It sure is amazing how much can change in a year, no? When the above image was taken, it was about a week after Lexie had been born, so mid-November 2011, we were living in Arizona and J.E.B. was still a Marine CH-46 helicopter pilot. Fast forward one year and my, how different things are!

We are settling into our new house...well I am at least. J.E.B. has been in Canada since just after Thanksgiving and since we moved into the house just prior to Thanksgiving, he really hasn't spent a whole lot of time in it! He has been getting a steady stream of text messages from me as I ask him to Q/A me about the quirks of the house ("should the door make this kind of noise?" or "How do I set the sprinkler system?'") so hopefully it will just feel as though he's coming home when he gets back.

The girls, and the dog, are acclimating very well to the house. Rather impressive when you consider that they have lived in 4 different houses since the beginning of May when we left Arizona. I am not sure if the fact that they share a room is what made this transition so easy or what, but either way, they certainly enjoy sharing a room. I cannot count the evenings that I've heard Lexie erupting in giggles after I've put them to bed. But as long as the light remains off and by 8pm all is quiet, I'm OK with a short giggle session before bed!

I can say that the house is finally as unpacked as it is going to get. I worded that carefully since the only room which still has packed boxes is my so-called craft room and I just don't see myself organizing that anytime soon. It is one of the extra bedrooms upstairs and I spend so little time upstairs that all of my craft stuff that I am currently using is stashed in the utility room down here. So, it will stay a bit messy for a while. I'm OK with that.....for now!

Speaking of crafts, I picked up a new hobby over the summer while we were hashing out the home-buying process. I have learned (and am still learning) how to crochet. I know, GRANNY ALERT! But it actually helped me deal with the stress of doing the new house stuff on my own since I have to concentrate on the number of stitches I'm crocheting.

Where did I get started you ask? Where else? YouTube! Yup, I found a video tutorial of the red angry bird hat on YouTube and watched the woman's hands and copied her. The hat turned out amazing actually! I am quite impressed and hope that my nephew Nate is as impressed. Then I went on to try a different pattern (still a hat. I have made only hats so far. 5 total, but each has some different kind of technique or stitch) and after 6 start-stop tries I was able to make a Lightning McQueen hat for my nephew Ethan. Then in keeping with the gift-giving theme, I made a dinosaur hat with spikes for my other nephew Sage. That one also took 4 tries and three different patterns, with the final result being one pattern for the hat and a different pattern for the spikes. But it turned out pretty good too.

My girls have been getting bombarded with hats here too. I made an Elmo ear-flap hat for V and while I am impressed with it, you can tell it is done by a beginner! Poor Elmo's face off-center. But Bean loves it and it 'almost' fits Lexie so who cares! My next crochet attempt is going to be something for ME, a shawl/wrap thingy. We'll see how that turns out!

J.E.B. comes homes on Saturday (YAY!!!) and we can't wait to see him. Victoria has had an especially hard time with him gone this time around and we have all wracked our brains to come up with ways to help a 2-yr-old understand that Daddy is really going to come back. I tell her that he is at "Special Work" and hopefully that will be different in her head from just plain "Work". We'll see!

I also got serious with potty training V and so far (since beginning this past Saturday) she has done amazing. She's even gone to day care this week and has been a rock star! Doesn't even tell you when she has to go, just goes on her own. I guess all it took was to get her Dora undies! HA! Next up, get rid of the binky!

And to top off the good things happening lately, Alexandria took her first steps last week. And it just so happened that we were skyping with J.E.B., so he got to see her first steps at the same time even if it was through a computer! I was talking to him as Bean was bouncing around and out of nowhere, Lex comes strolling into view behind me! Since then she has only gotten better and stronger. It is adorable to see her waddle around or even to just stand on her own and watch what V is doing!

Standing at the front door, office is on the left & dining room on the right



 



 

The girls' room (that black blob on V's bed is Cincy, MY old dog puppet from when I was little!)



Atlas really enjoys this backyard!

 

 

Making Gingerbread Pancakes with Dad the day before he left

6 November 2012

 For some people today is Election Day and they are waiting in long lines to cast their vote (the guy at Starbucks this morning said he waited over two hours two weeks ago here in Katy), for others it is just an ordinary Tuesday in November.

For Team Bolen? It is the day that we purchased our first house!

Yup, I am writing this post while standing at the counter of our new home while AT&T hooks up our Internet. This place sure is echo-ey without any furniture, rugs or stuff in it. J.E.B. asked me what it felt like to walk through the place now knowing that it was in fact ours, and let me tell you, it feels great! A little daunting yes (now all repairs/fix-its are up to us not some landlord!!) but pretty freaking cool!

