Kid Update

I have been so focused on making house updates and making sure I have pics of tile and cabinets and brick, that I haven't really been capturing the awesome moments going on with the kids! Kate is officially on summer break. She finished PreK last Friday and will start 'real' kindergarten at the end of August. Vanessa has been with us for two weeks (going home this Saturday - sigh) so she has been taking good care of Kate and Wesley (see picture below of the pedicures). The kids are going to miss her soooooo much! And today we went to the house to check out the progress and the kids loved playing in the big dirt pile (see first two pictures). This is probably my favorite picture of Wesley ever! He is just gorgeous. Bubbly personality. And Kate.....I know this will probably be the summer that she changes so much right before my eyes. I'm savoring every minute of my Kate! The BEST BIG SISTER EVER!

House Update # 16

The tile started going down Tuesday and here is a glimpse....its kind of hard to tell what it will look like in final form b/c its covered by a layer of dust from the work going on but Justin definitely got his wishes..he wanted big tile, laid on a diagonal. And that he got! These tile guys are amazing. So meticulous and good at what they do. I love geometry so I literally could sit at the house all day long and watch them lay this tile. As of Wednesday they had the entry, kitchen, living, dining, utility room, master bath and 3/4 of the master bedroom done. Tomorrow should be hallway, study, powder room and kids bathroom. Friday will most likely be the shower and bath surrounds...love it!

House Update #15

This weekend was a tad crazy and nothing seemed to go my way so before I sign off for tonight I thought I better post some cabinet pictures I took on Thursday evening. The painters were also back out at the house and FINALLY painted the exterior and it looks perfect. So happy to finally have that yellow siding gone. The cabinets look amazing.

Kitchen Cabinets



Utility Room



Painted House



This upcoming week is tile on the floor (which is a super duper suprise to Justin b/c he has no idea what we picked out). I think granite is also going in on the countertops.

Cabinets go in tomorrow!

This is probably one of the most exciting milestones of the house for me personally. The cabinets are one of the most expensive features in the house. In my second life I need to be a cabinet maker because evidently its quite a lucrative skill. Justin has really let me make almost 99% of the selections (floor plan/brick/paint/tile) all by myself. I make a selection and show him and he nods in agreement and goes on his merry way. But I haven't made the selections completely alone. When we had 10 cabinet doors in our house to check stain colors and we had 50 granite samples and a showroom of tile sample, Miss Kate was with me every step of the way. She LOVED the cabinets and she single-handily picked out the granite (she has good taste so luckily I didn't have to talk her in another direction). So it will be nice for her to see all of her choices come together.
That new song by Miranda Lambert 'the house that built me' makes me tear up every time because I think of this great experience our children are having watching their childhood home go up and become 'ours'. Love it!

Pictures worth a thousand words...

My little girl asked her Vanessa to fix her hair before church on Sunday....she has the MOST AMAZING HAIR! I look forward to fixing it each day!

I look at her picture and find a bazillion traits that Kate is going to LOVE when she gets older. Her shiny hair, her GORGEOUS skin, her deep dark brown eyes (thanks Dad!). But the most important trait that sets Kate apart is her kindness. Some may call it 'sweet'. Kate is starting to get to the age where not everyone in her class is 'sweet'. Justin and I were at her field day recently and I overheard some of the moms talking about their little girls and the 'drama' they are encountering - who is my BFF today? will she be my BFF tomorrow?
My Kate has shyed away from that 'drama'. She is so mellow that drama is not in her vocabulary so its very nice to see her be friends with everyone. In fact when I was dropping her off at the front door this morning, the cutest little 4 yr old boy walking in with his mom said 'Hi Kate' and his mom looked at me and said 'he talks about Kate all the time and how she helps him and his friends at recess!' It melted my heart.

House Update #14

Well after another busy house week...well I haven't been busy with the house but someone (Daryn) has been. And its definitely showing some significant progress....here is what we have now that we didn't have a week ago:
1. A septic tank...very important for a family that plans to use plumbing..its basically the equivalent of a sewer if you live in the city..except we don't have to pay for it monthly. There are definitely some advantages to living in the country. No water bill either because we have our own water well.

2. A culvert....Daryn made sure it was extra wide (about 20 feet) so that I don't 'fall off'. Evidently my wonderful husband made that request because I came close to falling off our culvert in Conroe (just a personal note from ME...the culvert in Conroe was about 5 ft wide and I drive an 8ft wide TAHOE!..and I was NOT the one that almost fell off the culvert...that would be his friends and family) Thanks Daryn!
3. A GARAGE DOOR! These guys came in from New Braunsfels and were SUPER QUICK!
4. And we have the trim work (doors/baseboards/molding/stair rail) the house actually looks like the inside of a house now...amazing!5. And Daryn has informed me that he thinks we favor Wesley because Wesley got this custom built-in dresser inside his walk in closet and Miss Kate did not get one. My rebuttal: Kate's room is MUCH bigger than Wesley's room so not so much a need to save space in her room...AND Kate got brand new big girl furniture when she was 3. So she has a brand new chest of drawers...no need to duplicate. Everyone knows I love my Kate! :)

What's next? Friday the exterior trim gets painted as well as interior (cross my fingers that the colors look good). Then next Wednesday the cabinets go in and tile may start after cabinets.

Exciting stuff! Thanks for sharing in this very fun time with us!

House Update # 13

We have brick and stone! And it is absolutely amazing! I sifted through hundreds of model home pictures and brick websites and picked the brick that I loved. Daryn surprised us with adding the stone!The brick crew spent about a week in Victoria (they are from Houston) completing our house. They were all great guys and today as they wrapped up the final touches they surprised us with this mailbox. What is super special about the mailbox is that in our old house in Conroe we had this cheapy metal mail box and I told Justin that in our next house I wanted a custom mailbox to match our house and I wanted to be able to plant some flowers. I don't know if Justin had something to do with this (maybe an early Mothers Day gift?) but nonetheless it is perfect!
And finally stone accents the bar. The sheet rock has been hung and sanded. Tomorrow the sheet rock is going to be textured. Trim has been ordered (trim = doors/molding/window ledges/etc) and will be delivered Monday and it will be installed Tuesday. Then its time to paint (inside and out...that ugly yellow color on the outside trim is NOT our color. It is the generic color that the trim comes in).
We are hoping for mid June completion date ....woohoo!

And in other news we made our first beach trip to Port A on Saturday with Justin's parents and Vanessa. This next weekend we are heading to Austin for Miss Peyton's #3 birthday party and then Sunday is Mothers Day so we are heading to Beeville to spend time with mom Peters!