Sea World Surprise!

For the last two years we have had season passes to Sea World. I can't even tell you how many times we've been over the last two years, but last week we had the visit of a lifetime. Our passes expired on July 3rd, so on the 2nd Chris and I left Emma at home with Stephanie (oh, have I mentioned that Chris's little sister lives with us right now?) so we could go ride some rides and not have to worry about making it home for naps.

After we parked we were heading to the gates to enter the park when these two ladies in super bright costumes walked up to us and shouted "SURPRISE!" We were so confused. Then they explained that this year Sea World is celebrating their 50th year and that they are part of a Surprise Team that randomly picks park guests to surprise. They handed us a card that said what our surprise was. We were assuming it would be something like a free stuffed animal, or a meal or something like that. We were SHOCKED when it said "Penguin Interaction Tour". Chris and I got to enter the penguin exhibit and actually go interact with penguins! 

We had been planning on spending the whole day in water-at the water park and doing the rides that get you wet in the main park, so we didn't have a camera or our cell phones with us. When we got to the meeting place for the interaction we met the three other people who were doing the interaction with us. One was a mom with her son on his 7th birthday (you have to be 7 to do the interaction) and the other was a girl probably about 20 who was doing this as a birthday gift to herself. Since they all knew they were doing the interaction before they got to the park they brought their phones with them to take a ton of pictures. The following pictures were ones that I got Jamie (the 20 year old) to text to me. We also ended up getting the pictures that a photographer took (oh yeah, a photographer was in there with us too) but don't have those yet.

First we spent about 15-20 minutes learning about the different species of penguins that Sea World has. Then we got changed and headed into the habitat. We got to spend about 30 minutes with the penguins. It was AMAZING.

They took photos of everyone sitting on this rock holding a penguin. Hopefully we'll have better pictures of this once we get the pro pictures back.

Cute penguins LOVED the interaction. They would come up to you and start whining if you didn't pet them. Some of them were super cuddly.

I'm holding Oswald and Chris was holding Jenny. So amazing.

This Chinstrap Penguin was just adorable! These guys were all so cute.

This is the youngest penguin chick they have.  When penguins are born they have these down feathers for about a year. This one hadn't started shedding his baby feathers yet. He was probably the most cuddly penguin out there. He can't swim yet so he's in a little pen with the two other baby penguins who aren't water-ready yet. We got to go in the pen with him and as soon as we didn't he cam up to us and just stood there for us to snuggle. 

After our time with the penguins was up we headed to the water park and went down a ton of water slides and tube rides. It was a blast to do all these things that we can't do with Emma until she's older/taller. This was definitely our most memorable trip to the park and we can't wait to head back there once we renew our passes in November.

Updates!

Wow! It's been forever. We're all alive and loving our new house. Someday I'll post pictures or a video tour or something of the house, but for now, words will have to do because I know if I start trying to add photos I will get all distracted.

Emma updates:
-officially pacifier free since the week we moved into our house. She lost her last remaining pacifier a few days after we moved and I refused to buy any more. While she was sleeping we looked frantically for it so we could just throw it away but didn't find it for about a week--Emma had put it in Grandma's jacket pocket while they were on a walk and Grandma just didn't wear her jacket. Eventually it was discovered (by Grandma) and disposed of at the grocery store trash can (so Emma would find it in the trash). She used to ask for it ALL the time, but now she really only mentions it at bedtime in her prayers "help me sleep no paci, paci all gone"

-has broadened her movie repertoire. She used to only watch Frozen, but now we've added Toy Story, Toy Story 2 and Cars to her acceptable list. We're hoping to add more Pixar movies soon. She's also willing to watch more than just Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood!!! Somewhere she was introduced to Mickey Mouse so she loves Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, and then discovered Octonauts and Doc Mcstuffens. She only watches those three shows on the Disney Jr App on our Apple TV, so she only gets about 3-5 episode options a week and several of the shows are super old (like, 2008) so I'm not even sure if those shows still are airing... but she loves them.

-Emma LOVES to be a helper. She gets upset if we do things that she knows to do-like setting the table. She loves to put the plates and forks on the table and is always upset if we do that job. She is GREAT at cleaning up and sings "clean up, clean up, everybody everywhere, clean up, clean up everybody everywhere" over and over again!

-she's FINALLY doing well in nursery again! She had a really hard time adjusting to our new ward. After being there a few weeks they *finally* split it into two nurseries which made things SO much better. There had been upwards of 20 kids in nursery and it was so chaotic. Now there are less than 10 kids in her class each week and it is so nice. We've also discovered it is great if Chris drops her off!

-similarly, she is doing great when I drop her off at the childcare at the gym. The week of the move I dropped her off at so many friends houses that she got really really clingy and had a hard time being left anywhere. She had a rough time the first few weeks back to the gym, but she is doing great now and gets excited and happy to see her friends and teachers there.

