Christmas

Cole wanted to watch a Christmas movie tonight, so after much discussion we watched a VeggieTales called The Toy that Saved Christmas. Cole picked up on the fact that Christmas is really about Jesus, and his birthday, so that's a good thing.

Then sometimes when you think everything is going great, you realize you made a mistake and it hurt someone. You didn't mean to do it, you didn't even really think about it, but it happened. How do you fix it? You can say I'm sorry, but it's really not going to do any good.

For me, Christmas is about Jesus, but it's also about being with family.

Hope you are with yours!
Love,
Misty

It's Official!

Well, I did it! I officially have a Master of Science degree from the University of North Texas in Library and Information Science! Woohoo!

I have not even mailed out my Christmas cards yet...they are doubling as graduation announcements in the interest of saving a little money! So you will see them soon!

Cole had a great birthday! We went bowling for his party, and the kids loved it!

Cole rang the bell at Wal-Mart for the Salvation Army for his Clover Kids group (4-H for little kids). He had a great time. What a wonderful lesson for him about helping others. He loves the Clover Kids, and we are learning so much to get ready for 4-H.

The Rock Hill Christmas Tour of Homes was a success. My mother loaned me all her decorations and her time to help me decorate, and made several visits. She painted this amazing old wood door that my equally amazing husband and father-in-law created a table out of to go behind my couch. My house was beautiful thanks to my mom! She's an amazing lady.

Cole and Lucy have had an wonderful Christmas so far! Thanks to Grandpa and Grandma for the visit and the gifts. It was great to have my brother and his family and stepsister and her family here at our house. Wyatt's family Christmas was last night. Their Uncle Phil made Lucy a rocking John Deere Tractor, like a rocking horse only a tractor...it is beautiful! Really an amazing gift! and Uncle Phil and Aunt Mel bought Cole a real gas powered four-wheeler! He is so excited...mom and dad are a little nervous. I did feel better though knowing that it has a remote control engine kill switch for mom and dad to hold while he's riding it. He told us after he rode it a little bit, "i've got it figured out now!" Oh no you don't!

Lucy is so close to crawling...and so happy! She wants so badly to be mobile, and I know she will be soon.

Santa is bringing a Wii and Lucy gets a music play table.

My kids are healthy, we both have jobs, a beautiful house to live in, and our family is all good...we are so blessed this Christmas!

We are planning to camp in our trailer for the first time since moving out of it! Definitely for Spring Break, but maybe a couple of weekend trips before that too.

Remember the reason we celebrate the season...the Christ...in Christmas!

Love to all,

Misty

P.S. I will finish Principal certification this summer! School's not over yet, but the worst is over!

On the home stretch...

Christmas is getting closer and I can see the light! It's green, for UNT graduation! If I can make it through this killer website design class I am taking then graduation is on for sure!

These pics are of Lucy at home, and Wyatt and Cole at the Monster Truck races in Kilgore.

Kids are doing great! Cole scored two goals and played like a champ in his soccer game last Sat. This Clover Kids 4-H stuff is great, but wearing us out already! Two field trips to farms the last two sundays, and collecting cans and who knows else is coming. It's good for Cole to participate in this type of stuff though, and I am learning alot about livestock! Did you know cows have 4 stomachs??? I had no clue...

Cole lost his front top tooth just in time for school pictures. Can't wait to see those first school pictures!

COLE CAN READ! It is incredible what he has learned in just a few weeks. He is way ahead of the other kids in his class (no surprise!) and we are proud as peacocks. He wants to read all the time and writing on his own some too. Wow...when he did get so grown up?

Lucy has two teeth on the bottom coming in at the same time. She is taking it much better now that they actually broke the skin. We have found new daycare for her (an answer to prayer) and she will start when we go back to school in January. I can't wait for Thanksgiving break (a whole week off) and then 3 weeks and it's Christmas break (2 weeks off!)! See what I mean by the home stretch!

Hello again!

I know, I know...where have I been?

