Week 2 Update

Enjoying a cool treat on the mall

Checking out the bugs at the museum
Aubrey loved getting to hold a real caterpillar!

Another carousel ride on the mall

Getting ready to get on the train
First metro ride
A keeps talking about how we got to ride underground.
A is fascinated by spiders, especially this poisonous tarantula. She already knew about this orange & black one from her spider book, so she was excited to see it up close.

It's hard to believe we've already been in VA for 2 weeks! Things are still going well -- we're getting more and more familiar with our surroundings and have gotten into a pretty good "temporary" routine, since we're still camping in.

-Our house is officially packed and the moving truck will be heading out tomorrow. Our stuff will arrive next week, by Wed. at the latest.

-We also have a contract on the house and the buyers are scheduled to close on Aug. 15, so that's an answer to prayer!

-The kids seem to be doing well and playing well with the 1 box of toys we packed -- blocks, legos, cars & trucks and animals. Today I heard Aubrey playing school with her animals and telling the class, "Jupiter is made of mostly gases and has 16 moons". Can you tell her favorite book lately is her children's encyclopedia? I think not having a tv has been a really good thing for our daily routine, we hope it sticks once we do have it here.

-We took our first ride on the metro into DC on Saturday and went to the Natural History museum and hung out on the mall b/t the Capital and the Washington Monument. Aubrey rode the carousel and had a popsicle and Will ran around and chased birds the whole time.

-We're looking forward to a visit from Gigi this weekend!

-Hopefully, I'll get caught up on pictures soon. Here are a few from our weekend...

We made it!

Happy 4th of July from our Nation's Capital! Tonight will be our 5th night in VA and everything is so far, so good. The kids did great on the plane, the night in the hotel went well, the closing went smoothly and we are in our house. We're all sleeping on air mattresses and Will in his pack'n'play and we bought a card table & a few folding chairs from Target to eat at until our furniture arrives. I actually think that Aubrey & Will are enjoying the empty house b/c there is so much room to run around and play. We packed a big rubbermaid container with toys, so they are keeping themselves entertained. Also, we went to the Smithsonian Air & Space museum yesterday and the kids had fun looking at all the air planes, space shuttles and Aubrey even rode on a 3D space simulation ride. All the museums are free for VA & MD residents, so we're going to try to hit them all. We also had 2 different neighbors come and introduce themselves to us in the past few days and they both invited us to 2 different parties this weekend. So, we already went to a neighbor's 2nd birthday this morning and Aubrey & Will got to meet lots of new friends. Tomorrow, we're supposed to go to a July 4th/ fireworks party with over 100 neighbors attending. Our street is crawling with kids 6 years and under, so it should be a good spot for our fam for the next couple years. We're enjoying the noticeably cooler weather and the tall trees and having fun exploring our new surroundings. But, we do of course miss you all and Aubrey has mentioned a couple times that she wants to go back to our old house in Texas. I'm sure it'll take time for all of us for it to really feel like home here.

We're off!

Our last family picture in Texas before we're Virginia bound!
Thanks everyone for all your help and if I haven't called you back, it's been a little crazy around here. I will email soon once we get our phone line set up and settled a bit. All we have left to do tonight is get the car all packed up so we can just head out in the morning. Our flight is at 6:45 so we should be waking up around 4 am. We'll miss y'all, come visit us!

Last weekend in TX!

We felt very loved this weekend by all the time and well wishes we received from our friends and family! Friday night, all our friends from church had a wonderful going away party for us. We were very thankful for the time to see all our friends together one last time. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera, but I think several friends took pictures so I should get some soon. Then on Saturday my mom, grandmother and brother came to spend the night. We had a nice dinner out and then hung out in the backyard. Aubrey enjoyed all the extra attention she got from everyone-- here's a pic of Uncle Tim doing an "Aubrey bench press". Aubrey also loved laying in the grass and watching the stars with Daddy & Uncle Tim. One funny thing about the evening was that our normally quiet neighbor behind us had a big party with toilet paper in his trees, an Animal House sign on his front door, and a big sign with Greek letters on his garage...

Then today, after our last Sunday at Redeemer we came home to a cook out at our next door neighbor's house. We have loved our 2 years in this house and this neighborhood. We've had great neighbors that we will greatly miss, as well.

