Merry Christmas 2012

This year was a little crazy at our house for Christmas.  We had only been in the house for less than a month when we needed to start decorating for Christmas.  Luckily I knew where all the decor was stored upstairs to get too to start decorating.  We didn't have many decorations for the size of the new house, but we certainly made do with what we had.  Nick did a great job putting up the outside lights, it truly looked amazing.  Our tree was small, but it was cozy.  We had our mantle set up and some other fun decor throughout the house.  Next year I will go overboard, don't you worry :)

Nicks parents came to our house a few days before Christmas.  We spent the days shopping and getting ready for Santa's visit.

The boys made their reindeer food for the reindeer and set out cookies for Santa.  It was fun to watch their excitement.

You should have seen the toys and gifts we had delivered!  Santa did so good.  We sure are lucky!

Family Pics!

Its about time we got some great pictures taken!  Our great friend from college Josef has a super sweet girlfriend who came to take family pictures for us.  Her work is beautiful and she is just a super sweet girl.  She did an AMAZING job!  Love them all!!!

Elfer Came Back

Remember our little elf friend who came to visit us last year???  His name was Elfer...and he was trouble.  AND...he came back this year.  He did crazier things than last year too.  With a bigger house the trouble he gets in too seemed to have doubled.  Here are some of the crazy things Elfer did to us this year:

Crazy Elfer!!!!

Losing Jaxs and Peaches

In November Jaxs passed away after a struggle with cancer.  We thought he would at least make it until Christmas but his little body couldn't fight any longer.  He passed away while laying on the couch where I placed him after bringing him home from the vets office.  Dad went to check on him a little while later and he was gone.  His buddy Chester was laying beside him on the couch when he died.  I like that he wasn't alone when he died.  The next morning Cooper and I went back to Mom and Dads early in the morning so we could be there to bury the guy.  I loved that silly dog from the moment I saw him at the pet rescue center at Petsmart and brought everyone I knew by to see him in hopes someone would adopt him.  I won: Mom fell in love with him, then she brought Dad back with Penny and Coco and Dad fell for him too.  He was ours.

In college Nick decided he wanted a dog.  My parents had Coco, Jaxs, and Penny (all wiener dogs).  Guess what he got?  A wiener dog..just black and tan instead of the brown like the 3 we had at my parents house.  We weren't sure what to name her until I saw the candle on Nicks desk that he always had lit: Peaches N Cream.  And so she became Peaches.  She LOVED to eat things, everything and anything.  Clothes, toys, any food you can think of.  She could destroy a squeaker toy in 2 seconds flat.  She loved to play catch.  She was Nicks baby for the 10 years we had her.  In December she stopped eating.  We tried spaghetti which worked for a few days and then she stopped eating that too.  She lost almost half her bodies weight.  She got so frail and tiny it was hard to hold her.  We brought her to the vet and they put her on an IV of fluids so they could do surgery the next morning.  On an xray they could see blockage in her, but they didn't know what it was.  The following morning she had surgery.  Penny just happened to be at the vets office to have her teeth cleaned.  The vet said Penny barked the whole entire time because she knew Peaches was in the crate beside her.  They all said Peaches calmed down knowing Penny was there with her.  

The vets office called us around 9:45 the night she had surgery.  The vet said he did everything he could but she was just too weak to pull through.  She died wearing her favorite flannel vest.  He said she wasn't hurting and we were thankful she was no longer in pain.  We certainly expected to bring her home a day or two later so  we were really shaken up.  We didn't think it was her time and it was awfully sad around our home for a few days after.  

We picked her up the following morning and buried her beside Jaxs at my parents house.  

Nick Turns 30!

Woke up this morning and Nick was already out of bed.  I went looking for him to wish him a happy 30th birthday.  I found him shaving off his whole beard in the bathroom.  Completely caught me off guard.  As soon as I saw it off I said "time to start growing it back."  I think he needed to feel young for a minute, so he shaved it off.  Hah!  We love his beard, and I am happy to say its back.  Phew!

That night we had some friends come over for pizza and beer.  We love our friends!  Nothing too big, just small and fun.  Happy 30th Nick, love you bunches!

Look Who's 5!!!

Happy 5th Birthday Sweet Cooper!  We love you!

A few days later our friends came to celebrate Coopers birthday with us.  They drove all the way from Wylie/Murphy, we felt special!  Love them!

Stitches

It was bound to happen with two really busy boys.  I was pretty sure Wyatt would be the first one to get them too...and he was.  5 stitches, on his head.  Sigh, the joys of boys.

We were still living at Mom and Dads house. Dad, Nick, and I were sitting on the patio furniture on the deck out front.  Mom was at work.  Wyatt came running (he doesn't know how to walk...he runs everywhere he goes) and tripped coming up the rock steps. I was looking at Dad, but Nick was looking over the back of the couch and saw Wyatt fall.  Before I heard Wyatts scream Nick was saying "get in the car...ER...stitches."

