Moving In.

Moving into the new house and out of the old house was a paced methodical project. Jen, with some help from her mother, packed the house. Since the new house was only 1.5 miles from the old house, I would take loads over from one house to the other in the evening. We had some help from friends who helped us load a U-haul up with the beds, refrigerator, piano, washer/dryer etc.

One particular challenge that we encountered in moving the big stuff was moving the refrigerator. While unhooking the water line from the refrigerator to the old house, apparently, I didn't the valve turned off. As soon as the line came unattached I was immediately soaked. Water rushed from the pipe as I scrambled to tried to move the stubborn valve. Jen raced outside to turn off the water to the house. I did eventually get the valve shut, but not after gallons of water filled out kitchen. One of our good neighbors, whom we will miss, lent us his large wet/dry vac, and the kitchen was clean in 15 minutes.

The weather for the move was ideal. In Texas, moving in December is preferable to moving in August.



We are still unpacking. The massive pile of boxes has been moved from the front room to the garage. Although it is work, we are having fun setting up the new house. Deciding where to hang pictures and put stuff that doesn't have an obvious place are our challenges. We hope to be able to park in the garage soon.

Another quick update

I promise to try to post more pictures soon, but since I haven't gotten to it yet, I figured I should at least post something.

We've moved! We are officially in the new house and love it. Boxes are everywhere and we can't find all our stuff yet, but we are excited. There's tons to do of course, but we look forward to the challenge!

The old house is empty and has sold too! We should close this Friday and are so excited that someone else loved our house and wanted to buy it. That happened the day after we got back from Utah for Thanksgiving. We had a great time visiting our family in Utah and loved every minute of it (except for getting a cold that is!)He are some pictures.



Well, like I said, I'll try to post soon, but here's our new address for those that need it. Highlight the space below to see it

3015 Providence Oak
Houston, TX 77084

Quick update

I haven't had much time to post lately and don't have much time now before I run Aaron to pre-school, but here's a quick update on what we've been up to.

We closed on the new house on November 6 and are now excited and nervous about the move. The house is currently being painted and early next week will have new carpet and wood blinds in all the windows. We've done a few of the "fix it" tasks that need to be done, and others will have to wait until after we move in, but the house is in good shape.

Paul is out of town for Woodbadge Training (Boy scout stuff) Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Next week we'll work on moving more of our boxes from one garage to the other and some even inside the house once the carpet is done. Then we get to go to Utah for Thanksgiving! We are leaving on Thanksgiving and staying until the following Wednesday. When we get back we'll do the final push to move and will be in the house early in December.

Once this house is empty we'll probably have the carpets cleaned again...do more touch up painting and then just continue to pray that it sells quickly. We do have people showing it fairly frequently...a few times a week at least, so we are hopeful it won't take too long. Please keep us in your prayers for a good outcome!

Well, I've got to run, Aaron is having a meltdown about Brian turning the TV off. Wish me luck!

Family Home Evening

Every Monday night we try to have "Family Home Evening" where we spend time together. We start with a song and a prayer, then do a short lesson, then an activity of some sort, then close with another song and prayer and finally dessert. This week we were having some beautiful fall weather and decided to head to Mary Jo Pecham Park. I had made a pasta dish for dinner ( I just finished another session of "Once A Month Cooking" with my mom and sister), so after it was finished baking I threw it into a plastic container and we had a picnic. Once Aaron had eaten 18 bites (we counted of course) and Brian had eaten everything he could get his hands on, we let them play on the playground.

The swings are great, the boys had a lot of fun on the slides, and the Koi pond was a big hit with Brian this time. Aaron noticed the free mini-golf course this time, but we'll do that activity another night.

After playing on the playground we started our "FHE" with our song, prayer, and a lesson from the "Preach My Gospel" book (since all our regular FHE books have been packed already). Aaron helped read some scriptures and it is so adorable to hear his little voice reading. Then we had our activity of ring-around-the-rosie. We closed with our song and prayer and rice krispy treats then went for a walk around the lake before we headed home. Here's some pictures of the fun event. We love October weather!