I am taking 9 grad hours this semester, plus Interning as a Principal. and I have 3 kids. oops sorry, a husband and 2 kids. and I work full time. and I have a huge house that is always dirty. Why didn't someone tell me that when you have 1 more kid your laundry like triples? That is some kind of weird math!

Wyatt has been a doll (mostly) about helping out around the house and with the kids so I can do all this and keep my sanity. Although it is slipping a little daily...

Cole is doing great in Kindergarten.He loves his teacher, and she is really great. He is a little fountain of knowledge every day, telling me all about what he is learning. This week it's all about the calendar. "Momma, did you know that there are 12 of those things like December in a month?" Cole, there are 12 months in a year. "Yeah, that's what I said." Too cute!

He has lost two teeth now and has two grown up teeth to replace them. The first tooth he didn't want to give up, it took us two weeks to talk him into leaving it for the tooth fairy. He got $5 because the tooth fairy didn't have any change...and it was the first tooth after all. Second time, no problem!

We have played 2 soccer games so far, and Cole scored 2 goals last Saturday. He has started Karate class on Friday nights. He loves it, and it is amazing how he pays attention and does what he is supposed to. Wyatt wanted him to take it for his temper,

and I think it is working!

Lucy is sleeping all night for the most part. She is also TEETHING! Cole's teeth all came in about the same time and it never bothered him. Not the case with Lucy. Her gums are swollen and you

can tell they hurt when it's time to take a bottle. Doctor says to give her Motrin so that's what we are doing. She also is taking Claritin now daily for allergies, just like her momma. So we are expecting that first tooth or two to pop up any time now.

She laughs all the time, but no one can make her laugh like her big brother can! It is incredible, the amount of loving adoration already in her eyes when he is around.

Wyatt is working all the time. We have our goats...they are gradually getting used to us. They like Cole the best though. Next is chicken coops and chickens.

Cole and I will go to our first Clover Kids 4-H meeting this Sunday. Luckily, they only meet once a month...whew! But it will be great experience for him to get ready for real 4-H, and we already have friends who want him to help them show some animals at the livestock show.

That's all I know for now. Might be a long time before the next post...but hopefully after Christmas things will be a little slower for me. I will only be in 6 hours of grad school then! LOL. :-)

Love to all,

Misty

Summer's almost over!

Sorry it's been a while...really busy like ALL THE TIME!

Cole is very excited to start kindergarten in 2 weeks. He is also excited to start soccer again.
Lucy pretty much sleeps all night now. I am not sure she is over her ear infection, but her 4 month checkup and immunizations are tomorrow anyway, so I am going to ask him to check her ears. We ran out of her medicine, because we wasted some the first few days trying to get her to take it! She is persnickety.
But she is adorable and laughs so much and smiles any time
her big brother talks to her. It's pretty cute.
Wyatt is working all the time until they shut down paid overtime.
He is picking up t-posts today to set for fence for the goats.
We are going to raise goats now...lol.
Don't really know how that happened, but
we have 2 goats that a friend is keeping for us and
he is building fence to bring them home. Then he will start
to work on the chicken coops for chickens of course.
We eventually want a calf to fatten up and butcher,
might be next year on that.

I am getting ready to go back to work next Thursday!
Where did the summer go?
It turns out I was an elective short of graduation, so I
have to take one more class this fall, then graduate
with the Masters in December. I am also taking a 3
hour class from UT-Tyler and 3 hour Internship as
Principal while I do that. Fun, fun, fun! I don't really
want to be a Principal any time soon, and I will be a
librarian for a while, but to get a promotion I will
need mid-management certification and a Master's,
so now I will have both! I will finish the Principal
certificate next summer.

Here are more pics of the kids.
I know you want to see them!
Misty

Weekends...sigh...Not enough of them!

Just finished a week of Vacation Bible School at church. Cole loved it, he was ready to go every night. The kids learn songs and do crafts every night besides the bible lesson. Cole made up his own dance moves to one of the songs and performed it front and center stage this morning in church with all the other kids doing it 'a different way'. Much laughing ensued...lol.

