William turned 2!

This year William's birthday celebration was pretty low key.  We had so much going on with remodeling the new house and moving that is just made sense to have a small family get together instead of a big party.   I made this decision selfishly too because I was in no way wanting to take that on in the first trimester with feeling sick and tired all the time. 
I must admit though when it comes to throwing parties or  "entertaining" low key is a challenge for me.  I LOVE the creativity of putting it all together, I love making yummy food and decorating. And I really love trying to make the coolest cake I can possibly make. 
The theme was kitty cats. It is really William's favorite animal if not thing at the moment. He loves trains and cars and all of that too but there is something about cats for him.

This is the cake!  I think it turned out pretty cool.

Balloon fun with cousins.

William found a love for hotwheeels just before his birthday. He got a lot for his birthday too.  It was all he wanted to play with once he opened them.

Aunt Cathey, Uncle Tim and Mark made the party.

There is my adroable little 2 year old.  I love everyhing about this little boy of mine.  From his silly faces and wildness,

to the seriousness of his personaility that makes me think that will be one that thinks deeply and ponders the mystereies of kingdom.  I have loved every minute of the last 2 years. I cant wait to see the person that he becomes. 

We pray for you everyday my sweet William that you will grow into a man with a burning passion for the things that please the Lord.  We pray that you will be a man after His  heart. 

Mama and Daddy love you so much. 

crazy toddlers

playing/working at the new house

 So much room to play.  William loves all the space.

 Mr. Mark cut down some trees for us. 

 The master bedroom just got all the carpet ripped up.

 Pulling up the floors in the living room. Not an easy task at all.  Too bad it has to be done in ALL the rooms. 

our dream home

The official date for closing was 2-2-12.
I was so excited the night before I could barley sleep.  Shea and I have talked for years about a home for our growing family. What we had in mind seemed easy enough.  We had not even looked for this exact place yet.  We thought it would come years from now. 
These were the things we wanted in a home:
1. land 2. two stories
3. a mother-in-law suite or guest house
4. plenty of space for kids
5. room to grow
6. close to Angela
Late one night back in November I crawled into bed after hours of photo editing.  Before trying to fall asleep I lay there looking at furniture listings on Craigslist.  As I scrolled through this house caught my eye.
The more I read about it and looked at pictures it just seemed like something we would really like.  The next day I casually mentioned it to Shea.  He looked at it and felt the same way I felt.  We put in a call to Rob to take a look at it.  We still wondered if there was even a possibility that we could buy this house. It just seemed like something we should pursue.
The day we saw the house in person it was obvious that it needed some work. That was one of the things we liked about it though. This was a house that we could truly make our own.  The selling point for us though was the land.  Over an acre!! 
After we talked to a broker and found out that we could actually buy the house we decided that if we were going to buy then we needed to look at all of our options.
We went home and tried to look at other houses. Nothing though had all of the things that we had dreamed of. We wanted to badly to find a home that we could raise all of our babies in, a home that they would call home forever, where they would bring their children one day. 
It was official this was the house!
Of course like anyone that buys a home it isn't a super simple process.  We started the process in November and closed 2-2-12.
We hit the ground running and began remodeling.
These are the photos that were posted with the house listing. 

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