The BIG move

So, it's no secret that we relocated from Rowlett

to Plano

at the beginning of the year (can you tell we like red brick? A long-time love found in our second home is the limestone :-)

Even though we only moved about 11 1/2 miles, it sure felt like more because of the process! We became serious about house-shopping/tire-kickin' when the interest rates dropped to an all-time low. Brett did some research about selling vs. renting, and our realtor was on-board with us listing our first home as a for sale or for rental property.

Right out of the gate, we had lots of bites for renting, so that was our sign that it was just the easier and less stressful way to go. So, when we got an offer from an older (i.e., trustworthy) couple (she's a nurse, he's a cop) who were wanting to move in the day after Christmas, we had to find our new home STAT! Over the course of a week, we looked at 30+ homes (I lost count) six out of seven of those days in Plano, Richardson and North Dallas. Phew, I am just tired thinking about it again! We joked with our realtor, who last time only had to help us buy and not sell (and after looking at a mere SEVEN homes in 2006, we found THE ONE), that she earned her commission this time :-)

Here is Jameston testing out the front yard at the house which would end up being the runner-up, located in South Plano...

Load 'em up and move 'em out...thanks Becca for all the boxes from AT!

Such a great lil packer (err, I mean UN-packer) he was...

"Here you go, Mommy. Got all the boxes ready for you!"

"Or I can just climb into them if that makes it easier :-)"

The boy loves to "sweep!"

And so we moved out officially on New Year's Day. There was NO way we were going to be able to get back from Christmas celebrations and move out in time for their December 26th request. Brett's brother, Cade, and his family were gracious enough to let us move in with them for two entire weeks. So kind of them...and, hey, the cousins had SO much fun being roommates for that time! Memories...And messes! Jameston learned all about dolls and the proper way to carry purses during our stay :-)

While we were there, Dallas received the first Winter blast on Sunday, Jan. 9th. So fun! Jameston gearing up for running around in the snow...

He was still just long enough for a quick pic with Mommy

Ms. Riley

All the kids taking a cat-nap on our way home from church one Sunday. Priceless!

Oh, and they had plenty of bath parties! Could not get them out of there some nights!!

Our little guy was a TROOPER by sleeping in his Pack 'n Play for two weeks! In fact, he slept better than we did!

Even with a double ear-infection that second week :-(

We were sure to go by his daycare, Whistle Stop, to say goodbye to his teachers (he sure loves Ms. Chris),

some of his classmates,

And his partner in crime, Zayden!

We are sure going to miss that place! He is doing great and adjusted well to his new daycare, which is at a daycare down from road from our new casa. Kids are more resilient than you think. Thanks goodness!

Moving day: January 17th! With lots of help from our families (since we moved smack dab at the beginning of Brett's busy time of tear), the second move went smoothly. We rented a P.O.D. to store our most of our belongings in (crazy how an entire house can fit in a small space like this), and what we couldn't fit in there was crammed in our cars and Cade/Jessica's garage for the two weeks. I didn't get many pictures because we were so BUSY!

Jameston checking out the media center downstairs. It served as a great changing table until we got his moved in!

Helping both Papa's put together a table

Helping Mommy load the new fridge

Learning from Daddy how to set up for a fire

Such the big helper! Already wanting to help sweep in the new house :-)

Although we are nowhere near settled in, we are slowly but surely making this our home.

And we aren't moving again for a LONG, LONG time!!

Play date/Date night

Back in December (I'm so behind on blogging!), my niece Aspen graced our presence so that her Mommy and Daddy could celebrate their anniversary with a dinner/movie date...

After a long day of work and with a mess of a house (before the move), I was worried it would be a CrAzY night, but it ended up being a piece of cake! These two had an absolute blast together...

They did make their fair share of messes, but it was so much fun to see them, only three months apart, play together!

Looking forward to many more cousin playdates in the future, especially since our new home is a little bit closer to Little Elm :-)

New Year celebrations

We continued the Christmas celebrations and met up with my siblings, dad and step mom in Flower Mound New Year's Day (the day after we moved out of our house in Rowlett and to Royse City to live with my BIL/SIL and their two girls). It was an action-packed couple of days to say the least! My camera and video batteries had died (thanks to Brett having packed them in the move...but, hey, I am not complaining because he did SO much of the packing since I had to work), so I was stranded for a good two weeks without a camera. Not an easy thing around the holidays! So, alas! Here are a few pictures taken from my step mom's camera...