Other updates:

I got a calling at church this past week- I teach Relief Society once a month. Right now I'm on the schedule to teach 4th Sunday which is the "Teaching for our Time" lesson aka, a General Conference talk. They are also short a 3rd Sunday teacher, so I could be switched to that lesson depending on what the other teacher they end up calling is more comfortable with. Doesn't really matter to me much.

We LOVE our house! We're pretty much settled but my craft room is still an empty room (with lots of craft stuff in the closet). I think I finally picked out what craft table I want, so now I just have to decide if it really is what I want, and then order it!

We're getting settled into our new routines. We found a new library to go to for story time, and the few times we've been now we have LOVED. Emma got a certificate and free book for completing the San Antonio Public Library Summer Reading Challenge! She was one of the first kids to turn her reading log in so we got to pick a great book! We're also LOVING the new grocery store we go to-it's bigger and has a great selection of stuff

It's official!

We are homeowners! It's been a wild week-at one point or another we had closing appointments scheduled on three different days, although we probably had about 7 appointments scheduled total. We were supposed to close on Monday but when we went for our final walk through it was obvious that several of the things we had noted on our walk through had not been fixed yet. Things missing, extra things sitting around, cleaning not done, major paint touch ups needed still. It was kind of a mess. So it got bumped to Thursday. We went back Wednesday night for what was supposed to be our "final walk through" and still the paint touch ups and cleaning hadn't been done. So closing Thursday wasn't looking too promising-but Thursday was the last day of the month and the builder REALLY wanted to close on the last day of April. 

Thursday morning the superintendent called us and asked when we could get out to the house. So we dropped Emma off with a friend with a "we have no clue if this is going to be all day or just a couple hours" type thing and headed off to the house. We were met there by the superintendent and started pointing everything out to him that was obviously wrong still. A few minutes later the paint guy came and we got to walk around the house with him and point to everything that needed to be fixed. Then the cleaner came and we showed them everywhere that there was grout/paint/caulking. Then it was finally ready. We signed off that the house was complete and the superintendent told us that we had a closing appointment scheduled for 3:00. At that point it was about 12:20 or so.

We went to Lowes to pick up a few things, then headed to the bank to get our check. Then we went to Firehouse Subs for a quick lunch and headed straight to the title company. Then we went to the HOA office to pick up our pool key, and finally we got to go to the sales office to pick up our keys. Then we went to the house. Our house! We put toilet paper, soap and a towel in the bathroom downstairs and brought in a few more things-like door mats and trash cans. 

It's been a crazy week, but it was such a relief to be done with closing! Now the next adventure is packing up our whole duplex and moving to the house! Next week will be wild too!

It looks more like a house!

We went out to the house on Saturday and we're excited to see that it really looks like a house now! If all is well we close by the end of THIS MONTH!!! It's so crazy. I'm not sure we'll close on time, but they say they probably can do the repairs and finish the rest of the house in time.

This was the first time we'd seen the brick, the garage door (which you don't see in the picture), light fixtures (not all are up yet) and the cabinets! When we went the week before the cabinets were installed but covered because painters had just been there!

We did find an issue with the house where they framed something wrong and now they get to take the time to fix it. Next week we find out if that mistake will delay our closing date or not. 

Emma says "go house. Stairs" whenever we get in the car. It makes her sad when we aren't going to the house, until she starts asking if we can go to the library. I think she will be so happy when we move in and she always has stairs she can go up and down!

floor plan

I tried posting the floor plan for our house a few days ago but it wasn't working, so incase you can't get these photos bigger, here is a link to the floor plan. That isn't our address or even our housing development, I just googled the name of our floor plan and that was the first link that I got. Don't want to be giving you guys too much personal info on a public blog!

So here is the first floor. It's pretty self explanatory-dining room, kitchen, family room (for now at least that is where our tv will go), master suite, powder room laundry.

The second floor. For now the gameroom will be a big playroom for Emma. Overtime we anticipate that we'll move the tv up there, or atleast put a tv up there. It's large enough that in the future we could put air hockey/ping pong/foosball or something like that up there too. We'll see what we want to do with that area as Emma gets older. For now I'm thinking it will have a little table for Emma to sit at, a play kitchen (I'm hoping to get her one for her birthday!) all her other toys, an easel (when she's a little older probably) and stuff like that. My piano will also go up there, probably along the wall between Bedroom 4 and the Gameroom. 

For the time being this is our plan for the rest of the upstairs: Bedroom 2 = guest bedroom. Chris's little sister is going to come stay with us for a while and help us move/get settled so that will be her room at first. Bedroom 3 will be Chris's office (and if room 2 & 4 aren't enough for guests we can probably fit an air mattress in there too). Bedroom 4 is my craft room and if we have multiple guests at a time it will have room for an air mattress. Bedroom 5 is Emma's room. 

Then you've got the two bathrooms upstairs plus the linen closet. 

