New Car!!

Texas just got a whole lot better Ya'll!!!! We added a new member to our family! (I didn't get a new big car because we are expecting, cuz we aren't! Trust me. i took a test 2 days ago! That's for a different blog post!)

Meet our Nissan Armada! Charcoal, leather interior, sunroof, DVD, Navigation, bucket seats, luggage rack, new tires, the works! Seriously, I don't know how we got so lucky to find such a nice used car! It's an '07 and is exactly what I was looking for!!!

I've been here for about a month with no car and it's been kinda tough to just stay inside day after day with the kids. I love that now we can go out, or if we want to play with friends, we can all ride in the same car! when family flies in, we have enough room to pick them all up and hold all the luggage! and if we decide we want another babe, then we will have plenty of room! That is why I wanted a bigger car. Sure we could have gone with a mini van.....but this is just more my style. I seriously love it so much, but feel like a spoiled little brat driving it! We have been driving my car from high school since we've been married and Dan's Nissan Sentra. Which has been great for us! But the celica had to go. It was just getting old, it was a '91. I loved that car though. And the Sentra is Dan's commuter car because it gets great gas mileage. We were packed in that little car with two kids. My knee's literally touched the dashboard so we could fit the kids in the back, and they were still kicking the backs of our seats! It just wasn't safe, comfortable, and if we were to have another babe, we would for sure need to upgrade. SO we are finally in a spot where we can! So we jumped on it!

We went to a dealer a few miles from our house just to look. We drove up and I immediately thought, there's no way we can afford anything on this lot! So we didn't even get out. The kids were sleeping, so Dan told me just to go see. So I did. and found this beauty. I liked that we bought it from a dealer because they make sure it's in  perfect condition before selling it. We got a good deal on a warranty, the car fax was perfect, and we were able to talk them down on price. Which I just have to say, I have some pretty good negotiating skills.....ok not really. I just blamed my husband for why we couldn't pay what they wanted. And begged for him to help me because "I need this car! I have to have it!!! But my husband doesn't want to go above $X amount!" Then we got really close, and I said. Well thanks for your time, but we just can't do it for that. And then BAM! "ok ok, let me ask my boss again!" SOLD!

We love it! I'm so excited to have the car I've been wanting for years, but couldn't get until now! Thanks Honey! You're the best!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO DAN MY MAN!!!

It's the hubs birthday today, so I thought I'd dedicate a whole post to him;)

Let me tell you a few things about my man that I LOVE! I say a few because we would be here all day if I were to mention them all;)

Since day 1, I have been head over heels for this man. And it hasn't changed over the years, it just keeps getting stronger. We had a different kind of love when we were first married. When you add a few kids, it can change things. But in an amazing way! Seeing him as a Father to our kids has made me love him more and more. He is so great with them and they always want to be around him and play with him and wrestle and all that stuff! I hope our boys grow up to be exactly like Dan.

Dan and I have been through quite a bit over the last 4 years. He is always my sound board and will listen to me no matter how petty something is and give me advice. He's not one of those guys that will say what you want to shut you up, he actually cares about little things that I care about. And that has always meant a lot to me. He's always the first person I want to talk to. We still spend nights up late talking about our future and our kids and everything in between. Some of my favorite memories are staying up till 3 AM talking about our life together.
He's a romantic. I have always LOVED this about him. Girls, for the most part, are all hopeless romantics. I sure was! And Dan swept me off my feet with all the cheesy lines and romantic gestures I could handle. He still does the sweetest things just to show he loves me.
He is a pro when it comes to quoting movies. We literally communicate in movie quotes. It keeps things funny and light, which I like.  When i first met him and would hear him quote movies, I was like "Really?" but now I love it haha. There's never a dull moment. My favorite is when we say the same quote at the same time.
He is a hard worker! Every wife seems to say this about their husband, but that's a great quality for a man to have. He works so hard for our family and so that I can stay home with my boys. He is constantly trying to learn and better himself and our future. I'm a lucky lady!
Dan has amazed me since day one. I couldn't believe he actually had all the things on my "list" that I wanted in a husband. I thought I would never find a guy who could do that, but he did. And then some! He is the perfect guy for me and the perfect father to our kids! I love him so much and am so lucky to have such a great guy!
Happy Birthday Babe! I love you!!

