Formal Living Room

We got our shutters on Monday. We have weird arched top windows so we had to get special ordered shutters. This is how they install them. I thought it was wild. I never see anything like this before. For this big window they put in a frame, and then put the pieces in it and nail gunned it to the wall.


This is the shutter for the office window. It just fit in the window frame like a puzzle piece.

Alex loves our new couch.

Tada - our new formal living room. I never thought I would have a 'formal' living area. These are Ikea chairs, Ikea table and our new shutter and my beautiful wine color on the walls - thanks to Joe.

I need to figure out what to put ON the table. I have these really nice oversized vases from Ikea and I was thinking some sort of fake flower arrangement. Any ideas anyone?? Keep in mind, I like SIMPLE and Less is MORE.

Joey's 4 year old wellness visit

Joey posing for the camera in the waiting room.

They have the coolest train system that travels the ceiling. Unfortunately it was broke. Poor Joey was so upset.

Joey's Monster truck tattoo. His first ever tattoo and he was so proud.

Let's see. Joey had his 4 year old wellness visit. He was going to get shots and I warned him in advance. I told him he would get shots like he did last year and he was going to be brave like he was last time.

He met the new Dr. We see Dr. Catherine Frank and we love her. It's so nice to find a great pediatrician in a new town.

Joey talked over us most of the visit. He just could not stop talking! He had his eyes checked and they read it at -1.25 or so, so we got a referral to the pediatric eye doctor and he has an appt on Feb 13th. They said it could be a false positive. I hope so. I can't imagine Joey with glasses this early in life!

He has an ear infection but because he still has a tube in the right ear, it's draining. I need to give him drops.

I also got a referral to the allergist in town. He needs to have another allergy test done.

Joey got three shots. He was supposed to get 5. He didn't get the MMR and the Chickenpox because I was concerned of the eggs in the shot. He's highly allergic to eggs and when he got the MMR when he was a year old he spiked a 104.5 temp for three days straight. It was awful. So she wants me to go to the allergist and have him retested and ask him what he wants to do about those two shots he didn't get.

He has a planter's wart on the bottom of his foot. She said they no longer freeze them because they come back worse than before. She said a young immune system like his should fight off the virus and it should go away. If not, we have to go to a podiatrist to have it removed. She said to just wait and see.

He was soooo good for his shots. He got three, cried for less than 10 seconds and was totally fine. They gave him an army guy, a tattoo (above), sucker and a sticker. They are such a nice office! Joey was so proud!

I promised him if he was good we would go to McDonalds and get him a shake afterwards. So off we went to McDonalds. I get in the drive thru line and he's so mad because we didn't go inside. He wanted to show off his new tattoo on his hand! LMBO!

He got a oreo McFlurry and loved it. He had a good day!

Justin loves the tub!

The kids love the tub!

Tonight Joey wanted to eat dinner and when he was done, he wanted to get in the tub. Justin always wants to get in the tub. It's even more fun now that I have a jacuzzi tub which is oversized - both can get in and have fun.

I put lots of water in one day and put the jets on but they didn't like it at all.

I still have not tried out the tub. I really want to but I'm so busy in the evenings. Tonight I cleaned for 45 minutes (the downstairs is sparkling - tomorrow I hit the upstairs to clean) and then I took a shower and now I'm blogging!

By the way - we have a WEBCAM!!! Yes we do. We talk to my mom on Windows Live. SOOOO if you guys want to talk to us, go out and get a webcam and we'll talk.

My mom and dad bought a webcam before we left and tonight was the first time we tried it out. We got on Windows Live, I called her and we connected. The boys loved seeing Grandma on the camera and talking to her on the pc.

The kids really miss seeing the family. Now and then Joey will say something about going to Grandma Norma's, or seeing Grandma Char or going to Nana and Pappa's to see tractor's or going to show something to Grandma and Grandpa Dziekan. I have to explain we aren't that close that we can just drive to see them. I still don't think he really understands.

Proactiveness on Joey's part

Well, Joey was being really proactive. He went #2 in his pull up just a little bit, and decided he needed a new one so he put a new one on by himself and proceeded to put on his pants. I thought it was the funniest thing I've ever seen. Give him an A for effort but we definitely changed him before we went out that day!

Inside out :)

Our neighborhood

The cool part about where we live is that we have a lot of things to do. We decided to check out the hike/bike trails in our sub division. This is where it starts in our sub. It sides a greenbelt and it's very peaceful.

We took a long walk. Joey rode his bike.

