Art & Baseball

We took the girls to an art festival called Art in the Square that happens in our home town each year. Although we looked at very minimal art due to the kids running around and needing food and entertainment, we had some fun being outside and together.

Smoothies & wagon rides

Fun on bounce houses {Janie couldn't make it up to the top!}

Totally exhausted!

We also took the girls to their very first Rangers baseball game! The game started at 7:00 so we had NO idea how they would handle being out that late, but just thought we would see how it went. They actually did great! Janie did get tired in the middle and started asking to go home, but she just laid down on someone and was happy. We stayed the whole game so that we could see the fireworks show afterwards, which Nora loved and Janie really did not love.

Our new special green Rangers hat!

Getting sleepy....

And to top it all off, we went to the girls' spring fundraiser at their daycare the next morning. They were able to play games, pet animals, take pony rides, and enjoy bounce houses, among other things. It was pretty low key and the weather was great, so they really had a good time. Oh, and we ended up winning some tickets to a truck race at Texas Motor Speedway, of all things, so we will let you know how that goes!

Trying to feed the bunnies!

Pony ride!

April Fun

Just to update on some of the fun we've had in April...

Mimi & Pops took the girls to a little carnival one afternoon. We were busy with something, moving or house hunting maybe? Both girls appear to have had a blast riding what they were allowed on for height!

Nora is up there with Pops!

We celebrated cousin Amy's birthday at Babes!

My long-time girlfriend Christy moved back to North Dakota!! We sent her off with a going away party. I love seeing these great ladies!

Pops and I took the girls to the dragon baseball game. We waited forever for popcorn & they did surprising well for staying up past their bedtime!

Waiting for popcorn.

Ready in our dragon dresses!

We celebrated a house contract with ice cream! Or maybe I just needed an excuse to get ice cream because the girls didn't really know any different...

We are looking forward to more fun this spring!

Feeding the Ducks

Pops has taken Nora to feed the ducks a couple of times whenever she is at their house, just like my sister & I did when we were kids. Now that we are living with Mimi & Pops until further notice, Nora likes to go on walks in the neighborhood to the park & to the pond where the ducks are. I decided to tag along one day when both girls were going.

We had read that bread was bad {nutritionally} for ducks and decided to take frozen peas instead. As it turns out, ducks do not so much like frozen peas so it was kind of a bust. We are already making plans to take back something that is more nutritious but also something they will actually eat. 

We did get to see the cutest little baby ducklings while we were there! They all followed after the mommy duck and then darted to get the food, but then didn't eat it. It was my favorite part, not sure about the girls! 

Nora wanted to stay and walk all the way around the pond so we had to convince her it was time to go. After awhile she wanted to try the peas herself and decided she liked them! So we took our peas in a bowl and ate them on the way home.

Hopefully we will have better luck next time!

Goodbye Grapevine

We decided to buy a house shortly after we got married in May of 2009. By September of that year, we had moved into a perfect sized house in Grapevine, the same city we were married in, that we could make into our own.

When we moved in, we knew that we would be there for 5-10 years. We settled into the little house on Dove Creek Place as a married couple and started changing the house to our liking right away. Looking back, the house we bought is so unfamiliar to me!

A few years later, we brought our first baby girl home to this house. We took her newborn pictures in our backyard. We rocked her to sleep in the upstairs corner, we prepared her baby food in a newly renovated kitchen, and we gave her a bath in the bathroom that her daddy tiled himself. She took her first steps in the playroom and enjoyed all of her first holidays at this house.

We learned we were expecting a baby sister - cried & laughed about it in this house. I'll be forever grateful that we lived so close to the hospital after having to drive there in labor. {Bumps plus contractions do NOT equal fun times!} We created our new normal with two little girls at this house. We again rocked and bathed and fed and watched Janie take her first steps by the Christmas tree. We watched our babies grow into playmates and friends.

We've celebrated birthdays and baptisms and countless holidays, all which have created memories that will last a lifetime.

We decided that it was time to sell our house this past fall when the market showed a lot of promise. We knew that it would be challenging to get the house ready & have showings while in school, with two toddlers, and with Justin traveling each week, so we started prepping the house and decided to list it in early spring.

When the time came to list, we moved to my mom & dad's until the house sold and the chaos settled down a bit. The house moved quickly and we were back in a couple weeks. Knowing that we had some time before closing but that we also had to get ALL of our things out, we tried to find the balance between packing up everything & living out of suitcases and leaving too much out. We saved the girls things until close to the end so that they wouldn't be too disturbed by the move, and overall they handled it very well.

By the end of March, we were pretty much packed up with an empty house. We signed the papers & made it official. We spent our last night in the house eating a picnic on the living room floor {the girls loved it!} and sleeping on mattresses only... except for Janie who is still in her crib. Justin & I even moved our mattress downstairs to the living room so we could watch a movie.

Playing in an empty bedroom!

Picnic in the living room.

Did we leave enough notes for the new home owners???

Celebrating the close of our home!

We are celebrating, I promise, but this move has been bittersweet. Probably mostly for me. There are so many little moments that we have shared as a family in this house. I cried a few times. I don't know if the girls will remember our first home, but I will never forget! I am so very grateful for our time here.

FOLLOW UP: After many house showings and surely driving our realtor crazy, we have found a new home & will be closing on it at the end of May, God willing. We will update you when we can!