november 14

 in November this cat adopted us. she walked in our open porch door,  skinny hungry friendly,   so we kept her,   we named her 

       Epic Rapunzel Marshmallow Kitty Meow Meow.....  we call her kitty.....  but her file at the vet is hillarious......

 Wil and Cooper's school pictures!

 We enjoyed our last few weeks at the apartment. Dax started sitting up and taking big kid baths

 Ember is wearing the Minnie Mouse ears I got on our honeymoon to disney world 10 years ago this May....  doesnt seem like that long. and the poor ears are yellowing.........  yies that means they are really old

 Cooper's last day in his kindergarten class at Butterfield in Sanger,  we moved from Sanger in to Denton which is closer to where Nick is working (this year) and hopefully we will get to stay here for a while.... but who knows..... sigh,  BUT He was really sad to leave Ms Clevenger. she is the one on the right. He really loved her and going to school there every day,  he loves his new teacher too though, she is great and it has been an easy transition for him

The kids in Wil's class gave him a sweet farewell.  He really enjoyed that class and teacher too, the transition has been a lot harder on him but he is trying his hardest to make this a positive switch. He is a strong kid and we have moved him around a lot, and we probably arent settled yet either,  so I hope he can find strength in his trials :)              

 A Mom from Nick's school had these shirts made for our kids. Nick helped the drama teacher put on the musical at the beginning of the year and they did Suessical,  it was a blast to watch 

 My parents came up to help us move over thanksgiving break. We had the whole week off. which was good because it took that long to get everything moved and close the loan and all the chaos that came with moving in to a house that wasnt move in ready at all.......

 The appliances,  well the stove and fridge showed up the day we moved in :)  

 There was no flooring due to it having to be pulled up that morning,  due to that it flooded the day before closing.  We had the water turned on the day before so it would be on when we moved in....  well apparently the water company turned it on without anyone at home and didnt check to make sure the meter wasnt running,  well there was a faucet on in the side bathroom and the drain in there was clogged and broken so the sink ran for 6 hours,   there was about 6 inches of in the back bedrooms and the main room and in tot he kitchen. The tile in the bedrooms and kitchen were fine. the base boards were already ripped up,  and we were going to pull up the flooring in the main room anyways.  But the bottoms of the door frames were all swollen..... it was just a disaster.   they said the bank that owned the house would have it fixed but that we couldnt close on it until it was fixed so that would push closing back another month leaving us homeless.....   and our insurance didnt kick in until the next day because that was the closing day.....  and the city found out we didnt own it and that the bank did so they wouldnt pay for it,  originally they took the blame and said they would pay for repairs......   so we had to close on the loan still the next day and move in anyways.... ugh   nightmare

 We put all the beds on the floor in the pink room,  and all the boxes with all the stuff went in the other bedrooms..... the dressers with everyones clothes were in the garage. and we lived like that for 3 weeks,  until the week before christmas,  while the contractor painted and fixed and sanded and stained the floors,

we sure like it now though :)

before pictures of the house

video tour of the house before we had all the work done.....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLGx7zPjPbU

We had to move in to the house while it was in this condition over thanksgiving weekend. The mortgage company was not clear with working with us by giving us a closing date. we got a remodeling loan so that we didnt have to come up with the money up front for the house, and that meant that we had to work with contractors for the work that needed to be done which pushed our time line out a lot. closing was set for the first week of november so that we could have the work done and the walls and flooring done before we moved in.   but turns out we didnt get to close until the day before thanksgiving and that was when we had to move and get out of the apartment. sooooooo   we moved in to the bright pink bed room for a few weeks and lived with out hot water and a few appliances.  luckily we were able to get our fridge and stove delivered the day we closed and moved in,  because it was a holiday weekend everyone was extra hard to work with and were all headed out of town....lol   it was horrible looking back...... also i got really really really sick,  like puke in the isle at walgreens sick....... but with no days off and no more people to help we had to keep going lol.
here are the after pictures!!
we pulled up the old flooring and did stained concrete in the main room down the hallways and in the bedroom we did a black stain in the main room its a brownish stain. every wall in the whole house was painted gray. we will go back and customize walls and rooms later. also redid the trim in every room.  painted every door,   fixed and or replaced light fixtures in 4 rooms.... the lights didnt even work at all in the master bedroom and the fire place room,  nick had to re wire all the lights. replaced every door knob and the fixtures in the bathrooms......  uhm..... replaced appliances, kitchen sink,  added disposal and changed out the faucet..    replaced the molded cabinets and fixed leaks in pipes....

whew  lol    things left to do before all the people come for wils baptism in april....  paint cabinets and add crown molding. replace bathroom faucets and paint cabinets in there......  and i think that might be it.........   hhmmmmm  get another couch for fire place room too,

http://youtu.be/k1cXmXXMpc4

that is sort of a video tour ...... go to about 1min 30sec in.... i was just recording the baby laughing then thought i would get a quick sweep of the house