March in Review

I cannot believe how fast this month has flown by! {Be prepared for a long post!} We kicked it off by selling our home in Aubrey and moving into a home in Highland Village. So far the location of our new home has been great. Shawn's commute has improved, we are so close to so many stores {grocery, home improvement, restaurants} and we are right down the street from the boys' sporting events. The kids love the outdoor space, which has been such a blessing to watch. And it sounds crazy, but I even want to be outside more often as well.

We originally were not going to break for Spring Break, but then we had some family come up and visit, so I decided to go ahead and take a break after all. It was great to see them and the kids loved playing with them.

We are still exploring our little town and found a fun park!

We had a few family dinners. My sister-in-law's sister-in-law {did you get that?} was gracious enough to open up her home to us that week and fed us dinner; a blessing for sure.

We visited Going Bonkers in Lewisville for the first time. The kids enjoyed playing on the huge indoor jungle gym.

Enjoying s'mores!

"Mom, I'm done!"

Over Spring Break, Jase had his first flag football practice. Shawn was out of town, so the kids and I camped out at the field and watched! The field is literally 3-4 minutes driving distance from our house. So nice.

The last weekend of our Spring Break, we had some friends come up and visit, which was such a treat! We introduced them into Mario Kart 8!

Ally's troop had a hike planned, so we all joined in on the fun.

 She had a cricket on her leggings. See it right below her shirt?

Mrs. Michelle holding Maebry!

Emily and Ally listening to instructions. Even though we have not been around them a ton in the past two years, my kids took to them as if they had. Emily and Madeline were so sweet to our kiddos and set a great example on how to be loving and caring.

Maebry chasing Finn on the trail!

Of course we had to show them our favorite spot: McAlister's Deli!

While we were out playing, the guys were at the house working away. Shawn and Jay scraped all the popcorn ceilings off the living room, school room and dining area. They also tore down and put up new sheet rock in the kitchen.

Later Saturday evening we went to the movies to see Beauty and the Beast. Ally asked if I could fix her hair like Belle's. So sweet.

The full crew minus Michelle, who was taking our picture. What a fun fun 24 hours we had with them! It was much needed and well over due!

We finished off our Spring Break with a little Disney on Ice!

Our little Minnie Mouse!

Boys enjoying a treat!

The girls LOVED it!

A scene from Frozen, Maebry's favorite!

Ally danced quite a bit during the performance. She is such a tenderhearted girl and so innocent. Praying she keeps her sweet spirit as she ages.

Yes, I made them stop for a picture! I love Ally's little curtsey!

And the full crew on our way out! Thanks for taking us, Daddy!

Here is a short clip of our Spring Break fun!

Since I am no longer tutoring at our homeschool co-op, each week I rotate to a different class so I can see each one of them in action. And they love it when I'm in there, even Jase. This week he asked me if I would be in his class next week and I said yes and his face lit up, and so did mine! On 3/21 I was in Ally's class and they were talking about bridges during science time and then had the opportunity to build one! They were given materials and then turned loose to build it on their own with straws, play-doh and rubber bands. This group of kids are in 1st and 2nd grade.

Ta da! Their beam bridge!

Testing it out with a can of play-doh! It passed the test!

Then a cell phone was placed on top and it collapsed. Oh well, great job kids!

Here is a fun time lapse video I created while they were working. This took place over the span of 35 minutes or so. Pretty neat!

Shawn caught Mae and I laying together and our hands were very similar!

"Mom, take our picture!" Love these guys!!

We found a patch of bluebonnets at the boys' football practice!

Jase is on the Cowboys! We are Houston Texans fans and this is the first Cowboys apparel for our house!

On 3/23, we got all dressed up and went to the Symphony at the University of North Texas. What a treat since we have been studying orchestra this last month.

This was a Classical Conversations outing. What a fun time of doing things together as a community. Love this group of people.

Walking out with Daddy! So sweet.

And as a treat, we went to Braum's for ice cream afterwards.

Ally's face! Too funny!

