Homeowners :)

We started talking about buying a house about 4 months ago.  We knew we were going to be starting our process to pregnancy and our apartment kept raising the rent, so looking for a house seemed like the best option.  We started saving some money and then started looking for a house in May.  It didn't take us too long to find one that we thought would be perfect for us, we made and offered and it was accepted!  We started the process of getting our loan secured and today we closed on our first house!  We are so excited!

Unlocking the door to our house!

The house is in a cute little neighborhood in South Austin called Rancho Alto.  We fell in love with this neighborhood immediately, for several reasons.  First, it isn't a huge neighborhood and every time we drove through people we out walking their dogs or playing with their children and it looked friendly.  Secondly, we knew we wanted to stay in south austin somewhere and it was an affordable neighborhood with really cute houses.  Third (and most importantly), the streets are named after members of the 1980 USA Olympic Hockey Team (the story featured in the movie Miracle).  Our house is on O'Callahan Dr. and neighboring streets are: Jim Craig Ct., Herb Brooks Dr., Craig Patrick Way, Eruzione Dr, McClannahan Dr., etc.  Cool, right?  Well, you probably don't think so but we think its awesome!

Our house is 5 bedrooms (so a bit bigger than we wanted, but that just means there is room for visitors!) with 3 full bathrooms.  We were looking for a house with a bedroom and bathroom downstairs (for mom) but not the master downstairs.  That is hard to find.  This house had it plus 4 additional bedrooms and 2 bathrooms upstairs!  It already had an updated kitchen too!  Plus a really good sized fenced-in backyard for Marcie!  I think she is gonna really love her new yard!

Logan already loves the stairs!

The upstairs hasn't been painted before, so it's very neutral.  I hope to get some color to at least some of  the rooms before we move in. 

Logan is checking that vent for us.

Peek-a-boo from the pantry :)

Toasting our new house with some Sparkling Cider :)

I think Shawn is a bit overexcited!

Our current lease isn't up for about 6 more weeks, so we will have plenty of time to get the house ready before we move in, plus we can move stuff over slowly.  The living room and dining room are painted yellow with one dark red wall, so that whole area needs to be neutralized prior to moving furniture in!  We will be buying new living room stuff eventually, so for now I don't want to add any color downstairs because I'd rather wait until we choose a new couch and things so I can coordinate the colors.  I've been watching HGTV for a long time and now I will get to use some of the stuff I've learned!  We'll start by buying the essentials (mower, fridge, ceiling fans) then cleaning and painting.  We'll post updates as we progress!

Week Awesome: Part II

Bryce and Theresa have left.  :(  Boo

We miss them already.  Why do we have to grow up and move away from each other?  Ok...enough sad.  We had a great time while they were here and can't wait until them come back to visit again!!

The first full day they were here was one of my Logan days...we wore him out pretty early!

On Shawn's birthday, Eric's band had a show downtown at the Red Eyed Fly.

We got some swimming time in with Logan a couple of times too! 

Out to dinner on Shawn's birthday.  A bunch of his friends from work came out for dinner and drinks!

Bryce had never been here before, so we took him to a bunch of the best places to eat.  We also floated the Comal River in New Braunfels, which none of us had done before.  It was really fun.  Now that we've done it once we learned some stuff that will make it better next time.  We are going again...for sure!  We had a couple of really awesome game nights and I got a new game that was really fun!  Kind of like Balderdash (please tell me you've heard of that game...) but about each other instead of using word definitions.  It's called Truth be Told.  Super fun.  Bryce made his mission for the week to try not repeat a beer.  He tried a bunch of the Texas beers and some other beers he had never had.  I think he only found one he didn't like and so did Theresa.  Not too bad!   On Wednesday we played trivia at The Highball.  It was really fun!  We didn't win, but we learned a lot :)

Shawn's birthday was Thursday and he had just a tad too much fun.  Well...more than just a tad.  He won't be doing that EVER again.  But he had a great time and I did tell him it was his last birthday to really let loose.  Time for him to grow up.  Last birthday of his 20's and he'll be a dad next year.  I don't think he's excited to have to grow up...I don't know who I'm kidding though.  He'll never really grow up :)

Now back to real life again.  Back to work and cooking and such.

It seems to be impossible for us to get a good picture together anymore :(

What's goin' on...in Eric's life.

A few weeks ago my baby brother turned 17...17!  I still can't believe it!  These years have just flown by.  For his birthday we did a family dinner all together at Chedd's Gourmet Grilled Cheese.  Shawn and I have gone there before since it's near his comic shop, but Eric had never been and gourmet grilled cheese sounded right up his alley.  So we went and it was awesome!  There is only 1 in Austin right now and there really needs to be more.  If there is one near you, you should totally go!

Logan loves his Uncle Eric!  Logan loves to be in Eric's room...he is fascinated by all the guitars and other music stuff.  After dinner on Eric's birthday we came back to hang out for a bit and Logan decided he wanted to take some pictures.  This is what we got :)



Last night Eric's band had another show at the Red Eyed Fly downtown.  They still haven't managed to get the crowds they want, but I think they'll get bigger crowds when school starts again.  They decided to change their name from Throne Away to Reveries.  Eric was never a huge fan of the band name and they decided it was time to change it up.  Also, this show Eric did some of the singing!  It was a great show!

Also in Eric news, he got back his AP test scores and they were awesome!  I have such a smart brother :) 



Happy Birthday Shawn!

Today is Shawn's Birthday!  Happy Birthday to the best husband ever!!!

A few days ago Bryce and Theresa arrived for Week Awesome II...and we have already been having so much fun!  Bryce has never been here before so Shawn has really been enjoying showing him Austin and taking him for a tour of Austin food joints.  So far Bryce's favorites are the cream corn from Rudy's and the home fries from Magnolia Cafe.  Shawn has big plans for his birthday today, so we're headed over to do some swimming with Mimi and Logan now and then later...well, we'll see what adventure ensues!  I am sure they'll be plenty of pictures tomorrow!

Update

Quick update to my last post.

According to my neighborhood gossip...the murderer has been apprehended.  Apparently it was a guy who killed his 2 roommates.  To hide the first murder he set their house on fire then drove the second body to our neighborhood to dump it.  I guess the security guard stumbled upon his secret disposal, which is why I was stopped coming out of the neighborhood last weekend.  They were still looking for him because they thought he was on foot.

So now everyone can stop worrying :)  No more murderer on the loose in Travis Country...and at least it wasn't just some random killing!