Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Monday, August 11, 2008

XIT Rodeo


"National Miss Rodeo"
Nickel Scramble
Hayden is in the center of the photo in the brown & white polo.


Our kids had never been to a rodeo until Saturday. We took two trucks full of people up to Dalhart to the XIT rodeo. It is a big deal around here. Saturday was free BBQ night. You can't beat BBQ and a rodeo. Most kids from Texas that go to the rodeo just want to run around and see their friends. Not our kids; they were there for the rodeo. They loved watching all the different events. Their favorite by far was the bull riding. They did enjoy the clown and the trick riding and barrel racing also. Hayden's favorite part was the Nickel scramble. They called all kids under the age of 10 to come out in the arena. Hayden jumped up and headed to the fence. We tried to call him back, but he wanted to go. He said, "but mama, they said all the kids under 10 get to go and that's me." I took him and put him over the fence and told him not to get run over. He was so excited and had no idea what he was about to do. They dumped nickels in the arena and let the kids dig in the dirt for all the nickels they could find. He didn't find any nickels, but he got to go into the rodeo arena at his first rodeo. He thought it was pretty cool.

Sunday, August 10, 2008

We got it!

The sun room

We signed the contract yesterday and plan to close the end of this month. We will be at 3110 Conner Dr. Click on the link to see a tour. This house had been on the market and then taken off for a while. It was re-listed Monday and we found it on Tuesday. It was the last house we saw and we all loved it. It was bigger than the other houses we had been looking at and the price was better than most of them. Yes, it is a 3 bedroom, but we have plans to convert the formal dining room into a fourth bedroom for Sarah and Rachel to share. There has been a lot of updating done already and we look forward to making this house our own. We will try to get more pictures of the bedrooms and backyard Tuesday during our inspection. We have already met some of the kids in the neighborhood. They were excited to come see why we were looking at the house last week. We love the trees and the older neighborhood. We looked at a lot of new construction and it just doesn't have the same feel. We can't wait to move in!

Hayden turned 6!






We seem to spend a lot of Hayden's birthdays moving. I think we have been in Texas for most of them. We celebrated his birthday a day early so we could have a party with cousins. We were in Lubbock, so we got to have a really fun Pirate party. John's sister Erin has four kids also, so we had a lot of little pirates to play with. The kids loved the eye patches and ear rings. We did try putting an eye patch on Lily and she was not too happy about it.

6 states in 2 days


Leaving Ohio



Day 1


Day 1
St. Louis Missouri- who needs a sign? (Day 1 and 2)

Day 2- Oklahoma

Welcome to Texas!


When we moved to Ohio, we went through Tennessee. We decided to go a different way this time so we went through Illinois. I wanted to share our roadside photos. We got to see the Arch in St. Louis; that was pretty cool. We know that for those of you that are stationed at Scott, it doesn't seem to be that big a deal.

Friday, August 8, 2008

Life on the farm








Goats and tractors and chickens, oh my! The kids have been feeding the goats and collecting eggs. They probably think they're farm kids now. My grandpa lives in Childress and has some chickens. He took the kids out to collect the eggs and they loved it. They collected 42 eggs! They wanted to take them home and try to hatch them. We told them that it wouldn't work, but Hayden insisted he could sit on his and it would turn into a chicken. We told him that only chickens could make them hatch. So now, the kids want some chickens of their own. Grandpa told them that he would save some eggs this spring to hatch some baby chicks. They are all thrilled at that idea and Rachel is already making plans. She wants to buy a cat collar and put her chicken on a leash to take it for walks. They have already asked my dad to build them a chicken coup. So, you make see the world's first chicken on a leash right here on my blog next spring!

We teach 'em to drive early in Texas

Learnin' to drive

There she goes

Priceless!


You're never too young to drive the tractor.

'Farm boy'

We stayed with my dad during the family reunion. He lives on a farm and likes to let our kids experience what farm kids do here in Texas. I heard him ask Kate if she had her driver's license the other morning and I knew what he was up to. He let her drive his truck down to the barn to take the trash to the dumpster and then drive back. She had never driven before' unless you count the Wii. She thought it was the greatest thing. PaBob made her day.




Later, that day, dad took Hayden out to drive the tractor in the front yard. You have to be 13 to drive the truck, according to my dad, but you can drive the tractor as long as you can reach the wheel. Hayden thought it was great!




Look out, we may have them all driving before you know it.

Wednesday, August 6, 2008

We are here!

We made it to Texas and have been going non-stop. We went to my family reunion in Childress last weekend and had a great time. We have been house hunting and have seen probably 20 houses in 3 days. Yesterday morning, we happened to drive through a neighborhood and found a house for sale that we hadn't seen before. We took a flier and we loved the square footage and the price. We were able to see it yesterday. Until yesterday, we were thinking we may have to settle for a much smaller house, or a less desirable neighborhood. We ended up seeing three homes yesterday that make up our top three. The house that we found driving around is at the top of the list. We are so excited about this house. It is 2822 sq. feet and has 3 bedrooms with the potential to make it 4-5 easily. We got pre-approved today and are looking to make an offer Thursday or Friday. The kids all love this house. It has a huge tree in the front yard and 'soft' grass. It was built in 1963 and has been updated in most rooms. However, Kate is begging me to leave the velvet wallpaper in the front entry. We'll have to see about that. My dad is coming to town tomorrow to look at it with us and I will take pictures of it then. We are hoping no one else knows about this house. It has been on the market for only 3 days.

We have done some exciting things and taken some great photos, but I will have to upload them and share more later. Now that we are done hunting, I may have a little more time. I'm not sure since this is our first home to purchase. We'll keep you posted and hope you're able to come visit.