Drop to your knees & start prayin'!

Okay, so I just got a call from our realtor in NM. We had our first showing....the thing is that that our house was 2nd on their list. Well, their first choice is already gone & they are coming back for another showing on Friday. We are getting down to the wire with the house that we are building in Rockwall in accordance with our contingency. We basically have till the 2nd week of March to get a contract on our home in NM or we will lose the home in Rockwall. So we have been praying hard & long for this stress to go away so please take an extra moment to pray that we will be relieved soon, whether through this buyer or the next. I will keep you posted!

Framing up!

They have been framing this past week & putting in the windows. It is really neat to watch our home take shape. We have had decent weather so far so hopefully we are still on the Mid-May move-in date.

Vday Lovin'

So the kids all got animals for VDay & wanted to show them off! Enjoy!

A Before & After Valentine Suprise!

Okay, so I wanted to something special for Billy for Valentine's Day but he is yet out of state for the 3rd year in a row for VDay. Since he was gone the whole week, I decided to do an project that I had never done before. Staining a piece of furniture...

Not just any piece of furniture....HIS USAFA blue trunk!

I personally did not know this could be done, but a friend of mine had mentioned that she knew someone who haad done it before. She & Iwere visiting last Sunday afternoon & she was telling me about it. The top of Billy's trunk had started to peel & was ripped & torn from al lthe moves in its lifetime. We started peeling the blue "vinyl" off. If you take an exacto knife & run it around the edges, it leaves a nice clean cut line next to the metal.

This picture is after the vinyl has been peeled away. I sanded it down & the proceeded to put 3 layers of American Walnut stain from HD . Then I sealed it with polyeurathain.

So, not too shabby for my first staining job if I do say so myself!

Foundation is a GO!

The foundation was poured on Tuesday & looks really good. They were to start framing today but with 80% chance of rain for the 3-day weekend, the are hoping to drop lumber on Monday & start framing then. It will actually start looking like a house soon!

School Valentine Parties

The kids had their valentine parties at school the last 2 days. I just wanted to share some pictures with you. Unfortunately, I have no pics of AJ or Avery's party because my batteries died. Gotta love technology! :)

Leah & Mommie

Mrs. Lee & Macey

We have PIPES!

This are moving along on our home. The foundation will be laid this week. Completion date of new home is mid-May at this point. By summer, (hopefully) we will be all moved in.

Darn Toe! (again)

You would think after multiple broken toes, I would know how to avoid additional ones. NOPE, wrong again! I have yet again kicked the couch & broken my toe. This time it is the one next to the baby toe on the left foot. I did this on super-bowl sunday (it honestly had nothing to do with the game) & I am still taking Motrin so I will be heading to the doctor on Monday to see if I broken anything else besides my toe. Wish me luck!

Macey Turns 8!

So I can not believe that my baby is 8! As many of you know, Macey is mini-me. Besides the fact that she is a lefty & a blonde, she & I have alot of common traits. She has been in love with horses for a while & has been asking how much $$ does it cost ot buy a horse. Billy& I have tried to explain the depth of this concept but alas, it is not getting thru. Although we did not run out & buy her a horse for her birthday, we were able to make arrangements to ride for an hour last Saturday afternoon.

We headed to Uncle Brian & Aunt Staci's home for an afternoon cook-out of brats & hotdogs requested by the birthday girl & then an afternoon ride on horses, Jade & Moose. She really enjoyed riding the horses as did all the kiddos. Of course, she has been really interested in guitars as well so we got her a starter guitar to start learning on. ( I am sure that we will regret this later) She is very excited about learning to play an instrument & has already put on atleast a dozen show since last Saturday.

Daddy's Birthday

Daddy's birthday was Monday. With the weather being a bit chillier than we hoped for, we spent the evening in the family room with a fire blazing in the fireplace while we snuggled on the couch & watched movies. It was a great evening!

getting started...

Well, we are finally getting started on the new house. We have our first meeting next Tuesday with the builder to get started with customizing our home. We have picked out our colors already & we are so excited. When it is all said & done, each kiddo will have their own room, Billy will have his own study & I will get the additional bedroom that is downstairs for my office which has an extremely nice walk-in closet. Keep checking back to see updates.

Halloween 2007

Okay, so most know that we are in teh middle of a move so I am getting my way back to blogging. I know there are some in Albuquerque who are reading faithfully to keep tabs on our family so I will do my best to blog atleast once a week. :)

Here is the kids this year for Halloween. We had a Trunk or Treat at our church in ABQ. It was the last day we were in ABQ & so it sad, but we still had alot of fun. We got tons of candy that we will be eating on all year long.

Catching up.....

Since I have tons of "free time", I thought I would use it wisely & play catch up. I am sure many of you are wondering why we are moving when we just bought a house in February.



We decided last summer to separate from the AF. It was a tough decision but one we were excited about. We knew that we wanted to move back to Texas then but not really sure what kind of job we were looking for or where exactly we wanted to live. During the spring, we looked at many options in both San Antonio & Albuquerque.



In May, we decided to take the civilian position at the Safety Center where Billy was working while active duty. The active duty position was being dissolved & they wanted to bring him back on as a civilian with the same job description.



The week Billy started as a civilian, a boss of Billy's decided it was time to leave & was offered a job as a Vice President with Raytheon. Some of you know that we have alot of disappointments with the AF. Many times, we were led to believe or promised one thing, then after Billy delivered, the story changed. That was the main reason for us separating from the AF.



