We're alive!

Hey everyone! We're alive! As you may have guessed, life has been a little bit more than crazy. I am just now finally sitting down to the computer again after 2 months of insanity, and yet I am still ignoring some of the things I need to do in order to be officially "settled" in our new home and town. There are still pictures to be put on the wall, boxes hiding in the garage to be unpacked, address changes to be made, and the list goes on and on. But, I think I have enough done right now to sit at the computer and update all of our wonderful, loving and supportive friends and family. Plus, isn't it about time I wrote a "journal entry"?!

I'll break this post up into a few different posts so that it will be easier for y'all to take breaks and even cut out the things that really aren't that interesting to you. Plus it makes it easier for me to take breaks while writing. I already have a little lady standing next to me who has woken up from her nap and can hear my even littler lady awake in her crib. Sigh. Naptimes just aren't long enough!

So, this post will focus more on our last month in Galveston and getting ready to make the move.

I had a small bucket list of things that I really wanted to do before we left our little island. Among that list was driving one of the surreys down Seawall. Gasp! I know! We lived in Galveston for 4 years and had never driven one of the surreys!!! It's not that expensive and they're everywhere! I don't know how we just never did it! Well, I sorta do. We didn't want to do it when the tourists were heavy, or when it was too hot outside. And time just got to us and we never went. So, I determined that a couple weeks before we moved we would take one out for Family Home Evening. It was so fun! It was a very nice, "cool" evening. Well, at least it was windy and that helped to push the heat away :).

It was hard to get a picture of it, but Hannah enjoyed putting her arms up and squealing as we went. So cute!

Lydia did too :)

They had a lot of fun! And so did we :).

 

Afterwards we walked around Murdochs. It's definitely the best beach shop on the island! I love all the cute home décor there! I wish I could buy it all :). And I love watching the hermit crabs (and reminiscing on my past hermit crabs: Crabbe, Goyle, Mooney, Sprout, and Draco).

Also before moving we got to celebrate a couple of graduations! The first of which was Lydia! She completed her first year of Joy School. Unfortunately she came down with the flu on the last day at school. She went to school fine, but around lunchtime she started complaining of her stomach hurting. So, she moped around during the short little graduation and we didn't get any good pictures. When we got home I took her temperature and sure enough, she was sick. Poor girl!

Ya, as you can see, she really wasn't feeling good. But we are still so proud of Lydia! She had a blast doing Joy School this year and we are so excited to start a new one in Temple :). Thank you Whitney, Stormie, Beth and Afton for doing this with us!

 

 

I'll write more about the 2nd graduation in a separate post. After all, I think David deserves at least that much :).

 

 

Other things that we got to do before leaving G-Town include going back to Brazos Bend, going to the Sand Castle competition, going on the ferry one last time and seeing the dinosaur exhibit at Moody Gardens.

 

We enjoyed one last visit to Brazos Bend State Park. It is a must see! I love it there! However, I would recommend the cooler months. Not just for your own comfort, but also for the alligators! You get to see a whole lot more when it isn't so hot and they aren't all at the bottom of the lakes.

We all got to touch a tarantula! It actually still had the venom in it. The ranger said that they actually aren't as poisonous as people make them out to be. I'm not sure I completely believe him. But it was cool in a creepy way.

And Lydia was fearless in petting the baby alligators and snakes! Go girl!

Lydia wanted a picture taken doing everything! It was cute :).

The hiking crew: David's family came out for graduation and stayed a few days. So, we have Clay, Matt, David (with Hannah on back), MaryLu and Lydia.

We mostly just saw turtles this time. It was too hot for the alligators, I think. But I still enjoyed it.

The few alligators that we did see were enjoying the water.

Hannah enjoyed taking a few steps and playing in the rocks/dirt.

Lydia, unfortunately, took a huge spill on the playground and wound up being carried with ice for the last little hike before we decided we needed to call it quits and take her home. She wound up in the urgent care that evening because she continued to complain about her clavicle area and we wanted to be sure it wasn't broken. Fortunately it wasn't. But she enjoyed getting medicine for a few days when she complained about it hurting! I think she got to the point of crying wolf just because she liked the medicine. Why do they have to make it so tasty?!

 

 

Galveston hosts a Sandcastle Competition every year. We made it our first year there and now our last! They are so fun to see though! 

This one is a "sand-witch"

A lot of the entries made fun of the cruise getting stuck out of Galveston. I guess they enjoy "potty" humor :).

I thought this was a fun one. It was called "Frost bitten".

