Home Sweet Home
It’s been one week now and we are all settled into the new home. I can’t believe it’s only been a week! Logan’s initial reaction last Monday evening as Dusty drove into the driveway was “This is NOT my house!” And had to be pulled kicking and screaming from the car. But after that first upset, all has been well. I’m grateful that I instinctively knew to have their room all set up like normal and all their toys out and set up. Logan came rushing into our room in the middle of the night each night but after the third or fourth day we talked to him about it and he’s doing better about staying in his own bed at night or at least letting us take him back to his own bed when he comes in.
Everything is unpacked and we’ve been dealing with some of the random things about a new home. Brad and I have both owned homes before so none of this is a surprise or new to deal with. We’ve made so many trips to Home Depot lately that the boys have started to refer to it as “the Orange Store”. I have some cute pictures to post from recent fun things going on around these parts but we still don’t have our home network completely set up but hopefully Brad can get around to that in the next few days and I’ll have new pictures and stories for next week.
Glen Rose Dinosaur Park
A while ago a new Dinosaur Park opened near Dinosaur Valley State Park in Glen Rose, a town that I drive through when taking the boys to or from seeing their Grandparents Trammell. They are probably old enough to enjoy camping at the State Park where there are some neat life-sized dinosaur models and I’m sure it would be fun for them to play in the Paluxy River, but this new park seemed much more their speed as it has a LOT of huge dinosaur models on a trail to go explore, a playground, and a fossil dig. So last time I had taken the boys up to their Grandparent’s house for the weekend we all went to the Dinosaur Park on the way back home. The boys were too excited to stand still for many pictures, but I managed to get a couple and plenty of the dinosaurs:
Finger Painting!
The boys made finger painted art for Father’s Day cards to their Dads and Granddads. They had a blast! Especially Forest who decided to pain himself as much as the paper.
Logan loved how pretty his hands got.
Forest banging his hands down to make a cool image.
Logan had to try that method, too.
serious artists:
So what if I put it here:
I like painting me, Momma!
Logan stays focused:
Brothers
The boys fight a lot at this age. I expect they will from here on out. I’ve said it before but I’ll say it again, I just didn’t expect the “stop touching me!” to start at such an early age! We can’t make it through the grocery store any more without fights for space erupting. But there are calms in the storm. Moments of sweet cuddles and sharing space, tickles and giggles. They have made up a game where one will lay on the ground or be on a playscape at the park and yell out to the other, “Help Brother!” “Brother, Help!” and the other will drop what he’s doing, run over and “help” the other one get up or pull up something. When Forest swings, he wants his brother to swing with him and will call across the playground, “Brother!” I hope that they will always know that the other is there to help him, that they will grow up calling for each other, dropping what they are doing to come running.
bath tickles and giggles:
Post nap move watching with Anya and snacks:
Marble Track Maddness
Like most kids, Logan and Forest love to build. They were introduced at a young age to a marble track at Granny Warren’s house that fascinated them. So we bought them a small one to play with, something I picked up in the dollar section of Target. Well, the boys (and Daddies) graduated to a BIGGER marble track a few weeks ago. Every day when Brad gets home from work they ask to play with the marble track and of course he does not complain.
Bigger then Life
The boys are daredevils and love to pretend to be superheros, Buzz Lightyear, and otherwise have powers to fly and jump and be bigger then they are.
Forest, To Infinity and Beyond!
Logan’s Spiderman web throw:
Forest playing with Papa Warren:
Logan’s stance:
And go!
cuddly
The boys are growing up and asserting their independence more and more. But they still crawl into my lap and say “me baby” on a regular basis as well. So I snuggle them, sing to them, and otherwise give them assurance that no matter how big they get, no matter how independent, Momma will always hold them in the way that only Momma can. They also like to “play baby” with each other and it’s really sweet to watch them pretend. Logan has taken to playing baby while crawling into the toy box of stuffed animals and I couldn’t resist a picture.
Budding Artist
Logan is an aspiring artist. He’s still learning all his various options and the mediums available. Currently he’s digging photography. He’ll take the digital camera or the iPhone around and take pictures. Here are some of his recents.
Orange Daddy’s fingers:
Forest sitting on my friend Dawn’s lap with Shaunna in the background:
Dawn and Forest:
Self portrait with the visiting lovely Dawn:
New Clothes
The boys have learned that mirrors are a fun way to check themselves out. Last week Nana Warren sent some new clothes and the boys just loved them, I think it is the bright colors that match their Daddies’ colors.
Checking out the new outfits in the mirror.
Logan trying to do the maze on his shirt.
A long and winding road home
A month ago we put a contract on a house that we fell in love with and we were supposed to be closing on it tomorrow. We had the inspection, no major issues, we scheduled movers, we had the bank’s appraisal, so far everything going in our favor. A week ago the underwriter notes that the bank’s appraiser saw two patched cracks in the living room wall and insisted on an engineer’s report before they’d give us the loan. We all thought that was ridiculous, a waste of money. But the engineer found two issues. First that there is sinking going on in the foundation on one side. A simple fix that doesn’t cost much (in the world of foundation fixes that is, which means under 7k) and that could even be done after we move in. The second issue though suggested a possible plumbing leak that is effecting the foundation. This one is major. Not only to the foundation work but the plumbing work would be in the 10k range. This past week has been one of baited breath and the seller is equally freaked. They poor man had already moved out, left his couches on the corner for trash pick up.
So this morning the plumber made it out and there is definitely some kind of leak going on but instead of under the house, he believes it is between the street and the house. The seller has agreed that he wants this deal done and is going to pay for the plumber to dig it up, find out what’s going on and fix it. He’ll have to fix it before this deal can go through. We suspect that it’s going to be covered under his home owners insurance so it’s not a horrible price for him. Heck, he’s owned the house for 20 years and stands to make a great deal of money from all of this even if he covers the cost to fix the foundation and all this plumbing work.
So another week will go by before we know if this house is going to be ours. In the mean time, this weekend we are researching back up options. One house that we saw in the same neighborhood last month is still on the listings and I’m hoping it may still be an option for us. Our lease isn’t up until the end of July so we aren’t freaking out. Well, not a lot anyway. Staying focused on the positive (thank god for the underwriter that we were so pissed at a week ago!) and having faith in bigger and better.
