Our New House

I have procrastinated this post for so many reasons... I have to finish unpacking, I need to decorate more, I need a few more knick knacks here and there before taking pictures, I need to take BETTER pictures, the list could go on and on... but for the sake of checking it off my to do list and so my family can see our house... here is our house... which I really love by the way.

When we walked through this house for the first time, it was NOT love at first sight, I didn't get the tingly feeling of this is the one... BECAUSE I wasn't looking past the paint and the kitchen cupboards. The kitchen is everything to me. I love to cook, bake and lets face it; I spend SO much of my time in the kitchen, I have to love it, right? So thanks to my husband who helped me realize that the size was perfect, the layout was perfect, and we could change the things I wanted, before moving in. That last part was my stipulation. I absolutely love it. It is so functionable, I feel like I have so much space but not overwhelming space. I just feel so blessed. We love our new home. And hopefully after a few more months, the kids will walk upstairs by themselves without me escorting them, trying to convince them that there is nothing to be scared of. (I think it takes some time for the kiddos... new space... new closets to realize there is not a monster in... in all due time)

Our Kitchen cabinets were pickeled Oak wood, which is a pinky pale oak... yuck. So This was the before...

After.... We had them painted white and we did a black island... I love my kitchen!

Our Master Bath Before... gotta love that wall paper border

After... So much better

1/2 Bath Before with an ugly light and wall paper...

And again, the pickled oak cabinet

After.... We took the wallpaper down, textured and painted... the paint is a sagey green... the color didn't show up the best. But it looks so much better. We switched out the light and the mirror. (recognize the mirror from the before masterbath)

We painted the cuboard in here too...

The office before

office before

Office After

Eric picked out this suede faux finish and I think it turned out great for his office

Dining before... now this picture makes it look like a pretty chocolate brown color... but it was really a plumy, pinky color... the previous owners loved pink... even the doors had a pink tint to them... PAINT HAS BEEN OUR FRIEND. :)

After.... With our new dining room table... My Christmas present, (mother's day, birthday and anniversary presents too. :) I love it!

This is a bad picture of the entry way... I need to take another one... but this is the rug that was our color palate... we took the blue, greens, and suede color from the rug and put in on the walls.

More to come...

Brent had a birthday, Shout Horray!

Brent turned 4 on December 1st. I can't believe my little boy is four. He new thing is to talk about when he gets bigger. He tells Eric "when I turn sixteen, I'm going to be bigger than you." It's so funny... and he's probably right on that prediction. He told Taylor the other day, "Taylor when I turn 100, I'm going to be older than you." I think he wants to boss her around one day. Brent started preschool on the 30th of November and for his birthday he got to take cupcakes to his new preschool. Which was his very first day of preschool. It was a great way to make friends right off the bat.

On Tuesday morning he woke up to presents and a NEW BIKE! He has been riding Taylor's hand me down big wheel and he gets really sad when we go on bike rides, because no matter how fast he peddles, he can't keep up with Taylor. So now that he has he own two-wheeler (with training wheels for now) he can try to keep up with his big sister. We had a little family party... a transformers party. (I'm not sure why he loves transformers... he's never seen the movie.... but it's amazing what they pick up on... he loves them and now he has a bunch of them that I'm constantly changing from a car/ truck/ SWAT Car back to a transformer. My little brother had tons of these when they were the thing in the late 80's... Mom, you should have held onto them. :)

Happy Birthday Brent, WE LOVE YOU! You are such a joy in our family. Brent is really a special spirit. He is a tender heart and is so sweet to me and his sisters. Brent has such a confidence about him. He knows he's the man, it cracks me up. What is it about guys, or maybe my guys, that just are born with this innate confidence that they are the 'stuff.' It makes me laugh. Brent's favorite game right now is Bowser. Eric and the kids made it up; .... Bowser is the villain in the Super Mario games, and Eric is always Bowser and Brent is Mario and Taylor is usually Princess Peach. Eric had this deep raspy, Bowser voice and he kidnaps princess peach, Mario then goes to rescue princess Peach and it's a big wrestle mania in the house. The kids beg to play it the moment Eric walks into the door... it's pretty cute.

