Praising God!

Here's a picture of Lily from yesterday, waiting in the cafeteria for school to start :)

And, here is a picture of today......eating breakfast at school for the first time!

The girls had another great day and Madison and Kaylee had their first dance class tonight for the performance teams they are on. Needless to say, it's been a long day and we are all tired!

But, it was also a GREAT day!! Yesterday, after much thought and prayer and absolutely no offers in an entire year of having our house on the market, we decided to put our house up for lease. We felt like this was the best decision, because the market is so bad right now that we are literally giving our house away. There is no way you could ever build a house, even at cost, for what we were asking. So, we thought, why not lease it for a year so that we won't just be paying out money for it just sitting there. Then, when the market picks up again, we can put it back up for sale for what it's actually worth.

From the beginning, I have had a million different suggestions on what we should do to sell our house. Bury a statue. Speak to your house. Pray over your house. Proclaim it will be sold. And all I kept thinking was, I don't want to have to do a magic dance or say a magic chant.....I trust God and I know He has a plan. And all I kept praying is that our house would be a blessing to whoever ended up in it. And I told God I would give HIM the glory for when it sold.

So, today I am giving God the glory and praising HIM for His perfect plan. It was a plan that looked nothing like our own plan. We already have a family that is ready to move into our house and lease it for the next year. One day later, the papers are signed! What I love about this story is that this family is in the same exact situation we are in........their house in CO won't sell either and they are having to lease it. So, I hope that our house is a blessing for them too, because there just are not any places to rent in this area; the one apartment complex we have is full. I cannot describe what a relief it is to know that we will not be paying two mortgages anymore, plus a light and water bill for a house we don't even live in!

It would be awesome if this family loves our house and is able to sell their house and buy ours. You just never know! I am just so thankful for God's perfect plan and I trust Him fully. Thank you so much to everyone who prayed for us. Your prayers are never taken for granted.

Random Thoughts!

Seeing the poll results of what you think we are having is so much fun! Wouldn't that be hilarious if it's totally another girl?! We will be thrilled no matter what!

I never mentioned something really sweet about this baby.......I'm pretty sure, well not totally, but there's a good chance this baby was conceived on Valentine's Day. Isn't that the sweetest thing?!! :)

It's really nice having a gas stove/oven instead of electric. I can't wait to get our first light bill. I hope it's really low! One neat thing Morgan did with our A/C is that he put one thermostat for the bedrooms and one thermostat for the kitchen/living room. That way, during the day we aren't cooling the bedrooms unnecessarily and vice versa. I really like that.

Our phone now is through the internet. It's way less expensive and we got to keep our same number, so it worked out great! Our cell phones do not get a good signal inside the house, so we had to make sure and have a home phone, which originally we were not going to have.

Well, that's about all the random ramblings I can think of right now! :D

What We've Been Up To!

I've been meaning to get on here, but have been so busy bringing more stuff over from the old house and putting it away! I haven't taken many pictures yet and no rooms are really finished yet, but I took a few just for this post. :)

This was taken yesterday. It was really clear and you could see all the way across to the other side of the bay. That's a different town on the other side.

This was Lily's room yesterday. It looks a little different already because we brought her big doll house over today. I still have to get all of their pictures to hang on their walls, but it's coming together pretty well.
Kaylee's room.
Our dining room is move-in central. :D Everything goes here until it gets put away.
Our living room. Still needs lots of work!
The bay this morning after the sun came up. It's so neat to look out on the water every day. Some days the waves are rolling in, some days it's completely calm, and one day we woke up and you could see land.
I can't even begin to tell you how much I love a one-story house! It's like the weight of the world has been lifted off of my shoulders. At the other house, there was this constant battle of trying to keep up with the house and it was one that I could never win. Everything is simpler in this house. Laundry is easier.....I just walk across the living room and put it up, instead of across the house, up the stairs, and across the house, and back down the stairs. LOL! Lily has been trying to sleep in her own bed. She starts out great, but always ends up coming into our bed in the middle of the night. Then, when she wakes up, she says, "I don't know how I got into your bed! I didn't walk in here!" And I tell her yes, she did. :D

I'm not stressing about getting everything together. Each day, I go pick up a few more things and then I try to put them in their place when I have time and energy. :) Today, I am 13 weeks pregnant! I wasn't at all excited about getting closer to finding out if it's a boy or a girl, because I am just totally expecting it to be another girl. Ha! But, now I keep thinking, it really could be a boy. I even had a dream last night that I had the baby and again, it wasn't until later after I had it that I thought to see if it was a boy or girl. LOL! And this time it was a boy! It honestly does not matter to me what it is. I will not be disappointed at all if it's another girl and neither will Morgan. Girls are what we know and girls are super sweet and our girls want it to be another girl. :) But, it sure would be a new adventure if it was a boy, and that would be exciting too! And what wife doesn't find it touching to think about her husband having a boy, you know? So, my doctor said last time he would do the ultrasound at 16 weeks, so hopefully we will schedule it at my next appointment on the 18th!

