Lovey Mommy Things

Some fun things our little guy is doing lately...

...Talking in bed for up to 45 minutes before he goes to sleep. It's mostly just jabbers, but it's mixed with his favorites of "Mommeeee, Daddeeee, "No, No" and the ever popular "uh-ohhhh". Just makes us wonder what is going through his brain.

...He has pajamas with a dinosaur on them, so we taught him how to roar and it's just the most gentle and cute roar ever. We can't get him to make it the scary kind.

...Lots of animal sounds, today he learned an elephant sound in Kindermusik.

...He squeals and giggles when we let him flop around on the bed.

Decisions, decisions

We went and picked out our options for the house this week. There were so many choices to make!I went last week and pre-selected, but this was the final decision. I'm so glad to have met my friend Janessa who was able to watch Aaron in the afternoon so Greg and I could get this done! This picture shows the cabinet and countertop colors. The carpet will be throughout the house. I chose a darker neutral color to hopefully hide all the stains that will be put there by toddlers! The vinyl on the left will be in the kitchen, entry and half bath. The vinyl on the right will be in the upstairs bathrooms and laundry room. We tried to be smart and keep the standard "fun things" while upgrading the not fun things like insulation and room conversions. We also got the dual thermostat system so you can keep the upstairs warmer than the downstairs during the day and vice versa at night. Hopefully those things will help with energy savings. One fun thing we did add was the covered patio in the backyard so you can sit outside without baking in the Texas sun!

All these decisions are locked and no more changes are allowed, so please if you don't like the color choices we made, just lie and say you did! I'm sure there will be some bumps along the road, but the biggest decisions have been made and hopefully we can just sit back and wait for the keys! We have an initial building orientation in a couple of weeks. Unless they can really get it together, Greg will have to go on his own as I'll be back visiting family in IL.

I am super-excited for my piano studio! Now all I need is a piano :) I've been keeping an eye on Craig's list and it looks like you can get a decent one at a fair price. Hopefully we can get that as soon as we move in so I can start lessons the first part of January. I've also been pondering decisions on what to teach once we get to Kyle. I'm pretty set on doing piano and voice lessons, but the opportunity to teach Kindermusik again has come up and just today I happened upon a possibility of doing some church music leading again also. Long story short, I called a church just down the road from our house about holding Kindermusik there and the pastor said they'd been looking for a worhip/music director. Maybe it will be something I can do part-time, we'll see what comes of it! I don't want to overload myself as we'll are still planning on doing IVF by next summer, but it's exciting to have some professional projects besides potty training to focus on.

This and That...

I posted two other new posts today with some cute pictures of Aaron, so be sure to check those out also. Some things we've been up to lately:

...We went to Cabela's today in Buda. It's a huge hunting, camping, fishing store, with many museum type exhibits. Aaron loved watching the fish in the huge tanks and was a little scared of the big bears.

...Potty training. If this is TMI for you, I warn you not to read on! :) Yes, I know it's quite early, Aaron is only 21 months old, but I've been reading that in many countries, children are potty trained by 6 months to 1 year. Aaron actually sits on the potty very willingly, he's go the potty lingo down, and loves to flush the toilet. However, as of this evening, the score is couch and floor-10, potty-0! What we are figuring out is that Aaron is trained to go to the potty. But, he's trained to go in clean training pants. We'll sit on the potty for up to 45 minutes, then get up, put on undies and within minutes he wet them, or worse!

...Kindersmusik a maybe. I've been talking with a women who has a successful Kindermusik program in Austin and has been contemplating opening a studio in Kyle. She already has many students who drive the 20 miles to classes in Austin. I would love for this to work out. We're going to meet next week to discuss it further. For now, she's looking for a teacher for this Fall, so that may be an option also. I'm also planning on beginning voice and piano lessons in the new house in January, which might put off IVF until June. We hate to have to do this, but for timing and financial reasons, it might be necessary.

ICE CREAM!

I scream
You Scream

We all scream for ICE CREAM!

Corn Crazy

Ready

Set

Yum!!!!

New House!!

We are excited to start the process of building a home with KB Homes in Kyle, Texas! Many thanks (again!) to Heather and Lana Preshun who came to watch Aaron so we could go do this this afternoon without him. We looked at homes all day Saturday and Sunday, and it just doesn't work as well when all you're doing is chasing him through the houses. Anywaay, it is the Waterleaf development and it's beautiful! Here is a link to the information on their web-site.
http://www.kbhome.com/Community~CommID~00868035.aspx
Kyle is about 20 minutes south of Austin, but much more affordable than Austin. Also, we get that small town feel and excellent schools. It's a 4 bedroom, 2 1/2 bath with a dining room and seperate study (perfect voice/piano studio and scrapbooking room). I hope to set up lessons as soon as I can, but it all kinda depends on how the IVF works into this all. The master has a great walk-in closet and what I think will be Aaron's room has a darling window seat. It's close to shopping and the area is "booming", we believe we are making a great investment. And, lots of homestyle Mexican restaurants for Greg to enjoy. The development also has a junior olympic pool and seperate baby pool with 0-depth entry. It has a playscape and is right next to a public 20-acre park with basketball courts, baseball fields and soccer fields. Lots of young families...what more could you want? We've talked with people Greg works with and other locals who highly recommend this area. Here are a bunch of pictures we took of the model home. I uploaded them seperately, so they aren't in a great order, but you get the idea. I'm so excited to go and pick out of the colors and design...The build time is 18 weeks, so we should be in before Christmas!

This is what you see when you first walk in. The studio is just to your left, so perfect for students coming in and far enough away from the distractions in the living room and kitchen. For now, we'll probably use the dining area as a downstairs play area.

Kitchen

Open floorplan to the living room. It has a little desk area and sliding glass doors to the patio and privacy fenced in backyard.

Formal Dining (we'll use as play area downstairs)

Master Bedroom with double vanity sink and walk-in closet.

Aaron's room (window seat!)

Playscape right next to the pool.

Front view

Front entry, we love the stucco look!

The living room.

Happy 4th of July!

We went to Lake Temple near Killeen today with our friends, Scott, Lana and Heather Presuhn. Aaron had a great time in the water! He thought he was such a big boy walking around in it and did NOT want me to hold his hand. He loved grabbing the sandy rocks in the water and thought it was great to crawl around on his belly in the shallow water. He's becoming quite the fish in the water! We're taking it easy this evening and not venturing out to the crowds for the fireworks...maybe next year. Happy 4th of July!

More Savings

Free diapers this week! I bought 90 diapers, after in-store Walgreens coupons, I paid $4.87, and I got a coupon for $5 off my next purchase!

At CVS, I could have done better if I had remembered my $4 off $20 purchase coupon, but I still had a 67% savings, plus $5 in ECB for next time.For everything pictured above I paid about $11, and received $10 in store money for my next purchase. So, just about free for everything here!