And one more video...this was taken a week or so ago in our back yard. The kids LOVE the slide they got from Grammy and Grandpa Thomas last year!

The pain of the move

It's been a long time since I moved. I've lived in this house for over 6 years, and back then I had a LOT less stuff. I was single and I obviously didn't have 2 kids. Now I'm sitting at my computer sneezing and sniffling.

In less than a week we've put a lot of effort into cleaning out our home to put it on the market. It is now listed here and we had 2 people come look at it today. Before we listed though we cleaned the house thoroughly. As our realtor put it, we're moving anyway so we might as well keep packing. We've packed up kids toys, all our board games, re-arranged furniture and moved tons of stuff into our garage. I also cleaned the house thoroughly, on my hands and knees scrubbing everything. I guess I didn't realize how dirty the house had been. There's a lot of dust stirred up and Paul and I both feel like we've got a cold. Please pray for us that the house sells quickly.

As for the new house, we've gotten a lot of work done for that too. We had the inspection on Saturday (everything looks pretty good except it is FILTHY). Evidently it had been on the market for 7-8 months and it is just filled with dirt and dust. Yet another reason for feeling sneezy all the time. We've secured our financing (after long hours with several mortgage groups) and have signed all the paperwork and sent in our check for earnest money. We're going to get some estimates for re-painting the place and re-carpeting it too. Hopefully we can get that all lined up and done immediately after we close, but before we leave for Utah for Thanksgiving.

We still can't believe how crazy it is that we are moving. This has been one fast roller coaster ride. I can't wait until it's over and we are finally in the new house with this one sold!

So much to share!

It's been a little while since I blogged, and there's been a lot going on, so this may be long! (but it will be full of pictures on the different slide shows!)

First of all, here are just some pictures of the boys. Paul mentioned that no one had seen Brian's new haircut and they both look so cute of course!



Grandma went out of town for a few days so we hung out with Grandpa. We especially had a great time at the park.



We went to the mall with Grandpa too and there is a new play area for the little kids. It was really quite extensive and the kids loved it!



Brian is always a troublemaker these days and climbs on everything. He gets so proud of himself too. All I can do is shake my head.



Paul's birthday was a little over a week ago and after opening presents we went for a walk in my folks subdivision. We ended up at the gazebo where we got engaged and had our engagement pictures taken. Lots of great memories.



Lastly, our big news is that we are buying a new house. We got a really good deal on this house because it had foreclosed and we should close on it the middle of November. Now we're trying to fix our current house up so that we can sell it. Wish us luck!

Brian's latest update

Now that Aaron is in preschool, Brian and I get a little more one-on-one time and we love it. Actually he takes a nap first, which I love, then we get to spend time together. Today I was reading a magazine on floor of the living room while he played with a ball in the entryway. It was so fun to just watch him throw the ball on the carpet, then on the tile and laugh every time. He's still such a sweet, happy boy. I feel I can't call him a baby anymore now that he walks so well and understands so much of what we say. He follows instructions really well and surprises me all the time. Here's a few more examples:



1. For years we've had this routine for putting Aaron in his car seat (1 arm, 2 arms, click 3, click 4, click 5, kiss for 6 and hands on head for 7). Brian has the same car seat and I've said the same things for a while, but I usually gave him his pacifier for 7 since I knew he was little enough to not be able to get his fingers caught in the door or anything. This past week, when I've put him in his car seat he automatically puts his hands on his head after I give him a kiss! He's so observant and I love it.



2. He currently has a spoken vocabulary of 4 words and a sign vocabulary of 4 words (although he seems to learn more signs all the time, he just doesn't do them when I prompt him yet). His signs are: eat, more, milk and finished. His words are dada, mama, amen and my mom got him to say Grandma this past weekend. When we say prayers, whether on the food, or our nightly family prayers, or Family Home Evening, or even at church, he folds his cute chubbly little arms and at the end he actually says amen. It is so adorable!