Thanksgiving in our new house!

It's so fun to be in our new house... I know I need to post pictures... (this post has a few you can see of the house) I've been unpacking till the wee hours of the morning trying to get organized. But my big incentive was to have most of it done before Thanksgiving. My mom came for the week and it was such a treat. She helped me get some projects done and the kids loved being with her. After living with her for 4 months, we've really gotten used to always having her around. I was going into Mommy with drawls, so this was such a great week for me. (I'm such a mama's girl) We had a great Thanksgiving... it was nice and laid back, since it was just us. My mom and I cooked all Wednesday, so Thursday wouldn't be a big deal. We did our traditional BBQ ed Cajun Turkey, with Sausage and Jalapeno Cornbread Stuffing, Rolls, Candied Yams, Green Bean Casserole, Homemade Cranberry Sauce, Mashed Potatoes and Gravy.. and Bacon Wrapped Scallops for our appetizer... so yummy. Oh, and we also had our traditional Butternut Squash and Apple Bisque for an appetizer. Wow... I need to hit the gym...! But it was all so yummy and so fun to have a holiday in our new house. It makes it feel that much more like home to make memories. After dinner we sat around the table and talked with the kids about what we were grateful for. Brent and Taylor were really sweet and both talked about how grateful they were for Jesus and for their family.

Fruit From Someone Else's Labor

When we moved into our house, the family before us had a garden. Our house has been vacant since April, so I don't know if these plants grew back from being planted before, or what? But we had a little harvest of tiny tomatoes, and bell peppers. It was very exciting for us! There was squash that was two feet long that was really hard and seedy, but it's so exciting that we have a huge area for a garden and it seems like fertile soil. Now it's cold, we've ripped everything out and we've covered the beds to let it rest for winter. Hopefully I can do a little research and figure out how to get a green thumb. It will be an experience. I'm sure I'll kill everything, but at least we can try right... ?

The kids are so excited for Spring so we can plant our garden. They each want a row to plant their favorite things. Maybe this will be an incentive for them to eat their veggies.

HO DOWN

Our first ward activity in Abilene was a HO DOWN! How perfect is that... when in West Texas... be like the West Texans. I was anxious for the kids to meet new friends and mingle with the ward, so off we went to the Ho Down. We did horse races on a stick horse, took pictures on the bails of hay, and they danced lots of line dances. Where is Eric? Might you ask... this was the night of the TCU/ University of Utah football game... very very important and trumpted the Ho Down for him. We returned home to a very sad dad, because Utah lost the game. bummer...

Yeeehaww... we are officially living in Abilene now that we've been to our first ho down!

Halloween

We dressed up and headed over to Mimi and Poppie's House for some Halloween Fun. We had a great dinner and went trick or treating. Brent's legs got tired, even too tired for more candy. So I took him back and sweet Mimi took Tay around a little more to get some more loot. It was a fun filled family Halloween.

I've Got My Eye on You!

I saw this idea on the Martha Stewart show and just had to try it. It is a perfect shirt for Halloween! And I thought Brent would love wearing an eye ball t-shirt! Well, he loved it the day I made it but kept telling me, "Mom, I'll wear it another day... I'll wear it when we move to Abilene." He was starting to sound like me when Eric bought me this ugly sweater when we first got married... "oh honey, I love it, but I'll wear it another day." So today, Taylor was getting ready for school and it is Red Ribbon Week, (it's like a say no to drugs campaign) And today is wear your clothes backwards day, and she wanted to wear the shirt. It looks so cute on her, especially because the one eyeball that's usually on the back is on the front of the shirt, since she's wearing her clothes backwards. We were too much in a hurry to get a picture. (maybe when she comes home) :) She even had a orange halloween headband that coordinated. I thought Brent would be jealous and want to wear it once he saw Taylor with it on and feeling cute. But that must just be a girl thing, because he could care less. He was just fine putting on his Lightening McQueen t-shirt for pre-school.

His "spooky, Zombie" walk... he's such a character these days. I love it!

Halloween Fun!

