our new house

Yes, that is my mom mobile. Giving birth to three children isn't what made me a mom. The fact that I now drive a van makes me a mom.

I am in love with the 'Juliette Balcony' (which is the actual term). Cant wait to use it! I'm going to make Bruce sing me songs from the driveway.

The dining room.

View into the living room from the entryway.

Kitchen into the living.

LOVE the ceiling!

The entryway. It's a great big space for the girls to play.

Looking down into the living room.

Kitchen

Master bathroom. Off to the left is a huge shower. It could fit a party of people in there...not that our parties consist of showering with our guests :)

The game room at the top of the stairs.

Media room

The powder bathroom. Don't you just love the onyx and glass sink top?!

More kitchen

We decided to go big and have Plantation shutter installed throughout the entire house. We may need to sell one of our children to fund it :) The shutters should be installed next week and I'm SO looking forward to that. There's a lot of other new homes being built behind us, beside us, across from us, etc. - and I'm not a big fan of lots of men watching me through wide-open windows all day.

good-bye to the land down under

Wow. This post is two months past due, but that's been life lately...crazy! Bruce's boss told him mid-November that we'd be moving back home to Houston November 29th. Yikes! We had a total of 10 days to prepare. It was nuts. I was so exctied at first to be moving home, but then got really sad to be leaving Australia so quickly. We didn't have much time to say good-bye.

The morning we were to leave, our great friends, Jim and Kristen, along with their kids, Nyah and Levi, came and cooked us a huge breakfast. It was the nicest and most thoughtful thing. We love them so much and are missing them tons.

Our wonderful friend, Barbara Stewart, also came over and took us to the airport. She and her family were so good to us while in Australia. We love them very much and we're missing them terribly. They really were our family.

Haylee, Grace & Nyah giving eachother cuddles.

Us and the Stancombe family in front of our Aussie house.

It was a beautiful Spring morning!

The little girls with Barbara. 'Barbara' was Ava's first word :) They just adore her and her 16 year old daughter, Juliana.

We are really hoping that our Aussie friends will come visit us here in Texas. The good thing about the Stewart family is that they are actually from Houston and Barbara is a professor at The University of Houston (teaching via Blackboard distance learning). So...we really look forward to their visits!

pregnant!!!

No, I'm not pregnant! What were you thinking?!?! My sister, Janelle, is pregnant! I am so excited. It's probably even more exciting than if I were myself :) She and her husband and been waiting for a l -o -n -g time for a little baby to come along, so this is especially happy news for our entire family!! See you in July little baby!

And in other news....
I've had people email me asking if moving across the world killed us (in reference to me not updating my blog). Um, yeah. Just about. Sheesh! Remind me not to do that again :) We bought a house and moved in two weeks ago. We ordered a new computer from Dell, so when that arrives this week I'll get back busy with our blog. I have so much to post on here! So, stay tuned...I know you'll be holding your breath ;)