Moving Day!

I just wanted to write this for memory's sake! Yesterday was moving day! Would you believe I didn't take one single picture the whole day? I just realized that! That's so not like me, but I was too busy to even think about it.

Our pastor and another friend from church helped Morgan move and we got most of the heavy furniture moved. We rented a U-haul just to make it easier. I had Lily the whole day, so we made several trips and would load up our laundry baskets with all the everyday things like towels and dishes and things we use all the time and bring them over, unload them, and go back. But, we were done by about lunch time because I ordered a tray of italian food for all of us to eat for lunch, and by the time we picked that up and ate, it was time to go pick up the girls from school.

The girls had a full dress rehearsal at dance last night for a competition they're having next weekend, so we had to go home and get ready for that. They are requiring them to wear fake eyelashes and I was so concerned about how that was going to go that I actually dreamed about it the night before. Ha!! I dreamed it was pretty much a disaster and once we got going on putting them on, it wasn't quite that bad, but close. LOL!! We were in a hurry and running out of time, so that didn't help. I did Kaylee's first and the glue got on her eyelid and was pulling it down and I'm like, "Open your eye for me," and she was like, "This is as far as I can open it!" Haha!! But, we got it all worked out. I'm not a fan of the fake eyelashes look, but I do have to say it made them stand out more and I'm sure that will be good for the competition.

So, by the time I got home from dance, I had to go buy a microwave so we could have something to heat up our food in for dinner. Lily and I bought one the other day, but it ended up being too big for the shelf we have in our new kitchen, so I had to buy a smaller one. Then, I made another trip to get some clothes and things from the other house and by the time I got everything put up that I brought over, it was 1am! And, for some reason I woke up wide awake before 7am this morning!?!

Today, I'm just going to work on bringing more things over and trying to figure out how to arrange everything and where to put it. The girls have auditions for their dance team tonight too. :)

A Great Easter!

We had such a beautiful Easter! Before we went to church, I took a couple of pictures outside of the girls. Our last pics at this house, probably!

Church was awesome and then we headed over to my MIL's house for Easter lunch and our annual Easter egg hunt with the girls.

This picture is for Veronica. Zoey was wearing her flower clippie that I gave her for Christmas. :)
Sweet girls....amazing how much they've grown up this past year!
This was the only family picture I got. It was so bright outside that it was hard to smile and not squint. Ha!
We had a yummy lunch. My MIL's house is under construction. They added onto it and are remodeling everything. They have a tiny apartment out in the back yard that my FIL's mother lived in before she passed away, so we had lunch out there. We made it work and it was fun.

Then, we hid easter eggs for the girls. Madison helped hide the eggs this year.

I love Lily's smile in this picture :)
Madison was going to help Zoey, but Zoey didn't need any help. She was so cute. She was like, "I found one!" She knew exactly what to do!
Look at Zoey's cute minnie mouse basket.
All of the girls finding eggs.
It was a great Easter! That weekend, Morgan and a few guys put out grass at our new house and Morgan also stained our front door. I love how it stands out now. We still have to put the shutters on the windows too.
We are moving Friday and frantically trying to get everything done by then. Our living room, kitchen, dining room, and master bathroom/bedroom are all dirty with tools and trash everywhere and need to be cleaned. We just got the mirrors installed and they are coming today to tile around our bathtub and to deliver the propane tank. I did get the girls side of the house completely clean and ready. Their shower curtain is hung and towels are ready to go, so I feel good about that. I got our pantry and master closet cleaned too. It's been slow going, because every nook and cranny has to be vacuumed and dusted. Every single square inch is covered in dust. It took me two hours to clean the girls' bathroom this weekend.

