Weekend re-cap

This weekend was a busy one.

Friday night we cruised on over to Best Buy to pick out a new TV for our living room and a smaller one for our bedroom. We had our 10% off coupon in our hot little hands and couldn't wait to score a great deal. Well, Best Buy does not take coupons for any of their merchandise that is on sale or *advertised*. Basically everything they have out is *advertised* in their weekly circulars. The sales associate told us there was only one TV that was not on sale or advertised and we didn't like it. We ended up getting a 50" plasma for the living room and a 32" LCD for our bedroom. We didn't get to use our 10% off....but both tv's were on sale(that just makes me feel better). We had both kids with us and we were taking turns wheeling them around the store while the other compared television options (everytime we stopped the stroller Ellie would start crying and Rett would try to climb out). It was not the most enjoyable way to spend a friday night.

Saturday/Sunday we went to my parents lakehouse. My sister and brother both had friends out for the long weekend and my parents and Troy and I went to celebrate SarahLyn's birthday. We decided it would be best not to take the kids because it's hard to tell a bunch of college kids "shhhhh, the baby is sleeping"....after they are 10 beers deep. My favorite part was taking the boat out and swimming off the boat. I don't know what it is but swimming off the boat is so much more refreshing than swimming off the dock! Troy parents watched Rett and Ellie and took them to the Rough Rider's baseball game. Apparently Rett had a BLAST. This is all he has been talking about and according to Troy's parents he watched the entire game and didn't want to leave when it was over.

The "CORE" Coker's


Hanging out at the dock:


SarahLyn opening up her new TV (she was surprised!):


Mason(doin' what he does best)Chillin'


Sandy and Ellie at the RR Game


Rett with his glove waiting for a foul ball:


Sunday night we came back over to the Bever's and celebrated Papa's birthday. We ate Barbeque, played outside, opened presents and ate yummy ice cream cake. I just wish I had taken a picture...

Monday we stayed home! Rett and I went outside and cleaned windows. We ran the sprinkler, I washed my car, did a few loads of laundry, Troy went grocery shopping and made us a delicious dinner of Ribeye's, Grilled Corn and beans. Ellie kept standing at the sliding glass door today looking out intently (she LOVES to be outside). I thought it was cute:

Kitchen (before and after)

Kitchen updates included: New paint on the cabinets (Sherwin Williams French Roast), Trim and wanescotting(Sherwin Williams Maison Blanche), and walls (Benjamin Moore Camouflage). A new sliding glass door and window above the sink(Foster Exteriors), a new glass cooktop, stainless steel dishwasher, and stainless steel double oven (Whirlpool). I also hung two panels of paisley curtains (Pottery Barn) and a photo holder(Southern Living at Home) to the left of the fridge. Oh, and I bought new barstools (Garden Ridge) to match my dining room table. Eventually I would like to replace the countertops and possibly lay hardwood floors in the kitchen....but that will have to wait for now.
Before:


After:


Before:


After:

Swimming!

Saturday we went to Ryder's 5th birthday party at Bounce Town. Afterwards, he invited his cousins over to swim. Casey heated up the pool so the water was nice and toasty. Ellie love, love, loved it! Rett was more apprehensive...but still had a good time. Pizza for dinner outside topped off the night!

Last day of Mother's Day Out

This school year has flown by way too fast! Today was Rett's last day of school. He went one day a week from 9:00-2:30pm and loved every minute of it. He only missed one day of school (when he had a stomach bug). He has come along way this year. The first two times I dropped him off he cried....then he moved to apprehension...then to marching himself into the classroom and hardly giving me a glance goodbye. Each day when I would pick him up he would have a different story to tell me. For example today he kept saying: "Jonah has a big jet. It's really cool!". At the begining of the year it felt so strange and foreign to me that he would have experiences without me being there with him. Now I love it and can't wait to hear what he's gonna tell me and I know MDO is helping shape him into a more independent kid.
Today we said goodbye to his teachers and brought them a little treat to say thanks for a great year. His wonderful teachers sent every kid home with their own personalized yearbook full of pictures of the fun times they had in class this year (I guess that's why we had to bring the two dispoasble cameras on the first day of school?). I will save it forever.