Anyone who knows Nick knows he doesn't go to the hospital for ANYTHING.  We never go to the hospital...ever.  When he said "ER" I was already running into the house to get my purse and keys.  Nick had jumped over my feet which were propped up on the table and had run down the steps to Wyatt.  The boys walked around the outside of the house to the car.  Dad stayed with Cooper at the house.  By the time I got to the car Wyatt had already stopped crying.  I saw his face and the gash and thought "oh geez."

Nick held Wyatt in the back keeping him talking and watching the gash.  It was directly above his eyebrow.  It should have been bleeding all over and it wasn't.  This also bothered the ER doctor once we got him there.  We were brought back to a room right away.

5 stitches later and one ticked off little boy (he did not like the fact that we had to pin him down and cover his face with a sheet so they could stitch him up) we were leaving.  He did amazing.  He didn't cry or whine.  He was so brave and such a trooper.  He didn't play with the stitches at all either.  For Wyatt, that's amazing.    I brought him back to the hospital 6 days later to have the stitches taken out.  Its been about 5 months now and the scar is still pretty good.  The doctor did amazing making sure his skin was perfect...its just pink from where the gash was.

While the doctor was stitching him up I remember Nick saying "is that his skull?" and the doctor goes "yup."  EWWWWW!

This first picture is right after we got home from the hospital.  The wound wasn't bleeding as much as it was draining the fluid that they pumped into him to numb him.  He was so good!

Halloween 2012

We were living with Mom and Dad this year for Halloween.  The boys dressed up and we brought them into Lantana (where we had bought our home, but had yet to close on it).  We parked in front of our soon-to-be home and walked the neighborhood.  It was a good feeling.  Everyone was walking around with their kids, super friendly, beers in hand.  We felt at home for sure!  We had a veterinarian (Cooper) and a tiger (Wyatt) for halloween this year.  Boy were they cute!  :)  We got a ton of candy too.  YUM!

Welcome Home!

I cannot begin to tell you how many houses we looked at after we sold our old house.  Our Realtor was great and was able to point out all the bad things about each house.  We decided to build because it would be so much easier since we couldn't find anything we liked.  Our Realtor came to help us look at the last 10 houses on our list before we signed on the dotted line to build.  We had 2 houses left to go and we were frustrated.  Nothing looked even "okay."  We knew what we wanted and we weren't finding it.  I had to leave to pick Cooper up from school so Nick stayed with Shelley (our Realtor) to look at the last 2.  I got a call saying "I found our house."  Right.  After picking Cooper up we drove to the house Nick, Shelley and Wyatt was at.  I drove up and thought "its okay."  We opened the front door and HOLY COW.  Its exactly what I wanted.  And its what Nick wanted (and let me make sure you understand neither of us like the same things...ever).  As I walked in my mouth dropped to the floor.  Each room I walked into got better and better.

The home builders were transferred to Seattle.  They had build this home as their forever home, but had to leave it only 3 years after it was built.  It was empty and calling our names.  We walked through it the one time and said "this is it."  We had some crazy things happen while buying it (another lady was trying to get it at the same time...but we won!!!!).

We closed on the house November 9th, 2012.  Welcome to our home :)

Front door

Front Hallway.  Picture taken from standing as if we just walked in the front door.  There is a hallway to the left that has a spare bathroom, laundry room, and downstairs spare bedroom.  The office is directly to the right. The dining room is the cutout on the right.  Straight up at is the living room (where the windows are).  The kitchen is to the right of the windows.

Office

Dining Room

Kitchen nook.

Kitchen

Family room

Master bedroom

Master closet

Master bathroom

Master bathroom

Garage with stained concrete floor

Downstairs spare bedroom

Downstairs spare bathroom

Upstairs gameroom.  Directly to the left is a porch but I don't have a good picture of it, oops!

Upstairs hallway.  All 3 upstairs bedrooms and the upstairs spare bathroom is off this area.  I'm taking the picture leaving the gameroom.

Coopers bedroom.  It is now a medium orange color.  Its awesome.

Jack and Jill bathroom as you leave Coopers bedroom.  It is now a bright aqua blue.  Whale theme. The door behind me (taking the picture) is a full storage about all 3 car garage spaces.  Its HUGE.

Boys bathroom shower/toilet.  Shared.

Wyatts bathroom nook.  It is now John Deere Green.  WOW.

Wyatts bedroom.  It is now chocolate brown.

Upstairs spare bedroom.  This will become my craft room.

Spare bathroom upstairs

Backyard:

A little about our house.  We live in Lantana, TX.  It is one big neighborhood.  Lantana (the city in which we live) is one neighborhood... that's it!  We have 2 elementary schools and one middle school in the neighborhood (they are about to build a third elementary school though).  All are rated "exemplary".  Our HOA covers the lawn maintenance (all weeding, moving, edging, trimming of shrubs, etc of the front yards.  The neighborhood wants every house to have good front yards and look good so they take care of every single house making sure we all look the same and good).  It also covers the security system in our homes, basic cable/phone/tv, all gyms and workout centers located in the neighborhood, all 5 pool and water-parks in the neighborhood...  Its amazing.  Lantana has been voted people's choice community every single year for the past 4 years.  I love it here!