christmas 2008

here and GONE. we had a fabulous day, filled with lots of love, surprises & food. what every holiday SHOULD be, right?

the gift giving started christmas eve with the annual 'new jammies' present. can you tell which of my kids is the handful?

this picture just CRACKS me up:

and here are some pics from christmas morning.

hudson saw this dog at the store one day and fell in love with it. i figured he'd forget about it but a few days before christmas, when asked what he wanted, this was the ONE THING he said. panic set in as the original location didn't have them anymore but persistence paid off and he was thrilled:

and JUST IN TIME for christmas dinner:

chuck, stacey, rowan and luke joined us for our first dinner in our 'new' home. i've never cooked such a grown up meal before :) between what i cooked & what stacey brought, we were all STUFFED by the end of the evening:

we baked a birthday cake & the kids sang 'Happy Birthday to Jesus.'

merry christmas to all of you. and thank you for making this christmas so special! xoxo.

oh what a glorious christmas eve!

we are H.O.M.E.

thank you GOD.

thank you ERIC the house fixer (as hudson calls him LOL).


there are still things that will have to be done after the holidays but that's just fine. and all my furniture (except the kitchen table) is still in the garage but again, that's just fine. because WE are in the house and WE are so glad to be here.

here are some updated pics (some with flash, some without) and a picture of our bargain tree we bought today since we couldn't get to ours. it is decorated with all of the pinecones that hudson and carson collected from our yard after the hurricane! this tree has a HISTORY :)

merry christmas to you and yours. may you FEEL as BLESSED right now as WE do. GOD IS GOOD!

i didn't send christmas cards out this year...

my address book is somewhere in our packed belongings right now. maybe i can do a new year's card? or a happy valentine's day greeting?

in any case, here's a virtual MERRY CHRISTMAS wish for all of you (circa 2007 :)

inch by inch, task by task

we're getting closer to coming home!


the walls are painted a lovely shade of golden ecru, the gorgeous granite countertops are installed, and last night the travertine backsplash was set in place.


the feelings, the emotions of watching this come together are a little overwhelming. bobby and i stood in the kitchen last night with the contractor...just in awe.


to look back @ how we purchased this home...that in itself was a MIRACLE! there was just something about THIS HOUSE that felt 'RIGHT' to us...even though i reeeeeally had some things about it that i didn't care much for...and then to experience HURRICANE IKE in all his wrath...but come out the other side with such an ENORMOUS blessing. it's still not completely settled, you know?


today they are going to finish the island (the brown portion is just primer right now). i 'think' the appliances may be put in today as well? monday the floors go in, tuesday the carpet will be installed in the study & wednesday we should be here to celebrate christmas eve.


here are some updated photos:

we couldn't ask for a more amazing christmas gift!

now, sing with me, "i'll be home for christmas..."

:)

what's new in the hood

hee hee.

L@@K!!! we have a hood above the space where our cooktop will go :)

and doors & drawers on the cabinets.

getting closer. can i get a 'wahoo?'

these are pics from this afternoon (notice it's starting to get cleaner too. that deserves one more BIG 'wahoo!').

happy birthday CARSON!

yesterday morning, looooooong before he should have even been awake, carson came BOUNDING in my room to announce that it's his birthday. he also made me sit up and look at how much TALLER he is now. (and then ran in the bathroom and weighed himself).

he's so happy to be growing up and i'm just a bit sad, missing that little newborn with the full head of dark brown hair and the deepest, darkest blue eyes ever.

where does the time go? it's been a busy seven years!

we had a great afternoon with uncle mark, cousin alexis, and friends kent and jana. carson is now in 'action figure heaven!'

here are a few pics of the birthday boy :)

you've heard of a barcalounger? this is a jana lounger LOL

birthday sillyness:

making some wishes:

football buddies:

and lastly, i just love the next picture. jordan picked out a remote control corvette for carson. love the look on her face watching how happy he is. she'll make a good momma some day :)

and the grand total...

for the ingestion of one cent

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$6,912.45

merry christmas hudson. for the next few decades.

it's a GOOD THING he's cute, huh?