As many of you know, J.E.B. is still away in Canada and I have been doing to finishing touches to the home ownership process on my own. I was rather stressed for the Home Demonstration Walkthrough yesterday since J.E.B. would be thinking about things that wouldn't even occur to me. But I think I did pretty well in trying to fill both of our shoes. What was expected to be a quick 45-minute walk-through to learn where stuff is, instead became a 3-hr walkthrough/inspection as I went through the house to make sure that any mistakes/issues/discrepancies were addressed and taken care of. The guy with me had a roll of bright orange masking tape to mark such discrepancies and I am serious when I say I used about half that roll. Most of it was minor paint touch-ups but I was adamant that I would not be rushed, nor would I lower my standards to make the appointment go faster.

This morning was the closing and it went ok, in that I did indeed sign for the house and completed the process. I only say ok since apparently the mortgage company did not forward along the rather important information that this would be a Power of Attorney signing/closing. So I ended up waiting about 30 minutes or so for the mortgage company to send over revised POA paperwork. Once that happened, everything else went smoothly. I had to basically write a paragraph every time I had to sign J.E.B.'s name but my hand surprisingly did not fall off and I was able to get everything done. And, the drive into Houston was fairly easy! So a win overall!

So now I'm standing in our new home since there is no furniture here yet and thinking about our future. Is this the house we'll be in when V learns to ride a bike? Or learns to drive? Yikes, that thought already scares me! Will I eventually get around to painting each room the colors I want, for instance a nice sunny yellow for the kitchen maybe? Or a soothing light blue for our bedroom? Are we going to utilize the dog park that was just put in down the street from us or will I just walk Atlas around the miles of sidewalks through the subdivision? Will I make it habit to walk to the lake or just stay on the streets and meander along what way? What is our neighborhood like?

Ahh, the possibilities the future holds! I can't wait!

No one was there to capture the first picture of me entering our home for the first time....so I did it myself!

 

The last time I posted anything I talked about how things had changed for Team Bolen. Well, they are about to change some again here in just a matter of days.

On Tuesday, J.E.B. and I will be moving into a brand new house. One that we purchased. Yup, we'll be home-owners in a matter of days! The new house is only a few miles from where we are living currently so it won't be that hard of a move, especially since we're doing it ourselves. My dad is coming down for a week to help me pack and then once J.E.B. gets home from Canada, to help us move as well. At least that is what he's told me. I really expect he's coming down to see his girlies and using the rest as an excuse!

J.E.B. has been gone to Canada for the first of many 3-week rotations so all of the end-game house-building and -buying stuff has been left to me. Neither of us were happy about the constant delays in the construction and closing dates, but such is life.

The new house was an inventory home (meaning the builder already started construction on it when we bought it) but we caught the building process early enough that we were able to visit the design center a few times and really customize it as if we were building from scratch. I'm super duper duper excited about the double oven being installed in the kitchen! Yay! Can't wait to make ham and scalloped potatoes and have them ready AT THE SAME TIME! LOL We also added speakers and a sound system to the dining room, living room and back patio which means this Christmas, holiday music will be pumping all through the house! Yay again! (and since J.E.B.'ll be in Canada almost all of December, I won't have anyone around to complain about too much Christmas music!)

Before J.E.B. left for Canada, we took the girls to Dewberry Farms with some friends. It is a farm decked out with rides, pumpkins, food booths, games, etc for kiddos. V had a great time. She had her first pony ride and just loved it. Once she realized that J.E.B. was taking pictures of her, she smiled and waved at every person we passed as we walked in circles. Quite the ham, lemme tell ya!

Halloween was as blast. V dressed up as a flower (which Lexie wore later in the evening) for the daycare Fall Festival and then that evening when we went out trick or treating, she was a ladybug. Normally, V is very tentative around new people and new things, so I was expecting her to act the same way going from door to door. Not so much. She went right up to the door and barely let the person say hello before shoving her hand into the candy bowl! Good thing she's a cutie! We lasted for about an hour or so and Lexie was less than impressed. She voiced some complaints early on but then I guess she just resigned herself to the stroller and her life as a flower since I didn't hear a peep out of her the rest of the evening. I can't wait for next year's Halloween so J.E.B. can enjoy it with us.

Here are just a few pictures of the past few months.

"Ugly Friday Competition" at work! (those were my rainbow striped socks!) J.E.B. came in second!

V's new booster seat (she kept falling off the regular kitchen chairs!)

 

Her first pony ride. She kept patting the pony saying "neigh" and "horsey". She loved it!

