I am coming home!!!

So next week I am going back to Dallas for a few days. I have some family things that I really need to go take care of. I am curious if anyone happens to be available on Thursday February 5th to watch some cute little babes??? If you are leave me a comment or email me alhooten@gmail.com. This would mean a lot to me if someone were available to take them for some of the day on Thursday.

Also... I would like to get together with as many people as I can so I've thought that whoever wants to get together on Saturday for lunch we could do that and have some GIRL TIME! Let me know on the comments as well. Hopefully I will be able to see some of you next weekend!

Update

The potential buyers on our house in Celina backed out! Grrrrr... We really need this house to sell. We are all doing well. Just really cold! That is all right, it is supposed to be nice again this weekend. I have lost 5 pounds in the past two weeks which is exciting for me! Hopefully in the next couple of weeks I will finally be under 140 lbs! I have been exercising and i started Weight Watchers, which I love! I love being able to eat pretty much whatever i want. It makes me want to eat better. We joined the YMCA and that has given me something to do during the day.

Back Up your blog or create a blog book

One of my friends had this on her blog and I thought I would share it with others. This is a website that you can backup your blog. It also has the capability of publishing your blog into a book! How Awesome! Thank you Kristin for posting this on your blog!

www.bloggled.com

Playing together

So Cute! Need I say more?

BTW...Love the weather!!!

Long Awaited Photos of Our New Home!

The LONG AWAITED pictures of our new house have FINALLY arrived!
This post is dedicated to Liesl! Thanks for reminding me that I needed to post this. I promised that I would post them and now I am finally keeping up with my promises.


Enjoy Everyone!

BTW... keep us in your prayers our house in Celina has a potential buyer and we are in the middle of negotiations.

Our new house on Notre Dame Avenue

The backyard car port where Clay's truck is stored since he now has a company vehicle! Yeah no more gas on this baby!

The left side of our backyard. There is still another side that I did not post. This yard is huge! We live on a corner lot which helps a ton.

The Dining Room part of the kitchen. Kind of small, but we bought a table that actually looks pretty good there.

Our SMALL kitchen. More cabinent space then before, but the counter space is a lot less.

Our new T.V.

FINALLY... the long awaited day for new furniture! We have been married for almost 5 years and I finally got a new living room set. YEAH!!!

The Living Room with the view of the built in shelves.

Still part of the Living Room with double french doors going out into the backyard.

The girls and my bathroom. Clay gets the master bathroom. Trust me I don't want it. Not enough space. Besides he gets to clean it which leaves only one bathroom for me to clean!!! Hee! Hee!

Elyse's side of the girls bedroom. I am too embarrased to show Madyson's side. There are a few boxes where the bedframe is and a pack n' play. I thought that she would be ready for a big girl bed, but I was WRONG! I need to go get her crib back out of storage. I just haven't found the time and quite frankly she likes the pac n' play so I am delaying it. Too lazy I guess.

Our SUPER SMALL Master Bedroom. Oh well... All I do is sleep in there. Clay gets the closet in there and I get the closet in the office. I don't mind. We are doing what we can in the space that we have.

I hope you all enjoyed the tour of the new Hooten Home! We miss you all!

We are getting a piano!!!

Sorry that you have to scroll down so much to see it and that it is a bit blurry. The picture came out really small and I can't seem to make it bigger without making it more blurry. Anyway... the story behind the piano! We spent Christmas with the Hooten family this year. We went to a Christmas dinner that most of Clay's cousins were at. He has a cousin, Mike, that lives in Denver and just bought a house there. The piano came with the house. While we were at the dinner Elyse was up on the stage playing with the piano that was there. While she was playing we started talking to his cousin about it. He said that he had a piano that he would GIVE to us. WHAT?!?! Did I hear that correctly! Yup!!! We will be the proud owners of a piano in June when we can go out and pick it up! Thanks Clay for humoring me! Now I can take lessons and learn the piano before the girls! I am soooo excited!
Big Thank you to Mike for letting us have the piano!!!

The "Joys" of School!

