The Wilson's Build Their Dream House

Have you ever seen the movie, "Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House"? For those of you that haven't, it's a wonderful, old movie starring Cary Grant about a couple that decide to build their dream house in the country. Everything starts out great but soon takes a turn for the worse, and pretty soon, their little project becomes a HUGE ordeal. Let's just say that the Wilson's do not intend to make this movie become a reality as we embark on building OUR dream house :)

We went out to the lot this week and looked around. In six months (HOPEFULLY!!!!) where Eli is standing, there will be a beautiful, new house for our little family!


I am going to continue to ask you to pray for us as we build. Pray that we stay on budget the best we can. Pray that the weather cooperates and doesn't interfere too much with the building schedule. Pray for an easy transition for Eli into his new house. Pray for my husband's sanity and his blood pressure and that he will be able to sleep during this entire process :) Pray for guidance and peace for us as we make decisions about the house.

Let the Chaos Begin...

Have you ever tried to live in your house, while packing items to be put in a storage room, while packing items to be given away to a shelter, while sorting through the things you'll need to take to the rent house, while trying to maintain a somewhat normal schedule for your 2 year old? If you haven't, you should try it! Talk about multitasking....

We are trying to do all the above as we prepare to move out of our house into the rent house by next weekend. It's all happening so fast, but as you can see, we're doing a little bit here and there every day. Who knew two adults and one child could have so much stuff?!?! OH.MY.GOSH. I had no idea! It's a good thing we sold our house furnished or else moving would have been A LOT harder. Now I've just got to pack away all the little items and figure out what we'll need now and what can wait until our new house is finished.

As you can see below, Eli has really enjoyed the labeling process. He's a great helper, too :) So far, he seems to be okay with all the chaos. He sees all the boxes in our carport and all the boxes in our house and says,"We move to a new house?" I know those are pretty much just the words he's heard us say and that he doesn't understand that we are literally going to a new house. However, I'm thankful that kids are very resilient, so I know he'll do great throughout the entire process.

Oh, and if you are in the area and ever need help labeling something, you know who to call. I'll just send this cutie over to help you :)

Spending Time with Grammy

After making our Valentine's Day card, we were all ready for a break. We went downtown for some lunch and to enjoy the beautiful-almost-spring day . Eli insisted on wearing my sunglasses downtown and the paparazzi were just unbelievable. I guess word is out that he's the star of my blog :)

We went to the coffee shop downtown for a yummy lunch. I love going to this place because of how it looks and feels on the inside.


This particular day they even had free entertainment! Eli loved watching the musicians play their instruments and tried to join them one or two times :)


After our yummy lunch, Eli got to eat some colorful ice cream. That was the highlight of his trip to the coffee shop :)


We left the coffee shop and went across the street to a local bookstore. Grammy and Eli met a furry friend there named Sugar. Eli really wanted Sugar to come home with him, but we convinced him that she needed to stay at the bookstore.


The next morning, we thought it would be fun to take a picture of Eli and all of his Toy Story friends. I didn't realize he had so many until this picture! WOW! He loves each and every one of them too!




We can't wait for Grammy to come back again!

Happy Valentine's Day

For Valentine's Day this year, I wanted Eli to have a special Valentine Card for his friends, one that they wouldn't just throw away when they got home. I get the magazine Family Fun every month and one of the homemade Valentine's cards they featured was a recycled crayon heart card. I thought this would be perfect for his age group and I knew that Eli would be able to help make it.

I searched the internet for a cute card to go with it and found this one at The Long Thread. Perfect! We were ready to start our project!

First, we had to peel and break lots of crayons into little pieces. Eli loved this part because he got to step on them and he got to karate chop them!

Our crayons were ready to go!

Grammy found these cute silicone heart trays for me before she came down for the weekend. They were originally meant for making ice cubes, but they worked for this craft perfectly!

Eli and Grammy loaded up each heart with different colored pieces of crayons.

Ready for the oven!

We put them in a 250 degree oven for about 7-10 minutes or until the crayons were completely melted. Then we took them out and let them cool.

Eli thought the final product was pretty cool!

Our first handmade Valentine card turned out SO CUTE! Now I've got to think about what to do next year...

Grammy Comes to Visit

Last weekend, Grammy came in to visit us and Eli was so excited to see her!


He was definitely even more excited when he found out she had brought gifts for him :) He got a pair of cute monkey pajamas and a nice church outfit he'll be able to wear next year. Thanks, Grammy!


And that wasn't the end of the gifts! Grammy gave him his Valentine's Day present, and he was quite interested in the card she gave him. It was full of stickers that he got to place on the card.




After Eli and Grammy decorated his card with all his stickers, he looked in the gift bag and found a friend from Toy Story that he'd been missing...Bullseye! Eli was one happy little boy when he finally got his favorite horse :)


But that wasn't the end of the gifts either! He still had one more present left from Uncle Josh and Aunt Andrea from Christmas. We didn't get to see them over the holidays, so this was the first opportunity Grammy had to bring their gift to Eli. He was really happy when he discovered two of his favorite friends stuffed in the box.


