Hello all! I hope you had a great Thanksgiving and day after. We sure did. Now, I wasn't feeling super as I've fighting a cough and yuck for the past several days, but there its always awesome to just sit around and spend time with my honey and kiddo.

Caleb is at such a fun age now and really had a ball playing with his cousins on Thursday. It was so great to see him actually playing together with them instead of just chasing/following them around. All but 2 of his cousins are older - 6, 5, 4, and almost 4 so he is really engaging with them now and he LOVES it!!

We spent Thursday morning at Kathy & Tom's house (Cheryl's older sister for the uninitiated) for a monkey bread breakfast that we brought over. After a couple of hours we headed back home for a little bit to make our rolls and homemade mashed potatoes then made our way out to Julie & Jesse's house (Cheryl's oldest sister) for Thanksgiving dinner. We had a great day just being together with family.

Yesterday morning Caleb video-chatted with Nana, Pawpaw, Aunt Amy, Uncle Barrett, and even cousin Lily a little bit. It is so funny to see Caleb interact with them over the computer even though its tough to keep him on the screen since he is constantly running around playing with them.

Last night Cheryl & I had a movie date, thanks to our great friends the Felkers. We all met at Sake, our favorite (and soon to me must closer) hibachi grill for an excellent dinner, and then we switched cars so Micheal & Sandy could take Caleb to their house and Cheryl & I could hit the movie theater. Its a good thing too since the movie started 20 mins before the website said.

After seeing Twlight (which wasn't that bad, when you know its A. not a horror movie and 2. not an action-packed vampire movie), we drove past our house (without a camera) to see the status. Its TOTALLY bricked and even our little address block is included too!! The front door and garage doors are installed and everything!! Its getting so close now we can almost taste it!

I would love to move in before Cheryl goes on her Costa Rican vacation on January 21, but we'll see how the final stages progress, especially packing....

Labels: Family, Good times, Holiday, House

Just a quick update this evening. Our house is progressing quite rapidly. So rapid in fact they have tentatively pushed our close date up 2 weeks! Now, I'm not so sure that it will stay there and I know the primary reason they want to close on December 31 is to get it off their books. Sorry, but I'm gonna be pushing for a first week in January close date. Got to get all the tax benefits right?

As you can see they have started brick laying and have most of the sides already done. The inside has all the sheet rock and even a fresh cost of primer on.





This is in front of the fireplace looking on the family room into the kitchen.

Labels: House

I went by the house last Thursday to see it before our trip to Little Rock and found this:



Still not a whole lot going on, but at least there had been a some progress. Well, after I got back to work on Wednesday I knew I needed to head out there again to just check on things. I planned to stop by during lunch on Friday, but before I did I called the contractor to make a very minor adjustment to some wiring options and he mentioned that the wiring was scheduled for the 13th.

The 13th?! As in November? Needless to say I was very curious so I headed out to see it and I could not believe the state of the house when I got there...or that I forgot to charge the camera battery and couldn't take any pictures! As Caleb would say "Aw man."

Fear not. Cheryl hadn't been to the house in a few weeks so we decided to visit this afternoon so she could see how far along the house was for herself. WOW!! There was significant work done just in the 30 hours since I had seen the house. Well, no more waiting here they are for your viewing pleasure.



From the back door - Looking into the Family Room and kitchen. (Cheryl, Micheal and Sandy are in the kitchen).


From the kitchen pantry - the breakfast nook on the right into the Family Room


The Fam

Labels: Family, House

So our niece Lily was born in the middle of August and we decided it was finally time for the 3 of us to meet her. We took a couple of days off work and headed up to Little Rock for an extended weekend. We also spent several hours in Searcy on Saturday visiting our friend Charlie (who officiated our wedding) and Alex.

Here are a few pictures from our weekend.

Playing with trains at Midnight Oil


Bubbles with Nana


Nana and the grandkids


Lily smiling for her Daddy


Getting a kiss from cousin Caleb


Just chillin' (Caleb found his pockets this weekend)

Labels: Caleb, Cousins, Family, Good times, Weekend