3. He also loves to give kisses. If you ask him for a kiss he will walk over to you and with his mouth open WIDE dive at your mouth. Sometimes he'll get you just about from nose to chin. And sometimes he is in a kissy mood and just kisses you repeatedly! He's an animal. He can also blow kisses and gives high fives like a pro!



4. Lastly, the kid still eats everything in sight. He empties his bowl or plate at every meal (granted we find half of it in his lap or on the floor) and seems to never fill up. The first time he signed "finished" I was more excited that he was actually full than that he had made the sign!



Well, that's the update on the one year old. I'll update Aaron's activities again soon too.

Nature's Bug Zapper

We have the greatest backyard Bug Zapper. We share it with our neighbor just behind us. It's yellow and black and gives us all the heeby jeeby's. I had to muster up some courage to take these pictures. To give you a sense of scale... she is about 5" long with her body being about 1.5" - 2". She's big. I can see her from where I sit here on the couch.

Nephila clavipes (Linnaeus), or, Golden Silk Spider is a large orange and brown spider with the feathery tufts on its legs is well know to most native southerners. It is particularly despised by hikers and hunters, as during late summer and fall the large golden webs of this species make a sticky rap for the unwary. However, as is typical with most spiders, there is little real danger from an encounter with the golden silk spider. The spider will bite only if held or pinched, and the bite itself will produce only localized pain with a slight redness, which quickly goes away. On the whole, the bite is much less severe than a bee string. Typically, the webs are made in open woods or edges of dense forest, usually attached to trees and low shrubs, although they may be in the tops of trees or between the wires of utility lines. But ours has spun her web on our back fence.

When mowing the lawn or otherwise being in the backyard, I find myself ducking. I can't bear to exterminate her. She is pretty and has kept our back yard free of mosquitoes, flies, and other flying pests. So I guess we are both creeped out, and grateful. (mostly creeped out.)

Fishing and the Camera

Aaron, Grandpa Fuller and I went fishing a few weeks ago. Honestly.. it was the first time that I caught a fish. We all were having a great time until the camera fell into the lake.



Story of the Camera in the lake....

As you can see in the pictures the dock where we are sitting isn't super wide... Jen, playing the role of motherly photographer, capturing her husband's and son's first fish was maneuvering all over the dock with the nimble footwork of a billy goat. Just after snapping the pictures above, she slid the camera into her pocket and tried to edge herself around Grandpa. I don't think she noticed, but I saw the camera slide out of her pocket and gently splash into the lake.

When she realized what had happened and took over the duties of keeping Aaron from following the camera off the dock and into the lake, I jumped in after the camera. The lake is only about 4 - 5 feet deep where we are fishing. Initially I attempted to dive and feel around on the bottom with my hands. I quickly learned that my feet were better suited to find the camera sitting on the bottom. I found many other treasures on the bottom of the lake before I found the camera. It had spent 5 minutes underwater and was surely dead.

We took the batteries out, rinsed it with clean water, and attempted to dry it with a hair-dryer. Then we let it sit for a week ensuring that it was completely and utterly dry before attempting to turn it on again. When we did finally put the batteries in, it took five or six tries to get most of the camera functions to work... but the camera did work. And worked for about a week before it stopped auto-focusing. Then stopped working all together. After some effort we declared it gone.

Yippee! I get to shop for a new camera. Then I realized that the new cameras aren't as nice as the one we had. And they take different types of memory cards, and connection cables, and every other accessory.

I turned to eBay. I found our old camera for sale and started bidding. It took a few tries before I successfully replaced our camera with one identical for a great deal! Be careful... eBaying can potentially be addicting and time sucking!

But we have a camera again. So... the blog will continue.

Aaron's first day at preschool

Today Aaron started his first day of preschool. He attends New Hope Presbyterian Church Child Development Center on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9am to noon. His teacher, Miss Anne, is very nice and there are 12 children in his class (more boys than girls too). We're hoping he makes friends easily and learns some necessary social skills. Here are some pictures of him from his first day.

