Another Ten Year Old in the House

Isaac turned ten!  It was his soda birthday, non-caffeinated, of course.  Bless his heart, we really celebrated his birthday in what I called "moving ghetto style" because we received our household goods, the biggest of the three shipments, just two days before.  I was in major unpacking mode and barely stopped to package up his gift in an Amazon box with no wrapping paper to be found.  I did, however, pause the unpacking frenzy long enough to take everyone to the pool for a few hours.  After Daddy got back from work we went out to an early dinner at Buffalo Wild Wings.  He got his first soda!  I promised him that his dad and uncles will take him to play Top Golf sometime, but this fall is turning out to be quite busy.  

Isaac is a sweetheart who loves to help me cook and is my biggest fan at the dinner table, no matter what I cook.  I always tell him that he's my favorite child at dinner time.  ;)

The Birthday Month Begins

The same day we moved into our house on air mattresses and without a frig or washer and dryer was my nephew's birthday.  That weekend they had a big birthday party for him with, oh yes, a petting zoo!  In their backyard!  I think all future birthday parties I may or may not be able to muster up for my kids will never compare to this.  There was also face painting, a snow cone machine, a cotton candy machine, and a popcorn one too.  This birthday begins the month of August birthday series in which five more family birthdays will follow before we tear another page from the calendar.  It's a busy month.

After the party we had to make a quick exit to make it to a dinner party where the girls got to meet a bunch of 7th and 8th grade girls that would be gong to the same school.  The following day after Mass, my sister took her son, my three older boys, and myself to an Avenger live action show for their birthday gifts.  It was really fun and very clean.  I don't let my kids watch superhero movies or shows with the exception of the super old ones, like Plastic Man and Aqua Man or the 1960's Batman, because of the crude humor and other things.  I read reviews on this and it only had warnings of it being scary for young ones.  Judah was momentarily scared, but I leaned over and reassured him it was all just pretend fighting and his face relaxed.  I hadn't thought to prepare him for real people to look like they were beating up other real people.  I guess I should have explained stunts beforehand.

They've been a little superhero obsessed since this show.  I even took their superhero books and hid them in the closet to get their minds back on truth, goodness, and beauty instead of truth, justice, and the American way.  ;)

Sneak Peak at Our Texas Abode

August 1st was the day we could move into the house so we borrowed air mattresses, sheets, pillows, towels, a pack-n-play, and we moved on in to rough it for a little while without a refrigerator or a washer and dryer.

What was our initial reaction to the house?  Well, the girls loved it; in fact, all the kids did.  Everyone was happy with their room assignments.  I am not as cool as the dad on Cheaper by the Dozen, just sending off all the kids to fight for their rooms.  As a child I thought that was awesome, but remember being horrified by the thought, rewatching it as a mother.  I mean that poor Mark, nicknamed Fedex, just totally got stuck in a room by himself and left out...yet again.

I was pleased by the size of the rooms and was disappointed by the quality of the paint job and the general care of the home.  Paint had been slapped on and not even going all the way to the trim.  There are some things that have been Jerry-rigged, like the dishwasher and the backdoor.

I love the size of my new pantry  It is bigger than my kitchen in Germany!

The open kitchen and living area design is great, but the dining room is far from the kitchen which is not awesome when serving up dinner.

Our master closet is also huge and such a welcome change from the small bureaus (AKA Shranks).

In fact, all the rooms have walk-in closets and I plan to put their dressers in their closets to make more room in the bedrooms since we are all doubling up in the four upstairs bedrooms.  The girls in one, Isaac and Bobby are together, and Drew and Judah are roomies.  We decided against having a guest bedroom and having four boys in one room, but we are leaving the option to switch that by having a bottom bunk in Drew and Judah's room in case we want to move Isaac's top bunk to their room.  For the moment, Bob is still very happy in his crib so we are leaving him in there for now. 

Brian was less than thrilled with the house because he cares a lot about the care and perfection of fixing the house or when making "upgrades."  It is frustrating to him because he can't really fix anything up the way he wants and it doesn't seem like our landlord is going to be doing many of the repairs we asked for.  She's new to the business of renting and doesn't have a property manager which is a huge issue as it turns out.  

More pictures to come in the future when we have our furniture and things on the walls.  

Mexican Food and Fun in Texas

One of the first places on our list to eat at, besides Chick-fil-A, was Lupe Tortillas.  They have the best, melt in your mouth beef fajitas I have ever tasted.  I was good to be back.  I think I had some kind of taco/fajita every day for several weeks.  Any time we had left overs, I was eating breakfast tacos too with fresh tortillas from HEB.  

My cousin and his family ended up meeting us there to make us a group of 20 which is hard to get a table for, but we did eventually get to sit down and eat.

Another thing that we got to do was drive down (in two cars) an hour and a half to Shiner to meet Brian's dad's side of the family for lunch and a tour of the brewery.  His sister had been in town from Indiana and we wanted to see them.  Shiner was in between us and it was a place they were interested in going.  Isaac and his cousin, Carter, are just a couple of months apart and they had such a great time together.  They played a giant Jenga game after the tour.

It's good to be back with family.

Our Baby Fix

We made an overnight stop in Baltimore on our journey to Texas.  We were able to see two of our very best friends in Maryland, thanks to them traveling all the way to our hotel near BWI and hanging out with us in the lobby and outside at the picnic tables.  We didn't have a vehicle and it would've been a hassle to install car seats and try to squeeze into their two vans just to go to Chick-fil-A for a bit.  So we brought Chick-fil-A to us.  It was a brief visit, but it was so great to see them again!

Then we arrived in Texas late because our plane was delayed.  We were picked up in three cars, by my mom, sister, and brother.  We were all so relieved to be done with the traveling part.  That much luggage just makes it hard.  Just a few days after I had my two feet on Texas soil, a good friend of mine from college came over to see us with her new baby boy.  He was so itty bitty and smelled so good.  We all enjoyed getting in some good cuddles and love!

We were all in need of a good baby to hold!

My mom and dad were staying with my brother and we stayed with my sister, except for Brian stayed in a hotel near his work for the first week because we needed a place for the cat.  My mom came over some mornings to watch the boys while I took the girls to complete registration at their school and get their uniforms.  We didn't rent a van, just a regular car to save money since my parents were going to be around and I had cars to borrow for a while.  Brian bought a new commuter car within a week of being in the country.  A very kind Knight (from Knights of Columbus) whom we did not know offered to lend us his truck for as long as we needed it.  So we were able to get by with just Brian's new car and the truck until our van arrived, saving us a bunch of money.