I can't remember what this one was, but it's a fun little castle.

This one is for the "Gun Show"

I can't totally remember the theme of this one, but Lydia enjoyed sitting on her "throne"!

This one was my favorite though! Such a cool castle!

And Lydia just had to make her own castle after it was all done! She is sure going to miss all that sand!

 

 

 

One of my favorite [free] things to do in Galveston is go on the ferry. It's so fun to see all of the dolphins in the bay! And I'm actually starting to enjoy feeding the seagulls as well :).

 

And you even get cute happy babies during the snack break :)!

 

 

And we made a couple visits to Moody Gardens before we moved to try to sink in all the fun things! I didn't take pictures of most of the things there because we have been to the Aquarium and Rainforest so many times and it's hard to take them at Palm Beach. But I did get some of the dinosaur exhibit. Lydia LOVES dinosaurs. Her favorite one: the triceratops. I think it's because she likes Sara in the Land Before Time. After all, she's the only girl. But she knows and recognizes them by name :).

 

It was a "cute" baby!

The triceratops!

 

 







And the last major thing (aside from the graduation) was saying goodbye to all of our friends. That was definitely the worst part!!! I still get teary thinking about all the wonderful friends that we had to leave. I don't think I've ever been in a ward that I really considered a family before, but Galveston sure was! They are people that I hope to always keep in contact with and take an occasional beach trip to visit :). It sure made it that much more difficult to say goodbye when the Bishop stood up on our last Sunday and announced that since us and a couple other major families in the ward would be moving that they were changing the closing hymn to "God Be With You Till We Meet Again". But that's the kind of ward we were in. I truly love them all and will miss them like crazy! I wish I had pictures of everyone, but I have them in my heart (cheesy, I know).

 

Diana Hobbs, me & Stormie West

Lydia and her BFF, Miyah West

 

So, I wanted to add more pictures. But I just realized as I was looking for them that I hadn't actually taken more. Sad!!! I didn't even get one of our little goodbye Girls Night!!! If anyone has any of them, could you please send me some? And I promise that I will send pictures to y'all this week! Diana, I'm not ignoring you, I just hadn't even loaded the pictures to my computer yet. Sorry!

 

I guess that that is enough for now. There is still so much to write about, but that at least sums up most of what we did before the move. So, stay posted for the next catch up post coming soon! 

Happy Birthday David!

Happy Birthday David!!!

Sorry, I know that your birthday was a little bit overlooked with Hannah's 1st Birthday and then a quick trip to Temple in the midst of packing. But, we are so happy to have your as our Daddy/Husband! We couldn't ask for a better husband or father! We love you!

Love,
Kimberly, Lydia & Hannah

Happy Birthday Hannah!

 

Happy Birthday Sweet Hannah!

I can hardly believe that you are a full year old now! This year has brought so many smiles and laughter to our home as we have watched you grow! You love to play and giggle. And you also love to exert both your independence and dependence.

I was very slow in writing your 11 month letter, so I really don't have much to add in your development. The biggest and most exciting thing is that you have taken your first steps! Initially you were only testing out single steps before you fell to the ground. But one of your friends gave you a corn popper (one of those push things) for your birthday. Well, you took off with that thinking that it was supporting you just like your walker. After you had taken about 8-9 steps you realized that you had nothing holding you up and quickly sat down. You have repeated this a few times. And once we even caught you walking from the ottoman to the couch without anything. Right now you still prefer crawling. But it is only a matter of weeks before your confidence builds up and you will start walking everywhere. Hooray! What a great birthday present!

 For some reason you have suddenly become a very picky eater. You do not like trying new food (unless it comes out of a jar) and will promptly spit out food. When I tell you no, you immediately start getting your pouty lip and throw a tantrum. Oh dear. This started early! But I am not about to give in. Whether you like broccoli, rice or meat doesn't matter to me right now. It's still what is getting put on your plate and is still what you get to eat. Sorry little lady. I don't have much compassion with picky eaters :).

On a more positive note, you are slowly starting to understand the purpose of sippy cups :). Right now the one that you drink out of the best is one that is not spill proof. So, I have not let it venture away from the high chair. But (if I hold it for you) you enjoy getting a drink of water during your meals. And if I put juice in it, then you may even try to hold it for yourself (maybe). Sigh. It's progress.



