Less than A MONTH!

So, we finally were told a closing date! Get this...Nov. 23rd! Yeah! Less than a month and we will be moving into our house! I can hardly wait! Obviously, moving into a new place is exciting, but there are several moments that I am looking forward to!

1. Getting the keys to the house and knowing that it is ours!

2. Being able to walk in to the house and knowing that it is ours!

3. Unpacking all of the many items that we received as wedding gifts over 6 years ago, but have yet to use due to never have having enough space in our previous places!

4. Spending the first night in our house in our nice spacious Master bedroom!

5. Decorating!

6. Having all the boxes unpacked, things put away/organized, and FINALLY being able to start on the nursery!

7. Getting new furniture!

8. AND...so much more!

I should also mention that I can't wait to decorate for Christmas in our new house either! For those of you who may not know, I typically decorate for Christmas at the end of October (so like...NOW!) I do this for several reasons: Brent doesn't care too much for Halloween, so it helps start up the Christmas spirit, AND we typically spend most of our Christmas time in Glen Rose, so decorating early allows for us to enjoy our home decorated a little longer! Not being able to decorate this weekend was a little strange for me, but knowing that I will get to decorate soon is encouraging!

We did got to the house of Saturday to check out this week's progress! We were thrilled to see that the wood flooring has been installed, the fireplace stone was replaced and done correctly, the master bathroom tile was redone and correct, the backsplash in the kitchen was installed, and we had ELECTRICITY! So much progress for a week's time!

Brent took pity on me when he noticed the difficulty that I have been having with posting pictures on my blog lately! I don't know if it is my Mac or the blog itself, but he was nice enough to post our most recent house pictures on flickr! If you would like to view them, go to:

www.flickr.com/photos/bg42

Less than a month is so exciting! We still have a ton to do before hand, but we are anxiously awaiting Thanksgiving for good food and to move! We have so much to be thankful for this year! I think that it is only appropriate that God is allowing us to move into our new home over Thanksgiving weekend. What a great reminder of the many blessings He is providing!

Almost Home Sweet Home!

The end is near! We went by the house on Friday night and were pleasantly surprised by the continued rapid progress! It is strange to think that in just a little over a month, we will be settling into our first home! We can't wait! We spoke with the landscaping company this week, and can't wait to see what our house looks like with a yard! But, for now, this is it fully bricked!

This is our tiled laundry room. We chose our tile months ago, and not only is this tile found in the laundry room, but also the half bath and kitchen! So, naturally, after several months passing by, I was fearful that it would be installed, and I wouldn't like the end result.

This is a partial view of the kitchen/ kitchen nook. The cabinetry pictured here is where the double ovens will be placed.

I am so excited about our large island. I chose to do black granite counter tops in the kitchen as well. I love the look of black granite! (Clearly!) The cabinetry is stained a walnut stain. Our back splash will be an off white tumble stone with a special design (designed by Brent and me) that will be placed over my stove top. The stove top will be to the left of the sink!

To the far left is where our refrigerator will be installed! We are currently looking at refrigerators! There is something about refrigerator shopping on a Saturday night that screams, "Welcome to adulthood!" The door picture just to the right of the refrigerator cabinet leads to the one car garage. Across from that door is the pantry closet!

This is the master bedroom. Not too much progress done in the actual bedroom, but the master bathroom is taking shape!

This is the master bathroom vanity! The mirror frame will be stained to match the cabinetry. And, the plug in the far left corner will be moved to just outside of the frame. The counter tops are a black granite with under mount sinks. Our fixtures are oil rubbed bronze (which appear more black!)

This is the garden tub with jets! Thanks, Mom for pointing that out! I had actually forgotten that I was going to have a jetted tub! Crazy, I know! The missing tile will be placed once all inspects have been passed!

This is our shower! Our closet is just to the left!

This is the front door! It will be stained a dark coffee brown, but for now it is a plain, solid, heavy, wood door! It is already so much prettier than the temporary door that stood previously!

