Huntsville Camping Trip

There is a big group of members from our ward that go on a traditional camping trip before Easter every year. We went for our first time this year (March 24-26) and it will definitely be one of our new traditions too!

The boys did great and we all had such a great time hanging out with friends, playing, fishing, riding bikes, canoed, enjoyed the beautiful nature, and some quality family time (this was our first trip since Derrick was born)

We got there Thursday afternoon and set up camp. It was a bit breezy and chilly. A little colder then we were anticipating. I did not sleep well that night because I was so worried about Derrick. But I am pretty sure he slept the best that night! And I have to add overall he did great for camping at 4 months old!

Friday the weather was perfect! We played and had fun with friends. Derrick hung out most the day in the Beco or napped in my arms. Collin was too distracted to nap, but he did sleep fairly well in the tent at night. That evening there was a big group dinner and some fun skits. Everyone brought dessert to share- Michael of course had to make a dutch oven cobbler. It was delicious!

 They had a fun rope bridge they set up for the kids. Collin loved it. He also loved the pink helmet that he borrowed from a friend- he had it on most of the afternoon.

 Our view at dinner...I'm telling you this is a BIG group! 

Saturday morning there was a big Easter egg hunt for all the kiddos and then we took down camp, and were on the road again right after lunch.

 I LOVE this picture! It just perfectly captures camping- pj's, sweatshirt, dirty face, hot coco! 

We all camp home exhausted and dirty- signs of a successful camping trip!

Derrick's Blessing Day

Derrick was blessed on February 27th here in the Lake Jackson Ward. Michael gave him a sweet blessing. We are so grateful that my dad was able to stand in the circle as well as some friends in the ward. The rest of the day was fairly quiet and a welcome day of rest after several long days of painting and house projects. We did do a little photos shoot of Derrick. Tried to recreate some that my friend Becca had taken of Collin. I think we did a pretty good job with just my trusty iPhone. We are going to count these as his 3 month pictures too. That night Casie and baby Tanner joined us for dinner (Joe stayed home with a sick Ashton) Michael grilled some yummy chicken, turned out pretty yummy for Michael's first time grilling. We are so grateful to have sweet Derrick in our family forever!

 

And a little flashback to Collin in his blessing outfit! Same quilt as the backdrop, about the same age, different outfits, and both as cute as can be! 

 

Boppi and Grandpa Al came to visit!

There was so much excitement and anticipation of my parent's coming to visit! So much so that Collin made himself sick....not really, but he did get hit with a flu bug a few days before they came. I sanitized the whole house before they arrived and thankfully no one else came down with it. Unfortunately for Collin he really didn't have his full appetite back until the last couple days they were here. Thankfully that didn't affect his energy though!

 I loved having my parent's come to visit, especially my dad since he hadn't met Derrick yet and doesn't usually get to travel as much as my mom because of work. They planned their trip (February 24- March 2) so that we could have a little bit of time to settle into the house and decide what home projects we wanted their help with. As much as we would have loved to tackle the kitchen or backyard we needed a bit more time to save money and decide what exactly we wanted to do. But we did get some good brainstorming in while they were here. We decided to paint the entire family room, entry, hallway and the boys room. And added a spur of the moment project of tearing out a little formica counter in our "office nook" and replacing it with some stained wood. And of course some other little odd projects like cleaning window screens and sprucing up the front porch. And one of my favorite upgrades was replacing all the switches and outlets in the rooms we painted. Such a simple thing but gives the house such an updated feel. It was a lot of really late nights and Michael and I had some bits to finish up after they left but I just love how fresh everything looks now! The shelf in our entry took a bit more work then anticipated- probably would have helped if we had primed it. But we used a paint the owners had left so that it matched the other trims and didn't realize at first that it didn't have primer in it. Oops! All the paint we had bought was a paint/primer combo. But 3 coats later it looks so much better then it did in that ugly chocolate brown.

 

Before and After. 

We also changed out our light bulbs for LED ones which really help brighten up the room! 

  

Funny I don't have any pictures of my dad working. But he did help, and was great at fulfilling his Grandpa duties! Although, I'm not sure we can trust him as a babysitter, he might end up sleeping on the job... ;)

We did manage to squeeze some fun in while they were here too. In between our many trips to Lowe's we took them to our favorite park to feed the ducks and showed them around town a little.

