer boredom!

Go here to We are THAT Family......

You're welcome. =)

I Can't Believe I Survived That

It dawned on me yesterday that Joshua is the same age now that Aulora was when he was born.

Wow.

I can't believe I had a newborn and a 16 month old. And two older kids too.

I'm SO glad I'm not doing THAT again! =)

It has been so sweet to see Aulora help take care of Joshua though. She started loving baby dolls about the time he was born so to her, Joshua has been another baby doll. She always wants to give him his bottle and she insists on being the one to turn on his fan and close his door at bedtime. She loves kissing him (still) and as soon as he wakes up she goes in his room and plays with him to keep him happy until I go in there.

Precious babies.

(I'll talk about their newfound love of hitting and shoving in another post. I don't want to ruin this one!)