Eli played with his new toys and loved being able to spend time with his Grammy :) After his bath, he even did his Home Alone impression for us.


After story time with Grammy, it was time for bed. He started off in his room, but quickly decided that he wanted to sleep with Grammy, and Grammy didn't mind that at all :)

A New School for Eli? Maybe!

Eli has been going to a preschool three days a week this year for three hours a day and it has been SO great for him. He loves going to school and his teachers, Mrs. Audley and Mrs. Shannon, are wonderful. I can't say enough positive things about the program. Eli has made friends, he gets to do art and music, he plays outside, and he's learned a lot of structure. His teachers at school say he is so sweet and always follows directions and does what he's supposed to do. I'm always a proud Momma when I hear that :)

A few weeks ago, his preschool sent a letter of intent home with Eli for next year so they could get an idea of how many kids plan to return. Josh and I were torn. While we love the program and cannot say enough good things about it, getting Eli there by 9:00 and then picking him at by 11:45 is hard for two people that work full time jobs. Thankfully, this year we were blessed with Mrs. Cathy. She has been a true Godsend! Without her, Eli wouldn't have been able to go to this preschool at all this year. We love Mrs. Cathy and are so glad that she volunteered to be the one to drop Eli off in the mornings for us. Plus, she and Eli have bonded quite a lot this year and he's made a new friend :)

Before we returned the intent form to his preschool, we heard about an Open House at a private school in our area that was allowing kids who were 2 years old and who would turn 3 years old a few months after school started into their 3 year old program. We went there a few weeks ago during the Open House and fell in love with the school. We toured the school, saw his potential classrooms, and met with his potential teachers. The classrooms were beautiful and kid-friendly and the two teachers could not have been nicer.

We picked up a registration packet and filled it out and turned it in. While we ABSOLUTELY LOVE everything about the preschool program he has been going to, this school will fit with our schedules much better and will actually save us money each month, which is really good since we are pinching pennies for our new house adventure :) He can get to school by 7:30 and we can pick him up by 3:30, which works much better with full time working parents. During the week, he'll go to library, art, music, P.E., and Bible class. He'll do centers in the mornings and they still take about a 1 1/2 hour nap during the day. Two of his friends from his old preschool have also registered for the new school as well, so he'll know some of the kids in his class.

We are sad to say goodbye to his old preschool, but we are looking forward to all the fun he's going to have at his new school. He'll have to do the 3 year old class two years because of the way his birthday falls, but that's perfect with us. Now the only thing we have to REALLY REALLY work on is potty training. He has to be fully potty trained before he can go to his new school. He's been doing so well since he expressed interest in going on the potty. He goes at Mrs. G's house all day long, but for some reason is scared to go on the potty at his current preschool. Usually at home, he does very well, but recently he's started to regress and not want to go. We've heard from several friends that their kids did this too, so I'm hoping it's just a phase he's going through and that it won't last long! I even bought a pack of big boy underwear that I plan on using with him during my Spring Break :) They're SUPER CUTE! I can't wait to see his little booty in them.
I'm hoping that this summer he will "get it" completely, so next fall we can see him here...

The first 3 year old classroom we visited

The second 3 year old classroom we visited

Say a prayer for us as we try to tackle this potty training challenge :) I know he'll be able to do it!

Life Lately...

Life lately has been crazy for us, and it's only just beginning. In the next month, our lives are going to be completely turned upside down and inside out. We're going to begin building our new house!!!!! YIKES! Can you believe it?! Neither can we! It's something we've talked about ever since we moved here six years ago, but now it's REALLY happening!

Sometime around November we sold our house to a really nice family. They weren't ready to move in and we weren't ready to move out, so we agreed that we'd stay in it until the end of February. Now February is here and we're desperately trying to get everything together.

Over the past few months, my husband has barely slept at all because he's been working so hard trying to find us a place to live while we build our new house. Plan A was to move into a flip house we have a contract on, but unfortunately that's still tied up and we can't get our hands on it. Plan B was to find a house suitable for us to live in for the next 4-6 months, but so far we haven't had any luck there either. Plan C is to move in with his mom, Zue-Zue, until we can find something on our own. We looked at another house today and hopefully that one will work out. I'm trying not to be too picky since I know it's a temporary living situation, but I do want it to be clean, neat, and accommodating for a family with a little boy.

As far as the new house goes, we have plans picked out. Josh has met with several contractors and gotten bids, and the contractor he chose says he'll be ready to go in about 3 weeks. WOW! We went to Lowe's several weeks ago and spent the afternoon pricing everything we're going to need. As with anything that involves planning, money, and budgeting, I'd be LOST without Josh. He is so well suited for this kind of stuff and I'm so thankful that he's the one I have by my side to make decisions. He can make decisions so much easier than I can :) Plus, he LOVES to research, compare, and plan; he's much better at all that than I am.

Once the building process begins, I plan to take photos and do weekly blog posts to document the progress of our house...that's a BIG shocker, I'm sure :) I'm so happy about this next big adventure in our lives. I can't wait to begin!

"Except the LORD build the house, they labor in vain that build it:" Psalm 127:1