The boys had their first football game last Saturday. Finn's games are at 8:00, which is super early for him! He wasn't in a bunch of plays, but he did get to snap the ball a couple of times at the end of the game. He is enjoying being out there with his team. Jase on the other hand barely came out of the game; he loves it! He even caught a ball for a first down. We told the boys for every flag they grab during the game on defense, we will give them a dollar for each flag! A little incentive to be aggressive. And of course we will still be proud of them if they never pull a flag, but we thought this would be a fun reward! Here is a recap of their games.

And Jase's catch in real time.

Sunday afternoon we headed into town for the Rock and Worship concert. We listened to some of our favorite Christian artists and worshipped together as a family. Here is a short clip of Francesca Battistelli.

Jase has been working on a paper for his Essentials class {4th-6th graders} for well over a couple of months now. Each student chose a person from the Medieval time period to research. He gathered facts from two sources and wrote lengthy outlines for both. He then fused them together into one outline and wrote his three topic paragraphs. He added an intro paragraph and then a conclusion. Jase did an awesome job! I am loving the tools our co-op is giving us in terms of learning how to write. These tools will help him in years to come and me too as I have 3 others right behind him! Well, on Tuesday it was time to present! After lunch the Essentials students changed into their costumes and set-up like a Wax Museum. The younger students would go around, press their button and the character would say fact about themselves. All of the students had a great time participating!

Later that evening all of the students presented on their character for parents and siblings. All of the students did an awesome job! Jase volunteered to go first and we are so proud!! Take a few minutes and watch Kublai Khan from the 1200's!

Love this kid!!

So I hesitate to post this, but this is real life and it is not always fun and it is messy quite a bit around here. I mean, we are living in a house that needs major repairs. Well, Thursday evening we were talking about the layout of the kitchen and we are unsettled on where to put the refrigerator exactly. We were looking around and the dishwasher was pulled out to check the water line for the fridge and before you know it, the waterline going to the dishwasher was pulled out a little too far and water was spraying out underneath the sink. And I am not being dramatic when I say spraying out, it was spraying out. To make matters worse, the fittings are super old under the sink and it would not budge to turn it off. Shawn went outside to turn off the water to the house, but you need a special tool to get into the water meter, which we did not have. He went next door to the neighbor to ask him {mind you this is at 9:00 pm}, but he did not have a tool either. I stayed back, trying to slow down the water best as I could, emptying containers of water in the sink, it was bad. Jase brings every towel we own from the bathroom so we can trap some of the water in the kitchen. Shawn comes back in, water is still on, but he manages to get the valve turned off under the sink. The neighbor comes back over and he was able to get our lid off of our water meter, so the water is now off. Holy cow and Hallelujah! I went into the bedroom and gathered any t-shirts I don't wear often and all my cotton shorts.

Our current set-up! It's such an odd space that you really can't put a bucket in there, so this bin is what we're working with. Even with the water turned off the water still trickles out of the waterline. No telling. We are hoping to get a plumber out here very soon!

When I opened the garage this morning this was our view. Crazy. I keep replaying it over and over in my head. Such a surreal experience. I mean the water probably gushed out for probably 7-10 minutes.  It honestly felt like it was never going to stop. When I was laying the boys down last night, we prayed for the situation. Then Jase said, in the dark, there are a lot of "at leasts". I asked him what he meant and he said "at least we have concrete floors and not new flooring, at least we still have the old cabinets and not the new ones." He is exactly right, we have a ton to be thankful for in this situation. I'm so grateful for my 9 year old bringing the situation back home and shedding light on the positive side! And we are now proud owners of the water meter tool!

After all of that excitement last night I almost decided not to go on our field trip today, but I'm glad we went. We wrapped the month up with some time at the community garden and even helped pick some weeds. Shiloh Field Community Garden is the largest cooperative garden in the nation at 14.5 acres. Farmer Gene shared with us the purpose of the garden from Matthew 14:16 {But Jesus said to them, "They do not need to go away; you give them something to eat!"}. This ministry feeds those who could use an extra meal, but do not have the means to do so. What a great ministry.

Farmer Gene showing us the pear trees.

Kids climbing on the mulch pile! Maebry and I even conquered it!

Checking out the chickens!

To finish out the month, here is a short clip with 1 second videos for each day in March. Talk to y'all soon!