Other progress made this week our fireplace was stoned! However, the stone was incorrect. So, they are going to be resurfacing the fireplace soon! We were a little frustrated to see that the tilers put the wrong size tile on the master bathroom floor, which means that has to be redone as well! A few set backs, but nothing too catastrophic!

As of now, the builder is estimating that we will be able to move in mid-November! We are really excited! Stressed, but excited! Our to do list before moving is long, but I know that we will get everything done! Brent and I have always made a good team!

Today in church, one of our ministers spoke on how it is so easy for us to specifically ask God for things and to casually say "Thank you, Lord, for your many blessings!" I couldn't seem to shake that statement throughout the rest of church and on the way home. So, I am going to specifically list all of the recent blessings that I am thankful for:

1. Brent- He is a wonderful man and a fantastic husband! I know that he is going to be an awesome father to our son, Grant. I cannot wait to see him in this new role.

2. Grant- Brent and I have always wanted children, but knew that it was God's plan for us to wait as we finished school, started our careers, and made a home! I don't think that it was an accident or coincidence that we turned up pregnant before we began trying. It was God's plan, and we are confident that it was much better than our plan! Plus, what is more precious and rewarding than a baby!

3. Our new house- We know that a new house brings new responsibilities, requires more money, and (to a degree) more stress. But, we are thankful that God is blessing us with this house, in this neighborhood, in this town, so that we may be able to provide Grant a nice and safe home!

4. My job- Every job is stressful, and I would be lying if I said that I loved everything about my job. But, for the most part, I do! And, with today's economy, I am lucky to have a job and even luckier to have one that I love!

5. Our Friends and Family- In the past couple of weeks, I have had family members and great friends offer to throw Brent and I not one, but two baby showers! WOW! I am speechless! I personally love throwing showers, but I know that it can be a big task! I appreciate each of these ladies for their willingness and desire to do this for Brent, Grant, and I! We cannot express how excited we are and how much we love them for doing this! Grant is already so blessed by the relationships that we have with friends and family! I know that he will love each of them as much as we do!

To end, I encourage each of you to take a minute and thank God specifically for the blessings in your life. If you are like me, you have a wealth of blessings and to list them all would take a very long time. So, list a few today, and thank him each day for a few more! God is Great! May we do all things in His name and for his glory!

Progress

This is me at 23 weeks standing in Grant's future nursery!

So much has happened in the past few weeks! So much is progressing in our lives! Grant is growing, and therefore, I am growing! Grant has been kicking and moving for the past month or so, but yesterday was the first time that Brent was able to feel him. His kicking isn't too hard (yet), but enough that Brent was able to feel it. I can already tell that these two boys are going to be good buddies! Brent is always rubbing my belly and talking to him! It is the sweetest thing!

The other big progress has been our house! We have a house standing and all walls are textured and trimmed and cabinetry is in place! It is beginning to look like a house! We are expecting for it to be finished at the end of October, and hopefully, we will move in mid November! Just enough time to move in, settle, have the holidays, and finish preparing for Grant!

We are having fun planning Grant's nursery and our home decor! We have made a few choices! We decided on the Chase Nursery bedding from Pottery Barn kids! We decided to not go with a theme, but simply blue, navy, and white in different patterns (stripes, polk-a-dots, etc)!

Enjoy the latest house pictures. Sorry they are in a random unorganized order, but technology is giving me fits!

This is our master bedroom!

This is the master bathroom vanity. To the left is the garden tub, shower, and closet. To the right is the toilet closet!

This is the dining room, which is to the left of the entry way!

This is a view of the living room when standing in the kitchen!

This is the kitchen nook, which provides a view of the back/side yard!

This is the front of the house! As you can see, bricking has begun!

Below is our kitchen! The cabinetry will be stained Walnut and will have black granite countertops! We are excited to have a kitchen large enough to store all of our dishes, appliances, etc!