We had so much fun celebrating your first birthday with you! On your actual birthday we got to do a little bit of celebrating. We put a candle in your yogurt for breakfast. You were fascinated by it and somewhat got the idea of blowing it out. Though not enough to actually blow it out. The rest of the morning and afternoon were as usual. We were babysitting Taylor and I was teaching Joy School, so we couldn't go out and do much during the day. However, we went to IHOP for dinner and you enjoyed throwing pancakes on the floor eating your dinner. Then we went home and your friend Misty (the West Family) came over to open presents with us. You got a Melissa and Doug Noah's Ark, a rocking moose (like a rocking horse) and Lydia even gave you her old toy kitchen! You loved playing with your new toys and friends :).

On Saturday we had a big birthday party for you. Since Daddy's birthday was also on Sunday, we decided to include him in the celebrations and also include his upcoming graduation from medical school. So we really had a BIG party! It was "pink lemonade" themed, however we simmered down the pink a little bit for Daddy :). We had hotdogs, chips, Brazilian lemonade and pink pineapple lemonade. After you ate a little bit of your food, we let you go swimming in the kiddie pools in the backyard. You had a blast and really enjoyed splashing around in your own personal pool! (Lydia made sure that none of the big kids bothered you while you played.)

Then we sang Happy Birthday to you and you blew out more candles (sorta, Daddy helped a lot!). You demolished your cupcake fairly quickly and made sure to clean up as much of the big chunks as possible! After a little bit more playing and fun, most of your friends left and we opened presents with the few remaining guests. Among the wonderful gifts was the corn popper. That was when you took off walking for the first time! Hooray! It was a wonderful end to your birthday celebrations! You concluded the night by crashing in your Daddy's arms as you drank your bottle. It was a very exciting party for you and you were exhausted!

Happy Birthday Hannah Banana! We really loved celebrating with you and are so proud of all the developments that you have made this year! We are so excited for several more to share with you! You are our sweet angel!

Love,
Momma

Hannah saying she's "1"

 

Hannah walking! Sorry, I couldn't get it to upload facing the right direction. I hope you don't get a crick in your neck!

To Hannah at 11 months

Sweet Hannah Girl,
You have reached (and passed) 11 months now and I am amazed at how this number seems to speed your development! You are growing into a happy, beautiful and playful little lady.

I love the new games you like to play with me! Especially peek-a-boo! I usually give you the clean diaper to play with as I change your stinky diapers and recently this has turned into play time for you. You love putting the diaper over your face, peeking those beautiful brown eyes out at me, and then giggling when I catch them. You also love us pretending to catch you as you push your walker across the floor. This usually results in hysterical laughter.

Your gross and fine motor skills are getting stronger by the day. I was surprised the other day when I caught you putting the balls back into your musical elephant as they popped out and onto the floor. You are also very good at getting your cheerios out of your little snack container (the kind that has a couple slits on top for you to reach through to get your snacks out of). This is like a fun and rewarding game for you. As I mentioned before, you love walking as you push your walker and can now walk along furniture. This is more of a game for you though and your preferred mode of transportation is still crawling. You can, however, stand alone for about 30 seconds. You are slowly learning the convenience of not needing to hold onto or lean against something all the time. However, you still prefer to sit down if we put you down standing up. That's okay. I'm enjoying keeping you on the ground a little while longer.

You still want to be taken care of in many ways. You can be very defiant and will only do things when you decide that you are ready. We found this when we wanted you to self feed and we are finding this again with you holding your own bottles. You are strong enough and have shown us on occasion that you can do it. But you want to be taken care of. You also refuse to drink out of a sippy cup. I don't know how many different  cups I'm willing to buy to see what you'll like. You are very particular. This has definitely been our most difficult challenge with you. Sigh. I guess that there are many other things that I am grateful that you don't struggle with. I just fear your teenage years. Maybe you'll grow out of it?

You love to eat, however you are more particular about what goes into your mouth. If I offer you a spoonful of what I'm eating, you close your mouth and only after a little bit of coaxing will you open it and skeptically taste it. Most of the time you like it enough. Your favorites are definitely bananas and strawberries. You get very excited when you see me bring those to the table. You also love celery, zucchini, apples, cheerios, rice cakes, oranges, plums, grapes, black beans, chicken nuggets, and mac & cheese. Also I noticed yesterday that you are getting a new tooth! In addition to your 2 bottom teeth, you will have one on your top left.

I'm pretty sure you also know and call me Momma now. It is always said in a very whiny, needy voice as you chase me around the house. But I got to be your first word :). You also like to make the "ba ba" sound frequently. Sometimes it sounds like you're saying "book" when you're playing with them. Maybe this is your second word? I'd have to pay more attention though to be sure.