I have no idea how it's going to get done. I refuse to move our furniture into a filthy place. And Lily stayed home today because she has a yucky cough, so I guess I'll work around here today and then spend the next two days cleaning the new house. My feet have already started swelling. :( BUT, I am so excited about moving and a few days of hard work never hurt anyone! I can rest next week. Ha! Did I mention the girls have full dress rehearsal for their upcoming dance competition on Friday night and dance team tryouts on Saturday?! Crazy busy, but so blessed!!

Growing Up!

House Progress Update:
They got our wood floor put in yesterday. I tried to take a picture so you can see how it matches our kitchen cabinets. Of course, everything is so dirty, but we'll get it all cleaned up soon. Carpet is going in on Friday and then we're just about done! Yeah!

Today, I went to eat lunch at school with Kaylee. She earned 100 A/R points for reading and the prize is a t-shirt, so I went up there to see her get that.
Here she is with her principal, after he called her up there to get her prize. She was the only one who got one today, so they cheered so loudly for her and let me tell you, she LOVED that! Ha!
Madison's class took a field trip to Texas A&M University today. They take the two GT classes there every year. I was kind of nervous about it, and actually had to convince her Daddy to let her go, since it's almost 3 hours away. Ha! But, I knew it would be such a great experience for her and if she is going to go away for college, that would be a great one for her to go to! They let them take their cell phones, so she let me know when she got there, and off and on throughout the day she would send me messages, and it really came in handy once she got closer to home, so I could make sure and be there when they got back. They had to leave at 6:45 this morning and got back at 6:15, so it was a long day, but she had so much fun. They also toured the George Bush Presidential Library. Goodness gracious.......just a preview of what this Momma is going to go through in the years to come. Now that I'm a Mom, I cannot believe my Mom let me do half the things she did when I was growing up! Haha! I'm thinking 18 is WAY too young to move away!!!!

Crazy Weekend!

This was a pretty crazy weekend! Did y'all see my videos of the girls dancing? If not, go watch them! :) I was so proud of them!

Yesterday, we went shopping at the mall for Easter dresses and then we went out to "the lot" as we still call it......even though our house is built now and we could just call it our new house. Ha!

It was so windy and the waves were rolling in and crashing against the shore. The girls were getting so wet!
I was taking so many pics trying to get a shot of the waves crashing up. LOL! My friend said it looks like they're trying to part the red sea. Haha! So funny!
I'm not sure if I've showed y'all what our house looks like from the water.
The girls decided if they did a dance, maybe a big wave would come in. :D
I think it worked! I love how Kaylee's jumping up and you can tell they were so excited!! I have to admit it was making me a little nervous. The water's not very deep, but the current looked pretty strong as those waves were rolling across.
We got a call last night that someone might want to look at our house today. Ugh! I know that's a good thing, but we were so tired from being out so late Friday night and shopping all day Saturday. And it's so aggravating when people aren't serious and just want to go look for fun. A lot of work goes in to making our house "show" ready and it's not much fun!! Ha! So, we got up, missed church again, and finished cleaning. The people were supposed to come around 11, so we left, got lunch, and ate out at our new house. We even took both dogs for the first time out there.

Then, we never got a call and she said they never showed up. So, we went back home, turned off all the lights and closed the blinds (because we always turn them on and open everything up for showings) and wouldn't you know, then she called saying they showed up. So, I went back around and opened all the blinds back up and turned on all the lights and we went back to the new house to wait until they were done.

We were all so tired we didn't even get out of the car. We just sat and waited in it for 30 minutes. LOL! Bella liked riding in the car. She never gets to ride, so that was a new thing for her.
Oh, look at what happened at our mall shopping trip on Saturday. We came back out to the car, I go to back out, and realize someone had decided to help themselves to my mirror. Grrrrr.... But, instead of feeling violated or getting mad, I told the girls that we don't ask why God let this happen, because we know that He was working behind the scenes to make sure that was the only thing that happened. I'm so glad that we didn't walk out while they were doing it or that they didn't take the whole car. Honestly, the first thing I thought is that God was protecting us and I truly believe that. It's still aggravating though! You don't realize how much you use that little mirror until it's gone! And it's not cheap to replace either. :(
It was a crazy weekend, but actually a good weekend because I got to spend it with my girls and we got to visit Daddy at his other job......our new house. LOL! :)

Tile and my Ring!

