Today at the House!

Hopefully, "Today at the House" will be a common post title as things actually start happening at our house site! The first delivery of supplies was brought in this morning and Dad strung an electric fence around the site to keep the cows from tearing it up.

This evening we headed to town to do some errands. One of the things on the list were some "work boots" for David. The old shoes he'd been wearing as work shoes were quickly getting too small. We found these fireman boots at Tractor Supply. I liked that they had handles & he could pull them on all by himself! The rest of the evening he talked about his work boots, that he could go through mud, and dirt, and grass, and dust, and water, and... After tromping around for a little bit at the house site, they got nice & dusty, so he declared: My work boots are dirty! I've been working hard!

I can't remember what these things are called that go up just outside the actual edge of the house, but they went up today from that load that was delivered this morning! And there's David, working hard to remove a big rock from the house!

Cute Pictures & After the Storm

This was Friday at the house site. David was saying "cheese" for the camera.







Elizabeth, the toothy, has now started eating apples skin & all! I wasn't really expecting it when I gave her an apple to play with, but over the course of a few days she devoured the whole thing! Then when she saw the apples at the grocery store this evening, she had to have one! So I found small red delicious apples 3 for $1 and just let her go to town on one of them!


The big storm at Grandpa's blew down a really big hackberry tree onto the roof of his greenhouse. Dad has been helping cut up the tree so it could be removed. I wondered how they were going to get the higher branches, but Grandpa had a plan! He put Dad in the bucket of his tractor & lifted him up to them! Now, doesn't that look like a fireman!?

Hot Stuff!

What an exciting day!!!

My day started bright & early today! In fact, I didn't sleep much last night because I was so excited about attending my first library book sale! I dropped David & Elizabeth off with Grana & Papa, then headed to FW to meet Dad.

A little "incident" along the way made the day even more exciting... Dad called to see why I was taking so long to get there. I just told him I was waiting for the police to get there. Moving along...

The stack on the left are books that we'll be reading in Preschool or Kindergarten. The stack on the right are a bit older. But with paperbacks for 25¢ and hardbacks for 50¢, I think we did pretty good! It was totally overwhelming when we first arrived, but once I started finding a few books that were on my list, that quickly passed. Dad even enjoyed himself, contributing most of the fire truck books and about 8 or 9 others. He came in real handy when it was time to take the box to the car, too!

Last night, Dad got a call from Mr. Builder & told me that I might want to go out to the house site to take a before picture. So here's what it looked like last night about 6pm:

And this is what it looked like at about 4pm today! Ground has officially been broken!!!

Talk about an exciting day!!!

Let's Get This Puppy Built!

After 3 days, we got the shed finished. See the Tiny Talk post below to see the building finished.


Mr. Builder, as I will call him here on the blog so that there will be no confusion with my nephew who has the same name, told us this evening that he wants to break ground for the house next week!!!!!!!!!!! Praise the Lord & pray for our building process!!!!

Today, Dad finished clearing the path for the power line. Now we just have to wait on Oncor to come install it. Also waiting on the well and the septic analysis.

Happy Birthday to Us!

Sunday we got together at Grandma & Grandpa's house to celebrate the April birthdays! As the oldest April birthday, I complained about trying to fit all of our candles on the cake. So the youngest birthday boy had the bright idea to put our combined ages on the cake!

Apparently, no one noticed that the 8 had fallen over & was covered in icing.

Me + Dad + Will = 80 years old!

(April 18, April 4, April 25)

It took all 3 of us to blow out the candles!

I'm just glad she used number candles rather than 80 individual candles!!!

David enjoyed his piece of cake very much!

Tiny Talk Tuesday

We've been working on this little building for the last 3 days. We finally got it finished last night. David has been very anxious to be able to go inside. He was not disappointed!

David's Cubbies vest has been hanging in the bathroom this week and he's been trying to remember the verses that the A & C on the vest represent. With little prompting, he remembered:

All have sinned. Romans 3:23

Christ died for us according to the Scriptures. (a verse David combined from Romans 5:8 and I Corinthians 15:3)

Then I tried to explain in a way I thought a 3-year old might be able to understand, that Jesus died for our sins so that we could go to heaven and be with him. David pondered this, then asked, "Does he have his car there?"

