Home Sweet Home...

or home on the range...or sweet home alabama...or in deference to Daughtry...we're going home. Well...almost. Uno mas week of separate abodes, but after that the band will be back together. Today was our final walk through (although we walk through again the morning before we close so I guess that's our FINAL walk through, but close enuf)...and things are really looking good. Mostly cosmetic things to fix...grout here, paint there, but nothing that's a showstopper at this point. I took a ton of pictures and the little green marks you see aren't spots on the photos, but the "fix it" tags we stuck all over the house. Hopefully now that it's about done you can get a sense of what it will look like when we live in it...ya know...walls, floors, lights, etc.

Front (with Paige doing her best Avon lady)...this little tree is new too.



You may not remember the sidewalk from earlier posts...well...it's ours now


Pretty pleased with the landscaping and the grass. We went with Zoysia in honor of the McClures.

Our number...



Backyard from the 2nd story view





Backyard view from the patio



Kitchen






Breakfast bar




Media room...don't those sconces make it feel like a theater?





Nana, Gabby, & Gram's bathroom



Upstairs game room looking across to Bryce's Room



Second story landing looking towards the game room


Second story landing and game room looking up from the family room


Family room fireplace...how do you decorate this thing?



The hearth is raised up so you can sit by the fire

Entry way (living/dining to the right, study to the left)

Stairs and study entrance

Formal Dining


Front door looking from family room


Master bedroom


Master bath


Paige is measring the steps from the entry to the toilet so she can find her way back in the dark

Busy Weekend

We went to Dallas for my cousin Marty's naming ceremony. We also fit in my birthday and Father's Day while we were there. We left on Saturday morning and picked up Russell in Austin. Russell and my parents went to Lowe's to buy some french doors for our new house. While they were gone for (2 hours!) Bryce and I hung out with Peter, Russell's current roommate. Poor Peter may not want kids after all that time with us.
Bryce got bored in the car so I gave him the camera. He took a picture of his foot.

Made it to Dallas just fine and then over to Jessica and Tyler's new house for dinner. Bryce loved playing with all the kids. The baby naming was Sunday and then back home we came.

Let's go swim!

My great aunt and uncle were nice enough to buy Bryce a pool. He loves it! Those of you that have seen him "swim" on the land know that he was born to be in water. He even likes putting his face in. Yes, I am watching him to make sure he doesn't drown.

Papa just gave him this great bucket and shovel set. It's perfect for the pool.

I think he's trying to crawl out...don't tell him he doesn't know how to do that yet.

Memorial Day

We took our annual trip to my aunt and uncle's beach house to celebrate Memorial Day with the family. We had lots of kids this year to keep everyone busy.

So many fun toys, why does everyone want the wooden spoon?

Group card game, Dede makes up new rules everytime she teaches someone how to play :)

Bryce shows Gabby how much fun it is to play on the floor.

Russell and Bryce are discussing fishing tips and tricks before Russell heads out for the day on the boat.

Goodbye Austin, Hello Canyon Lake

My parents came in on Saturday and helped us move out to the lake house. I think 99% of what we took is Bryce's stuff. That kid doesn't travel light. We're all settled in for the time being. Sunday we went to my parents' house. Bryce, Mother and I grocery shopped while the men played golf. Russ is back in Austin now and I'm out here until the end of June. I know these pictures don't go with what I wrote but moving pictures aren't very exciting so this is what you get!

Happy Mother's Day!

We celebrated by going to the Round Express game. Anything to get out of our house! Lara was in town and came with us. We're getting smarter and found a shady spot to sit in.

Making Progress

We went out to the house today...and we have walls! The exterior is about done (the stucco was painted the wrong color in back and needs to be re-done). Sheetrocking inside is almost complete so we should see paint on the walls soon. Very exciting!

This is the view into our kitchen.

Back of the house

Bryce and I had a big discussion about the progress of the house.

Backyard

Moving Out

We sold our house recently and have begun the move out process. Since the new house isn't ready yet, my grandparents were nice enough to let Bryce, Josie and me live at their lake house. Russell will stay in Austin with a friend. I'll be out of the house on May 19 and Russell will leave on May 30.

My grandparents came out this weekend to go over a few things about the house and we started taking stuff out there. How did we end up with so much stuff?

Take Me Out To The Ballgame

We took Bryce to see the Round Rock Express, Austin's minor league baseball team. We got berm tickets so that Bryce would have plenty of room to wriggle around. He had a great time!

They were giving out bats today to all kids under 12...is that a good idea?

Do you think Mom knows I'm drinking beer?

French fries at the ballpark are the best!

I'm getting tired. Maybe I'll just close my eyes for a minute behind my cool sunglasses.

Progress...finally

Well...after a few weeks of "inspections" (read: not doing anything), the crew was back to work on our house this week. They've started on the stone and stucco on the outside. Not much progress on the inside as we still have to our pre-drywall walk through (where I get to tell them what's wrong before the walls go up). So...hopefully that'll be soon b/c as of 5/30 we'll be homeless and the sooner they finish, the sooner we'll be able to move in. Here are some pictures...

First set is of the left side and the garage


They finsihed this whole side this week. This is also the left side just behind the garages. That section that isn't finished is called a gable...it gets done last. It's stucco, so they do the stone first.



This is the other side of the house (right side). The picture on the bottomyou can see the dining room windows on the far left.


Back of the house is getting stucco. Apparantly they have to do 3 coats before they can paint it. I think this is still the first coat.



Some random pictures of the backyard take from the right side of the house.



I tried to do a pano from the back patio so you can get a feel for how the yard lays out. It's got a long way to go before anyone is rolling in the grass.

Musical Prodigy

Bryce taught Russell a few things on the guitar recently. Obviously got his musical ability from Russell. Russell is actually worried that my singing nursery rhymes to Bryce may damage his hearing :)

Since we haven't done anything exciting lately, here's a picture from today playing outside. He's still not crawling. If he runs out of toys within his reach, he usually finds dirt or a leaf to occupy him.

Passover...a little late

We typically have seder on the closest Saturday to the beginning of Passover so by our family calendar, it was time for seder this weekend. We went to the Barbans to celebrate.

Here is a typical scene. Everyone is wandering around doing their own thing.

While we were thrilled to have "Rabbi" Arnold pose in this picture, it's really highlighting the new bib that Mimi just bought for Bryce.

While we still love the bib, this picture was better posed to show off the people in it.