Christmas 2013

As you know, we moved into a new house in September.  The decorating and organizing game is going VERY-Y-Y-Y slow and I know we will get it all in place eventually.  But, for some reason we are not in a rush and it really bugs the crud out of me sometimes.  Right now, it is Christmas time so that is the decorating going on and it is not as detailed as other years.  We did a little home decorating while we were "iced" in as well.  Here are some photos showing what our house is looking like these days...

The bar and a look into the kitchen and breakfast area.

This is the door to our garage, I definitely need to add a wreath!

This banister has to do for stockings, we do not have a fireplace in our house.

I promise we have gifts... but I am a traditional kind of mom and Santa brings them ALL on Christmas eve!

That is just about it for our Christmas decor this year.  I hate doing all of the work decorating and sharing it with hardly anyone, except the 3 of us.  It will be a whole lot more fun once we do not have to travel on Christmas and people just come to our house.  Luke is loving all things Christmas this year and that has made it all worth it.  I can only imagine what next year is going to be like!  

Our lights! 

Thanks pinterest for the photo ideas!

The best part of being a parent: Luke's Christmas Gifts!

Step 2 Roller Coaster 

Jake and The Never Land 

Pirates Quad Ride

Little Tikes First Trampoline

We are snowed (iced) in!

The past 24 hours have been FREEZING!!!  Luckily, school & work were cancelled and we get to be at home for a lovely 3 day weekend!  Here are some pictures from our fun in the ice!

Just one of the few pinterest projects we decided to tackle this weekend.

Luke having fun outside (in 4 layers).

Luke & Daddy taking a stroll.

at least 4 inches deep slush/ice.

frontyard view this morning. 

backyard view this morning.

Luke's New Room

I finally have had some time to snap a few pictures of our new house.  Today, I am only going to share Luke's room.  It is by far, the only room blog-worthy as of today!  We used all of the same furniture from our old house, but we were able to arrange it differently in Luke's new room.  

The walls have not been painted, but we are planning a dark beige color.

I do not really plan on doing too much to this empty wall because it is sooner rather than later that Luke will be in a big boy bed.  I will be patient and wait to decorate this wall until then!

This dresser was a garage sale find for $15.  We painted it and added on blue knobs.  In our old house, this was in Luke's closet.  His new room is bigger so were able to add some character and leave it out!  This is one of my favorite pieces in our house.  

Luke's windows are in the front of the house so he gets fancy shutters while we have mini blinds, ha ha!

The art and changing table are also from the old house.  We were able to add the rocking horse for Luke, and he has a great time riding before bed.  The rug... oh the greatest deal on a rug.... Gotta love Garden Ridge.  I saw the rug on pinterest and clicked on the pin, and it took me to Garden Ridge.  Luckily they do not have online shopping.  So, my mom and I went in to the store and we found the rugs.  The original price was $49.99 (great deal) but this little rug has a small tear at the seam, so I asked if we could get a little more off and VIOLA!  $25, just like that!  It is not the best quality rug, but is just for looks!  

I hope soon I can share more rooms from the new house, but for now-- this is it!

Halloween 2013

We had the greatest time in our new neighborhood!  Halloween is BEYOND exciting in our neighborhood.  Taylor and I were so amazed at the amount of trick-or-treaters and the decorations at the houses.  It was awesome...  Luke's first ever trick-or-treat was from our neighbor.  He walked very slowly up to her, she was dressed up so it must have bugged him a bit.  After a little luring, he reached in and grabbed Mommy's favorite candy--- reese's peanut butter cup!  

After traveling slowly down our street we made it to T-H-E house.  I mean, seriously, can't even believe how it was decorated.  It was a full fledged Pirates of the Caribbean theme with a huge 20 foot ship in the yard and a big screen showing the movie.  The entire family was there handing out candy, in character all night long.  There house was so crowded each time we passed by.  It was so cool!

AWESOME!!!

Luke was one cute pirate, he even had his very own Jolly Roger.  We spent a couple of weeks working on the wagon and it turned our so cute!  Luke's favorite part was the flag.  Although he hardly rode in it and sometimes the wheels were a tad wobbly-- it was pretty darn cute!

Needless to say, we are anxious for next year's Halloween.  

We are going to have to step up our decorating game just a little.  

We are so happy to be in our neighborhood because all of the wonderful memories Luke will get growing up here!  

Happy Halloween!!