We spent a fun Saturday at Mimi and Poppie's house; eating great food, decorating Halloween cupcakes, and swimming. We will miss being so close to Grandma Marilyn (really close, since we live with her) And being so close to Mimi and Poppie, we have loved doing Sunday dinners there and getting to do lots of fun things together.

Mary Ann and Aunt Whitney had the cupcakes made and all the fun toppings ready for the kids to design their own Halloween cupcake. It was so fun!

This is Taylor's Frankenstein Cupcake... she is so creative!

Another cupcake creation of Taylor's, it a Jack-o-Lantern

The stem is a mini snickers- she is so clever!

Brent with his ever so wonderful creation

Peyton, doing raspberries, her specialty

Getting Cozy

It is officially fall here in Houston, and we have been blessed with some cozy weather. When we are driving in the car, and these days in the rain, Taylor will say, "Mom, when we get home can we get into our Jammies and sit in front of the fire and have hot cocoa?" I think I have verbally dreamed this with them so many times, they know that when it rains and it's cool that it officially fire and hot cocoa weather.

We started out with the hot cocoa on the fireplace; which the kids love, because usually Grandma's rules are "No drinks on the Carpet." So it was extra fun to have permission to break the rules. But shortly into it we realized that Peyton was going to spill them in one swoop of her chubby hand. So we quickly moved them back into the kitchen, but it was still so fun to cozy up to the fire.

Discovering Abilene

I drove to Abilene to close on our house this week and after driving for seven hours in the car with three kids, by myself. Our loan documents weren't sent out by the lender, so after a lot of trying to make it work, it just didn't. Our close was postponed till the following week. Yikes, which means our moved date is pushed back, Tay's last day of school, the scheduled movers, ... etc. etc. Isn't moving fun!!! *%$##

So Friday night we decided to go bowling as a family and we had a blast. We found this great family fun place called Prime Time. It has bowling, arcades, putt-putt golf, bumper cars, go-carts. It's clean and very family friendly. (I was excited to find this, because moving to our small little town, I wasn't sure I'd find many of these places) But actually we're finding Abilene to be a very family friendly town. Anyways, we were like one of three families in the entire bowling alley. We thought... what's going on. This is a great place, why isn't anyone else here? Well, we drove around town afterwards to find the entire town at the local high school football game. .... oh... that's right we are back in Texas!

We love you Dad!

Eric came home this past weekend for the first time in two weeks. We were so excited to see him! And also wish him "Congratulations" on passing his first Board Exam for the Nursing Home Administrators Board. He took the federal exam, now onto the state exam. One down, one to go. Yeah Eric!

He will head back to Abilene to the lonely hotel room and we will join him as soon as we close on our house. It will be so nice to be together as a family again.

9 Months Old...

I can't believe my little baby is:

crawling like crazy

She'll crawl all the way up the stairs if we let her

She's pulling herself up on everything, even walls and cupboards

(Taylor was walking at almost 10 months, and Brent about the same time too... )

So Peyton will probably be walking just about the time we are getting settled in our new house

Which means trouble... :)

She babbles all the time and loves to talk

Taylor thinks she's trying to say her name because

Peyton will say the "tuh" sound

She'll say, "Ma.. Ma" or "Da.. Da"

(I'm not sure if she really is trying to say, mom or dad, or just saying sounds:)

She loves Taylor and Brent and squeals when they walk into the room

The kids anxiously wait for Peyton to wake from her naps and as soon as they hear her on the monitor, sprint for her bedroom and climb into her crib to play with her.

The squeals of joy from the kids is so sweet to hear from the monitor.. because I, of course usually get to Peyton second or third... I'm just not fast enough. And usually trying to finish up on something

She just got in both upper- lateral teeth

She loves Grandma- and squeals with delight and raises her arms up and down on her side with excitement when she comes home from work.

She loves baths, and tries to drink the water from the cup that I use to help wash her hair.

I really wish I could freeze time right now... I know it's cliche, but I love having my kids at these stages right now. Taylor still is my best friend and tells me that I'm the best mom ever... Brent still gives me hugs and kisses galore and I still have a precious baby with squishy rolls. I am so blessed and love being a mom.

