Easter Bunny

We took the kids to the mall tonight to have their picture taken with the Easter Bunny. Connor was so excited. We told him to smile for the picture, believe it or not that is his camera smile. Allie looks a little bit like a rabbit with her teeth showing. She wasn't afraid at all of the Easter Bunny, it didn't phase her one bit.

As tacky as these pictures are I can never resisit. Grandparents get ready for your copy in the mail!

We Have a (temporary) Home

This past weekend we made a super quick trip to The Woodlands to find a home. We had already decided that we were going to rent for a year since we weren't 100% on the area of The Woodlands we wanted to be in. Thank goodness we made that decision, just looking for a rental was stressful enough, I couldn't imagine trying to buy a house right now. We found out today we got the house. Turns out two other offers had come in on the house and ours was the third which we did not know at the time. Luckily the renters decided to go with us, Yay! I don't think I could handle more house hunting right now.

We found a newer home that has 4 bedrooms and a play room for the kids (plenty of room for visitors; hint hint). While it certainly isn't the home we would choose to buy for ourselves it will certainly do and I think we will be comfortable there for a year. We aren't bringing the kids swing set which makes me a little sad so we will have a very empty backyard for a year.

Our lease begins April 1st but we don't close on our house until May 1st. Michael is going to go ahead and partially move in since he was already planning on being in Houston for the majority of the month for work. So I guess for the month of April the house will consist of a mattress, TV and bar stools.

House shopping was a very emotional process. I think for two reasons. One I know we are not moving into our permanent home so we weren't seeing homes that necessarily fit our style or wants. And two, while we are happy to move and begin the next chapter in our lives it's also very hard to leave Corpus which has been our home for almost ten years. As I've said before we have made amazing memories and friends that we have shared our lives with. Not having them in our lives on a regular basis is going to be a tough adjustment on all of us.

We Made the Park Cool

Friday night we had a super fun get together at our neighborhood park. My friend Sarah put the whole thing together, she is really great at thinking up fun things. So it was the Milam's, the Nuse family and the Pruett family. Adam and Sarah brought Mexican food from a local restaurant. We all brought some adult beverages, including a giant tub of frozen margaritas! We had desserts, food and snacks for the kids as well as a pack-n-play for Hank and Allie loaded up with toys! We had a blast. It would have been a wonderful night regardless but now that I know we are moving in a month it was so special to create another wonderful memory with our friends here in Corpus. We've known the Pruett's since we moved to Corpus and they have a little girl named Parker who is the same age as Connor. It's so special to have these amazing friends - I can't even begin to describe how I will miss them.

All six kids hanging out; Allie and Hank were pretty content just hanging in the swings. We were lucky to have four precious helpers who were willing to push them.

Allie and her main squeeze Hank. Allie has not had a pacifier since she was about six weeks old but every time Hank put one in his mouth she felt the need to grab it and try it out. Hank grinned each time, what a sweet and patient boyfriend.

This was by far the funniest moment of the evening. Lola felt the call of nature so she took care of business in front of everyone while enjoying some juice. No shame in her game!

I think we definitely made the park cool Friday night!

Cupcakes, Oh and a Contract Too

Yesterday was absolutely crazy. I've known for over two months that on April 23rd I would have to make 150 cupcakes for a wedding reception this weekend. Of course we ended up showing the house five times that day! So the majority of the day I had to be out of the house which meant no baking. As soon as I got home and was about to start baking Allie's school called me, she had a fever so I had to go get her. Again as soon as I arrived home our realtor called - we had an offer on the house.

I ended up finally starting cupcakes around 5:30. We counter offered and the buyer accepted. Which meant I had to stop baking to look at houses for our realtor to show us this weekend, that took an hour. Then our realtor came over at 10:00 p.m. to have us sign the contract. I ended up getting done with the cupcakes at 1:30, which I guess isn't too bad considering all the hiccups that came my way.

Here are 156 cupcakes!

Back to the house. Our house was on the market for two weeks and one day. We didn't even show the house the first week, it was spring break and apparently no one was shopping that week. Our realtor was getting a lot of interest just from the pictures online which is funny since I thought the pictures online were awful. Our realtor has never had a house show five times in one day. When she told me that I had a feeling we might have an offer within the next week but I didn't think it would be quite this soon. We will be closing May 1 and heading north to The Woodlands. I cried when I called my best friend Sarah to tell her the news (remember Sarah is my neighbor and I've known her since I moved to Corpus), I'm not ready to walk away from my life here and our friends. I just knew I would have a few more months to process this transition and get some time in with my friends and their families. I shouldn't complain about getting an offer on a house in two weeks, I am excited but heartbroken at the same time.

I'm sure within the next few weeks I will have some pretty sappy posts about what we are leaving behind in Corpus - you've been warned.