                                        Our first real BF/GF pic together....So young.....and skinny

The day he proposed. This is the romantic side of him I'm talking about!!!

TEXAS part 2!!!

        Leaving my family has been tough. I really miss having them so close. As a stay at home mom, you can get rather lonely. It was nice to have my mom there on the days when I needed out of the house. Or Sunday dinners in Melba, or free babysitting. I definitely took those things for granted. And now that I'm here, and there's no family, no friends, and my kids have been in this crazy transition stage with everything going on, it's just been hard the last few days. Not to mention the fact that we are carless, so we couldn't get out of the house if we wanted....and we haven't mowed the lawn yet and there's all kinds of bugs, and it's hotter than hades here and my kids' skin is super sensitive. So we sit in the house all day and play hide and seek, and chase eachother around, and play don't break the ice (Don't ever buy that blasted game. 5 minutes to set up. 30 seconds to destroy). We watch a lot of movies, which I feel bad about. I haven't been able to get out and find a good park that's within walking distance. I just have a single stroller so Damon would have to walk and he always makes me carry him. With the 90 degree heat with crazy humidity....no thanks. The pool is big and it makes me nervous to take two little boys who can't swim to a pool by myself. So we just bought a little pool and some squirt guns for the backyard, and i'm excited to do that! Everyone would tell me Texas was hot....but man. It's like 80 degrees by 8:00 in the morning. and the humidity! Oh man, it's intense! I only really like humidity if i'm on a beach. But I'm learning to love it. The evenings are nice. and the early morning I bet too...I wouldn't know that one though haha!
   We have slowly been getting settled. We sold our couch and TV with the house. And our other car before we left so we could buy a new one. So we just got our couches this last week, and found a new TV. I just got the internet and cable comes next week. So it's all coming together, which is great!!! Helps me feel like this place is more homey. I really thought that buying a new tv and couches would be fun, but I realized that it's hard for Dan and I to agree on stuff like that.....well besides the 70" tv...that was pretty easy. But the couches...good grief. We spent like 3 different nights in Ashley furniture while our kids ran around, knocked over lamps, climbed all over couches, ran their snotty noses over the furniture....and Damon full on punched a TV.. What? Anyways, we finally decided on a leather sectional. Which I don't super love having two little kids, but they have an awesome warranty that will help us if they ever take a pen or scissors or anything like that to it. And it looks freakin sweet, and is super comfy, so that helps. But here's another problem....
    We moved into this really nice house in this super nice neighborhood which is awesome. Rent is double what our mortgage is....but welcome to Texas. That's just how it is here, unless you buy. Which we don't want to do yet. SO anyways, awesome house! Smells like cat. At first we didn't notice cuz our house was full of boxes and they had just cleaned the carpets for a second time....(red flag, why twice if there were no animals?) Anyways, I noticed it first in our closet. It was gross. Pulled up the carpets and they were covered in pee stains. Then i started pulling up carpet in other places to find the same problem. We were told there were no animals here before us. So now we have been fighting with the property manager to replace the carpets because A) Dan's allergic, and possibly my kids. They have been sick since we've been here and constantly have runny noses B) my kids play and roll around all over this cat pee carpet and C) it's just GROSS and we shouldn't need any other explanation than that! the prop manager has been super difficult and you can tell he overlooked all that and now he's trapped and has to spend money that will piss off the owners becuase he wasn't doing his job. So now he's trying to replace it with his own money to cover his butt. He hasn't told the owners. and refuses to fully recarpet. He only wants to do our room even though the kids' room is just as bad. He's a jerk. And I hate him. So now it's to the point of us breaking the lease and moving out. HI. I just got settled, all boxes unpacked, tv mounted, internet, cable, all that crap, and now we might need to move?! Because he's being a jerk?! ridiculous. So anyways, we are having him redo our room and closet and the boy's room and closet and calling it good. I'm not moving all our crap again. What I am going to do is write a nasty letter about this fool to the prop management company and the owners and get that fool fired.
    Sooooo.....crazy cat pee house, crazy kids in transition, no car, and everything else and you could say it's been a crazy ride so far. Oh! And Rafe got hand foot and mouth his first day in nursery....then Dan got it, BAD, then Damon got it! Luckily I have been spared. Thank goodness for that tender mercy. If I get that crap I'm for sure going to need a straight jacket. The kids wake up at night, have had fevers and runny noses, and blisters in their mouths and throat and hands and feet. YUCK! I think we are on the downhill, so that's good.
    I'll step off my soap box now! I'm sorry for the ranting and venting. I didn't start this post off with that intention. I was just going to update, now I'm realizing how crazy it really has been here the last 3 weeks! Regardless of everything,  I'm glad that we are here. It's a beautiful place with some really cool stuff. It's fun being somewhere else on our own. I honestly feel like when life gets too settled, something will happen that will  force you outside of your comfort zone so you can grow as a person and challenge yourself and see what you're capable of. I really like Austin and am so excited for a new adventure.  I'm excited to make new friends and try new things. The beginning is always tough, but it will get better.

