ELMO in Austin

House Update #3

Just a little update but man it means a lot to us to see some progress. The pad site has been cleared. We lost a few trees in the process but that is typical b/c evidentally its not good idea to have big oak tree roots near a foundation (smile smile). I am learning more and more about dirt and cement and nature than I ever imagined I'd know. Below are just some recent pics. The dirt in the first picture will eventually be laid to build up the foundation (but that will all be dependant on Mother Nature). It needs to stay dry.....please rain stay away! Come back in July or August when our house is finished and we need to grow some green grass =)

Here are my cutie pies on the tractor that the workers left overnight. Wesley and a tractor....the best combination EVER!

Cupid's Arrow Hit Our House

As you can tell from the plethora of beautiful stuffed animals, candies and balloons that were awaiting the kids this Valentine's Morning, Cupid's Arrow definitely hit our house. =)

This is the first year that both kids are aware of Valentine's Day and were excited for the special day to come. Kate learned a special song at school and sang it for us on Friday and then sang it for MiMi and PaPa as well...very sweet. I went shopping for the munchkins during the week since I needed to get gifts for their teachers (as they would miss their Valentine's parties b/c of the closing in Beeville). I got Kate and Wesley each a stuffed animal and some candy that they each like - Kate loves Andes chocolates and Wesley loves Reese's peanut butter cups! Then I had to go to HEB with Wesley on Saturday and he was in awe of all of the Valentine's merchandise so he picked out some beautiful pink tulips b/c Kate LOVES tulips and still talks about the tulips we planted in Conroe. I thought it was very nice he thought of her. Wesley also got some frogs that grow up to 4 times in size when left in water....we still have them soaking to see how big they get! Then daddy hit the store without mommy knowing and he also bought some candy and a stuffed kitty cat for his Kate and a M&M fan for Wesley. Wesley also picked out a mylar heart balloon for Kate and I sneaked one for him too (the balloons by far were their favorite sweet something...and one was let go this evening is probably wishing someone in Oklahoma a Happy Valentine's Day from Kate and Wesley!)

These were the beautiful pink tulips my little man picked out for his favorite girl!

Here are the tulips for their teachers. Wesley's teacher Miss Rebekah was celebrating her last day this week as she is leaving on a Guatemala mission with the church soon. The lavender ones are for Kate's Miss Cox....

And Kate had to make Miss Cox's card herself..its part of being a big girl =)

House Update #2

We spent all day in Beeville today closing on our Construction Loan to start building our dream home. Then has been quite a long, tedious process with some curves along the way but I am sure it will be worth it. At this point I feel like I could be a real estate attorney with as many hurdles as we had to go through to get this process started. Who would have known that buying our own lot and paying for it 100% cash would have been our biggest foe?!?!

And just for the record Justin and I have now officially 'closed' on property 5 times now (when I sold my land in 2002, when we bought our house in 2003, when we sold our house in 2009, when we bought our lot in 2009 and now our construction loan for this house in 2010). Justin and I joked as we drove away from this closing that this is the first time we closed on property where we left with NOTHING. Normally when we SOLD something, we walked away with $. When we BOUGHT something we walked away with a key (and a mortgage).

The brighter side to the day (and much less formal than signing 50 million disclosure statements) was that the kids got to stay with Papa and Vanessa while we closed and had tons of FUN! Then MiMi(Justin's mom) came home early to see her grand kids and we all had a good time. Wesley got the ride the HUGE John Deere tractor with PaPa and Kate got to feed the cows and horses. What a great way to end the week!

Our family trademark.....

I was snapping some pictures the other day and finally got a good one of my Rex....who NEVER does well in pictures for some reason. Then when I reviewed the picture and noticed the cute tongue moment I thought how great this picture would be if I blew it up, made it black and white, framed it and hung it in our new house. Rex is our special man......and we are a special family. =)