I purposefully dressed Rett in the same outfit for the first day of school and the last day of school. I wanted to see how much he had grown over the year....luckily the shorts still fit. Here are the results:

First Day of School: September 9,2009


Last Day of School: May 19,2010


The teachers "treats":

Wheeeeeeee

The baby swing is now hung up in the back yard!
(Thanks Uncle Mason)

Friday Celebrations

Friday was a great day, full of celebrating. I will list:

Friday, May 14th- Kate's Chick-fil-a birthday party.
We went to our Kate's 3rd birthday party at Chick-fil-a. I didn't even know that you could have a birthday party at Chick-fil-a? I was excited to experience this birthday party because it seems like we have been to every birthday party venue in the DFW metroplex. The kids all got Chick-fil-a kids meals and played in the kids area. The adults snacked on chick-fil-a party trays and visited. At the end of the party we sang happy birthday, ate cake and made our way out. Rett was tired and had already eaten lunch. I was happy.


Friday, May 14th- Troy gets a promotion!
Earlier in the week Troy flew to his company's corporate headquarters. He was interviewing for a new position: The Southwest District Manager. He went prepared a 30/60/90 day business plan and went through five rounds of interviews and at the end was told, "Thanks, we'll let you know.". He said he was exhausted at the end of it but left each interview feeling good. They called to congratulate him on Friday they said it was a unanimous decision. Troy will now manage the sales reps in Dallas (Troy will hire a new one to replace himself), Ft. Worth, Houston, Austin, San Antonio, and Corpus Christi. In addition to a hefty salary increase he will also get a new car or car allowance (he hasn't decided if he wants to take the company car or pick out his own) and work from home on Fridays. The downside to the promotion is that he will be traveling ALOT more. He will likely be out of town weekly and while he loves the traveling, I do not. My mom helps me every time Troy is out of town,(she comes over for dinner and helps with baths and bedtimes)...but she might grow tired of it if she has to do it every week. Plus, when Troy is gone it upsets our schedule and Rett asks for him frequently. Anyways, I am SO proud of him. He has worked hard to get to this point in his career.


Friday, May 14th- Ellie turns 10 months old!
It's hard to believe my sweet little baby will be a year old in only eight short weeks. In the past month she has learned to speed crawl (seriously, she moves so fast it almost looks like she is galloping). She pulls up onto everything and in the past week or so will "cruise" around furniture. We have also introduced a few more solid foods. She has tried bananas, strawberries, cheese, bread and meat sticks (yuck). She still chokes, or rather gags easily, which makes me a nervous wreck when she's eating. She says Mama, Dada, Baba(for Bodie), bye, and ball very clearly. She knows what these words/sounds mean and uses them to get what she wants. For example, if I am in the same room with her and leave she will start saying, Mama? Mama? Mama? and the same is true if Troy is in the room with her and leaves..then it's Dada? Dada? Dada? I think her verbal skills are very advanced for her age(as were Rett's at this age). Maybe it's because she has two parents who are talking around her all the time or because I work with her on pronouncing words or maybe because I chose not use any baby sign language. Who knows? I just like that she's talking. :)

She LOVES this kitchen!

Appliances Complete!

Today my dad finished the install on the last of the new appliances. It feels so great to be "up and running" again. Over the past few days my dad has come over and worked 6+ hours each day installing (rewiring, custom fitting, etc). I was really hoping that Troy might pick up some of the tricks of the trade while they were being installed...but, he was out of town in Birmingham. So, he came home to a brand-new-kitchen. Here are some pictures:

The cooktop:
The old cooktop: (looks like it had a good run)


The hole that we had to cut bigger about an inch all the way around to fit the new cooktop into. Cutting the tile created about an inch of dust on everything!


The new 5-burner glass cooktop:


The Dishwasher: (sorry no pic of the old one....it got hauled off weeks ago)


Rett helped ALOT


Ellie just wanted to play in the box. *Note, that swollen eye is from an adverse reaction to a mosquito bite.


The washer and dryer are also installed....but the pics of those will have to wait until another day.

