Garage Sales & Goodwill

We've been on the hunt for a few things that we want for our house now that we are feeling more settled. But seriously buying stuff new is just so darn expensive so we thought we'd start looking at garage sales. We found a few communities who were having their annual neighborhood garage sales last weekend so we stopped by to check them out. We didn't find much (definitely a lot of junk), but we did find this awesome rustic dresser for $20. I love it and decided to put it downstairs in our living room/entry way area. We bought it from an old grandpa who had had it for a long time.

And we also live by a really nice goodwill which I'm excited about. Lots of fun stuff you can pick up for super cheap and then paint or fix up how you want to. I found these there that I thought were cute. They'll be fun to put out next summer for the 4th of July or anytime I'm feeling patriotic :)

And I found this-I'll probably never put anything in it, but I thought it would look cute on my kitchen windowsill. Thanks goodwill, I think I'm going to become a regular customer!

And finally, I thought I'd share our little frog friend who hangs out by our front door every now and then. I like him and the little lizards cause they eat all the bugs that are taking over our front yard!

Cable TV or Disney???

Hmmm, Cable TV or a season pass to Disney World?? 

It would cost us the same amount per month since we're Florida residents now.

Duh, no brainer! We chose Disney World!

Get's us into 4 parks (Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom, Epcot, & Hollywood Studios) and parking is included (usually $14 every time). We will get our money's worth times 10!  Seriously, who needs TV when you live in Florida! :)

  It's gonna be a FUN year!

Interview with Brayden

I thought I'd ask BB some random questions for fun to see what he thinks at the wonderful age of 4. I'm sure it'll be fun to look back on when he's older. It'd be kind of cool to do something like this on every birthday to see how much their answers change every year...guess it's never too late to start a tradition like that, right :)

• Favorite color- Black
• Favorite food/snack- Mac and Cheese and M&M's
• Favorite toy- hot wheels and superheroes
• Favorite movie/TV show- Bob the Builder movies and Dinosaur Train
• Best Friend- Tyler because he plays with me
• Favorite thing to do with Dad- Read books at night on my bed
• Favorite thing to with Mom- Do fun things with her like coloring or doing a puzzle.
• Favorite thing to do with Ty- Play in the mickey fort with him cause it's a fun game. I pretend that we are camping inside our house and Tyler is a bear.
• What does daddy do at work?- He works on the hospital and makes lots of stuff like walls. He's a construction guy but he has to stay on his computer.
• What does mommy do all day?- Works in the house and cleans up messes right before daddy gets home from work (hahaha)
• What do you want to be when you grow up?- Firefighter because you have to be brave and I am soooo brave!
• Favorite animal- alligator and shark cause they have really sharp teeth
• Favorite book- brown bear, brown bear, what do you see (He has it memorized)
• Favorite sport- soccer cause you have strong legs when you kick the ball
• Why do you think the sky is blue?- Cause if the sky wasn't blue, then the sun wouldn't be up in the sky anymore. It has to be blue! If the sky was purple it would be funny and everyone would laugh at it.
• What are clouds made out of?- soft, soft, soft stuff from heaven.
• What is heaven like?- It will be really beautiful with the angels and Jesus will be there. And the gorgeous tree with all that fruit that turns white.
• Where does the tooth fairy do with your teeth after you lose them? She takes them to her castle that only she can go to. Kids can't go cause it's too far away. She writes your name on the tooth and hangs them up with little nails or something in her house
• How do you think shows get onto the TV?- At nighttime the movies aren't on cause the kids are asleep, but at day time the shows are on and all the characters get on the TV and act out the show. They go on a stage and there's a screen that goes on to all the TVs, but if they aren't plugged in that means it won't work. But if you just plug it in it will work.
• How old do you have to be to drive a car- 10 or something
• How do you think they make peanut butter?- take mayonnaise and jelly and mix it up and it makes peanut butter maybe??
• How many kids should we have in our family?- Probably 10 cause then the girls can play with some pink girl toys and the boys can share mine and Tyler's toys. (Sorry bud, not gonna happen!)
• Whats your favorite thing about Tyler?- That he learns new words to talk more...like today he learned "pancake."
• What is love?- Your heart has love inside of it and when you hug or kiss or say I love you to someone then you just squeeze a little love out of you and it goes to them. (Cute!)
• Tell me your best joke- knock knock. who's there? Little john. Little john who? Little john was in the fair!!! (Yes, all of Brayden's jokes are like this)

18 Months!

Tyler turned 18 months in August! Ahh, I still can't believe it.

