February Recap

January was never ending but February flew by in a blink of an eye. I posted about our house update and unfortunately, we didn’t have any progress in February. The rent house is starting to wear on me and us. Chad mentioned that we are living it clutter and for him to say that it is a pretty big deal lol. But at the same time we are extremely grateful for this opportunity and do not want to take this time for granted.

  

February was another rainy month so anytime it was sunny and a little warm out we were outside. My babies LOVE being outside so these rainy/cold months are kicking us in the rear.

We also started really trying to work with Grady on his letters. We decided that we were going to do activities every week and work on a letter a work. We have gotten to the letter C and have fallen off the wagon a little bit but Grady does love these activities, so we will have to do some more.

Grady has become the little photographer and I have to say, his work is really good.

Chad had a work event so we had a kid free night and was able to get all fancy. I will admit that I’m not a fan of the silence. I guess you have to have silence to appreciate the noise.

I took off for Valentine’s day and we had so much fun together. We baked cookies and delivered them to the firefighters, probably going to be an annual tradition from now on. We also did a little craft and made treats for the birds. So much fun but boy cookies with 2 little ones is work!

I have been obsessed with organization, anyone heard of “The Home Edit”. Their book is on my wish list and I cannot wait to listen to their audible. Anyways we have been purging everything and I am beside myself on some of the things that made our move back in August. I cannot wait to get my hands on organizing the new house but in the mean time I will focus on our freezer, fridge, car, etc.

Random pictures from February: (Can you tell someone is excited for Baseball and someone else is a little sassy diva)

Life Update

This post is a work in progress. I created some videos explaining our journey and was going to create a you-tube channel to document the process, but I chickened out. Who knows I may still upload them later but right now I feel too awkward.

I touched on what’s been happening over the past few months, but I haven’t gone into depth. Hold tight this may be a long post. As you know Chad got accepted in nursing school last April. We had been going back and forth about putting on house on the market even looking at pieces of property well before then and made a couple of offers but they didn’t come back in our favor. With the news of Chad going back to school we knew that this was the time to make the decision to finally putting our house on the market. We put our dreams of buying some land and building again to the side and started looking for some “fixer uppers”. With disappointment after disappointment we didn’t feel comfortable with anything that was on the market at the time and with our house being sold we decided to lay off the search and put it in God’s hands. We got a rent house and move in at the beginning of August.

August 14^th rolled around, Chad was at work and randomly got on the internet to look at listings. Mind you that we had been on the internet every single day 2-3 times a day looking at listings for months and decided to take a break from it just a few weeks prior. There was a listing for a piece of property in our price range and the location that we wanted! The listing was probably posted around noon that day and Chad got on the internet around 1:30. We drove by the land after work and made an offer immediately. I guess you can say it spoke to us. They didn’t get back with us until the next day and Chad and I were on pins and needles, but they ACCEPTED!! And come to find out all parcels sold within 24 hours, crazy.

The closing process was a dousy. We discovered that there was a dried up gas well on our property so after a few meetings with lawyers, the sellers, agents, etc. We got a deal worked out but while we were figuring out our negotiations the sellers were having some legal problems with the title. It took a few months, but we finally got it all figured out.

We already had the construction loan process started so when we officially closed on our piece of property we contacted them and after a few weeks of paperwork we closed on the construction loan. After a few long months of patience, we broke ground on December 19^th.

Little did we know that we would need to dig down deep in the patience department for the next following months. The weather has not been in our favor, so we have not had any progress on the house since December. But we are completely blessed with this opportunity and know it was all in God’s plan and timing. We always wanted more land and to build again but didn’t know it would happen so soon, we continue to trust in him with our finances and this process.

Oklahoma City Get-Away

Between Grady’s Birthday, the hustle and bustle of the holidays, this weather, and the rent house we are living in, we needed a refresh and get-away from everything.

We first went to a children’s play museum called Wondertorium and it was a blast the kids had so much fun and it was the cutest little place. They different “stations” set up. They had a water and arts station, a medical station, a theater station, space station, diner station, forest station, grocery store station, etc. Grady’s favorite was the water and arts station and Audreys was the theater station. We left the house around 8:30 and got there right before they opened at 10. We stayed for about 2 hours when it was starting to clear out and then headed to lunch.

I heard really great things about this waffle restaurant so we headed there and the line was out the door, there was a TJ Maxx right next door so we did a little shopping and then went back and luckily the line wasn’t as long. “Just Wafflin’” is definitely worth the wait and is absolutely amazing. It is worth making the trip to Stillwater just to eat there. The people are super nice as well.

After lunch we made our way to OKC. The kids past out as I knew they would before we even got out of Stillwater. We got to the Hotel and the kids were still passed out so we unloaded what we could and then headed to the Outlets but before we left the hotel the kids woke up and only got about an hour and half nap. By time we got the outlets the kids were a hot mess! We went to a few stores but the kids were just being extra so we packed up and headed to dinner. I guess I didn’t learn my lesson and we went to our favorite Mexican restaurant, Uncle Julio’s. Well the kids were overly tired and by time we waited for a table they were ready to leave. This was our biggest mistake, we should have gotten it to-go and then went back to the hotel and swam. By time we got back to the hotel we only swam for about 15 minutes and then it was time for baths and then bed. The next morning Grady kept asking if we were going to go swimming.

We like to book hotels where there are 2 separate rooms, a living room and a bedroom that way Grady can sleep in one room and we can sleep in another. Don’t know why because Grady comes into our bed and sleeps with us, so we were all in the same room anyways.

