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Today was hard for me.  It shouldn't have been.  I normally love days when we decorate our tree but this just isn't my tree.  My tree is sitting in storage with all of the decorations that I love to take out and look at every year.  This tree has no sentimental value to me.  It just makes me sad and really makes me miss our old home.  Thankfully it is just this one year that we will have to do this. 

The kids love the tree.  I took them to Wal-Mart and let them pick out what they wanted to put on it. 

It isn't what I would have picked but they love it and that is all that matters. 

In fact they think it is the prettiest tree ever.  (Bright red tinsel and all!) 

And as long as they are happy with this Christmas, I am going to do my best to be happy with this Christmas and be thankful for all that we have.

Because we do have a lot...and tonight we celebrated that with our little Charlie Brown tree with the bright red tinsel!

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Things are moving along! 

Today was the first time we have let the kids go into the house since they started putting the roof on and finishing up the walls.  I have been hesitant because of all of the boards that are holding the walls in place so that they don't shift when the roof is going on.  There are just so many of them and I didn't want someone to get hurt or mess something up.   

They were so excited to go in and see their rooms again! 

I love seeing their excitement over their closet or bathrooms.  It is too cute!

This is one of the patch jobs on the concrete.  I am trying not to freak out about how it looks but right now it is stressing me out a bit.  It wouldn't matter so much if we weren't staining the concrete, but we are and I think it is going to look terrible.

 

The area where the floor plugs will be looks better than I first thought it would.  Our builder was able to come up from the basement and cut across from there to where each plug will be located.  He still has to come in and knock out where the plug is and then work on buffing it and trying to get it to blend.  He feels certain that he can get it to look good.  All I can do is trust him at this point.

 

I can't wait to finally be living out here and relaxing on our back porch.  It is so peaceful.

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Tonight we headed back home. 

The kids weren't too happy to be leaving Meme's house but they were excited once we finally got home. 

Time to get back in the swing of things and get geared up for Christmas.

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Blogger is once again giving me a hard time with pictures tonight.  I will try to upload them again tomorrow.

We had a great day here.  Nothing too special.  This afternoon my mom, sister and I headed to San Angelo to run just a few more errands and pick up a few more things.  Shopping was so crazy yesterday so we didn't really get to fully look at stuff.

We came back this evening and watched Elf (LOVE that movie!) and worked puzzles.

It was a nice day.  We are heading back home tomorrow.  I hate to leave but I am excited to get home and see the progress on the house.  It is always good to take a break from things but it is also nice to settle back in at home.  I bought us a little tree yesterday and now we need to figure out how to decorate it.  I hate having all of my stuff in storage but at least it is temporary.

ETA:  Pictues of the kids working puzzles with their Meme.

 

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This morning we got up bright and early (well...actually I never even went to sleep) to brave the Black Friday crowds.  This is by far my favorite shopping time of the year.  I hate crowds but I love a bargain and the thrill of the find is just so exciting!  I LOVE it! 

I found a lot of great stuff and pretty much finished up all of my Christmas shopping. 

I am so TIRED though!  I have only taken about a 2 hour nap over the past 40 hours and that was with Jaci who was coughing the entire time.  Doesn't look like tonight will be much better because she hasn't stopped coughing since I put her down.  It was a great day but bed is now calling my name.

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Happy Thanksgiving! 

We have so much to be thankful for and have had a wonderful day! 

We got up and cooked and had everything ready early.  (It was wonderful!)

After lunch was cleaned up we began our shopping lists.

The kids took a spin around the driveway on Uncle Jimmy's Harley.  I wasn't too fond of the idea but in the end the boys and Jimmy won.

They got to ride but only around the little circle around mom's house.

Tyler came in and crashed right in the middle of all of the noise of the living room.  I couldn't believe he was sleeping through all the noise and madness.

Jaci and Rhett watched Toy Story 2-3 times while snuggled up in bed.

It was a wonderful day.

Now I am debating if I should go to sleep or just stay up until 2:30 when I hope to head out shopping.  Last year I stayed up.  I will probably do the same this year.  I am just too excited about all of the bargains tomorrow!

 Hope you all had a wonderful day surrounded by the people and things you love!

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This morning I met with our builder to discuss a few changes we wanted to make as well as talk about how we wanted the fireplace.  It was a good meeting and things are moving along nicely.  They were out there putting up the plywood on the walls. 

After we left there we headed out to Robert Lee and have enjoyed a nice afternoon here. 

The kids were so excited to get here and see their cats.  They sure do love those kitties.

Hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

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For some crazy reason Blogger isn't letting me upload pictures tonight. I have been trying for over an hour and still can't get it to work. I am done for the night. I will try to get them posted tomorrow.

I had a lot of great pictures of the house framing and the layout of the house. It is really coming together.

The kids and I didn't head out to Robert Lee today because I have to meet with our builder in the morning to discuss our fireplace and what we are doing with our brick/rock. (Which by the way we STILL have not made a decision on!) We also have a few other framing issues to discuss with him but nothing major.

The kids are excited to be on Thanksgiving break. Just wish we didn't have to change our plans because of the house but I have a feeling that will be happening a lot in the coming months. It will all be worth it when it is finished!

ETA:  I finally got my pictures to post!

View of front of house. 

Looking at our front door. 

Looking from the living room back to the kitchen and off back to the back patio. 

View of vaulted celing in living room looking towards our bedroom.  The fireplace will be centered with this vault and will go all the way up.  I have also decided to add a vaulted celing to our bedroom to make it look larger. 

Looking from the kitchen into the laundry/mud room. 

Our bedroom. 

Our bathroom. 

The back porch.

Looking from the back porch to the garage/workshop. 

Looking from the dining room to the kitchen/living room. 

Jackson's room. 

Boys bathroom with their closets in the back. 

The basement after we finally got it sealed. 

Jaci's room. 

Jaci's bath and closet. 

Tyler's room.

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Today Jacob took off work so that we could take care of a few house items.  We went to 2 more limestone quarries over in Leuders and picked out 2 more sets of rocks.  We now have 5 different colors of rock out there.  I 'think' we have it narrowed down to 2 of them.  It is just so hard.  We are waiting on some quotes to come back and them we will hopefully be able to decide by Wednesday.  Jacob also finished sealing off the basement.  We are so happy to have that project done!  It was a much bigger job than we had anticipated. 

Jackson had a pajama day at school today and is enjoying an easy week. 

The kids and I are headed out to Robert Lee tomorrow.  Jacob has to work the day before and after Thanksgiving so he will just be able to travel in for the day.  It should be a good week.  Hopefully some people in this house will get in a better mood.  She hasn't caught up on her sleep from our trip this weekend and then we have had a super busy couple of days and it isn't sitting well with her.  This is pretty much what she looked like all day today.  It wasn't fun.

And now we will return to our regularly scheduled blogging... :)