Quick Update

When we decided to sell our house and move, we knew it was going to suck. Keeping our house clean, leaving all the time for showings, interrupting the kids’ nap schedule, finding a new house, and the actual move was not fun. BUT, it has been so worth it! It’s been a while since I’ve blogged and for good reason. Life has been completely insane around here! I used to measure how busy I was by the amount of unread Star Magazines I had. Well, when we packed up, I threw about 12 away. So sad, but who has time for celebrity news anymore??? I don’t.

Just to get you all up to speed, here’s a little update on all of us:

JOE & I: Still unpacking. 2 boxes to go, and I hope to get those done this week. But, I’m not holding my breath. Oh, and just as I am getting everything into its new place, it has to be put away for the Christmas decorations! We’ve also been very busy with work while juggling the kids and their schedules.

SCARLETT: Is starting to talk a lot more. She LOVES her books and her new school. We FINALLY found a school that we were both happy with here. She doesn’t go as long each day, but it is working out very well for all of us. It’s hard to believe, but Scarlett is 19 months old! Where has the time gone???? Scarlett loves her baby brother and even tries to let him drink out of her sippy cup and reads to him. They are very cute together!

TROY: Teething. Poor baby needs some relief! He’s also rolling all over the place and acting like he’s about to crawl. Maybe he will as he is doing his best to keep up with Scarlett. He is now 6 months old and is the 95th percentile for height and weight. Overall, he is a very happy baby that smiles all the time. He just melts my heart every time I look at him.

Here are some recent pictures. Enjoy!! :)

Troy was Nemo for Halloween

Scarlett was Dory. Getting a good picture of both of them together was impossible.

The Sweetest Baby Ever!

Scarlett flying her first kite all by herself!!!!!

Doesn't she look sassy in her cute overalls??? Peanut, her sidekick, is never too far away.

I love how Troy is just watching Scarlett.

My boys! :)

GranJan with Troy and Scarlett Thanksgiving Day

Autumn, Shelly, Katherine and Me hanging out the day after Thanksgiving. That was a FUN NIGHT!!! :)

Here's Scarlett "reading" the fish book to Troy.

Scarlett wasn't as interested in the tree as she was the box that holds the Christmas decorations.

Little Monkey

The past month has been absolutely out of control! Scarlett started pre-school on the 1st, our house is being shown ALL THE TIME, we’re both busy with work, and we are just worn out!

Scarlett is doing great in preschool. Her teacher is WONDERFUL! They paint, use markers and crayons, have music class, and take buggy rides around the school. She comes home completely exhausted everyday!

Troy is doing great! He’s growing so fast! He and Scarlett both have runny noses right now, but we’re pretty sure it’s just from allergies. Hopefully that will clear up soon.

I honestly can’t believe that I’m even taking the time to update my blog. I know it’s been a while. I think of little stories all the time, but I just can’t find the time to update. I guess the craziest thing that’s happened recently happened tonight….. Scarlett crawled out of her crib. For those of you wondering, yes, the mattress is on the lowest setting. I removed the bumper pad since I thought that was what was giving her that extra boost, but she was back out a few minutes later. I’m not ready to move her to a toddler bed yet!!! I wish she would just hang on until we get MOVED! Oh well… I’m sure we’ll figure it out somehow or another.

Anyway, here are some recent pictures…..

My uncle, dad, and Joe in the middle of Lake Michael (it hasn't filled in yet..) over Labor Day Weekend.

Scarlett was just exhausted after running around in her camo all day!

Playing in the mister at the ranch

Joe did not want to take Scarlett to school in this precious little outfit!! :)

Joe obviously dressed Troy the day this picture was taken. LOL!

Scarlett in her sassy-looking Tinkerbell sunglasses.

Troy's 1st time in the door bouncer. He loves it!!

Here's a picture of Scarlett in the waiting room at the place where we have her kidneys tested. Unfortunately, she still has reflux, but she handled the tests well.

My little family of Huskers.... Joe couldn't stand it that Scarlett had an A&M cheerleader outfit, so he ordered her a dress the minute I took her to school that morning.

You Are My Sunshine!

This morning started like any other morning…. Troy started making sounds of wanting to get up and be fed. Joe had gotten up with him at 2:00am, and I was fortunate enough to not have my turn come until almost 7:00am!!! It wasn’t completely dark in his room, so I didn’t turn the light on under his hutch while I changed his diaper. Maybe I should have…. He started crying when I laid him down to change him, so I started singing “You are my Sunshine”. He really likes this song, and started smiling immediately. He was so happy that he started peeing everywhere right as I took his diaper off. I just love being peed on first thing in the morning!

Troy has started to develop his little personality over the past 2-3 weeks. He smiles A LOT, and laughs. He gets so happy when we sing to him or just lay him down to just kick around. He’s a really good baby.