The next day we headed to church. We go to a church with multiple locations so we wanted to go to the main campus and of course it was a Sunday where they had a guest speaker. It was still a great experience to be at the church that started it all. After church we went to the Oklahoma Science Museum and holy cow was this place HUGE. We thought we would only spend 2 hours there but by time we looked down at the clock it had already been 2 and a half hours and we still were not done. The kids were not ready to leave but got something quick and headed home.

It was a great trip and we are now planning our next little family vacay. Sometimes we forget all that Oklahoma has to offer that it is our goal to plan more Oklahoma get aways.

January Recap

I feel like a life recap is much needed, I had something planned but second guessed myself and I may not do it now, but we shall see. As I was doing the 2018 year in review I noticed that I did not do a November and December month recap. This year I will try and be better!

I took off the week of Christmas and didn’t go back to work until January 2^nd. It was heavenly, both me and the kids needed that time off. While we were on a break our heater went out. We called our landlord and his handy man wasn’t going to be in town until the following evening, so the kids and I went to my parents house and Chad joined us later. The heater kept going on and off for the entire month and they finally replaced it at the end of the month. We had some pretty cold nights and on the colder nights when the heater was working a little harder than normal that’s when the heater would go out but it’s fixed now and no problems since.

Other than our heat going out January was a pretty laid back month. We had a little get-away planned for Martin Luther King weekend but there was a chance of snow and ice and we didn’t want to chance it, so we switched our trip to the following weekend. I will do a separate blog post on our little get away.

At the end of the month Grady had his first dentist appointment and to my surprise he was terrified. I thought he would do ok since he does great at the pediatrician, but he was not having it. They were able to clean 4 teeth and do an exam, but he is cavity free!! Let’s pray we keep it that way.

2019 New Year Resolutions

I love New Years and fresh starts. It’s a great time to reflect on the prior year and a chance to grow and create a new habit. I normally think of my New Year Resolutions well ahead of time but with the holidays and the hustle and bustle of everything it completely slipped my mind until we attended the first Church service of the new year. So here it goes….

Get organized – I am SO excited about this. Since we are living in a rental at the moment I do not want to spend money on organization, so I am waiting to do the majority of the organizational items until we move. However, I will start organizing the fridge, freezers and car! Being organized makes me oh so happy. I have dreams of Khloe Kardashian’s pantry. It’s a 30-year-old woman’s porn…. A little much probably but boy have things changed.

Lose weight – Ever since kids I have struggled with losing weight. Since Chad and I are in-between having kids this is the prime time to focus on myself and my body. “Selfcare is not selfish”

We have some financial goals as well. We have been blessed to be debt free for years. I am the type of person that cringes at the thought of having debt, so we have some very specific financial goals that we would like to meet this year as we build and move into our new house.

Start a life group – This has been on my heart for a while. I have discussed this with Chad and he is all for it. However our current living situation doesn’t allow much room for entertaining so we are thinking about starting one up when we move (hopefully in the summer)

More Audible Books – I would love to actually read books but the only time I have to sit down and read would be around 9:30 at night and I know I would just fall asleep. So I listened to “Girl wash your face” to and from work last year and I honestly do not know why I haven’t listened to more.

Dang a lot of these are the same from last year. We are so looking forward to this year and the exciting things that are about to happen for our family. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again 2018 was an amazing year. We had some extreme highs but we also had some lows but at the end of the day I strongly believe that no happen who you are lows are going to happen, it’s all in how you respond to them.

2018 - Year in review

2018 was a year for the books. Chad and I were at a crossroads and really needed change in our lives, so we devoted 2018 to the year of “change” and boy did it not disappoint.

January:

We started off the year a little slow. We made our new years resolutions as we always do and just sat back and waited, in the meantime Audrey and I came down with the flu and we completely disinfected our entire house

February:

February came and went in a blink of an eye but it was another month of Audrey being sick. She did turn 6 months old and Grady became obsessed with the show “Spirit”

March:

We celebrated the arrival of our niece Kamrie! I got offered a new position at work. And we took our first family road trip to Kansas City.

April:

We celebrated Easter. Chad found out that he was going back to school! Grady got potty trained and I celebrated my 29^th birthday. Oh April was an exciting month

May:

Chad and I vacationed in Cozumel, Audrey got dedicated, oh and we officially put on house on the Market.

June:

We welcomed another precious baby, our dear friends had baby Mila on June 10^th. We spent the rest of the month focusing on our Summer bucket list. At the end of the month we got a contract on our house.

July:

Chad turned 30 and we went to Boston for a Red Sox game. We packed up the house and moved completely out at the end of July. 

August:

We officially sold our house on August 1^st. Grady got a “big boy” bed. We made an offer on a piece of property and it was accepted. Chad had his last day of work and his first day of school. And our baby girl turned 1.

September:

We went to our last baseball game of the season. Finalized our floor plans. And took the kids to the gathering place for the first time.

October:

I got in a car accident on my way home from work totaling my car. Chad purchased Bruno Mars tickets and we finally went to the concert. Grady and I had some one on one time. And we celebrated Halloween with the Little Rascals

November:

We took Grady to his first Movie theater and watched “Small Foot”. I completely messed up my ankle by simply walking. We celebrated Thanksgiving, purchased a new car and went to Dallas.

December:

Grady turned 3! And we had the perfect party to celebrate him. We took him to go see Paw Patrol Live. We broke ground on our house. And had 3 Christmas'

Holy cow… I’m exhausted just writing this! It looks like 2019 is going to be another exciting year and I cannot wait to see what all it has in store for us.