Huh... I don't think Jesus needs a car...

Read more Tiny Talk over at Not Before 7.

Another Busy Week

I can't believe another week has passed & I haven't blogged for most of it! It was a pretty busy week. Seems like when I finally get time to blog it, I'm either too tired or I find something else I need to do. Here's some of the things we did last week.

I took some photos of Elizabeth for her 15-month birthday: Documented where the iris are blooming at Grandmama's house:

Made some Irish Brown Bread:

Taught David about the art of collage, after someone started tearing the papers off the crayons:

Went to the big library and got my Teacher's Discount Card for Half Price Books!!!
And on Friday, closed on our construction loan!!! This was our closing agent. I don't think she's ever had anyone take pictures at a closing before!

She let David help her make some copies so he could say he helped us close... and so I could take a picture of it!

Saturday & Sunday afternoon, we worked on assembling a storage building at our construction site. Saturday evening we attended a birthday party at Grana's house. Sunday morning we visited another church that we all really liked, then had birthday lunch at Grandma & Grandpa's house. (photos from the last paragraph will have to be posted later!)

Our Weekend with Tiny Talk

Friday we went down to my old stomping ground to watch my nephew receive the Townsend Memorial Scholarship. Uncle Bubba's got some good photos from after the awards chapel on his blog.

This was David & Elizabeth's first visit to the campus, and I haven't been back in years. Makes me want to set up a reunion with my best friend on campus! At one point, I was telling David that Mom & Dad went to school here, and so did Uncle Bubba & Aunt Wee, and so did Uncle Glenn & Aunt Sissy, and so did Grandma, and next year Andy was going to go to school here. David replied, "And I'll go to school here, too!" I told him he could go to school wherever he wanted, but I'd be happy if he wanted to go here, too! : )


After we left campus, we stopped off at the Santa Fe depot, hoping to see some trains go by. Nothing happened, but we did get to look at the static trains they have on display. David talked the whole time, observing every detail about the trains & rail yard.

Above: Dad & the kids on an old MKT caboose

Below: Elizabeth tries to turn a valve in the steam locomotive

David said, "Those are BIG wheels!!!"

Grandpa discovered a model railroad display in the museum, so we checked that out, too. Every time the train sped past, David would wave & say, "Bye-bye, train!"

After that, we headed back home... and David talked non-stop for the whole trip! That night, David & I went to Andy's baseball game. Uncle Bubba has photos of that, too. David enjoyed being able to scream, run laps around the bleachers, and drop popcorn on the ground without getting in trouble! He cheered for Andy when he went to bat, "Go, Andy!!!"

Here we are in our new duds from UMHB! David's jersey is a little big, but he loves it! He'll probably be able to fit in it for about 2 more years! They didn't have any really cute t-shirts for Elizabeth, so I got her a little pom-pom. Below, she's holding it out towards the camera.

Saturday, we went to Cemetery Working Day. Uncle Bubba got some pictures of the kids and some beautiful flowers there, too! David enjoys going to the cemetery. It's kinda like going to the park for him!

Saturday night, David came in to tell Grandma & Grandpa good night. It went like this:

Nite-nite! Nite-nite, every.... (sometimes he says everybody) Oh! Nite-nite, Folks!

Then, turning to me, he added:

Grandma & Grandpa are folks! Mom & Dad are folks!

On the way to bed Monday night, David must have remembered the previous story & he told me, "Mom is a folk and David is a folk."

He cracks me up... and makes my ears very tired!

Elizabeth Turns 15 Months Old!

I thought I had uploaded this for her birthday... turns out I was waiting for the video to load & never hit "publish!" Anyway, Elizabeth turned 15 months old on Wednesday:

To celebrate her 15-month birthday, Elizabeth decided to do something new...

Now that she can get out of the living room, nothing is safe! Happy birthday, Beautiful!

Her 15-month check-up will be next week, on Mom's birthday.

Together At Last!