Scarlett is just busy. Her new thing is blocks… well, Leggo-type blocks. She LOVES them! She can sit and play with them for about an hour straight. I’m beginning to wonder if we have a future architect on our hands, and that would be fine with me!! She also just started drinking out of a sippy cup that has a straw. She was so picky with her cups in the beginning. She really only liked the ones with a handle on each side. I think she grasped this new cup so quickly since we have been letting her drink out of our straws.

We take her to meet with her new teacher on Thursday morning. I really think that preschool is going to be so wonderful for her. She loves other kids, so I think she’s going to have a ball!

Other than all that, our house is still on the market. We are so anxious to get it sold, but we’re trying to be patient. I think it’s the “not knowing when” that is driving us crazy. We have faith that it will sell when it’s supposed to sell to the right person and that we will end up where we are supposed to be. I just wish this would happen sooner rather than later! It’s also very hard to have our house shown to prospective buyers. Of course, their realtor makes an appointment, but sometimes they are 2-hour windows. It’s hard enough getting the house looking good before we leave, gathering everything we need, putting the dogs in the garage, and then we have to find something to do for an hour or two. Sometimes it doesn’t work at all…. On Saturday morning we got a call at 8:30am for a showing from 10:30 – 12:30. That was fine. We rushed around here as quickly as possible cleaning up, getting the kids ready, etc. Right as we were about to walk out the door at 10:15am, the showing company called to let us know that the people looking had just found the house they wanted. GREAT. All that work and stress for NOTHING!! Like I said, we’ve got faith that everything will work out. :)

Anyway, here are some recent pictures. Enjoy!

Here's Scarlett doing her response to hearing "Yea!!". She puts her hands up in the air.... even when she's standing on a chair.

On one of our outings while our house was being shown, we took Scarlett to Grapevine Mills Mall. Troy was a my mom's, so he didn't get to enjoy the Rainforest Cafe and the skaters. Scarlett wasn't impressed with anything at that mall except for those skaters. She sat and laughed and smiled while she watched. It was hysterical!

Here's Scarlett (and Punkin) with Aunt Carly. Carly came to visit us in the middle of all our chaos and was a HUGE help with the kids. She also took some GREAT pics of the kids. Below are a few that we thankful downloaded on my computer before she left. When she got home, she downloaded her camera, erased them off her camera, and then her computer crashed! :(

Scarlett in Troy's swing... She climbed up in this all by herself.

My happy boy!

How cute is this????

Scarlett playing on her slide and refusing to give a big smile. She really does crack me up!

I took this one of Joe and Scarlett while Troy and I waited in the truck yesterday. After riding around running errands for 2 hours, Scarlett needed a BREAK!

July

The past month has been insanely stressful for us. Not only are we working, raising two kids, but we have also decided to move. Well, this wasn’t a knee-jerk decision. It’s a decision that Joe and I made several months ago. At that point we couldn’t do anything as far as selling our house since I was so pregnant with Troy. Anyway, our house went on the market Friday! Now we are just waiting for the next owner to come view it and make us an offer. Please pray that we get one SOON!!!

Besides all that things are moving along pretty smoothly. Poor little Scarlett has been teething, so she hasn’t been feeling very well. Hopefully those teeth will come on in so that she can start feeling better soon. Troy is just growing so fast! He is a really sweet baby and just kind of goes with the flow. Scarlett really likes to take his pacifier from him, so he gets that pulled out of his mouth whenever she gets a chance.

I really don’t have a whole lot to say right now… I constantly think of things or little stories to tell here, but I just haven’t had the time to share. Instead of rambling on and on, here are some recent pictures…

Our little Pool Princess

Joe reading Goodnight Moon to Scarlett. She's actually started to let us read to her!!!

Sweet Little Troy sleeping while we were out and about downtown Carrollton

Scarlett riding her first quarter horse downtown Carrollton. She LOVED it!

Doesn't she look sweet?! Joe bought her this cute little dress at Costco. Those 2 go there about once a week!

Troy and Peanut

Troy! :)

Our little bulldozer

Scarlett’s personality is really starting to emerge. She’s persistent, won’t take no for an answer, and is very head strong. I think we’re going to have our hands very full with her!!! She’s walking EVERYWHERE and into EVERYTHING. It is a full time job keeping up with her.

Here is a prime example of how things are either going to go her way or no other way at all…. As you’ve probably seen in past pictures, we bought this fantastic little play yard for her. It has been great at keeping her confined to one space so that we are not chasing her around the house all day. Well, she decided that she didn’t like it anymore. Instead of crying about it, she just bulldozed it down. Seriously. She pushed on the walls until it all just fell apart. We were hoping this was just a fluke and kept putting it back together, but after her knocking it down about 4 times in a row, we just put it away. So now she has free reign of the house

She’s also loving the doggie door. She doesn’t crawl out of the house to outside, but from outside in. I think she’s over the back porch and this blistering summer heat.

Troy’s doing really good. Unlike Scarlett, he likes to be held A LOT and coddled. He’s actually pretty laid back. I think he may end up being a little mama’s boy! LOL!

We are somehow managing to keep up with the two of them…..

