Birthday Dinner for Cupcake

We went to Mr. Gatti's for last night for Collin's birthday dinner. We normally take Carter to Chuck e Cheese for his Birthday dinner but I can't stand there food so we went to Gatti's instead. Collin loved his birthday dinner, pizza is one of his favorites.

Down to the crust, I think he ate 2 whole pieces of pizza!

"Collin" got to eat his first cupcake and he loved it, if you can't tell!

While brother ran around and played Collin rode this car over and over and over! He loved it and kept this cheesy grin the entire time!

Then he got a turn in the race car. Doesn't he look like a pro?

It was a fun night and we are looking forward to his birthday party this weekend!

Happy Birthday Collin!

Collin,

This time last year I was in labor, anxiously awaiting your arrival. I went into labor on Mother's Day and your were the perfect gift. Holding you those first few moments when you were only seconds old are etched in my heart. To be the first one to hold you, to feel you breath blowing on my chest, my heart grew a special place for you that day. In the midst of business and chaos, I never knew a sweet baby could bring so much joy. Your radiant smile and piercing blue eyes are unforgettable. This year has gone by so fast, I wish babies came with pause buttons. You are the life of the party, the light in a dim room. Your smile and laughter are contagious. I truly have never seen a baby as happy as you. I can just say the word "Funny" and you begin to laugh. I probably "baby" you more than I should. Maybe because with Carter I learned how fast your children do grow or maybe because you aren't walking or talking yet. ;) You seem more baby like than I remember Carter being at this age and that is fine with me. I love snuggling with you after nap time when your not quite awake. I love to play pick a boo and patty cake and watch you try to imitate me. I love  being your Mommy and I feel honored that God entrusted you to me. 

I love you sweet boy, Happy Birthday!

Love Always and Forever,

Mommy

Appraisal Day!

We anxiously awaited our appraisal on Thursday morning and God went above and beyond provision. The weeks leading up to the appraisal we had several friends offer people they knew who were appraisers but unfortunately it wasn't any help because you don't get to choose your appraiser. I received a phone call from the appraiser on Wednesday and thought the name sounded familiar. Sure enough it was one of the appraisers a dear friend had said she knew.  He was wonderful and saw the true value of our home. First Prayer Request Answered! He came on Thursday morning and after checking out the house reassured me that we would be approved for an FHA loan. Second Prayer Request Answered! Friday morning I received a phone call from the mortgage company informing me that the house had appraised for $130,000! Third Prayer Request Answered! This was $15,000 over what we needed it to appraise for which was very exciting. If it will appraise for that right now when the house isn't even finished yet, it's exciting to think about what it will appraise for when everything is done. Thank you so much for all our prayer warriors for covering my family and our new home in your prayers. God is so faithful! It feels like 100 pounds have been lifted off our shoulders. We won't be losing momentum though, we still need to finish this thing so we can move in! We are hoping to be done within 4-6 weeks. Thursday is our closing day and then we will be official home owners! 

A little note I left for the appraiser on our chalkboard on the kitchen pantry door!

The Week of the Appraisal!

The house is going to get appraised this week either on Thursday or Friday. The original goal was to be completely done with the house by this point but now the goal is to just get as much done as possible before the appraisers arrive. It won't be possible to finish the house entirely by the end of this week but we are making some serious progress. We need the house to appraise for $114,195 in order for us to finish out things with the bank and close on the house on May 13. Even though the house won't be done by then, having the bank and deadlines out of our hair will relieve so much pressure. We are praying for a wonderful appraiser who sees the true value of our home and all of its potential as we work to wrap up all the loose ends. We are also praying that the house would approve for us to take a FHA loan rather than conventional because the interest rate is lower therefore our monthly payments would be less. And last we are praying that even after we close that we would be able to finish up the last projects quickly so that we can move into our new home. It has been a long year and move in day can't get here soon enough. So today I ask that you would be praying for us this week as we approach our appraisal date.

So, what is done? Lets take a look:

Remember This?

Now its yellow! Envision black shutters, new porch railing, window boxes with red geraniums, a white porch swing, new landscaping...... Oh the possibilities!

And this? Looks like it is out of a horror film!

So much better!

Remember this hideous garage?

We tore it down and now have doubled the size of our back yard and have the perfect slab for a patio and place to ride all the kids scooters and bikes.

Does this kitchen make you want to cook? 

?

How about now?

The pantry door has chalkboard panels.... so excited about that! The old pantry became a built in fridge!

Wanna play in here?

What about in here?

(This wall was supposed to say "Play, Laugh, Grow" like the fisher price slogan but my sweet cousin misjudged the space so we had to pick a smaller word, oh well it works! Don't you love how Collin's walker is already in the "playroom"? )

Stay tuned for more updates to come, and please continue to pray for us this week!