TEXAS!!! Part one

Hey Ya'll!!!! Now that we live in Texas, I have to say that. Just kidding, I never say that. Mostly because I have no adult interaction....
      Well as most of you know, we recently moved to Texas! Dan now works for this guy....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t36tnz5kVCY
and he loves it. He started off with a three week trial period to make sure everything was a good fit. He officially started in May. I stayed in Boise and sold the house and packed everything up. So we were apart for a month, and that sucked, but it was nice to be able to spend that time with my family!
       Our house sold in one day. I was so surprised how fast it went. Every person that came through to look at it made an offer. all offers were more than what we were asking.....so we took the best one and that was the end of that! We closed in less than a month! So! If you are thinking about selling your home, now is a good time!!!!;)
      We hired movers because it was just going to be too much for Dan to take off work, fly back, pack the truck, and drive it the 26 hours to Austin. Here's a little tip if you're going to ever hire movers......they will give you a phone call and ask for a general inventory list. Then they give you a quote. Don't believe that quote price for a second. When they ask for the inventory list, tell them EVERYTHING you own. We had double the amount of boxes and a few things i forgot to tell the guy. When I talked to him, he made it sound like it was not that important and the movers just need a general list. No. Be detailed. Very detailed. Because it may or may not have been an extra $1800 than what we were quoted.....and what are you going to say? "STOP! unload the truck, i'm not doing this!" yeah forget that. I'm not driving that truck. So that was kind of a nightmare, but it was also suuuuper nice not to have to make that trip with kids. And they packed and wrapped all our stuff WAAAAYYY better than what we ever would have done.
         So I stayed with my parents for about a month, and it was a blast. My little brother got home from his mission during that time so it was so fun to be there for all of that and let everyone have some extra time with the kids. We spent a lot of nights watching movies or talking and catching up. It was so nice, but it also made it that much harder to leave. I miss them, a lot. I've kind of been in robot mode through this whole thing. The last few months have been an emotional roller coaster and I think I just started going on auto pilot and trying to emotionally detach myself from everything. Now it's starting to catch up to me! You can only block things out for so long until they come back and make you want to explode over every little thing. Here's what I mean....
     I was only in my calling for a few months. Just long enough to get settled in and really get attached to all the girls. I miss them a lot. They were so fun and quirky and I loved giving them advice. They were all 14-15 with one 16 yr old and so we all know that time of life is crazy and drama filled. So I miss them and I was bummed about being released. Another thing was I LOVED our home. I loved that house and was so sad to see it go. When everything was moved out, and everything was cleaned, I just sat on the floor and cried. We had so many monumental things happen in that house. SO many good times. Our boys both learned to walk, talk, crawl, and go down stairs in that house. first birthdays and christmas' and my first Thanksgiving as the host. Little things like that. and I feel like selling that house was leaving that stage of life behind us. Now they are both so independent and seem so big. It seems like nothing is a first anymore, and it makes me really want another baby at times.....but then I think "MMM, betta not" (someone please recognize that quote!)
     So leaving was hard, but being here has had a whole different set of issues too! Read the rest in part 2!