This is the exterior color package for the house:

And the interior color package:

The tile goes in the entryway/laundry area, the kitchen and the bathrooms. Carpet goes everywhere else. I hope that in the not too distant future we'll rip the carpet out of the dining room and put tile in there. I hate the idea of a carpeted dining room with kids. I know how much pasta/rice/whatever I sweep and mop off our dining room floor right now and can't imagine how bad it will be to be picking it all up and then vacuuming that room. Yikes.

Once I upload them to my computer I'll post some photos from the model home that show what the house looks like on the inside.

We were just at our house a few days ago and the drywall was all up inside and the walls had been texturized. There is a front door and a backdoor (although they lack doorknobs right now)! I didn't take a single picture while we were there because this time we took Emma with us and I was watching her the whole time to make sure she didn't try to climb up the stairs and get a million splinters and that she didn't find any random nails on the ground. It was the first time we took Emma to the house and she loved walking around and seeing what each room was like. She was a little concerned by how "messy" the tubs were... they had been full of crap from rain before the roof had been put on and she hates messes.

We've chatted with the superintendent that is over our house and he says that the house is still on schedule and that from their end it will be ready for us to close on April 27th. That's only 40 days away! We're ordering a few new appliances that are supposed to be delivered to the house May 2nd, and are looking to move in sometime the week of May 3-9. It's getting way close and there is so much to be done. We're trying to get rid of stuff that we don't use/need and so far have been able to sell a few things on Craigslist, give things away to people in our ward, and donate a bunch!

What we've been up to lately...

My blog was a little quiet during the last half of February. Don't let that silence and lack of posts fool you into thinking that nothing was going on, there was plenty happening, we just weren't publicly talking about it all. Now that it's March we've decided to be a little more open about what has been going on. We're buying a house! We have told our families and one friend who helped us out a ton by watching Emma as we went to fill out paperwork. This month when our Home Teachers come visit us we'll tell them and we assume they'll mention it in their home teaching report. If they don't, I at least know the Relief Society Presidency will hear about it since one of our home teachers is married to one of the RS presidency counselors. We figure we'll tell them first and then let word start getting around that we're leaving the ward. I couldn't wait until they come home teach us to share on my blog. Most of my blog followers (that I know of) aren't local and I have to tell someone our exciting news!

We were planning on buying a house next spring. That was the goal we were working towards. In January we started doing research on different areas of town to see where the better schools were and where there were newer (our current place was built in the 50s and we wanted something with a little more energy efficiency) homes and what neighborhoods met other needs of ours. Chris looked up the addresses of some of his friends from work and we decided to go drive around their neighborhoods because they lived in the part of town where we found better schools. This was just supposed to be a "let's get a feel for what the neighborhoods are like and see if there are obvious reasons to avoid these neighborhoods" drive. 

We didn't expect the promptings we would receive that this was the right neighborhood for us and that we were supposed to move much sooner than we were initially planning. But long story short, we're buying a house! The builder has a new line of homes where they pick everything out and the buyer cannot customize at all. Because there is no customization and because they can then purchase supplies in bulk it can be built more quickly and it costs less than a similar sized home. We found a floor plan we liked, found out that it was one of the first homes they are building, and found a community about 30 minutes away that has a model home of it. We've been to that model home 3 times I think, first to just check it out and then the 2nd and 3rd times we've gone with specific things to measure/figure out.The first time we saw what could be our lot it looked like the first picture. A foundation with some framing supplies.

The second time we saw it (4 days later when we went to sign paperwork to get in contract) it had some framing done:

And exactly one week after the first picture it looks like this (this was just this past Saturday):

It is crazy how it went from a concrete slab to really looking like a house in just one week! I can't wait to share more pictures eventually. I've got a ton of pictures from the model home and at some point I'll find my pdf of the floor plan so you can see what our house will be like! 

Dance party!

Emma loves to dance before bedtime. Sometimes we turn real music on, sometimes we're just ghetto and make our own music. Ignore Chris in the background. We try not to dance too much because we want to see what moves Emma will come up with. Her arm at the very beginning is one of her favorite dance moves. Any time I say "lets dance!" she starts moving her arm like that.

Blanket

A few days ago Emma and I were playing in her room and I asked her if she could bring me a blanket because I was cold. Lots of her blankets are stored in the bottom drawer of her dresser and she loves to pull them out, so I knew she could figure it out. I laid down and closed my eyes and she came and put this little ducky blanket over my face. Apparently she thought my face was cold! Such a sweetie!

Book of Mormon

Emma found this little Book of Mormon and has decided it is hers. She puts it in her backpack and takes it with us everywhere we go. She also likes to just sit and flip through it. Hope this helps her learn to love The Book of Mormon as she gets older!

Legos

One of Emma's favorite new toys is her Lego Duplos aka Yeggos. She loves to have me build towers, then she knocks it down and says "oh no. fix it" and then brings me the pieces so I can fix the tower. I love it!