Wednesday, July 30, 2014

Summer & Home Update

I cannot believe that we are a little over a day away from August!! I look back on June and the kids had VBS and camps. Then July, we took a trip to Arkansas {I still need to get the pictures from Shawn}, Shawn and I went to Frisco to house hunt and after getting back we hit the ground running on fixing up the house. 

With all of this going on I feel like I really haven't taken or had time to "enjoy" summer with the kids. I had envisioned may trips to the pool, but sad to say we have not went much at all. So yesterday morning we made plans to go! It was just a short trip with the kids to a local pool, but it was nice. And it wasn't hectic at all with just me and the kids. On the whole, they listened really well and no fits were thrown! Woohoo!
So Finn has been making these funny faces lately. Apparently this is one of his little smirks below. He cracks me up!! And his hair was styled with sunscreen!! It is time for a trim, maybe this weekend!
Status on the house. We put our home on the market last Monday and actually had a showing that night. An offer from that showing came in the following evening. Long story short, we currently have an "option pending" status with the potential buyers. They have an inspection set-up for tomorrow and we are excited! Hopefully all goes well and we will be that much closer to closing at the end of month!! We are very thankful for family and friends who have helped get our house in showing condition!

It's Finn's World

I'm not sure when it took place exactly, a couple of months ago, but Finn has become obsessed with Elmo! The same thing happen with Jase before he turned two. It's pretty funny because all 3 kiddos have had 2 year old Sesame Street birthday parties. Fun!!

Last Thursday evening we had some family over for cupcakes and ice cream. With the move coming up, trying to sell our home and everything else, my plan was to keep things simple for this birthday.
The following evening we had a small party for Finn at a local spray ground. The kids had a good time playing there and it was relaxed, which was what I needed!
Finn loved all the Elmo goodies at the party! He refers to all of them as La La {as in the theme song to Elmo's World}. And the cookies I ordered below...I just loved them!! They are from a lady in League City and I will definitely be ordering from her again!
 The kids had fun playing on the little spray ground!
Yes, I am the cheesy Mom who wore the Elmo shirt!! Haha! I actually saved it from Ally's birthday party. With me being pregnant this go 'round, it was a little more snug, but worked!! His party fell on my actual birthday, so here we are, celebrating together! {I haven't taken a lot of pregnancy pictures lately, but I am almost 26 weeks along in this picture. It is going by fast!}
The kiddos enjoyed a little more outdoor fun before calling it an evening. Hard to believe that 2 years old has came and gone for my little baby boy! 

Thursday, July 24, 2014

WinShape Camp

Jase attended a local camp all week long last week. It was a full-fledged day with a drop off at 7:45 am and pick up at 5:00 pm! He was so beat when he got home each day! The camp is called WinShape Camp and it is put on Chick-Fil-A. The kids were able to participate in 3 activities during the week {from the 6 they selected when they registered}. Jase chose archery, flag football and secret ops. He enjoyed all 3 activities, but I heard the most out of him about the secret ops group. And after seeing the group leader interact with the kids on Friday, I can see why, he was super fun!! While learning new skills from these activities, there was always a biblical message the group leaders were trying to drive home everyday.  
Friday was Family Fun Day and we were able to go up to camp and watch a condensed version of his day to see what he had been doing all week long. Again, Secret Ops seemed to be his favorite. They gave themselves secret agent names and Jase's was Agent Equipment. Then the kids went around the room and gave the parent they were with a secret agent name and Jase gave me Agent Super Mom! It was too sweet really. And actually tonight, he said "Agent Super Mom, I need you to use your powers and get some toothpaste out of the tube." It looks empty, but if you squeeze it just right, there is probably another week's worth of toothpaste in it!! He was amazed! It's the small things in life that excite us over here!