Collin's Doctor Appointment

Today I am recooperating after a long day at Scottish Rites Hospital for Children. Yesterday we drove to Dallas for Collin's early appointment. We hadn't been to Scottish Rites since he was 3 weeks old. Our morning began in radiology where we waited to have the first set of hand x-rays done. Daddy, Collin, and I went into the room where we were drapped in radiation protection aprons. Collin sat in Daddy's lap as the radioloist did his best to straighten out his hands. Collin hates for anyone to mess with his hands so decided to not cooperate with the radiologist. All of that to say we got the pictures taken and moved over to the hand clinic waiting room. We had a confusing morning as we didn't see our doctor, but a fill in. In the beggining she gave us some wrong information. One minute she said we would be waiting for him to turn two before beginning surgery and then ten minutes later she sent a nurse in to explain the do's and dont's of surgery day and to schedule it. She told me our doctor was in an emergency surgery and I could just meet him the morning of surgery. I informed her I didn't feel comfortable with that and I had too many questions I needed to ask him. I didn't drive six hours to not even meet the surgeon who will be opperating on my baby's hands. They said we could come back in the afternoon but Chris had a flight to catch so Collin and I took him back to the airport and then went back to the hospital. At this point in our day I was feeling very confused and discouraged. When we got back we met our hand surgeon Dr Oieshi. He was fantastic, so helpful, friendly, and informative. After introducing himself to Collin and I, the hour long appointment began.

He began by showing me Collin's x-rays which I was glad to see. He showed me where Collin is missing bone. On his left hand he is missing the top two finger bones on his pointer finger and he just has a sliver of bone on the top of his middle finger. On his right hand he is missing the top two finger bones. He talked to me about the bands on Collin's wrist. He said they were causing some edema (swelling) and he felt like we needed to go ahead and do surgery on the left hand and wrist this year. He is going to perform a Z-plasty surgery around his wrist and affected fingers. Then six months later we will do the right hand. He also said that around age four or five he would have to have one or two more surgeries. (I was kinda of surprised to hear that) The surgery itself can last any where from one to four hours. He said he expects it to only take two. We will check in early in the morning and stay one night in the hospital. His hand will be casted up to his elbow to keep him from wiggling out of the cast. The cast will completely cover his fingertips, so he won't be able to use that hand at all while it is casted. He will be in a cast for 4 weeks.

The scheduling office will call me next week but they expect it to be in about four months. I know children have surgery all the time but putting my baby under anethesia makes me really nervous. In a strange way it was comforting to hear that the surgery was necessary and not elective. Meaning there was more reasons than solely cosmetic to do the surgeries. Chris and I had really stressed over making this decision (to operate or not) and Dr. O just kinda made that decisions for us. He explained that if he didn't have the surgeries there could be later complications caused from the edema. I feel better than I did yesterday morning and as much as I am dreading surgery day, I am looking forward to starting this process and getting it over with.

Thanks so much for everyone's prayers yesterday!

House Update.....

Well we are set to close on the house on May 13th...... We have finished lots of projects and several more to go. Here is the latest progress on our house:

Not much progress to the exterior at this point, but painting and new porch railing is in the works.

We buried all the rubble of brick from the inside of the house and tore down 2 dead trees. This pictures shows where the future driveway will go.

This is the living room, all that is left is to sand the floors and paint the front door and trim.

Don't you love the wide window frames? Grandpa did a great job!

The dining room, new picture window, painted chandelier, stenciled wall.

The floors need to be stained as well as the trim for this room.

Dining room looking into Living room.

Here is a before of the chandelier, (my grandfather made this chandelier when he owned this house in 1963, I know crazy, I will tell that story another day)

The picture is kinda blurry but I painted it copper.

The kitchen is coming along, cabinets almost completed, pot rack hung, refrigerator in, I love it.

This is the playroom, the first room to be completely done (besides some touch ups). 

In the end this is what all the floors will look like!

This is Puddin's room, for right now it is the supply room.

This is Cupcake's rooms, obviously all the trim work has to be painted.

This is our bedroom, the floors are taking lots of work because they are in really bad shape. And you can see that the doors and trim need a good paint job.

This is "Mommy's room", aka the laundry/sewing room. I painted it pink of course. I love it!

This is the ceiling my very artistic cousin painted for me in the laundry/sewing room!

Here is the big bathroom. Finished the bathtub and the vanity is still a work in progress.

The vanity...

My $35 garage sale find, Nana and Grandpa sanded and painted it. Isn't it gorgeous. The vintage faucet is on its way. Now all the bathroom needs is a sink and toilet.

So we have five weeks left and everyone is working crazy to get this done. I think we are all kinda of burnt out and sick or it but in the end it will be worth it. Lots of work left, praying some how we can get this done.