My guys

My beautiful sis and her lil' bit, Aspen, who just turned 1!!

Blooper reel...trying to get two toddlers to take a group pic. HA!

Take 2

Good enough, even though Jameston is mid-blabber :-)

The cutie-pies in their coordinating sweaters

Time for presents! Again, Jameston made out like a bandit thanks to Gramps and Grammy

He LOVES, loves his new truck and hard hat :-) Seriously, they are daily favorites!

And even loves dunking on the dump truck?

Love this picture! Can't wait to see what future holidays have in store for the Stewart clan :-)

Thanks, Dad and Glenda, for hosting such a fun (and memorable) time for us, especially the grand babies!

Christmas in March

Not really. That's just when I finally got around to blogging about it! We headed to Wichita Falls on the 23rd to see my mom. While there, we made sure to stop by the Fantasy of Lights Christmas display.

This is one of my fondest holiday memories growing up, so I was glad we were able to take Jameston.

On Christmas Eve morning, we headed to San Angelo to see Brett's dad's side of the family. As usual, a wonderful time was had by all (especially Jameston, since he was a little more active this Christmas compared to last :-)

Here he is diggin' in to a gift on Christmas Eve! Our baby boy was spoiled by his Granny and Papa and aunts and uncles :-)Cutie-patooty second-cousin, Ian, who is just one month younger than JW. Oh, the fun they will have together!Really, the only time he would sit still...The boys!One of his favorite gifts: his "foo-ball!"Christmas morning! Playing with the tape...some of the best toys are the wrapping supplies and boxes the gifts come in!He lovedGage's Toy Story toys...don't know what he's trying to tell us here :-)Christmas day was a blast! One of my favorite pictures...The kids LOVED having Memaw play with them in the playroom! Aunt Patricia gave all the little ones matching pajamas to wear on Christmas night! It was HILARIOUS trying to get them to all look at the camera at the same time. For brevity sake, I'll leave out all the bloopers :-)

Here's the best one we got!The Winters' crewAnd the cousins with their MemawAnd the kiddos plus spousesCute pic of Ms. Layne and Jameston enjoying the playroom one more time!Right before we hit the road to travel back to Dallas! We had a wonderful Christmas and can't wait 'til next (I mean, this) year's! I guess that's the plus side to my belated blogging...less than 10 months :-)

Happy New Year from the Winters...

A little overdue (but, hey, this gal has been without some crucial internet supplies for, like, 2 whole months)!

Slowly getting there...

With the move three weeks ago and the recent weather, our family has been operating on slow-mode it seems. Sure, we've mostly moved in and have only about 5 boxes left to unpack...but we are definitely still not back in our normal routine quite yet. We should receive our office furniture this Saturday (it's been delayed with this crazy weather). Because we have not set up the study yet, we have neglected getting our Mac set up, being that we didn't want to have to take it all down again after just a couple of weeks. Yeah, we're lazy like that!

In the meantime, I tried to upload the BlogPress app (because I do take quite a bit of pictures with my iPhone), but to no avail. Me and technology don't get along too well. So, I've been reading others' blogs without doing much blogging of my own. For all you family (and friends) out there who are wanting to read up on our little guy, please do not fret :-) I have lots of pictures to transfer to the computer (and send your way), and bookoos of posts to write. Okay, maybe not bookoos...we don't live that interesting (to others, at least) of lives...but I do have some projected posts up my sleeve!

Speaking of our little guy, this mommy has been able to stay at home with him some over the past two weeks of crazy weather. We've had a blast! But we've also had some cabin fever that, I believe, has brought about some behavior issues. Let's just say we are getting lots of practice with time-outs these days :-(

Who, me?

Yes, you...Mr. Testing My Parents and Seeing What I Can Get Away With! I definitely did not expect to be doing time-outs so early and so often. Goodness, I have a lot to learn!

Because you can only think of so many things to do inside (and because JW would look longingly out the window too many times to count), we finally did venture out last Friday after we received about 4-5 inches of snow in our new neck-of-the-woods. Oh, we had fun that morning!

And Brett was able to come home early from work to enjoy our beautiful, albeit frigid, surroundings. I took lots of pictures, so that is one of the posts I promise to comopse once we are up and running again :-) Until then, Happy Winter!