V and Dad all squished into the cow train!

 

My cute little ladybug!

A less-than-impressed flower!

 

Our new place

Things have changed a bit here for Team Bolen in the last few months.

We have left the scorching desert 120 degree heat of Yuma, AZ for the suffocating humidity of Houston, TX (well, we live just west of Houston in Katy, but its close enough!). And, we are now officially civilians no longer attached to the Marine Corps except in memory. We have been in Katy for about a month and a half and so far we both are really enjoying it. The crush of humanity here lends itself to an abundance of shopping and entertainment options that just weren't available in Yuma.

We live in one of the many master-planned communities here. For me it means that I have access to miles of cement sidewalks all through the neighborhoods, with playgrounds and/or parks every few blocks and a choice of a half-dozen community pools to choose from. Quite nice actually! I found a used sit-n-stand stroller on craigslist the other week and it has been great. V has had to learn to not just jump off it, but she loves being able to choose from sitting, standing or walking beside me and Lex loves it since she's out in front facing the world, instead of snugged up against my chest in the wrap I used to carry her in.

 

 

J.E.B. took a job with BP as a drilling engineer in a brand new training program. BP's normal training for drilling engineers right out of college is 3 years, however J.E.B. is one of 8 guys who are part of a new accelerated training program which will finish in 1 year. BP picked guys who already had life experiences, maturity, leadership experience as well as engineering backgrounds/degrees and is basically just showing them how to be drilling engineers the way BP wants. This is the first "class" in the program and everyone is excited and curious to see how it will turn out. Part of the curriculum is field experience which will be in northern Alberta, Canada on a 3-week rotation starting in October and continuing until April when the permafrost thaws. He was looking at the temperature/weather for that area and the HIGH during that time is 7 degrees. The HIGH! Thankfully, BP issues pretty nice cold-weather gear so the guys won't freeze! Its been fun for J.E.B. to get into an academic experience again. He spends his days in seminars or classes and frequently comes home with homework. Its pretty interesting for me also to learn about oil wells, drilling and BP as an organization.

 

 

The girls are doing great. They made the transition from Yuma to Katy just fine. I'm sure it helped that we spent almost 2 months living with my parents in Pennsylvania to help offset the moving about. Both girls are in the same room at night which is working out very well except for those few nights when the baby just won't sleep! We still have the pack-n-play set up in our room for just such occasions! I am looking forward to very soon dismantling that as well.

 

 

Victoria's vocabulary is multiplying by the second and she is such a little mime both in words and actions (although could she really be considered a mime if she's talking?!). Her favorite phrase currently is "see ya later" which she says whenever J.E.B. leaves for work, when she lays down for a nap or bed or whenever she just leaves the room you're in! Its quite cute! She has also discovered the amazing healing and comfort ability of BandAids and is constantly asking for one for any scrapes that come with childhood. In fact, she reminded the pediatrician of her promise to get her a BandAid at the end of our appt last week. The doc mentioned it casually at the beginning of the appt and 15 minutes later as she was walking out the door, Bean reminded her that she was owed a BandAid!

 

 

Alexandria is growing like a weed. We jokingly call her our "chunker" since she is so much bigger at 8 months than V was at 8 months. In fact, both girls are in the same size diaper! Yup! V weighed 25lbs at the doc appt last week and Lex weighed 19lbs! V is wearing 3T clothes and some 2T still and Lex is wearing 18month clothes and some 2T clothes!! (V is 25 months and Lex is 8 months) Lex is crawling now and that little bugger sure is determined to get everywhere! And I am positive she is also going to be my quick-to-temper child. In just the past 2 weeks since she learned to crawl, you should hear the protests and tantrums that ensue when she's moved away from electrical cords, the diaper pail, the door jams, V's small toys, paper books that she's chewing, the dog's tail/fur/face/feet, ......and just about anything else! Everyone says how each child is different and my oh my is that true! At least both girls are pretty laid back and happy though. I am thankful for that!

 

 

Things are starting to fall into a routine for me here in the new city. I joined a Mommy Group in the area to get out of the house with the girls and to meet some other Moms, especially if J.E.B. is going to gone for most of the winter. Our kitchen has a perfect spot for my sewing machine and I've dug out some of my sewing projects and am even teaching myself how to crochet through YouTube! Yup, what an "old lady" I am! :-) I have great projects and goals in mind....now if I can just find a few more hours in the day to get them done!

She fell asleep eating lunch!

Typical scene in the kitchen at mealtimes

Anxiously awaitng her Baby Friends to finish the drying cycle!