They got the backsplash put up yesterday in our kitchen and I think it looks really pretty! They are finishing up today, putting the grout on, etc.
We got our carpet and wood flooring ordered yesterday, so they should be able to put it in next week, or possibly the beginning of the week after. Everything is right on schedule. :)

I am SO, SO excited about this......I haven't been able to wear my wedding ring for probably almost a year now and my plan was to exercise and eat right so that it would fit again. This ring was going to be my motivation. But, then I found out I was expecting and I knew that plan wasn't going to happen. Ha! So, I took it to a local jewelers and asked them if they could resize it for me. I don't know why it never occurred to me to do that before!
It only took them a couple of days and it was ready early! I was so impressed when I got it back!! It is so beautiful and sparkly and you would never be able to tell that they did anything to it. I had to go from a 6 1/2 to a size 8! It is actually a little loose and I did that on purpose because I didn't want to have to worry about it getting tight again, if my fingers swell, or whatever.
All this time I had been thinking I might have to get a new ring and I am so glad that they were able to fix mine so that I won't have to do that! No other ring could ever be as special as this one!! So, I am just thrilled! It only cost $100, which I think it excellent considering they had to add gold to it and reshape it. Yay!

Lots of Progress!

Yesterday, we went by our house to see what was done. No one was there and I don't have a key, so we walked around back and discovered the window was open, so we broke in. LOL!

It's nice to be able to turn on some lights over there now. Here's my pretty light fixture I picked out for the breakfast area.
The girls' bathroom. You walk in the door (it's a pocket door to save space......we have that in our laundry room too) and there's a sink on each side.
We did 2 sinks because we knew with them getting older, they would need more than one! You walk through another door to get to the shower/toilet. That way, they can get ready while someone else is in the shower and be able to close the door between the two spaces.
I'm really happy with how their closets turned out. Each girl has a built in dresser in her closet. That way, we don't have to take up space in their rooms with extra furniture.
Lily seems to like her room. :D
Our bathroom. Morgan did a great job picking out our sinks. :)
The kitchen. The countertops should be all finished today. The plumbers are out there hooking up the water so we can have toilets soon.......Lily had to use the yucky port-a-potty yesterday and she was not too happy about that. LOL!
Morgan picked out some nice border tile for the backsplash in the kitchen.
Today, we're going to pick out carpet and wood flooring. We are planning to move April 29th! Morgan already called to transfer his beloved satellite for the TV, so there's no changing it now. Haha! Perhaps I should start packing up a few things?!

Oh, I just made my first doctor's appointment for Tuesday morning. Please pray I don't have a panic attack and freak out in the doctor's office, okay?! Thank you!!!! LOL!

I've Been Meaning.....

to talk to you all about this:

My friends keep telling me about this St. Joseph's statue that you're supposed to bury in your yard and then your house will sell. I just LOL when they told me about it, even though they said their house sold the week after they buried it. They were like, what do you have to lose?

I guess I have to agree with that. I finally got around to looking it up and they're super cheap. But, every time I think about it, I keep thinking no, no, no. I told the Lord that I have faith in Him and that I know He will work this out and we will sell our house. I know that He already knows when and how that will happen. So, if I go out and buy this statue, then who gets credit for it? Not the Lord, but some dumb little statue.

I just can't do it. When this house sells, I'm giving God all the credit!

What do y'all think? Am I taking this way too seriously?! LOL!!

We just dropped the price of our house by $31,000.......if that doesn't interest some buyers, I don't know what will! My friend from church also said that she knows someone who may be interested in it too. So, I'm just going to keep on having faith!

My Little Cowgirl!

Today, Lily had rodeo day at her school. She looked so cute and I was so excited that we didn't have to buy anything! We already had the hat and shirt.....I think I bought them for when Madison was little. The shirt had a skirt that goes with it, but it was too tight for Lily, so luckily she had this denim skirt already. She just wore her black boots. I wish I could have bought her some cowgirl boots, but I just didn't want to spend the money on them, since she probably wouldn't really wear them again.
She had lots of fun. They made stick horses and pretended to do barrel racing, she told me. :)


House Update:

The guys are almost finished with our tile. This is our shower. I think they just need to grout everything and they'll be done. Our countertops are supposed to be installed tomorrow.
We officially have power now! Yay! So, I think after tomorrow, we just need a few appliances installed, toilets, sinks, and lighting fixtures, and then we'll have to get the wood floor and carpet installed.
It's all starting to really come together!

Our Mantel!

Morgan just emailed me this picture of our mantel that he got up today! I love it!! I didn't realize it was going to be so close to the wall color though. We may just paint that section of the wall that it's mounted on, to bring some contrast to it. That can wait until later though.