General Conference Weekend

I absolutely love General Conference Weekend! It was rainy here in Houston and so cozy. It was a perfect weekend to stay in the house and watch conference in our pj's. The kids did pretty good, thanks to some activity books and word searches that my mom printed off for them off the Internet, that quizzed them about which general authority was who, etc. etc.

I think the thing I love about Conference is the spiritual lift I receive from it. My testimony is just solidified of my Savior, and of the truthfulness of this gospel. I think my favorite was Elder Jeffery R. Holland's powerful talk on the Book of Mormon. What an amazing testimony of the truthfulness of this amazing book that he gave!

It is our family tradition to have homemade cinnamon rolls on Conference Weekend, and now that my kids are old enough to remember traditions, I can't forget, or better yet, cheat and get the Pillsbury kind. (This I was tempted... 1. because Eric stayed in Abilene to study for his board exam, and 2. because at 10pm on Sat. night I decided to start making them. When it is late... I'm thinking, why didn't I do Rhodes Cinnamon Rolls like my mom told me to. (Side note: My mom is really great about trying to make my life easier... she's always been this way... "Katie, Just go to bed, don't stay up doing that history project..." that was 15 years ago... Now it's like, "Katie, just buy the ready made and don't stay up making the homemade." My mom is big on getting enough sleep. This is nice in a way... but other times I'm thinking... I'm thirty years old, I can stay up till 1am making cinnamon rolls if I want to. =)

The kids were so excited to wake up to not only cinnamon rolls, but homemade whole wheat bread. ...I started making whole wheat cinnamon rolls (trying to be healthy) but they looked a little too healthy, so I made two loaves of bread with the dough and started white flour, white sugar, unhealthy but yummy traditional cinnamon rolls. And we had cream cheese icing to top them.. yum yum!

gotta love; cream cheese icing right off the beaters!

Here's the Recipe for these

Cinnamon Rolls

(it is a recipe from Maylene Call; she was my Laural Advisor growing up and her daughter entered these rolls into a FFA/ home-economics Rodeo Competition and won the $500 prize)

1/2 c. Sugar

1/2 c. Potato Flakes

1/2 c. Powdered Milk

2t. Salt

4 C. flour

1 Cube Margarine

3 C. Hot Water (don't get it too hot, or it will cook the potato flakes)

Then add: 2 T Instant Yeast and 2 Eggs; Mix for 2 minutes

Then add an additional 3-4 cups more flour and mix

Let rise for 1 hour- covered with a damp cloth.

Divide the dough in half and roll out into rectangles

Brush with softened or melted butter- ALL OVER

Sprinkle with Cinnamon and Sugar (1c sugar to 2T. cinnamon)

Roll up and cut each roll into 12 slices

Let rise again

Bake at 350- 375 for 10-13 minutes

Frost while still warm

Frosting:

8 oz. cream cheese, softened, room temp.

1t. pure vanilla extract

1 stick unsalted butter- room temp.

1 lb. confectioners sugar

Beat cream cheese and vanilla on medium until creamy. Gradually add butter, then reduce speed to low and add the powdered sugar.

... so worth the calories... and so yummy

(it makes me feel better to use the 1/3 less fat cream cheese... not that it makes a difference, but it eases my conscience.. :)

Another Crafty Thing

This is my new go-to birthday present for Taylor to give her friends. I pair it with a lip gloss and a flower-bow clip for their hair, and so far, it's a hit and the girls love it. Who wouldn't love their very own personalized t-shirt, right?

My New Thing

I've been into a new crafty thing... making necklaces. This past May on our girls trip to Park City, UT, my sister Angie bought this adorable necklace at a boutique in SLC. Sarah and I admired it and then Sarah being the crafty girl that she is, made one. And me being the wanna-be crafty girl looked at Sarah's picture and tried to copy hers. My mother in law, and my two sister in laws all tackled this project together on Labor Day weekend, and it was so fun. It's a fabric covered wooden beaded necklace, strung with a ribbon. It's adorable on and I've been making them like crazy. I just picked out some fun fabric. Luckily when I was doing this we were at an awesome fabric store and found great Moda and Amy Butler fabric... I've got to go back... I should have bought more. But then you cut out a rectangle shape and cover the bead in modge-podge (sp?) glue and wrap the fabric around the bead and use a chop stick to get it into the holes of the bead. Once the glue is dried, string the ribbon through.