HOUSTON, we have SHEETROCK!

wahooo! things are moving along in lee-land :)

electricians and plumbers have done their thing, ceilings and walls have been put in place and now the cabinetry has begun.

the island is not set where it will be...it will move over to the right more, toward the pantry. from left to right: the refrigerator cut out, the sink, the dishwasher, then on the right side, the microwave and oven (the island will have a cooktop) and the pantry.

the view from the breakfast room toward the kitchen (that's the pantry far right) and to the left of the pantry is where the wall-unit oven & microwave will be:

the view from the study (previously the step-down living room) into the great room:

where the fireplace once was, there will now be a built in media cabinet. obviously none of the doors are on anything yet. but we're getting there! (that's the island again in a different spot...i took this on saturday).

keep those prayers coming that it's all 'wrapped up' by christmas. that would be THE BEST CHRISTMAS PRESENT EVER!

stay tuned.

xoxo.

not all pennies are created equal

sunday night, hudson set out to prove that SOME pennies are worth FAR more than just one lousy cent.

for some undisclosed-never-to-be-known reason he decided that it would be a good idea to ingest one. so our boring night in adjoining hotel rooms at the luxurious comfort suites (i'm being sarcastic...not the boring part...the luxurious part) became MUCH more exciting once the confession was made.
our pediatrician recommended that we take him in for an x-ray, but was pretty reassuring that we'd be back to the hotel in no time, and then the wait for him to 'produce' the penny from the other end would begin.

as we waited in the ER, even the triage people were making penny jokes. no one was laughing when the x-ray was completed and it was discovered that the penny was lodged in hudson's esophogus (or hud's version: suff-a-guss).

they prepared an O.R., put hudson under general anesthesia and off he went.

the surgeon arrived shortly after. in his quest for the penny, he discovered that it appears hudson's aorta is not where it should be. and so we will be following up with a CT scan to find out more on that.

the price of retracting the penny: some ungodly sum, i'm sure.

the price of discovering a heart anomaly: priceless.

and once again, it all works out for the good!

and because there is ALWAYS some humor to be found in these situations...a quote from hudson, VERBATIM, as we left the hospital parking lot:

'mom, dad...that was FUN. next time when i do it with a marble...'

he didn't get to finish the sentence...

LOL

to be continued...

FOR SHE'S A JOLLY GOOD FELLOW...

i love jordan. she's such a good sport. she didn't even bat an eye at me posting her photo, all house-wived up from her costume party last week LOL


my friend stacey took us out one early evening to take some photographs of jordan. it was a glorious day and i think stacey got some GLORIOUS photos!


here are a few:

stacey is a natural light photographer here in the woodlands, texas. check out some of her other gorgeous photos @ rowanandlucky.com


thank you stacey for capturing jordan so beautifully! xoxo.

and so it begins...

we've waited...and waited...and waited...and finally it's time! our claim is processed, our contractor is hired and our walls are gone!

woohoo!

as of right now, we are staying at a hotel down the road. all of the 'suite' type places with kitchens are booked due to the amount of people who are also experiencing displacement due to hurricane ike. by the end of next week we 'should' be in a 3 bedroom apartment, if all goes as planned.

here are some photos of the progress so far (including some before pics to give some perspective to what it is you're looking at...some photos are from before we moved in, some are from after).

KITCHEN:

FAMILY ROOM:

FROM THE MASTER BEDROOM, LOOKING TOWARD THE FAMILY ROOM (the kitchen WAS on the other side of the wall with the stars):

DINING ROOM/LIVING ROOM (divided by the ugly spindles that i hated). the kitchen will now take up what WAS the dining room and the living room will now be a study with a full wall. PERFECT for our needs:

there used to be a step DOWN to the living room. now it's been filled up with concrete so that the floor plan flows better.

and the view FROM the living room (soon to be study) looking TOWARD the family room/entry way/dining room (soon to be greatroom/kitchen). NOTE the window to the left and then look past that...you'll see that the whole wall that created an entry way is history:

as the work continues, i'll be sure to add more photos!