Lots of bridges on the path. I can't wait to go for a run.

After we went walking for a good half hour, we found a bridge, fishing pond and huge playground!

More photos of the neighbhood.

The fishing ponds. So pretty.

Joe checking it out. A family came up shortly after and the father showed his three kids how to fish. It was so nice.

Joey and I.

We finally found the school Joey will be attending (by accident - we were just walking through the trails!) - Eddins elementary. It's a big school and looks really nice.

The playground we found...

The playground we found. Isn't this nice?

Joey loves the swing.

Aren't we cute?

Joey loves loves loves his bike! It was about 55 here today. It was supposed to reach 65 but it only got to 55. Heck - I'll take 55! It was sunny too.

The playground we found....

The kids loved the swings. The bottom of the slides were wet. What a bummer!

I wanted a photo of Justin so I grabbed the swing and held it up and he got mad at me!

Swinging Joey!

Justin loves swinging. He smiled ear to ear when I showed him the swing.

Our street.

This is the trail that is on the other side of our street. The houses in front of Joey is on our road.

The round about in front of our road.

Our street. You can see the golf course to the left of the house in front of Joe.

Joe holding Justin. He got sick of riding in the stroller.

Our home

Our home. We obviously have dish (can you tell, it's sticking out funny on the roof and I never noticed until just now!).

My office...

People have been asking for photos of my office and furniture. This is my ikea desks and Ikea shelving unit. I love it. The walls are painted a little bright (hehe) and there is actually picture frame molding on the wall, so the molding is white, and the inside is cream, the outside is the color of our bedroom.

This is where I live during the day when I work from home.

Our get together

We got together with Sean from Joe's work that already moved down here. This was our first get together as a family with another couple since we moved down. We went to our favorite restaurant - a steak and tex-mex place called La Hacienda Ranch.

The famous bear in the entrance.

After dinner the boys LOVE to ride the horses!

Sean's wife Deri and Isabella. She's a doll. Deri is a sweetie too!

All the kids enjoying a ride.

This wasn't my first time out. On Thursday night I got together with one of my mom's club's I met on www.meetup.com. The group had a mom's night out dinner date at Applebee's and I met 4 mom's - Mandy, Amy, Lauren and Kendra. We had a great time. We had margarita's and a nice meal and talked about mom stuff. It was nice to meet new mom's in the area!

Then today I had another meetup with another mom's group from meetup.com. We had a brunch get together at the local chick-fil-a restaurant. They have a playground in their fast food restaurant much like McDonalds has. The two women who help out in the group didn't stay long as one had a birthday party to go to and the other had to leave because her son was getting cranky. I did meet a wonderful woman named Galena. She's from England and we talked for about 2 hours. She just had a baby 3 weeks ago and her son Isiah is Joey's age and they got along really well. I know we'll get together again. She lives right down the road too!

So we are doing well. I'm already getting out and meeting girls! I figure, what the heck - might as well meet people since I don't sitting in my office all day! ;)

I love love love Texas. I think it's a bunch of stuff. I love our house. I love the neighborhood. I love all these new big houses around here. I love the warm weather. I love the people who are so nice. I love being close to lots of shopping - ie Ikea, Super Target, etc! I just really enjoy it here.

Our guest room is ready for guests! My mom was the first guest! Let me know if you want to be next!! :) We'd love to have you here!

The chaos of boxes

Boxes, too many darn boxes. This was my living room before we got furniture in it Wednesday. This was Tuesday afternoon right as the moving company came and took all these away. I was so glad to have my living room back. This pile is about 8 feet tall I think.

Family Room

Our new furniture. I love our new red couch.

Having new furniture is so nice. It really 'makes' a room!

Another view from the stairs without flash (the cats like it too!). Notice the one shade on the window missing? It fell on me the other day and when the window treatment installers came, they found it to be faulty and took it back to fix - hence no shade there right now.

Kitchen and Dining

Nothing really changed in here except I have a fridge now and it's unpacked and CLEAN!

My mother made those wonderful curtains. She rocks!

The view from the back of the kitchen.

The dining room.

Formal Dining Room

The dining room table set is new. We love it. Joe also painted the walls.

This is before on the LEFT side of the room. We haven't finished the right side yet. We need to get covers for the light on the overhead hanging light over the table still.

Our Bedroom Makeover

Last night we went out and bought the sleep number 7000 series. I think it's the EUX now. Anyhow it's wonderful. I can't wait to sleep on it tonight. My mom made the curtains. I love the colors.

The bedroom set is new.

The bedroom before.