In July, we got a phone call from Billy's old boss (the one who went to Raytheon) asking Billy if he was interested in coming to work with Raytheon. He had worked with Billy for the past 3 years & knew what Billy was able to accomplish. After a few weeks of talking, we were offered a job we could not turn down.



Billy's dad had a stroke almost 2 years ago. His mom has had a few health issues as well & along with Cancer hitting my family last year. We decided that the first chance we got, we would get back to Texas to be with our family. That chance came in August.



Billy started working in September & we are officially moved. the kids started school in November & are loving it. I am working diligently to get the house up a running along with my business. I am hoping to have a great kick-off Christmas Open House on December 8th.

Question of the Day

"Mom, have you ever been to a thronery?" Macey asks.

" A what?"

" A thronery?" She says again.

"Honey, I am not sure what you are talking about? Can you give me any details?"

Leah exclaims," You know, where they wrap you in toilet paper & throw you in a box, & everyone bring you balloons & flowers."

"Oh, you mean a funeral?", I asked.

"Oh yeah! That is the word!" the girls say. I just smiled!

Kids are so much fun & such a blessing.

Moving Day

I knew this day was coming & at first, it could not come quick enough. I just wanted the move to be over with. (no, I do not enjoy moving 6 months) Billy left in September to start his job at Raytheon in Dallas so things have basically crazy around here. I have workshops & stamping events scheduled till the end of November so I will be coming back to ABQ for 3 different weekends. I will also be coming back for Scrapbook Happiness in December if all works well in the family schedule.

I am excited about the move. New house, new schools (AMEN!!!), family closer than ever before..... I will dearly miss my friends here in ABQ, though. I have to try not to think about it or I will end up in tears.

We have enjoyed the time that we have lived here in New Mexico. Our family went thru many struggles here & without the friends that God placed here for us, we may have not made it. I want to thank you all for everything that you did. Good friends are hard to find & we are ever so thankful that we found you.

I have a team of ladies here so I will be back to visit often. We will miss you all! If you are ever in the Dallas, Texas area, look us up. We have plenty of sleep space....

ohhhh--so far behind!!!

I must apologize for the lack of communication...many of you many be thinking that I fell off the face of the earth. Thankfully that is not true. :)

Many of you know, we are in the middle of a move. Billy got a job in the Dallas,Texas area so we are heading home. He has been work there since September 17th & we have decided the family has been separated long enough. You must think I am a wimp since it has barely been a month but this will be the 2nd relocation this year. The first was in February of this year when we moved off base & bought a house here in NM. For family reasons, we have decided that we wanted to move back to our stompin' ground.

I will be sending an email next week with our new contact & mailing address info. If you do not get it, please shoot me an email. It has been a while since I have had the chance to update it! Please keep our family in your prayers as we move (hopefully our last for a while) to Texas. I hope to be back on track with blogging by Thanksgiving!

Look who is 4!

AJ had a birthday crown the wear while we were at C.E.C.
He was syked that he was getting special attention for the day.

Macey & Leah love playing air hockey & with the table just their size, it was great.

AJ taking Bob the Builder for a ride.

Avery had a date with Chuckie himself. They even had their picture taken together.

I am not sure what it is about boys & their video games but AJ was addicted to the race car game. He actually did very well.

AJ out for a drive with Stuart Little.

Mommy & her birthday boy!

The newest member of our family....

Just to clarify, we are NOT pregnant again. I am sure many of you jumped to that conclusion. We have added a new family member in the form of a 4 legged ball of fur. His name is TOBY. He is a Queensland Heeler mix almost 3 months old. Vanilla Bean needed a playmate & Toby is just what she wanted. Toby is potty training & doing quite well.

This is Toby sleeping in the truck after we got him.

He was worn out from the summer bash where we picked him up at.

He is checking out his new bed. I find him sleeping in it through out the day.

He is playful as a puppy should be but not destructive (yet, anyways!)

Leah turns 6!

We did an at-home birthday this year. As a new tradition, we started letting the kids pick where they want their birthday lunch/dinner. Leah chose Golden Corral. We had a nice meal & then went for Coldstone Creamery later that evening for dessert.

Leah has been wanting a Tamagotchi since Macey got one fore her birthday. She named it ABBY. For those who do know what it is, it is an electronic pet they have to keep charge of.

Date Day

It has been quite a while since our last date, so as soon as we had our babysitter home from Harding & a summer mission trip to Africa, we booked a WHOLE day of just the 2 of us time. We started the day by walking around old town & I actually got to go in to the shops that I normally have to avoid due to non-child friendly.

Then, we hit The Melting Pot....if you have never been to The Melting Pot, then you defiantly need to make plans. It is not an average night out...you might want to save it for a special occasion, though. It is a fondue place that is really great. It took us 3 hours to eat dinner with all the courses they give you. WOW! We waddled out way out the the restaurant. Just kiddin'....

Then we hit the putting greens...for those who know us, we have always loved to play golf. We used to play a couple of times a week till my belly got so big, I could not swing anymore. I realize that this is no the same, but we hope to start playing again soon. We were playing best of 3 & got rained out on the 18th hole of the 3rd game. Guess we will have to go for a rematch!

To finish our evening, we went to see Transformers, the movie. WOW! I remember my brother, Brian having transformers growing up. It was really neat to see Hollywood breathe life into them. It is a very good action movie.