Long Over Due Update

Well.... we have finally finished putting together our house. Lance had to mow the yard for the first time and we are one of the few people on our block with green grass. Yes Lance has been playing yard boy and fertilizing our grass and with all the rain lately we have a lush green yard. However the neighbor behind us took her mower to the "repair" shop. My husband being the nice guy he is offered to help her out and mow her yard for her while they are repairing the mower.... after excepting his kind offer she informed him that they would have it for 5-6 weeks! Where in the world did she take the mower that it might take 5+ weeks to repair you might ask... to a bike repair shop. Seriously a bike repair shop no wonder it will take 5 or more weeks they will have to look up how to fix it. After laughing at the situation Lance headed out to mow our yard and the neighbors for the first time. I figured since he was outside being "manly" in the yard I would help him out and start the work we needed to do in the flower beds.... so I manually (yes manually) pulled out 5 bushes that were in our flower bed. After that I was exhausted and in need of a good chiropractor so we now have a somewhat bare flower bed awaiting new plants. Hitch is trying to help us with the landscaping tasks by digging in the backyard. We play this fun little game where Lance places rocks (more like boulders- these are not small rocks) around the edge of our fence and then Hitch moves them through out the day. When he is done with that job he begins his daily digging. He likes to dig up our sprinkler pipes just to see what they look like. He does not chew on the or hurt them he just uncovers them..... and then stands there like "look mom and dad- see what i found today" He is a mess but keeps life entertaining. Hitch also experienced his first snow this past winter. He LOVED it we could not get him to come in out of the snow. He chased, ran in it, buried his nose in it. It was a sight to be hold and great for a laugh. As far as the family goes... we have finally finished adding all the newest members. 5 new babies and I must say we have the most beautiful and good baby additions. They are: Hayden, Elizabeth "Elle", Cade, Addisyn and Avery. I think that most of them already know that Aunt Katharine and Uncle Lance are there favorites. Now that things are more flexible and time is not so strained we will keep this updated more frequently.

Not much new.....

Approaching 3 months of marriage we thought it would be good to post an update....
We are both working a lot, Katharine works long hours as usual and Lance is working long hours due to his branch being short employees at the moment. Life is busy but entertaining to say the least. We have for the most part moved completely into out house. We still have some boxes in the garage to finish unpacking so we can get cars in there but over all we are home.
We recently took a trip to Tyler to visit Lance's grandparents. We had a great time and enjoyed the weekend with family. We celebrated both of his grandparents' birthdays, his mother's birthday and valentine's day. During our stop we hung out with some of our good friends and saw their new house.
Life is routine but busy. We are walking and playing ball with "Hitch" and enjoying the time together. We got a new family member on the 21st. Katharine's cousin Monica gave birth to a beautiful baby girl. We will keep you posted with any new updates and fun happenings. We have several weddings coming up and should have some stories from those to share with friends and family.

Married Life

So far so good we have survived our first month of marriage and here is what I know.....

• Honeymoon in Mexico
• We are both still alive
• The honeymoon was incredible!!! We had the best time and almost hated to come back.
• We went to Chichen Itza (Mayan ruins) on a tour one day - our bus got a flat tire on the way back and they handed out Tequila shots to all takers.... it was an interesting bus ride.
• We had moon light massages on the beach - which were awesome.
• Lance is a huge fan of all inclusive resorts. He really likes to enjoy a great meal and at the end be able to get up and leave and know the check is taken care of.
• Lance loves iguanas apparently..... we have a ton of pictures of iguanas!
• I need to slow down and pay attention to what I am doing with my camera- I deleted the first two days worth of pictures from our honeymoon due to lack of attention. (It is OK though Lance and my dad got me LARGE memory sticks for Christmas)
• Everywhere we turned in Mexico we were getting a bottle of champagne
• Much more....
• Our First Christmas (MARRIED)
• Trying to hit all parts of our families during the one day we had off was tiring, fun, good and possibly a bit much.
• Christmas Eve after I got off work we headed to Cleburne to do Christmas with Lance's family. They were lots of fun and seeing the kids play with their presents was entertaining. Needless to say I was under the weather and had soup for dinner.
• Christmas Morning we hit up breakfast bright and early with my Mom and Step dad. Charlie made a fabulous spread before my stepbrother had to head back to Oklahoma. Needless to say Hitch gets along great and plays well with Georgia (my brother's great dane), Lexie (Charlie's dog) and Rip (my mom's dog)..... he does not play well with the boxer my step brother brought home with him that he was watching for his roommate..... you don't think it could have anything to do with the fact that they are both not neutered males do you???
• Lunch- with my mom's family....... good food, good times, and laughter were had by all.
• Dessert- with my dad's family...... white elephant gift exchange, family making fun of my married life is like a giant slumber party comment. Lance picking a present so I could have 2..... pretty good.
• Dinner and Christmas lights with my Dad- we did present, had a "snack" (we were still full from lunch) and we went to see the Giant Angel in West over Hills.
• Then we headed for home to sleep before getting up the next morning for work!
• Overall
• Lance is still eating my cooking (when I have time to cook)
• We are both still alive and well
• We are enjoying each other's company
• I go to bed earlier than he does and work long hours.......
• Love is a great asset to have
• Being married is so far GREAT and I highly recommend it!!!!