Quiet week at home doing college work and getting ready for a garage sale Friday and Saturday. Figs are ready and I am going to attempt to make jam or jelly.
I made 14 jars of hot sauce/salsa yesterday from free tomatoes and peppers.

Lucy is sleeping all night most of the time now, at least until about 5 or 6 in the morning. Can't complain about that, sure beats 2 am. No kind of schedule in sight though. She just doesn't want to eat lately...unless SHE wants to! Sigh...just not like her brother.
I am going to give Cole a practice school lunch this week. Get him used to taking his lunch and eating it by himself, opening packages, etc. He hasn't had to do any of that.

More later. No real pics yet. Wyatt has been working all weekend on the dozer and clearing brush from our place. If you have seen it, it looks quite different right now! Will try to take pics tomorrow and post those.
Love to all,
Misty

Vacation

We had a great time in San Antonio. It was hot, but we all managed. Cole had an absolute blast at SeaWorld, even though there were so many people there! I never thought about other people being there on July 4th. But the fireworks were awesome!

We even stopped to buy Cole's school clothes in San Marcos. I LOVE SCHOOL UNIFORMS! Man, it was so easy. No fussing, pick up five shirts and five pairs of pants or shorts and we are done! Cole is enrolled and ready to go to Dixie Elementary in Tyler.

He is asking me already when does soccer start, so I guess we will do that again. Miss Tamme says she will coach one more time...but she is having a baby at Christmas time so that will be it.

This fall season they will actually begin keeping score and the coaches cannot be on the field anymore. Should make for good times!

We are loving our new house...obviously! We have loggers here right now, just taking down pine trees and dead trees. We are keeping all the oaks and such. Should make it a bit clearer though.

Lucy sleeps all night sporadically, but more often than not. She is one fussy baby when she gets sleepy, and I bought baby food today. She has taken a bottle every 2 hours all day. She won't take more than 4 oz. at a time. So I decided we are going to start baby food a couple of weeks early. I'll keep you posted how that goes. She is holding her head up all the time now, and loves to look around and be able to see. She loves for someone to talk to her too.

Hope you enjoy the pics. I don't know if I have any new ones of Lucy, so I will try to take some this week.

Misty

Back to Blogging!

Apparently our district has decided to only block stuff while we are at school, and I can now get into my favorite stuff from home again. I am buying my own laptop with recently earned Summer School money soon, so even if it becomes a problem again it won't affect me!

I have applied for library certification, and am finishing the last class for my MASTERS degree. That is so weird!

Lucy Kay and Cole are doing great! It's true what they say, no two kids are alike. Lucy is still waking up at least once during the night for a bottle, only sleeping all night sporadically. By 2 months Cole was sleeping from 10pm to 7am, so I was a little spoiled. I am hoping to get Lucy to that point by the time I go back to work in August.

But she is the cutest thing...smiling and laughing when you talk to her now. Absolutely Adorable!

Cole is all fired up to start at Dixie Elementary in the fall. He can't wait to learn to read! If I can just keep him motivated it will be great. His mamaw has been taking him to the library for storytime every week for me while I have been working summer school. Now I can start taking him myself. He loves it, and gets to check out books each week. He is also very into letter writing [thanks so much, Nana :-)] and wants me to help him write a letter every 10 minutes. He likes to draw pictures, and always draws the same thing...our family. It is the sweetest thing.

We are leaving for San Antonio Thursday, July 2 and returning home Sunday, July 5th or Monday, July 6th. We have tickets for the big fireworks show at SEAWORLD on July 4th. Fully expecting that to be awesome! We are dropping Lucy off at my mom's in Waco on the way and picking her up on the way home. Too hot for little babies! I think I have Wyatt talked into stopping at San Marcos to buy school clothes and shoes for Cole on the way. We'll see how that goes. Wyatt hates to shop, unless it's for himself.

Granny came and helped me can pinto beans and yellow squash and took back lots of cucumbers to make my favorite pickles. I am going to attempt to can by myself tomorrow. We picked loads of yellow squash again tonight. I am ready to make hot sauce soon with Tamme. I make her cut everything up...that takes forever!!!