First Week

Well, we've been staying in the house for a week now. Whew. We have survived! We went ahead and went full throttle and had some walls knocked down right when we moved in. The thinking behind that decision is that we will never do it if we wait, which would probably be the case. We talked and talked about doing that in our Deer Park house, but we lived there for 6 years and never touched it or even painted the kitchen (and we left the dated wallpaper up)!

Here are some BEFORE pictures. We ended up taking out the small pantry you see in the picture below too.

We also had this beam repaired. The previous owner apparently took out a wall and it was not braced properly and had begun to sag.

This wall is being removed from the countertop up. And all of the upper cabinets along the wall where the sink is along with the soffit.

And this wall straight ahead is being removed as well. This entry going into the formal living/dining area. We will set-up a table in there and it will be our main homeschool area.

Here we go...in progress.

All of the sheetrock is gone!

Walls are gone, beams are up, pantry is gone, and upper cabinets and soffits are out.

Another view.

It took them about 10-11 hours and once they finished up, plumbers came to reroute the gas line for the stovetop. Since then we have had an electrician come out and give us a quote on hiding all of this electrical and putting in some more lighting. We are currently waiting on his quote for the work. Today we also had a foundation guy come out and inspect it and we are all clear...NO ISSUES! That was a concern.

Our current (and I say that loosely) plan of action is to get in contact with someone to work with us on putting the kitchen back together. We want to do some of the work, but some of it we will leave to the professionals. We need to pick out paint colors for all of the bedrooms and start painting them. Once they are painted, we can having floor installed and put the rooms together.

We are only a week in and this has been a journey for me already. This has been a huge change in living conditions for all of us. The kids have been very flexible and have barely complained at all. In fact, they have been outside playing so much that it confirms this was the right decision.

And we could end up in a hotel at any minute if I'm being completely honest. I'm trying to hang on until we really need to be out (like when we have workers here) to get a hotel. Until it all gets finished we are trying to live with minimal items in the house, which is nice in a sense of keeping it simple and basic, but on the other hand you feel like you are camping! Just keeping it real over here.

We've had a few meals on the back patio and the weather has been super nice, which has been a blessing.

New Beginnings

Yesterday was a big day! Shawn and I sold our existing home and bought another home! I gave some details about our move in this blog post and today those loose ends were tied up. This home buying process has definitely been a journey and I am thankful to have turned a corner with it all, BUT looking back I can definitely see God's hands at work.

There are so many scenarios that could have gone the other way and would have completely changed the outcome. For example, the appraisal on our home came back super low initially and the appraiser wasn't budging at all, it was a mess. The buyer could have completely backed out, but they stayed right in there and ended up paying for another appraisal through a different lender and it all came back fine. The house we are buying needs some work putting it lightly. There currently is not one piece of flooring in it, and we are fine with that; however, I did not know that usually in order for the lender to approve the loan, there has to be flooring. It was not an issue for us. Our mortgage lender and realtor were worried about it appraising for the contract price, but it ended up coming in higher than expected, which was the best case scenario. I could go on and on, but reflecting back on the process I can totally see God's hand in it all. And while we will miss our neighbors dearly, we feel like this is where God wants us and we are excited about the future.

My mom came into town to watch the kids for us during both of our closings, which was a huge blessing! Thank you, Mom! After our last closing we ended up going over to Nebraska Furniture Mart, which is a HUGE store with anything for a home that you can imagine. We mainly went to look at raw materials, such as carpet and title, but it was fun to look around at what all they had on display.

Right when we walked in there was a large Magnolia Home set-up {from the show Fixer Upper on HGTV}. And of course we both were wearing our t-shirts from Waco, so we had to get a pic! We had on these shirts in dedication to our Fixer Upper that we just purchased. Here are a few of the items we will be tackling: completely remodeling the kitchen which includes taking down some walls, updating the master bath that currently doesn't have running water in the tub, scraping the popcorn ceilings in the main living areas, and installing flooring. Many other items will be addressed, but that is the bulk of the work. Shawn and I are both excited about getting in there and figuring it out together. I hope to blog some of the updates along the way.

Here is a light I found that would be fun over the kitchen sink!

For the month of February I documented each day with 1 second clips {and a few pictures} and here is our video for the month. I really enjoyed doing it this past month and hope to keep it up.