Awesome April

I just wanted to post a few cute things the littles are doing so I can remember when I'm old and gray. Oh wait, I'm already old and gray. Hmmph.

Anyways, Lily can't go five minutes without singing. She sings every request she has, makes up songs, sings Primary songs, tries to sing along to the radio - she just has a big song in her heart that must get out!

Lily isn't the only one! James has recently started humming himself to sleep. I'm not sure how long he's been doing it, because I only started noticing this week when I'd rock him to sleep without nursing him. I hum "I Am A Child Of God" to him while I nurse him, and Monday I wasn't nursing him, but was humming, and he joined in :) Melted my heart.

Lily loves bugs (and rocks, but that's for another post). Every time I open the garage door to get ready to leave the house, she bolts to the driveway and plops her little bum in the grass to see her ant friends. She loved one to death yesterday and announced "Grampa's ant is sleeping" as she smeared it on her thigh. Not sure why it was Grampa's ant, but she carried it around through all of our errands, occasionally narrating it's travels: "Grampa's ant going to the park", "Grampa's ant drinking juice", and "Grampa's ant hiding in my fingers". Love that little girl!

James still isn't rolling or crawling, but has discovered his legs - at least while he's in his walker. Since our downstairs is tile and wood, he can cruise around wherever he pleases. His feet get horribly dirty (guess I'm admitting to not being the best mopper-of-floors) and he is SO happy to be mobile.

As we get closer to owning a house (we close the 29th at the latest, but hopefully can get everything together so we can close the 22nd!!), I'm getting caught up in researching Texas gardening, heirloom seeds, and chicken raising. I am so excited to have a home we can make our own!

Putting Down Roots

Mike and I have been looking at houses since November. We have some restrictive criteria ... well, restrictive to HOA-happy Houston. We've looked at dozens of homes, trying to find that one perfect fit. And *drumroll, please* we FOUND it! The second we walked through it, I knew "This Is The Place".

I'd felt that way before, when Mike came home from his mission - I KNEW he was going to marry me, and I even had the audacity to tell him that. Just the same, I knew this house was going to be ours. 

We went through several counter-offers and counter-counter-offers before we reached an agreement. It's perfect for us: perfect floorplan, perfect lot (a quarter of an acre in Houston is SO hard to find!), perfect location... well, nearly perfect. The house is one street, ONE STREET, outside of our current ward boundaries. *snif* Happily, it's still close enough to stay in touch and play with friends, while being able to make new friends. It feels so right, and we are so happy to have found a place that we can grow and tend to our little family.

We hope to close by the end of April. Thank you, family and friends who have kept us in your prayers.

*Sidenote: It doesn't come with the pool, which leaves us with more room for a garden!