With each activity, they learned a chant. His Secret Ops group got the opportunity to scream their chant in front of all the other groups...appeared to be a big deal to all the kids! Ha! Jase is in the blue hat!
And then, they had a little graduation ceremony at the end of the Secret Ops and Jase was too funny coming down to receive his graduation banner. He has really enjoyed that buff!! And the boy that followed Jase in the graduation is a friend of ours too. Looks like they had fun together!
It was fun to watch him and be a part of his day. We will definitely be keeping our eye out for a WinShape Camp in the Frisco area for summers down the road.

Wednesday, July 23, 2014

Finn is 2!

Today my baby boy, Finn Michael turned 2 years old! It is really hard to believe that 2 years have gone by since giving birth to him. I remember coming home from the hospital on my birthday, with him as my early birthday gift! 

Finn, you are such a sweet boy. Your personality is starting to show through and we just love it. You have always been such a happy baby and that trend is continuing as you grow. You love sports, particularly baseball. Our favorite is when you imitate the batters: you will place your bat under your arm and put on your batting gloves, pat your head and adjust your helmet, touch the "plate" with your bat and then pull your bat back, get ready and bust the ball! Here lately you have become a HUGE Elmo fan. "La la" as you call him, from Mommy singing "la la la la, la la la la, Elmo's world!" It is too cute! You absolutely love to be outside and would be out all day long, if you were able to! You are starting to make faces that remind us of your big brother, Jase. We pray for your salvation in the Lord and that you come to know Him and trust in Him. Without Him, we have no hope or nothing to look forward to after this life has come and gone. And just like these 2 years have passed by so quickly, so will the remainder. Mommy and Daddy are so blessed to be your parents and it is an absolute joy to be with you everyday!

I took the kids out for do-nuts this morning and needless to say, we all ate plenty!

After breakfast, I took the kids to Party City to pick up party goods for Finn's birthday party coming up. And as you can see below, it was a success! He LOVES his Elmo plates!
As you can tell with the lack of blog posts lately, things have been crazy busy for us lately. We listed our home on Monday and today we had some showings scheduled and had to be out of the house late this afternoon, so we met Daddy at Bass Pro Shops after work. I think this was Finn's first time in there...he absolutely could not get enough of all the animals. Check out this video of him!! And really, Jase and Ally loved it too! We will have to take them there again soon!
It was pretty late when we got home from church, like pushing 9:00 pm, but we were able to squeeze in a little birthday ice cream! Finn did WAY better than last year when we sang him "Happy Birthday". All smiles this year! He reminds me of Shawn in these pictures below. Too cute! Happy birthday, Finn Michael!

Thursday, July 10, 2014

French Family Update

We have been crazy busy these past two weeks, and I have not had time to blog. Last week we went to Arkansas from Saturday - Saturday {I will have to blog about that soon!} and then Shawn and I turned around on Monday morning and drove up to Frisco, Texas and we will be headed back home in the morning. You may ask "why Frisco?" Pull up a chair and I'll tell you!

Remember last year we almost moved to Africa? The process was not happening as timely as we'd hoped and we really felt the Lord was closing the door on that opportunity. So thankful that my husband followed his heart {and the Holy Spirit} and we did not go down that road. With that said, we have felt a little unsettled in our homestead and open to moving, if it felt right. Since then, several opportunities have arose with Shawn's career, but they did not work out for one reason or another. We did not want to push anything or make something work out, if it was not meant to be.

An opening within Shawn's company came available in Frisco {just north of Dallas} a couple of months ago, so Shawn began pursuing it to see if this was something that might be a good fit for him and our family. To make a long story short, it worked out. A lot of prayer and a ton of patience has gotten me us through this process. What you would think would take a week, turned into 2 months. Can I tell you how hard it is for me to be hands off and trust that all will work out if the Lord wills it that way?? Faith. It is so key I tell you.

That brings me to why we are in Frisco this week. We are on our Home Finding Trip. The kids are back home, staying with family. Major kudos to our family who has helped out this week! What a blessing! This week has been a whirlwind. Craziness to some degree. The housing market in Frisco is nutso! On the market one day and gone the next, with multiple offers over the listing price. We arrived Monday around lunch time and it was game on with our realtor. We looked at some resale, homes in the country, and new construction. We realized that we would probably need to move outside of Frisco in order to get the most out of our dollar.