One Great Weekend

We enjoyed one GREAT weekend... just the 3 of us! Beginning last Thursday, one of us was sick with a tummy bug for 8 days straight.  So, we were beyond ready for a "regular" day around here.  Saturday, we woke up-- ate breakfast-- and did a little shopping.  That's pretty regular for us.  We took Luke to Rally House to get him some Texas Tech gear because he has outgrown all of his infant Tech clothes.  He had a grand ol' time.  He got a new hat, sweatshirt, football, tshirt and a baseball set, of course!  Daddy was able to get himself a couple of things as well.  Everyone enjoyed their time!  

Luke finally learned how to say "Wreck "Em!" and "Go Tech!"  It is beyond cute... he was sporting his red raider gear the entire weekend, along with the rest of the family.  Although we lost, we were still super proud of our team and we wanted everyone to know it!  Taylor even added a flag to our front porch, so now the whole neighborhood knows it.  ha ha!

We had an exciting weekend... besides Texas Tech Football.  We took Luke to Trinity Park in Forth Worth and rode the miniature train.  He absolutely loved the choo-choo.  He just lit up and grinned from ear to ear each time the conductor choo-choo'ed.  It was well worth the wait and super long ride for that.  

We also spent our weekend preparing for Halloween.  Our new neighborhood is the "go-to" place for trick or treating.  We have been told to expect to hand out at least 1,000 pieces of candy (giving each trick or treater 1 single piece).  WOW!  We are really excited, last year Luke was itty bitty and we did not do too much.  This year, well--- that is a different story!  Luke is going to dress up as a pirate.  While Taylor and I have been working for about 2 weeks on his pirate ship, made out of his wagon.  It has been a great memory and we are very excited for Halloween this year.  I will, of course, share pictures after our night of fun!

I hope you all have a great week & Happy Halloween!!

I have fallen off the bloggin' band wagon...

But I am back, FINALLY!  Life has been extremely crazy and busy to say the least.  Let's pick up where we left off... back in June.  We sold our home in May after being on the market for just a few days.  We were feeling so lucky and grateful that the process of selling our first home was a piece of cake.  That feeling shifted dramatically when were given the run around from our mortgage company about closing on a home that we were pre-approved on.  I was a bit nervous how it would all turn out and that was when our crazy roller-coaster ride of moving began.  Our house sold on Mother's Day weekend, and the buyers were moving in at the beginning of July.  That seemed like plenty of time for our mortgage company to work out all of its kinks, right?  NOPE!  The next 2 months went a little something like this--- move out of our house, put everything into storage, spend 6 nights in a hotel, 2 nights at your in law's, finally bite the bullet and rent an apartment on a short term lease (which is CRAZY expensive) and still wait for those kinks to get ironed out.  Yeah right.  Then lose your contract, along with all of your earnest $ (CRAZY expensive again) and go on the mad house hunt for your dream home again, oh and not to mention, search for a new mortgage company after feeling like we have made the biggest mistakes of our entire lives.  Finally, things began to brighten up--- we got a house under contract, loved the speed and compassion of our new mortgage company, then we were able to close on our 2nd house (which ironically enough was the very first house we looked at on our search) and move out of our luxurious ($$) 3rd floor apartment with the help of our moving company friends, yet again!  I was under a tad bit of stress and worrying about living in an apartment for too long.  We are NOW extremely thankful for the way things worked out and we are loving our new house and our new neighborhood.  After all, this was where I wanted to live anyways :) 

I cannot wait to post some pictures of the new house, but right now it is basically one large toy room.  Once we get a little organized around here, we will share some pictures!  I have tons of ideas & thanks to pinterest, I will get around to all 500 of them sometime!  We moved from a 3 bedroom, 2 bath house to a 3 Bedroom, 3 bathroom, office, game room, 2nd dining area house-- so we have lots of space to fill!

Our little man is almost 20 months already.  That just blows my mind!  He is such a fun baby and we just love him to pieces.  At his 18 month checkup, he was weighing about 26 pounds and was over 30" tall.  Of course, I have lost track of that paper already.  Luke still loves playing outside, chasing around Ace, our dog-- who is absolutely terrified of Luke.  He is still such a great eater.  He now loves ketchup on chicken.  It is so cute to watch him dip his food into the ketchup and only suck it off the bite without actually eating the chicken.  The biggest change in Luke's life is that his car seat has been turned around to face forward... he loves it!  He yells "big bike" every time we pass a motorcycle on the road.  Luke's vocabulary is growing rapidly.  He is an echo for anything we say or do, it is so cute!  He is putting together several phrases/ sentences. 