Here's Will with baby Lili from across the street, admiring the pebbles together.

Will's first time in a bouncy house, I think he liked it!
Then tonight, my friend Felicia had us over for Steak & shrimp on the grill. God has richly blessed our life here and we pray that He would help us maintain all these relationships over the next few years until we return to Texas.

1 week to go...

We had a fun time last week going to Houston, visiting friends and trying to soak up every last minute while we're still in TX. When we got back, we went to ride the train at Zilker with Aunt Joy, took Aubrey to the Sprinkler park, had dinner at the Oasis, Aubrey went swimming with her neighbor friends, and we went to Gruene with the Smiths on Saturday. We also had a busy open house yesterday -- the realtor said several people seemed interested in our house, so hopefully it'll be under contract soon...? We'll be visiting with more family & friends this week as well as packing up all the essentials that we'll be bringing with us next Monday on the plane. We recently found out that the moving company won't be able to deliver our stuff for a couple WEEKS after we arrive in VA. So, looks like we'll be "camping in" for a little while... We could stay here longer, but we already bought our tickets and we are just ready to all be in one location as a family. I know it isn't ideal, but we are just going to make the best of it. The house comes with a washer/ dryer and refrigerator, so at least we can wash our clothes & not have to use a cooler. We're just going to bring Will's pack'n'play and a queen air mattress for us. Other than that, I'll be filling a couple suitcases with some favorite books, toys, stuffed animals and familiar items for the kids. Once again, we'd appreciate your prayers, especially that we'd all adjust well and that this transition would go as smoothly as possible, even without furniture!

Here are some highlights from last week!

Blurb

I have been thinking for a while how cool it would be to be able to publish my blog, since it is kind of like a scrapbook for my kids. I looked online a little and my friend, Fran, also mentioned that blurb will publish your blog as a hardcover book. I thought this was a great idea and plan to do it! You can edit your blog, if there are any posts that you don't want published in the book. Also, blurb does great books with all your digital photos. I did a big Creative Memories scrapbook for Aubrey, but I think Will is getting one of these instead.

2 weeks and counting...

I am still in denial that we are moving in 2 weeks! I guess it'll hit me once we're on the airplane... Since I'm not doing any packing and our house is still in tact, the move just just feel as close as it really is. Our house went on the market on Friday and we've had some activity, but not a ton so far. Robert is still back & forth between TX & VA until we move. He's been super busy with his new job on top of trying to sign, fax, notorize, sign and fax again a bazillion papers... I can't wait until we're done with all the paperwork! We were able to have a nice Father's Day in the midst of the chaos. We went to Sunday brunch at Moonshine after church, had a relaxing afternoon (while BOTH kids napped, this doesn't happen very oftern anymore!) and ended the day with dinner at Chuy's with the Connells (thanks again for dinner guys!). We have been trying to see friends as much as possible. Tomorrow I'm taking the kids to Houston to visit "Gigi" and then we're going to visit with some close friends that used to live in Austin. And this weekend, we're going to meet up with the Smiths (best man in our wedding) from San Antonio, who we only get to see once or twice a year. Here are a few pictures of what we've been up to the last couple weeks...


We took the kids to a little water park in Round Rock on Saturday and they both loved it, even though it doesn't look like it in this picture.
We recently visited a family I used to nanny for in college, the Barfields. Mary Bentley was only 2 months when I started babysitting her... Now she's 8! She and her sister, Rebecca, were also flower girls in our wedding. It was really special to see Aubrey playing with them.

I also went to my 10 year high school reunion last weekend! Here are: Taylor, Carole, me, Crystal & megan. My 2 other best friends from GHS (besides Carole) were both busy having babies that day and couldn't make it... I can't wait to meet baby Noah & baby Victoria, hopefully soon -- Congrats Amy & Laura!

Aubrey got to play with her good friend, GC, while his mom was having baby #3 last week. Aubrey keeps asking if his mom can have another baby so he can spend the night again!

I walked into Aubrey's room and noticed that she got a sweet potato from the kitchen as a snack for her animals. When I asked her about it she said, "Don't worry Mom, it's organic".

Although she's cold in this picture, Aubrey had fun swimming & splashing with her playgroup buddies, Haley & John last week.