We spent a morning at Surfside beach and had a picnic lunch. We even got lucky and saw some horses. Collin liked them but not enough to pet them.

 

 

 

  

We took a day off from working and went to Galveston. We rode the Galveston Ferry, had lunch at Miller's Grill, and walked around some historic districts and played for a bit at a fun park we found.

And of course Sunday was Derrick's baby blessing. I was so grateful to have my parents here for it. It would have been a really lonely day without any family to celebrate with us.

We (meaning my dad and Michael) grilled a delicious steak dinner their last night. I am not a steak fan but this was good! My dad said that he couldn't come all the way to Texas without having steak.

Our New House!!

We bought a house! 

(And apologies for the super long and detailed post. This is my attempt at journaling)

Around August of 2015 we started house hunting. We got pre-approved and met with our amazing realtors, Susan and Monica. Houses in Lake Jackson are in really high demand. Many houses, especially ones in our price range, sell super quick, like 1-2 days quick! One of the first thing our realtors said was that when they call with a house be ready to go look at it that day. Thankfully Michael's work was very willing and flexible to let him leave to go look at houses. It seemed like house hunting went kind of up and down. There would be a week of several options and then a bit of a lull where we wouldn't hear from our realtors for a couple weeks, and then it would kind of repeat.

One of the early houses we looked out seemed to be a great option, we called it the "Ash House" since it was on Ash Ln. We put an offer on it and it got rejected. Then a few days later the seller contacted our realtors wondering if we wanted to resubmit our offer. So we resubmitted essentially the same offer. They rejected it again with remarks that it was the same price/conditions, but didn't counter, which was weird. We later found out the seller went with a cash buyer for a much lower price so she close quickly since she needed funds from that house to purchase another home. Which once we learned that it made much more sense. Our realtors still felt bad about how everything happened. But surprisingly I really wasn't too disappointed. Throughout the process we prayed that if it was the right house for us that things would fall into place. I had some moments of sadness, but in the end the more I thought about it the more I thought about things in the layout that really would have bugged me. So we were grateful we didn't get it, but enjoyed the learning experience.

In between the Ash house and finding our home we looked at lots more houses. There seemed to be an abundance of 1500 sq ft or smaller homes that came on the market. Our realtors were so patient with us as we kept wanting to look at them. Finally, me first and then Michael, realized that no matter the lay out, 1 or 2 stories, it was just going to be too small for us. And once we finally both agreed it seemed like our perfect house popped up

When my mom was in town after Derrick was born we walked through THE house! It was actually on December 14th, the afternoon before she left. It was fun that she was able to see it too. Based on the pictures online I honestly was not too confident that it would be something we would like. Even when we drove up my mom commented on the nice curb appeal and I still was just kind of so so. But walking in definitely changed my mind! It had some nice upgrades- like 6 panel doors, 2 inch blinds, painted paneling, no wallpaper (!!) newish carpet, a new roof, etc- that really helped it feel a step up from others that we had been looking at. And although it wasn't the biggest house we had seen it still had 4 good size bedrooms. And it had some charm like a front porch big enough for a bench, a bay window in the eating area and a beautiful brick fireplace! When we told our realtors we wanted to make an offer they said great...since they had already started drawing up some of the paperwork. My mom took the boys home to get dinner started and Michael and I headed off to their office to draw up the offer. I should add that the house had just come on the market that morning! We found out two days later that our offer had been accepted! We were so exited!!! We later found out that they had received 6 offers on that first day! Part of me likes to think that it may have something to do with the fact that we saw them drive in as we were loading up after looking at it. Perhaps they saw us loading our two boys in to the van as they walked into their house with their two slightly older boys. Maybe we reminded them of their young family when they bought the house a few years before ;)

Our closing date was set for January 29th, the day before my birthday, and exactly one year from the day we moved out of our apartment in San Antonio. Although I wouldn't recommend moving on your birthday two years in a row you really can't beat a house for a birthday present! In that month in a half we had a lot of stuff to do and all with a newborn! We had the house inspected, Michael did a lot of negotiating and shopping around with our loan and financing options. He was able to get a great rate for us- way to go babe! Thankfully really the only major appliance we needed to buy was a fridge- Michael scored another great deal on a used stainless one. While he did a lot of shopping around I nursed Derrick ;) kept Collin entertained and packed. And the sellers agreed to have the carpets cleaned for us before we moved in.

