we are moving!

Keith and I have been praying about potentially moving to the Dallas area. Since our kids are still so young we knew that if we wanted to move now would be the time, especially since Caroline hasn't started Kindergarten. We're really excited about being closer to Keith's family that lives in Frisco. Unfortunately, we'll be about 30 min farther away from my parents, but that's not so bad. It's nice that Keith has the flexibility with his job to live where he wants and still work from home.

So, we put our house on the market last Friday and on Saturday we had an offer. ONE day. They also gave us a FULL price offer. The inspection was today and they want to close the end of Dec. We're still in shock.

Where are we looking to buy? PROSPER. Here are some interesting facts about Prosper:

~the town of Prosper is approx 27 square miles
~the population in 2008 was 7,053 a +236% population change since 2000
~it's about 10min north of Frisco, 15min to McKinney, and about 35 to downtown Dallas
~Prosper High School won 3A football state champs in 2008 and they just built a new high school (I'm sure by the time our kids start there will be another) Isn't it beautiful?

~the schools have all received high ratings, either "recognized" or "exemplary"
It seems like people are moving out here to get away from the hustle and bustle of Dallas, have land, peaceful, and yet you're only 30 min from Dallas. We are tossing up the idea of building a house or there are also some GORGEOUS neighborhoods that offer homes on 1-3 acres we are considering.

For now we have mutual friends that are going to rent their house to us for a few months in our same neighborhood.

I'll have to do a completely seperate blog entry on all the things we will miss about Austin. Don't even know where to begin on that one...

HAPPY THANKSGIVING! Wow, don't we have so much to be thankful for?

first foods

Will doesn't have much interest in rice cereal. I know I need to be persistent and hopefully he will eventually like it. I caved in last night and decided I would give him a little banana (I know, I'm such a bad mother giving fruits before veggies).

"Seriously, can I just have my bottle?"


"I have the best mommy in the whole wide world. I always smile when I see her face."

halloween

We enjoyed getting to spend Halloween this year up in Frisco. Caroline was a fairy and Will was a peapod. Caroline went trick or treating with her cousins and I must say that this year she was a pro. She mostly kept up with Tanner, always wanting to be ahead of the pack. She's closer in age to Avery and Addison, but we're finding out that she wants to play with Tanner more because they have the same amount of energy. Tanner is always so sweet with her too.

Our 2 little sweeties:

at a loss of words

We are grieving with our close friends today the loss of their sweet baby. Our friends, Aubrey and Alfonso, have had an incredible journey. After trying to get pregnant for several years God had finally blessed them with a child. Aubrey was 6 months pregnant and found out on Friday that they had lost their sweet child. Isaac Everett Longoria was delivered on Saturday and a memorial service for him is going to be at our church this Saturday.

We are overwhelmed with saddness and deeply burdened for our friends. We pray that they would be comforted by His love right now and that God would continue to be their source for strength. I am thinking about the words to the song "I will praise you in this storm." Please pray for our friends.

We enjoyed celebrating my dad's birthday this weekend with family. We had a pot boil with some of the shrimp they caught on their deep sea fishing trip. There was enough food to feed an army.

I have a confession. I watch Oprah. I really enjoy most of her topics, however I don't agree with most of her viewpoints. Sometimes I check her site to see what the topics will be for the week. A couple of weeks ago I noticed a section that said "Be on the show" and then underneath "tell us how you like staying at home with your kids." Being the chicken that I am I sent an email to my playgroup friends telling them to send in an email and maybe they could be on the show.
Today was an especially difficult day for me in the world of motherhood. I'm tired of cleaning up everyone's pee! Seriously, if I have to change any more crib sheet from Will peeing through his diaper or clean any more peepee accidents from Caroline I'm going to go insane! Every now and then I have days where I go through the entire day feeling so sorry for myself and think how did I get here.

The second half of the Oprah show today was about how a mom of 4 was involved in a horrible plane crash that left her horribly burned. A mom was selected to be on the show that had written an email to Oprah about how she hated staying at home and that if she plays with playdough anymore she will kill herself. Well, they flew her to Utah to spend a day with the burn victim. It was touching. It was exactly what I needed and it helped me to get things back into perspective again.

The next time I start sulking in my misery of not being able to get the laundry done I'm going to think back to this courageous mom who is burned all over her body and can't even pick up her own kids.
Here is a video of the mom who sent in an email about hating motherhood meeting the mom who is burned:
Oprah video

I'm challenging myself this week to embrace my sweet children and remind myself that this time is flying by and to really be in the moment. My days are numbered.

We are SO PROUD of our sweet Caroline. She has really shown us how mature she is becoming and what amazing self control she has.

Drumroll please...

Say goodbye to the thumb!

She went in for her 3yr well check on Friday and her doctor asked her to stop sucking her thumb, after a conversation about how her teeth are getting ruined (don't they fall out anyway?) That is all it took. It's been 4 days now. I am so shocked! For the past year we've been threatening her telling her that her teeth are going to fall out and nothing we would say would work.

So here's the bad news...she hasn't napped since Friday! Her thumb was her soother and now since she isn't sucking her thumb she can't put herself to sleep. I'm trying to make her at least stay in her room for an hour to have "quiet time." We'll see how long that lasts.