He ran right in and started playing with toys. I made him kiss me goodbye and then I left. I was a little sad leaving him, but he didn't care at all. He was having a great time.

When I came back to pick him up he was all smiles. He was telling me stories of what he did in class (something about playing catch with a blue square and a story about a grumpy lady...who knows!) He helped decorate his own bag to take back and forth to class and he's looking forward to Thursday. When did he grow up so fast?

Brian opens his presents

Although we started celebrating Brian turning 1 year old when the Fuller family was around yesterday was his actual birthday. He got muffins for breakfast (fyi, don't put a candle into a warm muffin...it will melt on the inside), grilled cheese for lunch and Grandma and Grandpa Fuller came over for fajitas and ice cream for dinner. Aaron loves all of Brian's presents and opened most of them for him too. I'm trying to be the referee today as Aaron cries when Brian wants to play with one of his own presents. Here's some cute shots of how the evening went!

Running through the sprinkler

Tuesday it was hot! We've had a week or more where the heat index has been 105+. We decided to run through the sprinklers and have a good time. We ate homemade popsicles, turned the slide into a waterslide, had running races and hung out in the shade. Brian didn't like being in the grass, but Aaron, Mommy and Daddy loved it all!

Reality TV

Paul took these videos a week ago while I was at BUNCO. I appologize Sissy if you don't get your hours in today!

This first one is of Brian walking and Aaron encouraging him.


Next we have Aaron reading his shirt (it says "Reading Club" by the way)


Lastly we have Aaron reading one of his favorite books Tickle the Duck

My brother got an iMac

My sister-in-law Kayleen has been playing with it and just made this movie about our time at the lake house. It's so cute I had to post it on my blog too.

Fuller Family Vacation

Jen's siblings and their spouses, Marcia and John and Marc and Kayleen, were in town this past week for the Fuller family vacation. We spent most of our time at Lake Conroe and although the jetski was in the shop and we didn't get the boat fixed until Friday night we had a good time just relaxing together. While we were all together we celebrated Dad's 60th birthday (July 28) and Brian's 1st birthday (August 16). Here is a picture and video of Brian eating his birthday cupcake!





Aaron and Brian had a lot of fun with their Aunts and Uncles. Paul and I of course were happy to let others play with them! Here's a few pics of the boys with their extended family.
Uncle John and Aaron

Aunt Nancy and Brian

Uncle Marc, Aunt Kayleen & Brian

Aunt Sissy and Brian


Of course we had to get a family group picture in!
The Richard Fuller Family




As for an update on my Dad: he has had tons of doctor appointments and both of my siblings and their spouses were able to go with him to spend more time with him. Dad is actually doing pretty well right now. After a frustrating full week in the hospital last month and then having to go back every day last week for IV antibiotics he's finally acting more like himself. He had a PET scan to tell us if the chemo was working and while the scan showed sites still active, they said the disease has decreased so we are encouraged. The doctor did worry about how bad this last round of chemo beat him up, so we're taking a 3 week break before we start any more treatment...that should give him a chance to get his strength back.

I love them!

I love my children. But is it ok for me to love them more when they are both asleep?

Swimming Lessons, Chuck E Cheese and the Beard

Yesterday Aaron had his 6th swimming lesson. He has a love/hate relationship to swimming lessons. Every time I tell him he has a swimming lesson he begins crying because he doesn't want to go. He usually cries on and off during the lesson, but after he always tells me he had a good time. You can see from the pictures that he is doing a great job kicking, getting his feet to come out of the water, and with the kick board can motor around the pool by himself pretty well! He still doesn't like to go underwater and wants to take a break every 2 minutes or have cuddles or sit on Chandler's lap, but he is getting better and we'll have a few more lessons and he'll do fine.


The lesson yesterday was in the afternoon and Paul was able to come with us so we finally have a picture of the beard to show you. I do think he looks handsome and I'm always amazed at how much red hair there is in his beard. I guess our kids could have any color hair!


