I am a horrible poster!

I just never seem to get around to it. We stay so busy (especially now living on 13 acres where there is ALWAYS something to do) that it is hard to find time for much other than that. Nothing particularly exciting is going one. We just got done enjoying Easter weekend with the family. It rained the whole time, but we still made the most of it - even Easter egg hunting in the house. Mom and Harvey are finally getting everything settled to finish moving here. Almost everything has been moved up to the new house; Harvey starts his new job today; and mom will be here for good in three weeks. I am so glad that has finally worked out for them (and us).

Kevin and I are still getting ready to make our trip to Key West in May for our anniversary (10 YEARS!!!) and our friend's wedding. I am really looking forward to the break and the time away together, but I know it will be hard to leave Colten. This will be the longest and furthest I have ever been away from him. At least I know he will be in good hands.

Speaking of the bear, he is growing like a weed and talking more and more in sentences and big words every day. I can't believe how fast it is going! Until I find something more interesting to talk about, enjoy some pics from the last couple of months.


Easter Sunday











Worn out after a hard weekend of playing












He has discovered playing in the sprinkler.












He's had several haircuts, but this is the first time he sat in the chair by himself. :)










Playing with daddy's hunting gear












He loves the Mickey Mouse Aunt Megan sent him from Disney!

Snowbound

our house in the snow

So, this is what it is like to be stuck in your own home. We have been stuck here for four days now. And, based on our recent excursion outside, we aren't going anywhere for a while. We thought we would go out and test the snow if you will. The car got stuck before we were even able to finish backing up. I walked a ways down our driveway to the top of the hill to the road, and the snow is up to my knees. With nothing but Honda Accords to drive, it doesn't bode well for escaping. So, as you can see, we are making the most of it and had some snow ice cream. Colten loved it!

pond frozen over

drifts on the south side of the house

Colten making snow ice cream

eating the snow ice cream

car stuck in the snow

Snow day(s)!

So, what a week we have had so far. Kevin started feeling bad on Sunday. On Monday, after getting him all the way to daycare, Colten decided to throw up so back in the car we went to come home. Took him and daddy to the doctor. Colten has RSV and daddy has Influenza A. FUN, FUN!

Add to that, we had a blizzard forecast for Tuesday, and it sure did deliver! I haven't been out and personally measured our snow totals, but we have some drifts that I bet are every bit of 2 feet high.

So, here we are, sick and homebound. I guess it's better to be sick and forced to be home than for the weather to be nice and you want to go out. Still, I will say that taking off all week was not a way that I wanted to use a chunk of my vacation days available for the year.

Colten is still coughing up a lung and has a runny nose, but he is running around and playing so I guess he's not doing too badly. Daddy is achy and miserable, but hanging in there. Temperatures are not supposed to get above freezing all week, so who knows when we will have enough thawing to escape. I'm certain that right now our little Honda Accords would get stuck in the snow before we ever made it out to the road down our 700 feet of driveway.


Colten enjoying his snow day


snow piling up around the sled


drifts to the south of the house


this snow was actually between Colten's
screen and window

Wow! Time flies.

I realized today that is has been a PROHIBITIVELY long time since I blogged. The holidays got away from us I guess. We very much enjoyed all of the holidays in our neew home with family all around. We have visits from the Cooks (coming from Austin) and Kevin's mother and grandmother (from Tyler and Nashville respectively). Of course, we spent time with all of my local family as well as my mom and stepfather in from Houston. Busy, busy, busy.

Colten had a great time with Christmas this year. He really loved seeing all of the Christmas lights around town, and he was super excited to bake cookies for Santa Claus. Even now, he says when we bake cookies, "Santa Claus cookies?" We aren't really grasping the fact that Santa comes once a year.

We have had a couple of rounds of snow (nothing major), but Colten really loves to look at the snow. It has been brutally cold with lots of wind both times, so we unfortunately haven't really been able to take him out to play in it.

On a random other note, do you like my new background? I chose it to (1) warm me up (it is freezing here) and (2) because it inspires me to hang in there for May when Kevin and I are making a trip to Key West for our 10th wedding anniversary/our best man's wedding. It should be a nice trip. We will be gone for five days/four nights, which will be the longest I have ever been away from Colten. I'm hoping that is not as awful as I fear it will be.

I'm going to do my best to blog more often, even if it is about mundane things. Until then, enjoy some pictures from over the holidays and such.



Like my shades?


Crashed out watching Veggietales



Playing "Colten's games" on my iPhone

I love Melissa & Doug!

I have to say that I remember enjoying Melissa & Doug toys when I was little. They were great then, and nothing has changed. Colten already has several Melissa & Doug toys and puzzles in his arsenal. So, I was really excited to find out that they are having a contest through 12/2 to win their activity and one of my all-time favorites of their toys, a train set. Go on over and submit your entries. There are lots of chances to win an EXCELLENT toy for your kids!

http://blog.melissaanddoug.com/2010/11/20/giveaway-multi-activity-table-train-set-closes-12210/

So we moved and...

I really desperately wanted to post pictures of the new house and our getting settled in. Unfortunately, after leaving the rent house, I was without internet access for almost four weeks while the phone company had to lay over 900 feet of phone line to get to the house and then get it installed. We also spent a little over two weeks without TV of any kind. It was nice in a frontier style sort of way, but it was nice to get connected to the real world again.

We are definitely moved in although we still need to get a bed for the spare bedroom and a bigger table for the kitchen (for family nights and holidays and such). Unfortunately, we aren't officially settled into our mortgage. We had an appraiser who provided an estimated value that we (and the bank) thought was too low. We spent almost three weeks attempting to get a new appraisal. Everytime they would call out, somehow this same guy was getting our job although it is supposed to be random. Turns out that there is a database that you get loaded into and then appraisers self assign jobs as they need work. This guy kept pulling ours to...annoy us? upset us? mess with us? Who knows. We finally got a new appraiser who gave us a better value (although still not really what we thought or need), so we should finally close our mortgage the week after Thanksgiving.

Enough with the drama, here is what I know that you all came here to see. Enjoy pics of our new abode! Oh, and maybe one gratuitous one of Colten.



Our (almost) 2 year old boy


kitchen


living area


spare bath


office


spare bedroom


Colten's room


laundry room


looking down the hall from the master


master closet


master tub



master bathroom


master bedroom


from another angle

One week away?

So, baring any kind of major disaster (or slow up in the process), one week from today we will be moved into the new house. I can't believe how much has been done in the last week. There is still a fair amount to go, but with everything that has gotten done, I have confidence that we will be in there. So exciting for our dream to finally come to fruition.

For now, enjoy some picks of the recent work.


fan up in Colten's room


master bath counter and lights


master shower is almost done


dishwasher installed


back porch light and fan


kitchen backsplash


front door waiting to be installed


cabinet hardware


kitchen countertop