Eleven Months

Look at this beautiful girl, she is getting prettier each day and she was already the most beautiful girl in the world when she was born. It's amazing to me that she is already eleven months. She is such a ham and just as sweet as she can be. She has the best belly laugh which she displays quite a bit while playing with her brother - you can tell she is just in love with him (and might I add he is with her as well). Allie is into everything, very mischievous. She is walking while holding just one of our hands. Babbling a lot, I don't think she is really saying any words yet although we did stop by the Nuse house and it sounded like she said Lola. I'm sure she knows they are future BFF's and wanted to say her name. Of course she is still teeny tiny, she has super skinny legs (lucky girl). But the girl loves to eat, her teachers say she is the best eater in her class. Allie is so my girl, her favorite thing to play with his her shoes! Allie I love you so much and no doubt so does your daddy. You are the most amazing blessing to us.

Pretty Girl

Here is a picture of the pretty girl.

Catapede

Connor is studiying bugs this month at school (yuck). His monthly project for March was to make a bug of his own. Connor wanted to make a catapilar; so this is what we came up with. Connor picked out the colors and the fabric that we covered it with. Since I added the legs I decided that his creation was a catapede. I'm having fun with these take home projects, hopefully Connor is as well.

David Beckham?

This weekend we had a really cute, good looking guy practicing his soccer skills in our backyard. No it wasn't David Beckham but the next best thing, Connor Milam. Michael purchased a small soccer goal to "prepare" Connor for soccer this coming fall. To look the part Michael also dressed him in the closest thing he could find that resembled a European soccer uniform. Only time will tell if all this practice and preparation pays off. But hey, at least he looks good!

Happy St. Patty's Day

Happy St. Patty's Day! Connor wore his authentic Irish shirt that his aunt Misty sent him from Ireland - now that's pretty cool. Thanks aunt Misty for yet another fabulous gift.

And to try to make St. Patty's day a fun holiday for Connor I made rainbow cupcakes for his class. They aren't the cutest but the kids loved them which is all that counts.

Little Miss Popular

Allie is quite the popular girl at school, especially with the lion classroom which is Connor's class. Everyday when I drop Connor off and pick him up almost the entire class asks for baby Allie. Sam, one of her boyfriends is the one who started this trend. Everyday he would ask to see her and then to kiss her. I guess all of the other lions realized what a cute, fun, sweet girl Allie was and started following in his lead.

Now every morning Allie gets a kiss from every lion and a kiss goodbye, along with lots of cheers and adoring eyes.

Toys with Wheels

We spent the afternoon outside taking several of Connor's toys with wheels for a test drive. Here he is on his Cars bike from Santa, he still hasn't quite figured out pedeling. So then we switched to his plasma car that he got for his birthday - he enjoyed it much more.

We are trying to take in this beautiful weather while it lasts. I know the 100 degree heat and mosquitos will be here before we know it.

For Sale

I can't believe it, it almost feels surreal to finally have our house for sale. I'm hoping that the house doesn't sell too quickly, I think 2-3 months would be ideal for me so I can take all of this in. I also feel that I need more time in Corpus with two of my best friends Jen and Sarah. And I really want Connor to get in as much time as he can with his two girlfriends Lucy and Lola.

Now the fun part, sitting and waiting for an offer.

Enjoying the Weather

The weather here the last few weeks has been so nice and mild and he wind has been pretty minimal which is rare for Corpus. We have been taking full advantage of the outdoors. We've made several trips to the park, walks and playing in the backyard. Poor Connor didn't spend a lot of time outside last summer, with the heat and humidity and Allie being a new born it just wasn't in the stars for us. Hopefully we will continue to get a lot more time outside.

Vegas Birthday

Michael turned 8 years old on Wednesday, or 32 depending which way you view leap year birthdays. To celebrate we went to Vegas with our best friends, Adam and Sarah Nuse. We had a great time, I only wish it could have lasted longer - which is how I feel every time after I leave Vegas.

We stayed at the Bellagio and lived it up. We had great dinners both nights at Spago and Joe's Steakhouse. We ate lunch at Serendipity 3 which I have been wanting to do for a while, mainly to try their famous frozen hot chocolate. Sarah and I did some shopping, although I think all of our kids did better than we did.

This will show you how old we all are, or the fact that between our families we have 5 kids. We went to see the 10:00 showing of "O" the night of Michael's birthday, everyone of us dosed off at least once during the performance. To our defense that is midnight Texas time, the show was almost two hours long and we had just ate a huge dinner and had all enjoyed drinks throughout the day.

I know I managed to loose on everything I played. Michael fared much better than I did. However due to my losses I think I balanced out his winnings and we pretty much broke even. We had a great time with Adam and Sarah, they are great vacation friends. We even started discussing our next vacation - sounds like we could be heading to Napa this fall.

Happy 8th or 32nd birthday Michael!