"No Ace"

"Outside Mommy"

"Thank you Mommy"

"I love Mommy"

(Or daddy ..)

Most recently, we took a little stroll through our local Farmer's Market for the pumpkin patch and I got some pictures of sweet Luke.  ENJOY!

He is so handsome!  Happy Fall Y'all!

One Room, Three Ways

Hello...  Dear Lillie is having a link party on 1 room, 3 ways!  I love this idea---  several of the rooms in our house have changed over time.  Honestly, they have probably changed more than 3 times.  Here are some before and after pictures of a couple of rooms in our home!  ENJOY!

Let's start with Luke's Bathroom, which was a guest bath at first!

BEFORE

AFTER

The bathroom went from very dark, and formal to light and FUN.

Onto our Middle bedroom.  

I do not have too many pictures of this room at the beginning because it was always a work in progress.  It started out as an office, but we never really used it.  Then it became the guest room when Luke arrived.  Finally, it became Luke's playroom--- by far the most use that room has had!

This was the color scheme of the "office".  It was so dark and plain.  We needed to brighten the room up and add some life to the space.  We began by painting the room a lighter color.

The bedding and accessories stuck to the same lighter color choice, but this room did not last long.  

After Luke's first Christmas, we were bursting at the seams in our house and needed a space just for his toys.  So, our guestroom no longer existed and my parents began sleeping on an air mattress.  : )

Finally, the room became this--

It has been such a nice place for us and Luke.  Thanks to pinterest and Ikea, it was an extremely cheap and easy makeover for this room!

As of this week, we will be moving!  

Please check back for updates on our new home and our DIY projects!!

What I'm Loving Wednesday

Hello--- today is my first time to participate in the "What I'm Loving Wednesday" link up from This Kind of Love.  I have a lot of things I am loving this Wednesday, so here we go!

1. I am loving the weather lately.  It has been cool in the mornings and evenings and our walks with Luke have been very enjoyable!  Look at his curls, they are adorable if I do say so myself!

 

2. I am loving that we celebrated Father's Day by taking Luke to his first Ranger's game!

3. I am loving that Luke has completed his second week of swimming lessons.  I was way more nervous than I needed to be!  ( it is extremely hard to get pictures when you're by yourself with a toddler at a pool)

4. I am loving that this weekend we are having a HUGE couple's shower for Taylor's cousin Katy and all of my little "pin-spired" projects are turning out great!

So much LOVE this week!  I cannot wait to share pictures and all of the fun things from the shower.  Check back next week!

Luke is 15 months old

15 months... Seriously?!? It is crazy how quickly time goes by! Luke has turned into an adult overnight.  What a difference a few months makes.  I'm not such a nervous mommy anymore, and Luke is a little man!  He has been eating table food for a few months & that is life changing.  That is by far the most convenient thing so far... And whole milk.   Luke is an excellent eater, except cheese. The kid hates cheese. He will barely swallow Mac & cheese and a yummy grilled cheese is way out of the picture! He loves everything else.  His favorites lately are strawberries, blueberries, broccoli rice casserole and  smoked turkey. He eats 3 great meals each day with juice, water or milk. We are a snacking family, so we have plenty extras throughout the day. At Luke's checkup, he weighed 22.14 lbs, 50th percentile- 31.2 inches in height, also 50th percentile and his head measured at   47.3 cm-- also 50th percentile!  

The most amazing thing at this age in my opinion, is his vocabulary.  I love his language.

Bubby- puppy

Doos- juice

My- milk

My- mine

Mama

Mommy

Dada

Ay- ace (our dog)

Sy- outside

Papa

Yaya

Pa

Jojo

Bebe- baby

Pees- please

Tan you- thank you

Bye bye

Hi

Be-ball- baseball 

Ball

And the successes of climbing... Make me so nervous.  Luke has been able to get up on the couch, up to the sofa table,  up on my bed, up on the patio table, in my bathtub, on his shelves in his playroom, up in the fridge and last but not least... From the couch to the coffee table! He's everywhere! 

Luke loves going on walks--- one each morning and one each night! 

I'm so happy to be home for a couple of months with my sweet boy! 

Helping mommy and daddy in the yard.

Shopping... Always shopping!

Spent the night in a hotel with mommy and yaya! 

Memorial Day BBQ with mommy!

Of course, cheering on the SA Spurs! 

Face timing with Aunt Jojo and her roommate, Chloe!

That just about sums up our 15th month with Luke!