My other favorite are the fabric button covered earrings that coordinate with them. I made these for Eric's Director of Nursing at his facility, she loved them. These are a cinch: You buy button covers at the craft store, you can get 3 pairs for around $2, then buy the post and back earrings that you glue to the back. The button covers have directions on the box on how to cover fabric over the top, it comes with a little rubber device that helps you. They are so fun and easy! I probably shouldn't have posted this because I'm using this as a Christmas Present for a few people... :)

We're Moving to Abilene!

"Abilene... where is Abilene..." you might ask... These were my exact words. It is two hours west of Fort Worth and considered the most eastern town of West Texas.

Eric has been in training for the past three months and has been called out of training early and been given his facility in Abilene. We are very excited and Eric is ready and anxious to have his own facility to run. I know he's going to do great.

We went the other weekend for me to see the town and to house hunt. It's a cute little town with the friendliest people and it just has a good feeling there. It's what they consider 'big city' but with a very small town feeling.

Eric will have a 10 minute commute, which I am SOOO excited about. He's been driving over an hour each way while we've been here in Houston and I'm excited that he won't have such a long commute. It has a Target, a decent mall, a Hobby Lobby, Hancock Fabric, Micheals, Sam's Club, a Walmart and some decent restaurants, so I know I can survive.

We found a great house, that I'm so excited about and it seems as though the schools are amazing. Eric is already pretty much gone; he'll come home on the weekends until we close on the house- at the end of October. This is another reason, being here at my mom's is a great blessing to us. I won't be so lonely with Eric gone all week. It's so nice to have my mom's help in the evenings when she comes home from work. My mom is seriously the most easy going unselfish person. I hope that I can be more like her.

Our little town is even on a standard Texas map... maybe we are 'big city'...

I didn't take a great shot of the house... you can't really see the whole thing... but I love all the mature trees in the yard. It even has a big pomegrante tree in the back!

I love the tree lined streets in our new neighborhood. In a few years, the trees will touch and I will LOVE IT!

I love the entry way... maybe one day there will be wood floors

my ultimate favorite is the double front door entry, and the old fashioned knob and lock

The front door; I totally love it and don't want to put curtains or blinds to cover it from the inside; but I guess that means I always have to be modest while walking around during the day... that might be a problem

First Day of School

I can't believe the summer is over. It flew by so fast! We had a lot of fun keeping busy and rediscovering Houston once again. Taylor is now in second grade and is going to the same school that I went to growing up. We walk to school, it's so nice. We push Peyton in the stroller and Brent will walk or ride his big wheel. He loves his little bike ride every morning and afternoon. Taylor's teacher is Mrs. Winn and Taylor is really liking school.

Brent started preschool also, on Tuesdays and Thursdays and he loves being able to say that he goes to school too. The first day we loaded everything up into his spiderman backpack and he really thought he was a 'stud' that he got to go to school too this year.

Taylor in her ever so important 'first day of school outfit'

She was very flexible, because the planned first day of school outfit didn't work, but she didn't panic (like I probably would have) and just picked out another one

Tay in her second day of school outfit... notice she's switched bags too... she's so funny, I love it.

First day of school- 'walking her into the classroom' She's probably thinking... "Dad, why are you taking pictures... parents are so embarrassing"

Taylor and her teacher, Mrs. Winn

This is Mrs. Winn's first year of teaching. She was in accounting and actually worked for the Houston Texans (Houston's NFL team) before moving to teaching

Brent, primping for the first day of school

I had to break it to him that it was actually Taylor's first day of school and he started preschool in just a few more days... that was hard for him to take.

Brent's official first day of preschool... He patiently waited a week after Taylor's first day of school for his special day. ... what a stud!

Brent and his teacher, Mrs. McReynolds ... he calls her Mrs. McDonalds...