I hope I can make weekly posts, so check back for updates.

Love to all,

Misty

The end is here!

Well, I have enjoyed blogging but the end is here. I just finished an Internet security training at work, and man is this stuff dangerous. Suffice it to say that anything you post on the Internet is there for anyone to not only view, but use in their own sick, twisted way. I will leave you one last post.

We are officially in the house, and have been for about 2 weeks. I am still steadily unpacking and planning to have one huge garage sale on March 7th all day.
Unless our plans change for bringing Lucy into the world, we will have a shower here at my house March 15th given by friends and family.
Cole is very excited and sooooo ready to meet Lucy. He said the other day, "Momma, I wish Lucy would come out so I could hug her." He says the sweetest things sometimes. I know, cherish the moments, right!

We love you all, and hope to see you soon.
Misty

Moving day is here!!

Well, everything is working out, and we plan to move in Saturday. My Uncle Ronnie has graciously made two trips down here to finish our plumbing, Uncle David finished the electrical. The painter is touching up, the shower door will be hung tomorrow. We will seal the floors Friday night and we are good to go! Wyatt is working on the mantle for the fireplace tonight.

We still have lots of little things to do, like hanging closet rods, and towel rods and cabinet pulls, but we can do that every night when we get home from work for awhile. It will be nice to take long, hot showers, sleep in real beds, and just have room to stretch out.

I swear Lucy has been completely sideways today. I can't get comfortable no matter what I do. I have been pushing and poking at her to get her to move, but she ain't budging. Stubborn I guess...don't know where that comes from.

Work is great, my classes are going, and planning a huge garage sale in a few weeks. Lots of baby boy clothes to get rid of, and a few other things as well.

Haven't worked my issues with uploading pics yet. Sorry, I know everyone wants to see them.
Will keep trying.
Love,
Misty

OK, maybe one more week...

Hello all! I know, you thought I forgot.

We had a snag with the painter that kind of put a halt on things for about a week. My black cabinets have suffered the brunt of it, and will have to be redone at some point. We settled with the painter, and he admits they aren't right. So for now, he is finishing touch up on the house next Monday hopefully, and we are at a draw with the cabinets. I imagine we will move in and I will worry about them later this summer or something when I have time. We did not pay him for painting them, since he has pretty much made a mess of them.

But on with the program...the icy weather today put my Uncle David, the electrician, in a bind, so he will have to come on Saturday instead of today. My Uncle Ronnie, the plumber, will come later this week and finish out that part of the house. Once they are finished, the painter comes in and touches up inside the house, we will be ready to seal the concrete floors, and then we are MOVING IN!
So hopefully for sure next weekend, Feb. 8th. We can sleep in the house maybe sometime during the week, and moving in officially on the weekend. I AM READY!

The only things left outside the house are pouring a bit of concrete for the entry to the carport, and a patio on the other side, and gutter, both of which can be finished next week as well.

Cole is ready too. I am posting some pics of him painting his wall in his new room. His Nana (My mom) came down last weekend for the 4D sonogram and brought her friend Ann, and they began painting the barnyard mural on his wall. He loved getting to paint too! Hopefully, they will be able to come and finish up this weekend.
Lucy is doing great. I forgot to bring her sono pic with me to post, but she is the cutest thing! Precious little perfect face. Can't wait to see her in real life.
I am definitely to that very uncomfortable stage. Not sleeping good, very tired all the time, I NEED MY RECLINER!!! My feet are swollen about 2 times a week, if I stay on them for too long, and heartburn and indigestion are part of daily life. The joys of being pregnant.

I am still trying to figure out why I have trouble loading pics from Patsy's computer. Here are pics of my black cabinets, which look great from far away...lol. The granite countertops look awesome. A pic of Cole's mural, him and Dad on New Year's Eve doing fireworks, Cole riding his new gator he got for Christmas.
Love to all,
Misty

Two more weeks...