We ended up looking all day Tuesday too. We looked at several properties and pretty much saw anything in our price range in the areas we were interested in moving. We narrowed it down to 2 places: 1) the country home on nearly an acre in Celina or 2) the new construction home in Oak Point. I could write a whole blog post on the pros and cons for both, believe me. It was really weighing on me on having to choose between the two. I joked with my best friends that I can barely put together a meal plan and now I've gotta choose between two great homes. Yikes! While we liked both properties, I was leaning more towards one, while trying to remain open to the other. Wednesday morning after Shawn got up {I had been up for 2+ hours} we talked it over and decided on the new construction. We drove back out to Oak Point, spoke to the home builder on all the details and walked through the actual home that is still under construction. That afternoon we also met a pool guy onsite to discuss future pool plans. For the last few years we have said that if we move, our next house will have a pool. So, we did not want to throw that item out the window with this move. This backyard has a bit of a slope on it, but it is on purpose for water draining purposes. We wanted to make sure before proceeding with this house that a pool is a possibility and get a quote for budgeting purposes. The pool guy was very matter of fact and thorough. He did not see any issues in putting in a pool and we walked through all of our options from water systems to decking to depth to size, etc.

We woke up this morning and drove out to Oak Point and signed a contract on the home. We are super excited about it. We both love the home and the layout. Plus there are two ponds {one is about 5 acres, check out the footage HERE} within the neighborhood for catch and release fishing. Yes, Shawn has already tested it out and caught one!! There are also some hiking trails I know we'll be taking advantage of. And two community pools, of which one has a spray pad and water slides for the kiddos, a little mini water park. One of my favorite things about the home is that kitchen/living/breakfast is all open to each another. While our current home has been wonderful, the kitchen is definitely not as open as I wish and it is hard for me to keep an eye on the kids while preparing meals. So, they usually end up on the kitchen floor while I am cooking. In this home, there will be no concerns on keeping an eye on them while in the kitchen. Another thing is that this home is a 2 story, but there is plenty of living space downstairs, and if we wanted, everyone could have a bedroom downstairs. Since my kids are still small, I am constantly going up and down with getting them in and out of bed and picking out clothes. The boys may end up sharing a bedroom upstairs, but Jase is a great helper {my mother hen} and will help out with Finn. Plus with Maebry coming this fall, I'd like her to stay downstairs after we move her out of our bedroom. With this floor plan, that will not be an issue at all. And there are several other features that we both love about the home. Needless to say we are really excited.
Family and friends. That is hard, just straight up. I have cried many tears {even this week} about leaving loved ones. While I know it will be tough not being down the road from them, we will be a short car ride or plane ride away and open for visitors! And I'm sure we will be back periodically to visit as well. Only thing with that is that we are about to be a family of 6...kind of hard for us to hole up in 1 bedroom for a weekend and remain happy, shiny people! But I'm sure we'll figure all of that out when we do visit.

We are excited about our new adventure ahead. This is definitely stepping out of the box for us for sure. I am looking forward to strengthening our family unit and depending upon one another more than ever. I know the Lord can use this situation to make us a stronger and closer family. And fully dependent upon Him as well.

We still plan on homeschooling the kiddos, as that has not changed in our heart. Praying that the Lord will connect us to other homeschool families nearby. Shawn and I have already been researching local churches to see where we can visit when we move and it definitely looks promising. A united body of believers is such a blessing. A group of people to hold you accountable for your actions, study the word together and serve together.

Our new home is still currently being built, but should finish up next month. The plan is to close and move in our new home in mid September, two months from now. Tomorrow we will head back to Deer Park and begin getting our house ready to put on the market. The next two months will be busy for us to say the least. Praying for plenty of energy for this pregnant lady! Oh and I will have to find a new doctor to deliver Maebry. Trying not to stress over that, as I know all will work out, but I definitely need to start doing my homework and research in that department.

Stay tuned in for updates in this process. We hope that all goes smooth with the transition.