I will post more information and pictures soon...... now that we have the Internet at home it will be easier. Happy New Year!!!!!!!

ONE WEEK!!!!

This is a picture of our FIRST HOME..... Hope you will come visit!

We are down to one week..... lets just say we are counting down and very excited. Lance and I are in the midst of the last minute details and "duties" that have been assigned. The excitement is building and we are very ready. Lance is more ready to be at the reception enjoying the "party" and on his honeymoon. I am more ready to celebrate and finally be married to Lance!

The wedding is pretty much all set and the last minute details are being worked out. Lance is only working Monday through Wednesday and I unfortunately am working through Thursday. But it will definitely make time fly by..... I will blink and Friday will be here before I know it. The house is coming along. Lance's parents came up on Friday and helped unpack, hang things and break down all the boxes we had unpacked so far. I will post pictures once things are more put together. We are close to being ready for overnight guest if we have any takers.

I will try to post more information later this week...... Happy count down everyone!

God's Divine Intervention & Sense Of Humor

Well..... things are moving right along with the wedding and Lance and I are in count down mode. Ok so here is the update from recent events:
Lance and I decided to rent a house for a year, found a great house in Keller and filled out the application on Thursday (3 weeks ago). Lance faxed in the application on Friday and the lady at the rental office called to tell him she would process the application on Monday. Great we thought we will have the keys towards the end of October and can start moving things in..... Well God decided to show us his sense of humor! On Saturday morning Lance and I both went to work (yes we ironically had to work the same weekend). Wes (Lance's roommate) called Lance at work at about 10:30a stating he had a house come across his desk- brand new with almost all the things Katharine wanted in a house. The builder is trying to get it off their inventory QUICK so check it out and get back to him ASAP. Lance reviewed the information Wes had sent him and thought it looked like a possibility.... remember we currently had an application in on a rental house. Well Lance tried to call me about 6 times but I had left my cell phone at home that day and he does not know my work number nor would he have caught me at my desk it was a VERY busy Saturday. Anyway I called him back after work and he kept asking how soon can you get to my house I have something I need to show you......

I made it to Grapevine very quickly thinking something was wrong with Lance or Hitch. Lance told me about the house we went over and looked at it even though Lance had already met the builder over there and looked at to see if it was anything we should consider farther. I LOVED THE HOUSE!!!! We would have plenty of space and it truly had everything but one item that I had asked Wes to look for in a house for us. Well Lance and I called my parents to come up and look at it and we sent pictures and information to his parents (they could not come because his Dad was 1-2 days post knee surgery). Everybody agreed that this was too good of a deal to pass up and that the house was perfect for Lance and I so..... We returned to the builder's office on Sunday and signed a purchase agreement. Two weeks after seeing the house for the first time (this past Tuesday October 30) we closed on our very first home.

So if you missed the humor or intervention here it is in a nutshell.... I had been a little stressed out trying to get all the wedding plans done and find a house that Lance and I could agree on, in an area we like, etc- we finally decided to submit to God's desire and rent a house and low and behold once we did that and felt better he showed us his funny side and gave us the house we had been looking for all along with a deal we could not pass up!

Lance and I are now home owners and in the process of trying to get moved in little by little so it will be ready for us when we get married. Or bachelor and bachelorette parties were in Austin on the same weekend but our friends did a great job and we never ran into each other. We have had a wonderful time at all of our showers. We only have two left before we get married. Things are running pretty smoothly with wedding plans and getting appliances delivered to the house. Overall things are great and Lance and I are truly BLESSED (to say the least)!!!