Christmas Time in Manor!

Hope you've had a great Christmas!!

The Stewart grandkids have been elfed!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

The fat lady is warming up!

Dave & I went on a date yesterday to Independence Bank in Manor, Texas to sign our closing document - in the presence of their notary. Everything is signed, stamped, initialled, dated, and stapled. We put everything in the overnight mail, so hopefully it should be at the Title Company in Acton by now. There were no big surprizes on any of the documents, so that was a very good thing! By Monday, our mortgage should be paid off and there will be a little left over that will go into our bank account! THEN we will hear the fat lady sing - and we will likely join in!

We did get a call from our realtor yesterday, telling us the buyers were upset that the curtain rod and curtains from the dining room were missing. They wanted money - $200 -to replace them. Earlier in the house selling process, the buyers wanted $600 for caulking and replacement screws that were on the inspection report. We decided to tell them they could find their own curtains. :) We "leased" the house to them for $0 so they could move in and paint before the loan funded. We think that was a pretty nice deal, don't you?!

In hindsight, we should have left the curtains, since they were in the house when they buyers wrote the contract. But come ON - they got a GREAT deal on the house! I spent maybe $80 on the "window treatment". Geesh.

All in all, we are so thankful that God provided a buyer and especially that we were able to close before Christmas! God has been SO faithful to provide for us, in so many ways. He has used so many of our friends and family to encourage us and provide for us during our transition to Austin. It's definitely been challenging, but amazing to see God's hand in everything as we do our best to follow Him.

Looking forward to Christmas - and even to finishing Christmas shopping!!

it's almost official

I'm holding my breath for the next week plus a day. We're set to close on the sale of our beautiful home in Granbury next week. Bittersweet to say the least. I'm thankful for the time God had us there and thankful that He has a plan that is bigger than we can imagine...

Polar Express Time!

We had the cousins over last night to watch Polar Express!! They got to sit on the carpet to eat dinner while wearing pjs! And after they finished all their peas, they each got hot chocolate with marshmallows, just like the kids on the train. I'm still not convinced that they made that connection, but maybe it will sink in someday. Halle (14 months) was obviously not impressed with the movie, but she had a great time walking around the living room & kitchen and cuddling with her Aunt Suzy. :)

Granbury Fun

We made a trip to Granbury for pre-Thanksgiving fun. Dave & I are thankful that we were able to sign an offer on our house there! Hopefully, we will be back to one house payment again!!

We got to spend an evening with our sweet Sprayberry friends. I don't think we ever leave their house without something borrowed - Anna absolutely loves the cheetah/cat girl dress (complete with ear headband) and Daniel plays with the remote control car every day.

Thanks again for a great evening!!

Kindergarten Thanksgiving Feast

We had a blast at Daniel's Thanksgiving feast at school. All of the kids in his class dressed up as Pilgrims or Indians (I guess it's still OK to call them that when you're 5), made up a name, and told a little about themselves. Daniel's class (and most of the other ones) were definitely favoring the Indians - the Pilgrims were WAY outnumbered. :) After they did their solo presentations, they recited their memory verse together (Proverbs 3:1-18) and then sang "Albuquerque Turkey", which was hilariously performed with a hick accent. They all did great and we had a wonderful feast together.

One of the facts they learned while studying the Pilgrims was that they feasted for 3 days. Yesterday, as we were getting back into the home school stuff, Daniel made a great comment. "Hey Mom. The Pilgrims only got to take a break for 3 days. We got to take off a whole week!" Maybe you had to be there, but it made me grin.

Daniel and his buddy John

Happy Birthday Grammie!

Daniel, Anna, and I trekked up to Granbury to celebrate Grammie's birthday! We had a blast with a special treat - Sprinkles Cupcakes! As my favorite TV chef would say, YUM-O!

Yes, sports fans, Daniel picked the Longhorn cupcake. We are learning to love our brothers while living in Austin. But his favorite color is still maroon!!