On our closing day, January 29th, we had some friends who were kind enough to watch Collin for us. Michael took the day off from work and we had our final walk through around 10 and then signed what felt like a million papers. And just like that we were home owners! Derrick was great and nursed and then slept in Susan's arms the whole time. (Funny memory- Right near the end Susan passed him back to me and in his half asleep state he immediately started rooting to eat some more. Totally made me laugh that he knew my scent!). I think I had a permanent smile on my face the rest of the day! We picked up Collin and celebrated with pizza for lunch (partially since everything was packed). Then we spent the rest of the day getting things in order for moving day (and my birthday) the next day.

 

First offical act as homeowners...Sweeping the garage!

 

We went by the house that night to take a van full of things and do some cleaning before moving everything in. We had a picnic dinner in our new dining room. And had fun running around our big empty family room. And Collin loved getting to see his new room. Although he was a little confused since there wasn't anything in it yet. One of my favorite memories those first few days in the new house was watching Collin run down the hall and mixing up the rooms or coming out of his room and pausing for a second before remembering which way he needed to go. You could just imagine the little wheels turning in his head as he tried to remember which way the family room, bathroom, etc was.

 

 

 

Someday we will give the kitchen a complete facelift, but for now we are embracing the avocado green counters! 

Cleaning the Master Bathroom

Collin showing off his bathroom. 

 

Hanging out in our new family room! 

 

Moving day came bright and early! It made me so happy to know that this was going to be our last move for the next several years. We have truly been blessed with such an awesome ward. We had a huge crew of people (even lots of my primary kids) come to help us move. They came armed with trailers, dollies, mini vans and trucks that we loaded everything into and took to the house. They did one big trip and then a couple vehicles went back for a few last things. Everything was done within a couple hours and we even got the fridge hooked up, and all the beds set up. They were seriously so much help! I think I may have moved one box the whole morning. I took Collin to the Wilcox's in the morning. And then picked up some food at the store for our helpers. And then ended up pretty much just holding Derrick while directing traffic. That alone was a pretty great birthday present.

 

My view from the minivan while nursing Derrick. Loved watching all our great help! I may have cringed and said a few prayers that things wouldn't get broken while watching some of the younger helpers try to carry something. Thankfully everything survived! 

 

My handsome hubby cleaning the fridge. I really have to give a shout out for all his hard work! When it came down to it he was really doing most of the work. Derrick was at tricky stage and my milk supply was starting to regulate/drop. So I was pretty stressed about that. I was nursing a lot and pumping a couple times a day to get it back up. Thankfully things worked out in that department but physically I wasn't a huge help with moving. 

 

Even though we were surrounded by boxes it really didn't feel bad since we had so much room to spread out. 

 

The Master bedroom

 

I texted this picture of our guest room to my parents. They were coming to visit at the end of February, I told them that we were all ready for them but they may have to share their bed ;) 

 

The boy's room

 

I remember after everyone had left sitting in our living room, surrounded by boxes, nursing Derrick and just feeling so incredibly blessed. The house was quiet (we hadn't gotten Collin yet) and I was just in awe that this was ours. And I had been receiving Birthday wishes via facebook, calls and texts all morning that made me feel so loved and special. (And just a little side note- I don't know if it was the fact that I was turning 25 or that in the last year we had bought a minivan, had a second baby and were buying a house but I was really feeling old!)

We did some unpacking and cleaning that afternoon, got all the food moved over from the old place. And mostly just got things ready enough for Sunday the next day. Then we decided to go to a restaurant on the beach for a birthday dinner. Unfortunately dinner was kind of a bust, probably didn't help that we were all exhausted and a little hangry. But it was nice to be out with my boys.

Beautiful view at dinner. It was a bit colder then we anticipated and the food was taking forever so we ended up moving to a table inside.

A birthday picture with my cute boys before bed! 

Oh, and a few days later we turned in the keys to our final apartment. We had lived in 5 different apartments in 3 different states in the 5 years we had been married! Words can't describe how good it feels to be settled in our own place!