Uncle Wesdawg in the House

 Uncle Wesdawg came to visit! Insert cheering emojis!!  You know you're family when you roll in from a 15 hr drive and are given big hugs and then immediately handed big boxes to unload from the truck/flatbed trailer in your driveway. He showed up just in time! Actually he helped A LOT. We still had the garage to empty and rental to clean and he helped with all that. That guy knows how to vacuum and swifter wet jet LIKE A BOSS.

He also is a professional uncle. Sometimes (only occasionally) Gabe can river dance on Nulkie's last nerve (like when it's pouring and we have a house to move and he has 150000000 questions about it) and Uncle Wesdawg was a good interceder on Gabe's behalf.

 A few gems to share:

Uncle Wesdawg: Hey Gabe I brought you some of my old lego people. It's Han Solo and Luke Skywalker from back when I was your age.
Gabe: Cool! I already have a Luke Skywalker though. And I don't think that's Han Solo
Wes: Well now you have two Luke Skywalkers. And that is Han Solo.
Gabe: No it's not Han Solo. I'm serious.
Wes: Gabe it's 100% Han Solo.
Gabe: It's 0% Han Solo.

#burn

Discussing his upcoming field trip:
Gabe: I think we get a pumpkin. I'm not sure though.
Uncle Wesdawg: Gabe are you speculating about that?
Gabe: Yes. I don't know maybe.
Uncle Wesdawg: Do you know what speculating means?
Gabes: No
Uncle Wesdawg: It means to like guess about something or think something is going to happen...
Gabe: Oh you mean like a prediction?
Uncle Wesdawg: *laughing* Yes that's exactly what I mean. In fact that's a better way to explain it.


At dinner:
Gabe: Uncle Wesdawg, can I tell you something weird? Well I mean some people think it's weird. I don't.
Uncle Wesdawg: Sure Gabe. Let's hear it.
Gabe: Sometimes when I shake people's hands or touch people when I first meet them,  I bring my hand to my nose and smell it to see if they smell bad! I just want to see if they smell.

 #tombrady #deflategate #imadethatpatriotlogo #withfelt

 Cowgirl Cinderella

 Paul Bunyan. We may have googled "Last Minute Costume Ideas for Man with Beard".

Gabe is Davy Crockett. He *might* be wearing my shoes. Apparently my moccasins are very similar to what good ole' Davy Crockett used to traverse the wilds of Tennessee in. #frontierhipster

Thanks again Uncle Wesdawg!! We wish you could have stayed longer! Gabe & Evie put the HARD SELL on Uncle Wesdawg staying longer. He did stay one extra day before his 16 hr drive out to Tucson. Maybe it's an army-kid thing, but our kids are obsessed with how many days people are visiting for. How many days can you stay? What is today? How many days left? Do you HAVE to leave today? If you stayed this long you could come to Cub scouts! They do this the WHOLE visit. It really can guilt a person. Fortunately Grandparents are visiting in a few days since they're a little mopey since Uncle Wesdawg left. sometimes it's really hard to live somewhere with NO family nearby. I feel you G & E. Especially when everyone we know in Texas has their Entire family living down the road #TexasForever.

Okay I'll stop whining. We've seriously met the best people here! I had friends who watched our kids for the move and friends who loaned us a flatbed trailer and friends who gave me boxes! Such blessings to us! Thank you AMAZING FRIENDS!!!

To Build a House

 Our lot!

 Day we bought the lot. This was back in March!

 Being staked out for slab to be poured

 Selections at the design center. This company changes up what they offer frequently. When we were picking our floor plan our sales rep had a sample of a white cabinet option for kitchens. When we arrived at the design center a few days later the company no longer offered white cabinets! I had literally planned my entire kitchen around white cabinets, so I had to quickly regroup.

 I rallied and Nulkie & I selected a nice knotty alder with a light stain. Our only other difficult choice was the flooring. I was set on wood floors but this company would not warranty wood floors in the kitchen (lame) so we finally agreed on a tile which in the end were totally in love with!

 Slab poured in May amidst the entire of month of rain.

 Sticks go up!

 This was a very exciting day, finally able to visualize our house!

 Sheet rock, windows and roof

 Future kitchen

 Bricking the exterior

 Garage doors

 Cabinet/counter install. This took awhile: incorrect cabinets were ordered for the farmhouse sink which delayed things about 3 weeks.

 Staked out for the flatwork to be poured. This sat staked out for 10 days before the inspections were passed/what we agreed upon was fixed.

 Incorrect backsplash trim piece.

 Corrected trim piece

 Sink/counter install

 Tile! It's really fabulous.

 Still waiting on the flatwork to fixed

 *Angels singing*

 Driveway! You can see they compromised and extended it a bit farther adding additional driveway footage/ basketball court space.

 Carpet install!

 The kids approved

 Correct lighting in place

 Almost done, waiting on landscaping.

Done. Waiting on final clean. I need to snap some current pics of the driveway all power-washed!
We closed last thursday and what a whirlwind it's been. We are THRILLED with the house. It's really a deep desire come to fruition. We feel so blessed by the opportunity to build this house together. Alright i'll write more about it later- more unpacking to do!

Santa Fe National Forest

So there are extraverts (recharge around people) and introverts (recharge quietly/alone). I'm adding another "vert"…a "naturevert". Michael & I both recharge being in the raw natural beauty of God's creation. Let me tell you, we came away tremendously refreshed after a day spent in the Sango De Christo Mountains among the aspen groves. 

 The aspens were in their full glory. When in person, the trees actually look neon, iridescent yellow. The color cannot be captured by film, just like a picture of a Queen Angelfish can't do it justice. You just have to be there to see the shimmering leaves and azure sky to experience the total beauty of it.

 Wyatt fell asleep on the drive up which was gift for all of us ;). He let Mommy (Me) just sit and relax rather than force-feed him a tube of baby food . Or goldfish.

 I was afraid us wimpy Texans would be cold, but we ended shedding layers it was so pleasant outside.

 Family photo of all 5! With Wyatt's face! #winning

 These pictures make my need to move back to mountains almost palpable!

 I took this exact picture of Gabe back when he was 18mths old…at this exact spot. And the aspens were this glorious that time too!

 Gabe decided to examine an Aspen leaf during this family pic

 Evie taking care of Wyatt. Spotted: her new turquoise barrettes I scored at Balloon Fiesta and her new boots from Nana. Thanks Nana!!

 Why so serious WyWy?? Cuz it's NAPTIME MOM! I BE HANGRY!!

 In other news, Nulkie & I both purchased new hats.

 This return trip home was sponsored by Apple Products. #angrybirds

Wyatt fell asleep the LAST 10 mins of the flight. As soon as we landed in Texas we all started sweating. The kids did great, really. We went from traveling to a walk-through of our house and they were troopers. Moving day is really really soon! So I really have to go pack while baby is napping. NO MORE PROCRASTINATING!!!

Hope you all had enjoyable Columbus (I will always call it this) Day weekends as well. #ColumbusDay4Ever