A couple of other new things that you do are clapping and pointing. You love your new discovery of clapping! You clap to music and just to hear the sound of it. And you love to point at anything in a picture or a book. That little finger seems to be out quite a bit! You also seem to be figuring out what pens are used for! Whenever you can get your hands on Lydia's magna-doodle you know that the pen is supposed to make pictures. You are very good at drawing things and you also try to do it when you get a hold of other pens as well.

You also have experienced a lot of first things this month. Your first Easter, including an egg hunt, your first ride down a slide (not much of a fan of this!), your first time to play in the sand at the beach (you absolutely love the sand, but are terrified of the water even if we are holding you), your first time in a swimming pool (you were terrified at first, but eventually relaxed in your floatie) and your first haircut! It was a fun month to experience new things with you! You always seem to be timid and unsure of things in the beginning, but most things you seem to warm up to eventually. And you are so dang cute with your new little haircut! I love it!

Hannah Girl, this has been an amazing month! You are growing up so fast and learning new things constantly! I love you and wish I could slow down time a little bit, but I relish in the moments that we do have together. Stay sweet little angel!

love,
Momma

Home, Sweet Home

These past couple of weekends we have made visits to Temple to check out houses. Our first day looking there was long, but productive. We found two AMAZING houses that I wanted to mix together to make the perfect home. One had incredible storage in the attic, bedrooms and closets galore! Plus we may have been able to finangle an awesome play place out of it. But the other one had a formal dining area that comes off of the living room (aka: a play room for us). Unfortunately, we couldn't get the best of both worlds. So, we had to make a choice. We chose the one with the "formal dining" area because I desperately wanted somewhere to keep the girl's toys out of my living room (and I know that even if I had a designated "playroom" down the hall, the toys would always be in my living room). And, with some of my upcoming construction skills, I could create more storage space in this home. So, we put down an offer, did lots of back and forth negotiating, and got it! Wow! I can't believe we are buying a house! I'm still really nervous about it, but we knew that we wanted to after running several numbers and comparing the cost of renting versus buying.

So, without further blabbering, this will be our new home as of June 5th!

 

It's a brand new home from Centex. 4 Bedroom, 2 Bath. It's the Brooks floorplan, if you are interested.

Straight ahead is the front door, so it opens up to a hallway with a couple bedrooms and laundry. This is the part of the floorplan that I thought was weird at first, but it's actually lit very well and not as long as the floorplan and pictures make it look.

This is the front bedroom to the left. I think that this will be used as a guestroom initially and eventually will also be my office/craftroom.

Main bathroom

And the 2nd bedroom. This one will be Lydia and Hannah's bedroom. Lydia is VERY excited!

This is the laundry room. It's kinda an L shape, so the dryer is ahead and to the left is the washer. And the garage door is on the right.

And here is the garage. With sprinkler system :) 

And then it opens up to the formal dining, living room, kitchen and "breakfast" area. However, first I'll take you further to the right where there is the 3rd bedroom.

Ta Da!

Okay, now this is the formal dining nook. Perfect for toys! I can totally picture the play kitchen, dollhouse and book cases here. We're planning to switch around some of the light fixtures, so that one will be moved to our real dining area.

And here is the kitchen! So open and spacious!

And the breakfast area is a nice size too, for our big table :)

And the living room. They will be putting ceiling fans in here and also in all of the bedrooms. That was part of all the negotiating :). We also were able to get them to add a fridge, garage door opener, and blinds on all of the windows.

Looking out from the kitchen to the living room.

Lydia enjoyed running around the house everywhere! I think she is amazed by all of the open space!

And this is the master bedroom, it comes off the living room/dining room.

And the master bathroom. We plan to put some cabinets above the toilet. As I mentioned, there wasn't a ton of storage. No linen closet. Bummer. But we're figuring stuff out :).

And a nice size backyard. Awesome!

Lydia and Hanna really enjoyed running (or crawling) all around the house! They are so excited! Lydia keeps telling me that she wants to move to her new house now!

They had a lot of fun.

 

 

Another perk of this house is that just a block away we have this!

I am so excited! It's a really nice neighboorhood and looks like Lydia will be able to find tons of new friends there! I'll definitely have my work cut out for me getting everything organized and built. But I am so ready!

This is definitely our new Home just waiting! And I am already in love with Temple! It is the perfect town for us! Still a little country, but developing. It has a mall and all of the main shopping you need. Plus Austin is just an hour away! Hooray! 2 months can't go by fast enough!