The workers are there today laying our tile. Morgan said they've done the 1/2 bath, laundry room, pantry, hallway, and are working their way toward the dining room. Yay!
I have just not been feeling great and I'm so ready to fast forward past this stage. We missed church again today and I hate that. I know everything will fall into place soon. Hopefully, by the time we get moved, this nausea will be past too, and we can get back to our normal lives! I am so bored, yet I don't feel like going anywhere or doing anything. :( On a positive note, at least we did have 2 showings this past week. We didn't get an offer from them, but things seem to be picking up and that's a good sign. Our countertops are supposed to be installed on Thursday, so we have to go pick out our appliances sometime before then too. There's never a dull moment around here!

Flooring Day and my New Dress!

This morning, we went to Houston to this tile/flooring place to pick out our tile. I didn't realize it was going to be a giant warehouse! It was a little overwhelming at first, but we found a great deal on our tile. We are putting tile in the kitchen, bathrooms, hallways, dining room, laundry room.......basically the only rooms with carpet will be the bedrooms and we're putting wood in the living room. We also needed tile for the shower walls too.

We picked out a pretty tan color. It took forever for them to bring it out (we had to order 2 pallets, plus some other boxes) and we realized there was no way Morgan's truck would be able to carry it all because of the weight, so he'll have to go back to pick up the rest later. I found some wood there too, so I'll probably just have him buy that when he goes back.

Here's the sample of our granite that we're getting for the countertops. We took that with us, along with some of the kitchen cabinet trim, so we could make sure and get a good tile color. It looks way more speckled in this photo than it is.

Okay, this might not happen very often, but I got this new outfit yesterday, and I thought I'd take a picture. :D How come it always looks like I have a double chin in my pictures?! LOL! I went shopping since we had a showing yesterday and I couldn't go home, and found this dress at Target. I thought it would work well and grow with me. My friend told me I was starting to get a little baby bump, but I told her that is just because I'm fat. Haha! I always looked about 4 months pregnant anyways, so I figure now I have an excuse for that!
Luckily, I haven't gained any weight yet. I've actually lost a few pounds. I've been trying really hard to eat healthy and drink lots of water. It's getting hard though, because I feel really nauseous if I don't eat and salads just don't cut it sometimes. I haven't been craving snacks or junk food or sweets (thank goodness!), but I always seem to crave something warm and cooked, like meal type stuff or bread. I did have a Starbucks Frappuccino yesterday and that was so good.......I haven't even drank coffee in almost 2 weeks! I tried, believe me, I tried, and I just couldn't do it.....it made me want to gag! Isn't that the craziest thing ever?!! Of course, the one drink I can still drink from there is the highest calorie one too! Figures!! :D

Countertops - Check!

Today turned out to be a much better day than I expected! We didn't have to go into Houston to look at granite. Instead, we chose the same people who did our countertops for this house and the lady came to us and brought samples. We chose a light tan granite, that has some dark speckles in it. I think it's going to be so pretty. It worked out perfect because I went out to the new house to look at our mantle that came in and the lady showed up right when I got there, totally unplanned. The best part ever........it cost HALF of what we budgeted. Oh yeah!!! :D

We also had a showing this morning, which meant I was not in a good mood last night with having to clean again, but Morgan and the girls all pitched in and it went pretty fast. Don't get me wrong, I'm so glad to have people looking at it, but it's so disappointing to do all that work and then have nothing at all come from it.

Tomorrow, we are going into Houston to pick out tile and that is really the last major step in building this house. The only thing left will be to buy our appliances and light fixtures, which isn't a big deal. So, I'm really excited to see the last few big steps coming together. Of course, we still have to get the power turned on and the propane and things like that, but I think those things will fall into place soon too.

Getting Closer!

We're getting so much closer to almost being finished and I'm getting so excited and ready to move!

We got our driveway poured yesterday.
Sidewalk.
And I got to go see our kitchen cabinets! They haven't finished the trim around the top, but for the most part, you can tell what they're going to look like.
Looking toward the breakfast area. The layout is very similar to our current house.
Looking from the breakfast area. You can see my pantry if you look through the arch. :)
View from my kitchen/breakfast area window.
Tomorrow, we're going to a place in Houston to pick out the granite for the countertop. Please say a little prayer that I make it......a long drive does not sound like fun with morning sickness. :(