Where has my baby gone???

* Words he can say: Mama, Dada, BB, more, please, thank you, amen, where, what is that, nana, night night, dog, horse, cow, shoes, airplane, over there, baby, book, hi, bye bye, uh oh, apple, all done, I see you...he's talking up a storm these days!

* Animals sounds: He knows most of the farm animals and roars for all dinosaurs and animals with big teeth (alligators, lions...). His favorites are still dogs and horses and he gets SO excited when he sees them.

Excited to see a dog nearby

* Favorite foods: Bananas, pancakes, gogurts, pizza, anything sweet, cheese, hot dogs, mac and cheese, scrambled eggs, and he loves ice (if you consider that a food).

* He's Brayden's little shadow and tries to do everything that he does. Where Brayden goes, Ty goes! And that means he wants exactly what BB is playing with at any given time so the fighting between the two has begun...gotta love it. But on the other hand, the two are best buds and will play together for hours. I'm so glad they have each other!!!

* Loves to do funny things on purpose to make us laugh like plug his nose and talk or spin in circles until he gets really dizzy and falls over. He's a big goofball!

* Will color on his legs with a marker or pen anytime he finds one. He knows he's not supposed to, so he will hide under tables or in a corner now to do it when he has the chance. Why do my kids love to do this so much??

* Loves to play outside and will get his shoes and stand by the door ready to go as soon as he wakes up!

* Still sleeps with a binkie and a blanky but the binkie is on its way out soon. Gonna be rough!

* Loves to read books and will sit in his room quietly looking at them for a long time.

* Favorite games: Ready, set, GO (races Brayden), peek-a-boo, ring around the rosy, pat-a-cake, 1-2-3 jump, tickle monster.

* Will bring me a diaper when he's stinky and I tell him to get one, but then he'll run away as fast as he can as soon as he's given it to me. Still hates getting that diaper changed!

* He can be so fiesty/stubborn when things don't go his way and can throw a pretty mean tantrum(his screams are painful), but he is also my cuddly boy and gives me the best loves and kisses. Loves to sit in our laps and let us rub his back or play with his hair when he's tired.

* He just started holding his finger up to his mouth and whispering "shhh." He's quiet when he wants to be and thats about it :)

Crazy nap hair :)

I could go on forever because he's at such a fun stage right now! We sure love this boy and love watching him learn and grow every day and discover more of this world. He makes life fun and I LOVE being his mommy!!!

The Big Move

All about our last month....

1) Flew to Florida in August to find a place to live. It was awful and we had a hard time finding a place/area that felt like home. But we were blessed and 3 hours before our flight back to Texas, we got a phone call about a place we had seen online and as soon as we walked in the front door we knew it would work out. Thank goodness!!!!

2) We had to pack up all our stuff and move out of our apartment in Texas by the end of the month. It was nice because Guy's company covered the packing/moving costs, but it was still stressful.  I'm still trying to figure out how we have accumulated so much stuff. I swear it doubles with every kid and I'm sure it will only get worse down the road! I guess its good we move so much so we can sort through our stuff often and get rid of what we don't need. 

Our huge moving truck...we only filled up half but guy's car took up the rest.

Ty helping clean the apartment- he did this all on his own :)

And this is how we all felt...exhausted!!!

3) We had a trip planned since the beginning of the year to go to Oregon and run the Hood to Coast Relay (8/20-21) with Guy's family.  Not the best timing since we were in the middle of moving but it turned out to be great and lots of fun.  The race was really fun and our team ended up running 190 miles in 30 hours.  My kids had fun seeing all of their cousins even though they were little nightmares themselves.  Time change + no sleep = grouchy kids. Don't you love when you see family only once or twice a year and your kids act like that?