I never knew it would be so hard to get a cute picture of both kids in the same frame, but finally, we got a good one! I stand in awe of my friends who have 7 kids and take a good picture of them all! This was taken inside of the caterpillar tunnel that David got for his first birthday from Aunt Marlene. This was the first time I'd gotten it out since Elizabeth was born & she loved it!

Psst, Heather... I wish you could see the ladybug that's on her romper! ; )

Tiny Talk on Location

If you've been reading for a while, you know that David (age 3.75) has an unusual interest in, of all things, the pipe organ. His Dad is responsible for that... as well as his natural musical talent! (of course my children are talented!!) : ) Anyway, on Monday, we took a "field trip" to the Myerson Symphony Center in Dallas to attend a pipe organ recital played on the Lay Family Concert Organ, pictured above. Here we are waiting for the recital to begin:

Grandpa went with us and took that picture for us.

I believe if it had been any other noise as loud as that organ started out, David would have started crying. But no, he was a trooper and hung on tear free thanks to his love of the pipe organ! He did, however, cover his ears!

Between songs, as the organist talked about the organ, David pulled his organ book out of his backpack and flipped through the pages, comparing the pictures to the grand organ in front of him. Some of his comments included

• The big pipes are loud.
• The little pipes are pretty.
• She's playing with her feet.

After the recital, we toured the facility, and David continued to find all sorts of things interesting. Did you know the life span of a harp is only 50 years?

That night for bedtime prayers, I asked David what he wanted to thank God for. He said, "Thank you, God, for pipe organs, and big pipes, and little pipes, and foot pedals..." and he said some other word that I didn't know. I don't doubt that it was the correct terminology, though!

Here are a few pictures of the building that I thought were pretty. I love the flow of the lines in the lobby area.


I know this was kinda slim on actual Tiny Talk, but that's ok... Tune in next week for more! In the mean time if you want to read more cute stuff, go to Not Before 7.

Bluebonnets

We hiked around the North Place on Sunday afternoon. Here are some of the bluebonnets we saw. They like the bare slope on the west side of the tank.

This is as good as it gets for a picture of David in the bluebonnets! He was too hot & tired by this point!

Dad's Birthday

We enjoyed a dinner for two in Sundance Square for Dad's 31st birthday! What a youngster I married! ; )

I thought we might as well document the cost of gasoline on Dad's birthday. When I was in high school, I remember filling up my little red car, Rosebud, and getting a snack after school for less than $5 at The Little Store. Now, I guess David & Elizabeth will look at this photo and say, "Wow! Gas was only $3.23 back then?!?"

Art & Thanks

Here is the latest creation from our budding artist, David. This is his watercolor, experimenting with different brush sizes. Of course, I think it's beautiful.

Remember his bubble painting? Well, I left that paper tablet outside, it got rained on & the bubble painting is now gone. : ( At least I took pictures of it!

I haven't done a Thursday Thanks Tank in a long time. I tried to find out who was the originator, but I couldn't find it. So without any links to anyone else, here's what I'm thankful for this week (and every week, for that matter!):

Isn't she beautiful?!?!?! In 6 days she will be 15 months old. Having Elizabeth has been like having a first baby all over again because everything is so different. I am amazed when she does things at this age, because David did most things a lot later than this.

She loves to play with the building blocks (Mega Blocks) and can stack them and pull them apart with great gusto! She loves dolls and stuffed animals - she hugs & squeezes them with delight. She also likes to stack and knock down the Peek-a-Blocks. Her favorite PaB, though, is the one with a face on it. She is very relational and nurturing. She loves to touch David, who is now starting to say, "Leave me alone!"

Her vocabulary also blows me away. Newest words I have written on the calendar: baby, bye-bye, nite-nite, David, more, poo-poo, eyes, ears, nose, and all done. The other day when we emptied her diaper into the potty, she waved as I flushed & said, "Bye-bye, poo-poo!"

I asked her today where are her ears & she reached up & tugged on them! She's constantly pointing out eyes & nose on me, Dad, David, Grandma, toys, and cats.

I am thankful for all of my family, but today I just wanted to say thanks for one special little girl. I am so thankful to have her in my life, to be her Mommy. I love you forever, my little ladybug.