Saying Goodbye

Even though we have a few weeks left here, some of our really good friends left today for a trip to Spain & Turkey and they won't be back until after we leave for VA! So, this morning we stopped by to say goodbye to them. The girls have been playing together since they were one, at least once a week, but sometimes as much as 3 or 4 times a week! They live super close so we've had lots of impromptu play dates and trips to the park at 8 am when all our kids are awake, but it's too early to call lots of people. We have been blessed by their friendship and will miss them while we're away!

New house

 

 

The first picture is our current/soon to be old house.
The second picture is of our new house in Virginia, assuming all goes well with the inspection this week. We bought our plane tickets last week, so we finally know when we'll be leaving Texas. We fly out on June 30 and will spend 1 night in a hotle and then close on our house on July 1!

Moving Update

We made it home safely from our trip to VA on Sunday afternoon. It was our first time to leave Will and we've only left Aubrey 2 other times since she was born. Thankfully, the kids did great for Robert's parents! Robert & I had a good but tiring trip. We met with Robert's new boss for lunch on Friday after we got there and then spent the rest of Friday and all day Saturday looking at houses. We probably saw about 25 houses and found two that we liked. One is closer in to DC, it's older & smaller, but has a lot of character and a great back yard with lots of tall trees. The other house is a little further out, in a more suburban neighborhood with tons of families & kids. It is 4 years old, has plenty of space and a great floor plan. The yard isn't as big, but it does still have tall trees and enough space for the kids to play. If one of them was less expensive, it would make the decision easier, but they were the same price. We're still trying to get over the sticker shock! It's hard to move away from Texas since housing is so affordable here. Anyway, we decided to make an offer on the newer house after much consideration. It has a separate office, which Robert needs for his new job and we both felt safer there which was a big factor since Robert will still be doing a little bit of traveling. So, we aren't officially under contract yet, but the sellers gave our realtor a verbal okay on our offer and we should be signing papers tomorrow. It looks like we'll close on July 1st and move sometime between then and mid-July. Right now we're trying to get our house ready to put on the market and spent 4 hours meeting with 2 different Realtors yesterday. Robert's been on the phone all day trying to work out all the loan details and working with the relocation company. Needless to say, we're staying busy! And Robert starts traveling back and forth next week until we move. Our to do list for the rest of the week is:
-have our master bedroom & bathroom painted and have baseboards touched-up
-mulch flower beds and plant more flowers in front & back
-have carpets cleaned on Thursday
-box up extra stuff in closets we're not using, so our house shows better
-clean entire house, including windows, doors & garage
-list house on Monday!

Big News...

...We're moving to Virginia!!!

Here's the scoop...
Robert was offered an Accounts Executive/Outside Sales job with Dell and he officially accepted it last week. He'll have the whole state of Virginia as his territory, but 85% of his accounts are in Northern Virginia and Washington DC. So, we'll be living somewhere close to DC and Robert will work from home 1 or 2 days a week and then travel around and visit his accounts the other 3 or 4 days. He's really excited about the job and we are all excited about this adventure ahead of us! We've both lived in Texas almost all our lives (Rob was born in Ohio until age 2), so we think it'll be fun to live in a different region and get to explore another area of the US. We'll be 2 hours from Philadelphia, under 4 hours from NYC and we hear that Virginia is a beautiful state itself. We're going to try and take advantage of our time there and hope to return to Texas in a couple years. It should be great experience for Robert's future career. So yes, we're excited about it. But we're also sad, of course. Most of our family is in Texas, Robert and I met in Austin at our church, got married here, bought our first (& 2nd) house here, and both of our children were born here. And we have great friends here that we will greatly miss. But we've been praying for God's will to be done in our lives and we both feel that this is where God is leading our family. We are trusting in Him to provide a house for us there, friends & fellowship for us all, fruitful labor for Robert and a solid church home. We hope this time will strengthen us as a family and draw us closer to Him. We covet your prayers in the weeks ahead.
For:
-finding a home (the cost of living & housing there is MUCH higher and we're trying to decide if we should rent or buy and exactly what area we should settle in)
-the actual move to go smoothly (thankfuuly, Dell is doing all the moving for us)
-that the kids would handle this transition well and adjust as easily as possible

Well, I guess that's all for now. We're flying to VA next weekend to look for a place to live and then Robert starts on Monday, June 2! I think he'll be flying out each week for a few days until we can all get moved out there. I'll keep you posted as we iron out the details!