Growing like Weeds

The past two and a half weeks have been BUSY! It’s hard to believe that this Friday will be Troy’s 3 week birthday. The time is flying by, and he is growing so fast. When we brought him home he was a skinny little thing, but that is changing….. QUICKLY! I took him in for his 2 week check up yesterday. He’s gained 1 lb. 1 oz. and grown 2 whole inches!!!!!

Scarlett is still doing great as far as adjusting to the new addition to our family. She too is growing up so fast! She’s walking more and more. Her main problem is that she isn’t trying to walk, but trying to run. She’s into everything! She’s also turned into a little climber. She loves to climb the stairs, does her best to climb up on the couch, and even tried to climb out of the bathtub last night. During the tree fiasco last week our neighbor borrowed Joe’s chainsaw to cut up part of one of his trees that had fallen. In return, he bought Joe some beer. Here she is climbing the box:

She's not only climbing a Coors Light box, but she's also sucking on Troy's pacifier! :)

Speaking of the tree, it had to go. I had thought we could leave part of the trunk for a table base, but that wasn’t possible. When I came up with this idea I didn’t see the back side of the tree. We think it might have been a little diseased on top of being weak.

So, the tree is no more. For those of you wondering, it was a Bradford Pear. This is one tree that I will NEVER plant. I had heard that their life span was 20-25 years, but I never dreamed ours would crap out on us while we were living here. Of all the trees in our neighborhood that I have seen blown down by wind, they have all been Bradford Pears. The only positive thing about the tree’s departure is Joe’s pool maintenance. The thing about that tree is it has green leaves during late Spring through most of the Fall, and those leaves fall off (mostly into our pool) in the Winter. In the Spring the tree has these beautiful white blooms that last for about 2-3 weeks. Then they fall into the pool. Then the green leaves grow back, and we start all over again. Here is a picture of Joe holding Scarlett that I got this Spring with the white blooms:

The fence guys came yesterday and replaced the section that had fallen. Now we are just waiting for them to return today and stain it. As soon as we figure out what all we are going to do with our new open/empty space, I will post some pictures.

We also had a little extra excitement while the tree was being cut down. My cousin Blake along with his wife Karla and their 4 month old twins, and my Aunt Jo came for a visit. Blake and Karla live in Washington State, and I hadn’t seen them in FOREVER!!! Since our last visit, we’ve had 4 kids between us!

JoJo, Blake, Addison, Annesley (not sure which is which), Scarlett (not really cooperating), and Troy

Blake with his girls and Troy

We’ve got a lot planned for the next few days starting with tonight. My uncle is coming to town to meet Troy, and he’s taking me out for dinner. I’m really looking forward to getting out for the night and for a break even if it’s only for a couple of hours. Then Joe’s parents are coming this weekend to meet Troy. And Sunday is Father’s Day! This will be Joe’s 2nd… I wonder if the kids got him anything?? :)

Every Man Needs a Chainsaw

DEPRESSED. That is how I feel this morning. Last night we were hit with a HUGE storm that had extremely powerful winds. I knew that it was getting bad outside as the flap on our doggie door started blowing inside the house. As Joe stood and watched out the backdoor, he let me know that our fence had just been knocked over. I ran to look and noticed that part of our tree was gone. He immediately ran upstairs, got Scarlett out of bed, and we all got into the hall bathroom.

Once the storm kind of subsided, Joe went out to assess the damage. He originally thought that the tree had landed on his truck. Thank God that it didn't! We were mostly expecting hail damage, so he had put a tarp over it. Now those tarps are covering up the big section of fence that was knocked out. The fence company is supposed to be out later today to put up the orange safety netting to keep people out. We've got to be very careful about this open access to our backyard since we have a pool.

We are very fortunate to have out neighbor Randy. He and Joe were both out with their chainsaws cutting up the tree and moving it to the front. It had to be done last night as the tree was obstructing the back alley. They worked for about 3 hours getting this done.

Luckily, we do have our child safety fence between the house and the pool. This way our dogs can still go in and out of the their dog door without running into the street.

Now we have to cut the rest of the tree down. It's very lopsided and has the potential to fall over again. This happened to our neighbors across the street a year or so ago. We'd rather be safe than sorry.

I'm sick about the fence, but I'm way more upset about the tree. You can replace a fence, but it takes about 20-25 years to get a tree the size of the one we had. We've also spent the past 4 years trying to make our backyard an oasis.... a beautiful place to relax. When we moved in here all that was back there was the pool, concrete, dirt (where grass should have been) and 2 trees. At least one tree made it! We've also worked hard to block the view of the houses behind us. We love our neighbors, but we really don't want their house to be a part of our view.

I'm very thankful that nothing else was damaged (like our house!!!) and that no one was injured. Things could have been a lot worse!

Last night's pics of the damage:

Pics from this morning:

I think we've decided to cut the tree down, but leave the base of it at table height and start looking for a round table top to mount on top of it. At least this way we'll have a part of our beloved tree left and a sitting area out back. Also, notice in the picture above of how nothing else was damaged. The only other "damage" we had was part of the chaise lounger bent forward.