Riley and Brayden

4) The day we flew back to Texas (8/22) I started feeling really sick. I could tell I had a fever on the plane and my throat felt really swollen. I knew I had strep but I had to wait until the next day to go to a doctor and get antibiotics. Initially we were going to drive straight to Florida, but Guy had to work a few more days in Texas first.  So the next morning, Guy goes to take me to the doctor and we get down to our car in the parking lot and we found out we had a flat tire! Can you believe it!! So I had to wait until the afternoon and by the time I got to the doctor's I could hardly talk or swallow. She took one look in my throat, told me it was covered with blisters and pus (gross, I know) and she didn't even need to do the strep test. So antibiotics were heaven and I started to feel better right away.  I totally forgot how bad strep can be. I haven't had it since high school!

This is how we found the boys sleeping at the hotel in the morning. Hilarious!!!

5) Day 1 of our drive (8/25): We woke up at 4 AM and drove 11 hours to Pensacola Florida. Guy drove the whole way since I was still feeling sick.  What a good hubby! The kids did pretty good in the car until the end when we were all just anxious to be there. We checked into our hotel and then went and checked out Pensacola Beach. Brought back memories of all the old spring break vacations we used to take there when I was younger. The sand was so white and soft. I loved it and it was fun to see the boys running around smiling and happy.

Pensacola Beach

6) Day 2 of drive (8/26): We woke up early again and decided to drive to Orlando instead of Tampa since we couldn't move into our place until Saturday. We had some time to kill. Randomly that morning, Guy had gotten an email from Marriott with some of their deals going on in the U.S. and one of them happened to be in Orlando. They had a night at one of their timeshare resorts for the same price as one of their hotels. So we were excited and were able to stay there that night instead. We got to Orlando around noon and we couldn't check in until 4 so we changed into our swimsuits and hung out at their amazing pool. It was awesome and nice to relax a bit after the long drive and before the craziness of moving in and unpacking began. We stopped by downtown disney that night and had fun browsing the shops and the boys had fun playing with the legos.



Downtown Disney- BB's pirate face



I think Ty thought they were real :)

7) (8/27) Drove an hour up to Tampa and got the keys and stuff for our new place.  Movers came on Saturday and moved us in all morning. We spent the rest of the day unpacking and attempting to get settled.

8) And present day, that is still all we are doing. Trying to get unpacked and settled. It sure takes awhile, especially with 2 kids undoing everything you've just done.  We like our place so far. We are renting a 3 bedroom townhome so the extra space has been nice. The best part is having a laundry room upstairs. It makes it so convenient! The worst part is we have ants in our downstairs. It's just lovely. The pest control guys came and sprayed and said they were red ants which makes me freak out even more.  Seriously why do I always live in the south when I hate bugs so much??? It;s like a given when you live somewhere warm. It was cockroaches my first year in texas and now red ants here. We'll get the problem resolved but seriously it's a pain. I feel like all I do is clean my kitchen so that not a crumb is left out. Who wants to do that all day?? Plus its almost impossible when you have 2 young kids who eat a cracker and about half of it ends up on the floor. I can't keep up :(

9) I am trying to get Brayden into a preschool here. In Florida they have them for free and they are in the elementary schools. Nice huh! I'm afraid since school has already started that we'll be put on a waiting list but I'm hoping they can fit him in somewhere. Preschool would be so good for him so keep your fingers crossed for me!

10) I think that just about catches me up to the present day.  So far, I think we will like it here. It's different then Texas and I miss it there every day, but I know we can be happy anywhere we live. There are lots of fun things we can do as a family here so I am excited to make our year and a half worthwhile and make lots of memories together! But I do feel kind of lonely and lost here. It's so hard to have to make all new friends and to adjust to a new place.  We all missed Guy when he started his new job. Ty would yell "Daddy" down the stairs all day, looking for him. But Guy seems to like his job so far and the people he works with are really nice so thats a good thing.

Spent an evening with the kids at Clearwater Beach...it is beautiful!

11) Ok one more real quick...Guy went on a run on Saturday (9/11) and saw his first alligator. Isn't that freaky! It was just a little one in a pond by the sidewalk, but still an alligator. Not in a zoo.  Not with a fence around it. Right by our neighborhood! I'm not sure I can get used to this!!!