We bribed Aaron yesterday that if he didn't cry, then after his lesson we could go to Chuck E Cheese. He's been doing "ok" with potty training (Only one or 2 accidents a day) and we thought he deserved a reward. Here's 2 of the pictures we loved. The first one was on a machine that rocked back and forth. Brian had never been on something like this before and he absolutely loved it. He had amazing smiles!


This last one is of Aaron in this tunnel system up above our heads. He had to climb up there and play around completely on his own. Once up there is no way for us to get up there if there is a problem. We forgot to make him take his shoes off before he got in and so he took them off somewhere in the tunnel system. We had to send him back up again to try to retrieve them!
It was a fun evening and we were all pretty tired when we got home. I'm sure we do it again soon though!

Scout Camp 2007

I spent the week of the 4th of July at Scout Camp. One of the blessings of my calling as Assistant Scoutmaster is to take a week of vacation to spend sleeping in a spider-infested tent during the sweltering Texas summer weather, and eating really bad camp food. It was so much fun! Six scouts and two Scoutmasters of Troop 1065 went to the El Rancho Cima Scout Camp in Fischer Texas about 180 miles north west of Houston. Technically this is the Texas Hill Country and is very pretty.

The boys that came with us all had a good time and each earned their nick-name. Shooter, Spider, Blade, Splinter, Bullseye, & Freight Train had a LOT of fun.

We got rained on Monday through Thursday. Averaging 2 inches per day. Our cheap store-bought ponchos didn’t hold up. But the 55 gallon trashbags sure did the trick at keeping us dry in a pinch. Our musty BSA issue tents kept our gear dry through the torrents of rain. That much rain raised the level of the river... and the current was pretty fast making the mile swim more challenging than usual. Freight Train pulled off the mile swim with a time just over 2 hours.

We took a short 5 mile night hike they call the “Death March.” It sounds torturous, but in reality was closer to a fast walk through a meadow. But it wouldn’t sound very cool calling it the Meadow Mosey. My hiking boots that I have had for 14 years met their demise on that hike, so I guess it was plenty vigorous. Breaking in new boots is never fun.

Seven days without shaving gave me a good start at growing my beard. I don't know how long I will keep it. But for now it is fun. Jen says I look handsome. And I think I am through the itchy phase.

As much fun as I had, coming home from scout camp gives new appreciation to home cooked meals a loving spouse... and air conditioning.

Cruising Fun!

Paul and I will have been married for 5 years this next Thanksgiving so we are going to go on another honeymoon. We have booked a trip on Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines and will leave on January 20th for a 7 night cruise. Our itinerary is to travel from Galveston to Jamaica to Grand Cayman to Cozumel, Mexico and back to Galveston. We are so excited! Does anyone want to join us?

On another note, in case anyone wanted to know, we also purchased plane tickets to go to Utah for Thanksgiving. See you then!

Brian's First Steps!!!!

I was at my parents house this morning and Brian took his first steps. At first it was just one, then 2, then 3. Now if I place him in the middle of the room he will take 4 or 5 steps to get to me. It's totally cute. Of course now I'll have to keep a closer eye on him, but it's awesome. Here are 2 pictures, and if I can get the video on I'll do that too. Both of the pictures were taken midstep and the video shows him taking a few steps. Love it!

Update on Jen's Dad

People ask all the time, so I thought I'd give a brief update on my dad here.

He's about to start his 4th round of Chemo next week. He should be having another PET scan soon, which will show us if the Chemo is working or not. The doctors say that they think it is working since his pain is being managed and they say if the tumors were getting bigger he would be in unbearable pain. Most of the time he has no pain though since he is on great pain killers.

He has all the typical side effects of Chemo. He has very little energy, he get nauseated, and he doesn't feel like eating much. Because of all that he's lost 60 pounds and needs new clothes! He's been quite anemic this past month and has had 2 blood transfusions to help that problem. He has been a little loopy sometimes (although it's not THAT different from his normal loopiness!). He'll talk about really random things and sometimes he sees things that aren't there, but usually it's just that he's drifting in and out of sleep so easily and talks about his dreams so what he talks about doesn't make sense to us.