A week in review

Play time

Now that Will is getting a little bigger & older and can run, he's doing a better job keeping up with his sister. Everyday, they love to chase each other in circles around the house with lots of giggles and squeals. Here they are having a little tickle fight...

More tickling...

Parks are more fun for Will now, too -- He can navigate pretty well around a play scape these days. I thought my second child might be a little calmer/less active than my first, but I was wrong. Will is just as much of a climber as Aubrey and LOVES climbing on top of the couch, the coffee table, on dining chairs, on top of the computer desk, etc... I can't turn my back for 2 seconds or he'll be ascending the brick fireplace or some other piece of furniture.

He loves the trains he got for his birthday! Anytime he sees a train (and sometimes even any type of truck) he gets really excited and says, "choo choo". In this pic, he's right in the middle of saying "choo choo" to his Thomas.

Will is a huge fan of the cardboard box. Once he gets his hands on one, good luck ever getting it back!

This was our first trip to the neighborhood pool this year. Will did not like the big pool b/c the water was cold, but he was fine in the warm baby pool.

I think he had more fun with the box than in the water...

Happy 31st to my Hubby!

Aubrey singing "Happy Birthday" to her Daddy. Of course, she insisted on everyone wearing party hats.

Will had one little bite before getting down to run around and explore.

It's all about the icing for Aubrey!

We had a nice, relaxing day today and enjoyed the beautiful weather. Robert has been traveling the last 3 weeks, so a low-key day was great for us. We're looking forward to a date night tomorrow night to celebrate some more. Happy Birthday Robert/Daddy -- we love you!!!

Last week

Fun in the Sun. Thanks for the cute suit, sunglasses & sandals, Lauren!

Playing with the balloons from his b-day

I had a great (but quick) trip to Dallas for Amy's shower! This was my first time to drive to Dallas & back in one day.

Will is enjoying the view much more now that he is forward facing!

Tagged

My friend Crystal has tagged me! So here are my lists of 4...

4 jobs I've had:
-Waitress at On the Border in high school & summers during college
-Nanny all through college
-4s & 5s (Pre K) Teacher at Westlake Bible
-Stay at Home Mom -- by far my favorite job!

4 Movies I've seen more than once:
-Princess Bride
-Clueless (I watched this a zillion times in high school)
-Waiting for Guffman
-Pride & prejudice -- the BBC version with Colin Firth

4 Places I've lived:
-Dallas, TX
-Garland, TX
-Austin, TX
-Round Rock, TX

4 TV Shows I watch:
-American Idol--I heart David Archuleta the most, but I really like all of the top 4, even though Jason's performance was pretty bad tonight :(
-Friday Night Lights -- my favorite show! I didn't love it when I saw it for the first time, but after seeing a couple episodes, I was hooked. It's also filmed here in Austin...
-The Office!
-Ugly Betty -- silly, but entertaining

4 Places I've been:
-LA -- Robert & I got engaged on a very windy day in Malibu, overlooking the Pacific Ocean
-NYC-- I love to visit the Big Apple, but would not want to live there.
-Alberta, Canada -- We went to the Canadian Rockies for our honeymoon & it was the perfect escape from the Texas heat in August. Banff, Lake Louise & Jasper were all amazing!
-Maui, Hawaii-- Where we went on our "babymoon" before Aubrey was born. Loved it!

4 Favorite Foods:
-Pizza
-Chips & guacamole
-Watermelon in the summer
-Pumpkin muffins or pumpkin bread in the fall

4 Places I'd like to visit:
-New England in the fall to see all the leaves (since we don't have a "real" fall in Texas)
-Italy
-Greece
-Whistler, Canada -- I loved Canada in the summer & want to go back!

4 Things I look forward to in the next year:
-Watching Will learn to talk more & more
-Taking a weekend getaway with Robert sometime this summer
-Hopefully meeting at the beach with a couple close family friends again this summer
-Spending time with family for the holidays

4 Friends I'm tagging:
-JLP
-Lauren
-Lucy
-Stephanie

More birthday...

We had a small party for Will on his actual birthday with fajitas from Chuy's and birthday cake. Will had a great time and I think he realized the whole thing was about him when everyone sang happy birthday to him. He definitely enjoyed his cake, as you can tell by the pictures!