New House

Welcome to our (almost ours) new abode!

Random pic of pendant light over kitchen sink.

There are 2 more matching ones over the kitchen island.

Because of the living room's layout, we plan to block off the double doors with our entertainment center in the family room and book cases in the study.

Half-wall is necessary b/c there is a step down from the kitchen to the family room.

The pantry boasts 2 of these corner shelves. We plan to replace them with a straight wall-to-wall shelf system, allowing us to use all the space!

I'm thrilled to have a sink and cabinets in the laundry room!

The powder bath has a medicine cabinet/mirror, pedestal sink and nice fixtures. The wallpaper is coming down pronto....the floor tile is up for debate. I think it can stay if we paint the room an oatmeal color and accent with green and blue towels. Man of the house thinks it should go. We'll see!

There are 4 bedrooms upstairs. This is one of the 3 secondary bedrooms. This particular room will be E's and it shares a wall with the master bedroom. Master bath is below.

This is the kids' (& guest) bath. If you look closely, you can see little E's sweet feet.

Catching my breath and catching up!

These are pics from our first week (mid August) in our new hometown. Enjoy!



Our second weekend in town.....we took Daddy to the zoo. 2/3 of participation isn't bad, is it?? :)

Riding the space shuttle at a local mall was a big hit with J.
The outfits change and so does the location, but the stroller is a staple in E's pics.
At the local zoo, snakes are a hit with J. Mommy took the kids to the local zoo our first week in town. We've been to the zoo at least 7 or 8 times and this plastic snake is the only one we've seen!! In J's mind going to the zoo means riding the train, carousel, boat and playing. Eventually we'll get to see all the animals....I think.

Ephesians 6:1

Today I asked J to sit in his seat while I fastened E in her carseat. I had to tell him again and he lost the privilege of going to Toys R Us. After the fussing stopped, I told him that Mommy had asked him to do something and he was supposed to be obedient. He looked at me and said, "Children, obey your parents this is right." He ALMOST got to go to Toys R Us! :)

This is a Scripture we started talking about 2 days ago. Pretty quick, that boy of mine!

Last Night with our Fellow Spadesters! :(

Post-bath J-Man with his best smile!

Pull my finger???

Aunt C and Uncle J came over for playtime, supper and, of course, SPADES!

August Pics

Maybe Penney's wasn't the best place to take a group photo! At least MY friend cooperated!
I took J to the local children's museum for a last playdate before leaving town.

J's room was the first to be packed.
E had the nerve to leave town 2 days before me! Truth be told, I'm glad she left first and I got that good-bye out of the way. It was a hard week! :( I love you, E!!
This is about as much cooperation as I could get out of a toddler and baby! At least SHE got in the pic; I couldn't get J to stand there!
Our last Sunday at our home church. My friend and I laughed for a while---before the tears!
Yes, this OUR son playing in the dirt and having fun. I'm happy to report that J is overcoming his disgust for the dirt and learning to play outside! :)

Dinner with some friends before the big move!

Kids say the.....

The J-Man has been saying the funniest things lately and has been quoting a couple lines out the movie, "The Rookie." If you haven't seen the movie, it's a baseball film (Disney, rated G)..... J has started wearing his baseball cap again and says "bring the heat" all the time. His second favorite movie line is from Dennis Quaid's inspirational talk to the team and, I quote J, "you quit on me and worst you quit on yourselves." Of course it's cuter to hear J say oooo instead of you.

We went to a local metro park today and spent 30 minutes on the hiking trail with the kiddos. We had fun and J shook "hands" with a weed and said "it's a pleasure to meet you." We walked around a large mud puddle and Daddy told J to be on the look out for more, so J yelled, "Mud, where are you?"

I realize I'm speaking about my kid and so this is funnier to me than to you, the reader. BUT, this last one was hilarious no matter who you are. J asked if he could hold Daddy's ball cap in the car on the way home. Daddy obliged and J immediately held it out by the cap's bill and asked for a quarter!!!!! :-) We have no idea where the pan-handling came from..... I offered to give him a quarter if he could tell me where he learned that trick---he said that mommy did it! Ha!

A Techie Hubby

Turns out if you make a sad and pitiful post on your blog AND your husband happens to look at the next day, you could get a surprise gift!! Surprise---my techie hubby bought me this cool ScanDisk ImageMate USB thingy that reads my camera's memory stick and enables me to download pics. Too cool! :-) After reading my post yesterday, he felt sorry for me. How sweet!

Misc Late July Pics

I took about a dozen pics of E in this cute outfit, but I limited myself to only downloading a few! :-)
This way-too-cute outfit was part of a shower gift from Aunt C and family. It ended up being one of my favorites this summer. Too bad it ended up in storage during our big move. :(


It's easy to take pics of E, but it's getting more dfficult with her older brother. J wants to pose and give me his cheesiest smile....which is NOT the look I'm going for.

Messes in the Kitchen

E got to feed herself some yogurt today. She made quite a mess and had a great time doing it!! Of course, she was placed directly in the bathtub afterward. :-)

J made a birthday cake out of play-doh and pretended the cookie cutters were candles. I think he's ready for it to be HIS birthday!

Visit with Grandpa and Grandma

Grandpa really was here....he just missed the photo ops!

I don't know who was more tired, but they sure did look sweet!

July 6 Playdate

We had a playdate today with some friends!

E and her friend! Aren't they cute?? :-)

This is J-Man's friend...When asked if he would look

up so I could take his picture, he replied, "no."

July 4 Weekend

We spent Sun/Mon with S's parents.


















T's cousin (who is 12 weeks pregnant! :)) and
her husband came to visit us on the 4th and
had dinner.

June Pics

No, mean Mommy didn't make him do it!!

He OFTEN asks for his own jar of baby food.

This toy used to be J's when he was a baby.

It seems weird that E is old enough to play w/it.

Train Ride

Zoo in Houston

This is a little out of order, but here are a few pics from a

trip to the zoo with Grandma and Poppy.

From the moment we entered the zoo's gates,

J wanted to see the giraffes!

J loved looking at the boas and pretending to be a snake.

Mommy wasn't too thrilled with him slithering on the floor!

Trip to the Ice Cream Shop

We went to a local ice cream shop this week and played with Coralee.


I would be lying if I said this didn't make me more than a little nervous!