Sunday, September 8, 2019

House Hunted!

We bought a house! Or rather, we have made an offer on a house and the sellers accepted! We still have to go through the home inspection and still have time to change our minds of course, but if all goes well, the keys will be in our hands by Oct 11th at the latest! Here it is:

9108 Norfolk Ln, McKinney, TX 75071
So cute!!


As soon as we got preapproved for our mortgage we dived right into house hunting. Because I've been looking on Redfin and Realtor for forever, we already had a good idea of what we wanted/needed so it went pretty fast. We looked at a few houses with Curtis last Saturday and then a few more on Monday (Thank you Labor Day! haha) and then a new one had a price drop that put it in our price range on Friday, we went and saw it Saturday morning first thing and decided to jump on it! It checks all our boxes, has great curb appeal and is in an amazing school district. One of my favorite things about it is that it has a secondary master upstairs that will be perfect for when my parents or sister come to visit. There are several cosmetic changes we will need to make and it definitely needs a tree in the backyard ASAP but I'm starting to get excited about it. I sat down yesterday and made a list with Eric of tier 1-4 things that we need to buy/do for the house. Tier 1 are things to be done before we move in (like replace the kitchen floor and buy a washer and dryer) and tier 4 is things to be done sometime later down the road (like build a pergola for the back patio). I wouldn't say I'm in love with the house yet but I think I will be once we update it and get it how we want it. I think it's hard for me to be super excited about the house because I still feel really unfamiliar with the area. There's just so much unknown. We tried to go and visit the ward today. We drove 35 minutes to get there for 8 am church but when we pulled into the parking lot there were only a handful of cars. We were like, "oh no!" So we went inside and knocked on the stake president's door and sure enough, it was stake conference today! So I guess we will have to try again next week. Thank goodness we have until next Monday evening to change our minds and still get our earnest money back because I really need to see if the ward is welcoming/friendly/full of people our age before we decide for sure on the house. I mean, the church is just such a huge component of our social life and since we are planning on staying several years, it is crucial that we will be able to find people we click with in the ward. I need me some friends out here!

So that's our really big news. I'm excited to get into our own space in here. Since I last wrote in here, Matthew, Valerie and Silva have also moved into Trey and Patty's house. It's so fun to have them here and Silva and Emery are ridiculously cute together and like to share food with each other and give hugs. But it does mean more sharing of space, less privacy and our food and diapers are disappearing at an alarming rate! Haha. Although I have talked to them about the last issue and hopefully that will start to improve. Since they moved in, we have split up the days for making dinner. It didn't go so well last week just because Matthew had taken charge of Tuesday and Thursday and those are also the nights that Levi has soccer practice/games so the timing is challenging. We may have to switch some things around because on Thursday for example, I ended up having to scramble and make Levi dinner myself before we left because the meal wasn't ready in time for us to eat before we needed to leave (despite my telling Matthew at least twice that day what time we were planning on leaving for soccer). But it is nice to only have to menu plan and cook for half the days!

Emery and Silva. They like to ride in the little push car and take turns riding and pushing each other. Cousin playtime is the best! 

One of Emery's favorite activities is to ride in this little motorized car with Katie! She LOVES it.


Levi also likes to ride with Katie or Carson. He's hesitant to try to drive himself though.

In other recent news, I had two job interviews week before last in outpatient peds clinics. Both of them said they would get back to me by the end of last week but neither of them did which I'm guessing is a pretty good sign that I didn't get either job. Which is really a bummer. I feel likeI do not interview super well. I should probably do some practicing with Eric or something. He is great at that kind of thing. I did get a call on Thursday for a third clinic I had applied to and the lady said she would email me to set up an interview on Thursday or Friday but then she never did either. I wish people weren't so flakey. Just do what you say you're going to do! It's not that hard. If you don't think you'll be able to do it, don't say you will! It's so annoying.

Anyway, so I may be back to the drawing board on the job hunt which kind of sucks because I really do need a job and Levi is starting to really miss daycare and keeps asking to go to school. He is definitely ready for preschool. Although it has been a nice relaxing summer hanging out here at the ranch. He has gotten so imaginative this summer. He has imaginary friends (2 unicorns plus Poli, Amber and Roy from Robocar Poli the tv show) that he talks to constantly while he plays. He loves to be outside and is constantly climbing trees, playing "races" with his cousin Carson, "fixing" Papi or Nona's cars, watering the garden (and himself) with the hose, and just playing. He also likes to tell stories. For example, it just took him forever to flush and wash his hands after going potty because he kept getting distracted telling me about how Paw Patrol lives in his toy boat and how he climbs up on the roof and goes down the yellow slide and also about how grandma comes on Tuesday (we are all very excited!) and how we should make her a welcome sign and cookies and a goodbye sign and goodbye cookies and how he wants to show her his room with his clothes and especially his new pj masks underwear. He is definitely growing up.

Several weeks ago for FHE we had a lesson about how faith is like a seed and planted a little basil seed. I honestly didn't have alotof faith that it would sprout. I am not a good plant mom! But it actually did! Levi and I were so proud I took a picture of him with it! 

Just my little ranch boy out with no shirt and no shoes "cutting" the grass with a stick.

"Take a picture of me mom!"-instantly does emo face. So cute though! 

Emery is also growing up fast. Yesterday it hit me how she is no longer a little baby and how she is such a toddler now! She has started babbling more and more although she still doesn't have any real words besides "Dadi"and "hi." She does sign though: "more" "please" "all done" "help" and "thank you." I'm surprised she doesn't have more verbal words and I just can't wait for her to start getting those! Also she has started doing this cute fast walk/run that is adorable. She is also really into climbing and has figured out how to climb the kitchen bar height stools which is mildly terrifying haha. She also gives the best hugs and kisses!

Emery and Sytler (Josh and Haley's youngest son) sharing a kitchen chair until Sy pushed her off of it! #shouldhaveseenthatcoming

She climbs all the things!

Little thief managed to find Papi's secret stash of chocolate-covered Oreos and stole three of them before I caught her! She was soo proud of herself haha. 

Cutest little towel bundle ever! 

Oh also, Levi started soccer recently and it is just the most adorable thing ever and he loves it, even though he barely touches the ball during games.

Levi is very careful with the ball which is probably why he has a harder time jumping into the bunch ball of the game. It's a little too crowded and fast for him. He kicks well for kick ins and goal kicks though! 

Levi's cousin Westin has games and practices at the same time as Levi which is super fun! 

Last week at practice, Levi's coach had them line up like a choo-choo train and walk the lines of the field to try to teach them the concept of "out." We'll see at this next game if it worked but it was very cute! His coach seriously deserves a gold medal for teaching a bunch of little three-year-olds soccer! 

And the kids started music class on Friday and they both had a blast! It is so cute to watch Emery bounce to the music, and clap and laugh. She just LOVES music. I am glad that the class is only 6 weeks though because it would be a super long drive from McKinney where our new house is!

Also, Eric and I have been going on some fun dates lately. We've been to the temple, an FC Dallas game and then on Friday we went to see the Monet exhibit at the Kimbell Art Museum and went to a great Mediterranean restaurant afterwards. So grateful for an awesome husband who takes the time to find us babysitters and is willing to do fun things with me even in the midst of our busy life! So yeah, that's what's going on here. It's a lot but it's great!

Cute kiddos in their Sunday best! 

The other day the horses got out! Thankfully Rick was close by and able to come and get them back to the barn before they got far. 

They are the friendliest, sweetest horses! Two Saturdays ago I spent a couple hours taking some beautiful pictures of them for Emery's room because she loves the horses and they turned out great!