Rett and Ellie's trees

This weekend Rett helped me plant his new tree. We bought a tree for Rett and a tree for Ellie to plant at our new house. We picked out two japanese maples (the bloodgood variety) and planted one on the side of the house(this one is rett's) outside of my bedroom window, and one in the front of the house near the front door (this one is Ellie's). Hopefully they will both grow and thrive in their new location(this is also our wish for our kids).
Rett loved the idea of his very own tree and really did help me dig the hole and plant it, although his favorite part was watering it afterwards. Ellie was napping so we planted her's. It was such a busy weekend we only got a snapshot of Rett and his tree.

Ahhh, Thursday again

As you may know, every thursday Rett attends a rotating playgroup with 5 of his friends. The 6 kids play at the host moms house for 2 hrs and the other moms run errands. I LOVE Thursdays because of this. I can usually plan my morning to get a few things done that I can't while Rett is with me. Wendy hosted today and snapped a few pics and sent them out. She said Rett loved playing with Collin's bugs and t-ball set. Thanks for hosting Wendy!

a double oven and a dryer

Today 2 of my 5 new appliances came. My double oven and my dryer. I was so excited I kept peering out the window to see if the Whirlpool truck had pulled up yet. When they arrived brought them in, uncrated them, and set them in place...but we saved on shipping by opting to install them ourselves. So, about an hour after they arrived my dad came over to connect the oven. It should have been about a 1hr job. He just left....5 hours later. Turns out the old oven was wired with aluminum wiring and the new oven is wired with copper. These two don't mix well unless you intentionally want to start a house fire. We ended up having to replace all of the wiring coming from the oven to the fuse box. 55 ft total. We had to re-run it up the wall, through the attic and down to the breaker. It was a chore. My dad did all of it with a little help from me except when I went into the attic with him to hold the flashlight. Troy helped him hoist the 225lb oven into the wall. It is in. It's wired....but it's not hooked up to the breaker box yet. Another day. It looks so elegant and modern sitting in my kitchen. I can't wait to bake cinnamon rolls or a bundt cake or cook chicken enchiladas or meatloaf! Can you tell I haven't baked in awhile? We didn't even attempt to connect the dryer....the oven was enough for one day. Here's a pic of the old and one of the new:
The old:

The new:

And....we're moved!

Today is the fourth night we have spent in our new house. It still doesn't really feel like home yet....but we're getting their. The first two nights were just Troy and I and last night the kids came home to their new house. I was a bit anxious about how Rett would do sleeping in a new room and not really knowing where he was. We changed alot of his furniture (upped him from a toddler bed to a twin, and removed his bookcase of toys and changed out the bedding) so it doesn't really resemble his old room on Hermosa. When it rolled around to bedtime we told him to climb into bed and we would read books (we read his 2 new books Marmie bought him- Cowboy Small and Planes). Afterwards I kissed him, read the sleep rules to him and told him I would see him in the morning. He slept until 5:00am without waking up. When he did wake up he came into our room (how did he remember where it was?). When I got up to take him back to bed he said "but I don't like my new bed.". He climbed back in without much protest and was asleep again in 5 mins. Ellie slept like a rock all night until 6:30am when Rett woke her up. *This further proves my point that sleep habits are a personality trait rather than a learned behavior. I did the exact same thing with both my kids and I have one HORRIBLE sleeper and one GREAT sleeper.*

Tonight I gave the kids their first bath in the new bathtub. They had a great time and Ellie splashed up a storm. (See pics below)



The 2 things I miss most about our old house is the yard and the seclusion. Rett played in the backyard today for awhile but he seemed to get bored fast. At Hermosa he would explore for a good hour outside without needing my attention. I can hear lots of neighbors and forget how close they are. One neighbor has a teenage son who comes and goes alot at night....I can always hear him when he comes and goes. On Hermosa we never who was home or not because we had a wall of brush between the houses and quite a bit of distance.

The 2 things I love about our new house is the space, and the updated features. While this house was built in 1972 and is approaching 38 years old it feels brand new coming from a house built in 1940. The layout is also great. I have so much space I don't have enough stuff to put in all my new places.

I am going to wait to post some before and after pics. I still need to unpack some boxes and hang pics, etc. We are getting 1/2 of our new appliances tomorrow (the double oven and the dryer). I have been handwashing all our dishes and let me tell you, it gets old...fast.