We are in relatively good spirits though, except for the few times we aren't. We are very grateful to everyone who continues to offer their support through visits, cards, e-mails, and especially prayers. We love you all and continue to pray for the best. I'll let people know when there's more news to tell.

Let's Go Astros!

Last night Paul and I went to the Houston Astros Baseball game and it was AWESOME! Craig Biggio, the Astros 2nd baseman, had a 5 hit game which put him as the 27th person in history to hit 3,000 hits.

Hit # 3000

Witnesses

It was also the second time in his 20 year career that he hit 5 hits in one game. The game went into extra innings and was won by the Astros in the 11th inning by a grandslam homerun. We are so glad that we were able to go to the game.

Aaron's Testimony

I just have a quick story to share that happened today.

As most of you know, Aaron LOVES The Book of Mormon. He wanted me to read it to him today so after I put Brian down and started the laundry we began to read. We ended up reading in Ether 12:6 which says:

And now, I, Moroni, would speak somewhat concerning these things; I would show unto the world that afaith is things which are bhoped for and cnot seen; wherefore, dispute not because ye see not, for ye receive no dwitness until after the etrial of your faith.

I was trying to explain this verse to him and the following conversation took place.

Mommy: Do you believe in Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost?
Aaron: Yes.
Mommy: Have you ever seen Heavenly Father?
Aaron: Yes.
Mommy: Where have you seen Heavenly Father?
Aaron: In heaven.
Mommy: Do you remember seeing Heavenly Father or have you just heard stories?
Aaron: Remember.
Mommy: What does Heavenly Father look like?
Aaron: White.

I couldn't argue with him or discredit him at all. Maybe he does remember seeing Heavenly Father in Heaven, or maybe he doesn't, but it brought me to tears just thinking about this precious child and the testimony he has. He is more immersed in the gospel than I am and I learn from him constantly. He's so excited about having Family Home Evening tonight...I guess I'd better prepare a lesson!

Thomas Family Vacation Part 2

Our vacation is almost over, we leave to go back to Houston early tomorrow morning and we are trying to pack everything up, but we wanted to post one more blog describing everything we've done in the past week. It has been a blast!

We went up to Park City, Utah for 3 days. Here's a great picture of Brian with his cousin Lucy. She is about 5 months older than he is, but they played together well and would crawl around together, bang on the walls and windows together, and just stare at each other in their strollers and point at each other. It was totally cute!



While in Park City, we participated in the Thomas Family Invitational, an 11 event tournament which included games of yatzee, shut the box, poker, battle (rock, paper, scissors), radio game, uno, mini golf, a human maze, egyptian rats crew, trivial pursuit, and a 400 meter run. Our 8 year old niece Kate came in first, Jen got second and Paul made his showing at 10th out of 11 participants. Here are some pictures from the tournament. Note: there was some handicapping of the scores to allow the younger, or more out of shape participants to compete.


Shut-the-Box


Egtyptian Rats Crew




The Human Maze


Poker

Sunday, of course, was Fathers Day and it was also Paul's sister Sara's mission farwell. As a Fathers Day gift for Grandpa Thomas David (that's what Aaron calls him now) we took a picture of all the grandkids together and framed it nicely. Here's the shot we ended up using.


Saturday we went to the church history museum with the "cousins" as Aaron refers to them. Here's a picture of Aaron in the kids section, but it looks like he's infront of the tabernacle choir. We weren't there long and look forward to going back because there is so much fun stuff to look at there!


And here's a picture of the whole family together after Sara's farewell.


Sara was set apart as a missionary last night and it was one of the most spiritual meetings I've ever attended. Everyone in the family bore their testimony and the spirit present was just amazing. We are all very proud of Sara for going on a mission and will do our best to write her often and send her cute packages.

Well, that's about all I have for now. We look forward to being home again tomorrow, but have had a great time in Utah visiting family, friends, and being with loved ones.