I am posting this from Patsy's computer again. My laptop is blocking my blog for some reason. It went away before, maybe it will again.

We will pick up our appliances Monday. Painters are working all weekend to get finished by Monday. They have another job to get to, and it suits me just fine for them to hurry! Marble and granite will begin being installed Tuesday (when the painters are out). Electric (my Uncle David) and plumbing (my Uncle Ronnie) will be in this week (possibly Thursday and Saturday). The A/C will be put in this week, and trim outside will be finished. Gutter at the beginning of the following week, and we are home free!
Wyatt is still working on shelves for the closets, and will begin installing closet rods and such this week when he gets home from work each night. I'll pick up blinds this week too, and he can start hanging those as well.

Lots of little finishing touches like towel rods, but he can do that after we are sleeping inside I think. Who really needs a towel rod anyway...(wink).

Lucy is doing fine. Went to see Dr. Miller on Friday because he had a surgery Monday and they wanted me to reschedule. So he says we will plan to take Lucy by C-section about 10-12 days before my April 9th due date. My blood sugars have stayed remarkably stable...looking for that to change any day now. Completely normal. That will put delivery of Lucy about March 31st-ish.

Many have asked me, so here it is. A girlie shower is being planned for Sunday, March 8th from 2-4pm at the new house. Lucy's room is pink and brown John Deere, and sort of western.

Cole is excited about Lucy, but tired of being 5 already. We told him that now he is five he has to be a big boy, and dress himself all the time, and all sorts of mean mommy and daddy restrictions. He is sick of being 5! He tells us all the time.

He is tired of trailer life too, I think. He asked me recently, "Momma, why did we sell our old house? I wish we still lived there." I just keep telling him how much bigger this house is, and how much bigger his room will be.

I am posting some pics of my black cabinets...no one likes them but me. Good thing no one lives there but me and Wyatt. He will get over it.
Love to all,
Misty

On the "home" stretch-almost...

Hello all!

Well, I can soooo almost "taste" what it will be like to live in my new house! We are so close...
The appliances we ordered should be in next week, and the granite and marble will be ready next Friday.
The trim will be finished tomorrow (Sunday), and all the doors inside are hung. The cabinets are all in, and they look wonderful! Wyatt and I built some "cubbies" for the kids' closets today and will finish building 3 more units like that tomorrow for the master closet.
The painters should be in next week and hopefully finish by the end of the week.
I have a dr's appt on the 19th with Dr. Miller again. Probably just a check up.
Lucy is veeeerrrrrryyyyy active now. She is moving all the time it seems. I had great fun buying for a friends' baby shower this week who is having a girl about a month ahead of me. Everything I bought for her, I bought for Lucy! Couldn't stand it...all that pink is so cute!
In another week, my next round of classes will start for library certification. This is the last bit for the certification, then I will have 2 more classes in the summer to finish the Masters degree.
I can see the light...

I will definitely post pics tomorrow if you read this before Sunday. I ran out of time in daylight to take them today, but I will take some of the cabinets and such.
Misty

Happy New Year!

Hello All!

We hit a stroke of luck this weekend. We met a man who is a master at woodworking and carpentry, and he needed work, so he has worked at our house all weekend helping to put in the cabinets and trim out the windows. He says he will be back when he can (he has a full time job on the week days), so we are crossing our fingers for rain tomorrow to keep him from working at his other job so he can come back. He has been a great help! Wyatt and Milton could have done it, but it would have taken them ages.

So we are back on schedule...sort of. Hopefully the painters will come and start on cabinets and such this week.

We are hoping to be moved in by Feb. 1st if all keeps going well. That will put us right at 3 to 3 1/2 months on building time. Not bad!

No news with Lucy, and Cole is turning out to be quite the little helper around the house when we are working. He is so eager to help all the time. I hope that it continues when we have the baby.

It's back to work tomorrow for me. Wyatt will be around a few more days to keep things going around the house.
Sorry, I will try to add some pics later this week.
Love to all.
Misty