Elyse started Joy School this week! She was so excited to get back into school. It has been a while since she was in school. If you don't know what Joy School is I will give a brief explanation. Joy school is a bunch of moms that get together and do preschool by switching homes on a weekly basis. We do it two days a week for 2 1/2 hours. We teach basic values in life. They have a preschool curriculum, too. We just decided that most of the kids weren't ready. Elyse is ready, but i will be doing some stuff with her on my own.
Elyse really loves Joy School. It has been nice for her to get to know some other kids in our ward. I really love Joy School as well! It has been nice having a few hours to spend with Madyson. We typically go and run errands that are a little more difficult with two kiddos.

Weekend Trip

Can I say I am so glad to be home!!! We have been doing quite a bit of traveling lately. I guess that is what happens when you move away from one family and a little closer to another. We have more opportunities now to go and visit Clay's family in El Paso. When we lived in the Dallas area it took us 11 hours to get there and now it only takes 5 1/2. We went this weekend to celebrate Clay's grandfather's 89th birthday! What an exciting milestone! I love all of his grandparents so much. I guess I just love older people because they have so much to contribute and they have seen so much more than a 25 year old girl. Anyway...

Happy Birthday Grandpa Ayub!

Our family posing with the Birthday Boy!

Our family with Grandma Ayub! Thanks Grandma for letting us stay with you!

Your Word is "Think"

You see life as an amazing mix of possibilities, ideas, and fascinations. And sometimes you feel like you don't have enough time to take it all in. You love learning. Whether you're in school or not, you're probably immersed in several subjects right now. When you're not learning, you're busy reflecting. You think a lot about the people you know and the things you've experienced. All I have to say is I agree 100%. It is funny that by answering a few questions it tends to describe you right on! Have a good weekend everyone!

New Years Resolutions

I think that if I write down my New Year's Resolutions for ALL to see than I will more likely be held accountable for them!

2009 New Year's Resolutions

1. Spend quality time with my wonderful girls!
2. Be prepared to teach the CTR 5 class each Sunday! In the past I have not been too prepared with my primary callings. Hence the reason I think I keep getting called into Primary.
3. BE FIT! I want to lose 25 pounds. This moving thing caused me to gain a little weight that I did not want to see. No, I did not gain that much, but I just want to be down to the weight I was when I became pregnant with Elyse.
4. Write letters to my family each Sunday. I haven't lived far from my family in 6 years. I know that they miss the girls. It is for my benefit as well since I don't keep a very good journal.
5. Meet new people. I want to be better at going out of my comfort zone to be social with others. We have already made some friends here and that has helped tremendously!
6. Scrapbook more often! I loved having the scrapbook group in our last ward even though there was just a couple of us. Each month I would come home with 2 new pages. I am ready to get back on it again!
7. Learn something new! I want to learn how to do something that will make it look like I have talents! Ha! Maybe needle point work, or crocheting or knitting. Something...
8. Give service more often. Now that I actually have time I would like to be better at helping others who are in need. I know that I couln't have done it without the help of some very good friends and sisters in the gospel.
9. Be more creative when it comes to activities to do with my girls. If any of you have ideas that you want to share... I am new to this staying home thing and I need ideas to keep them busy.
10. Talk kinder and be more patient with my wonderful Hubby!

Now that I have shared my New Years Resolutions with you... what are your new year's resolutions? Maybe we can help each other stick to our goals a little better!

Have a Happy and Wonderful 2009!

P.S. Our house is still for sale or lease, so if any of you know anyone who is moving to the area that might want to live in Carter Ranch in Celina let me know! It is a wonderful neighborhood with lots of really cool amenities. It is a 3 bedroom, 2 bath with 1860 square feet. Newly painted. It honestly looks brand new! As it should for only being 4 years old.

Back online!

I am finally back online! It has taken us the whole month of December to finally get the computer and desk up and and running! We have such a busy month, but a great month after everything is said and done! We really enjoyed Christmas! We were able to have my mom and dad come to San Angelo the weekend before Christmas! We had a nice time with them. We then went to El Paso to spend Christmas with Clay's family. We had a nice time, but we were ready to come to our new home. On the drive back from El Paso I really wanted to go home. I don't mean to San Angelo, but to the house we just left. For me it takes leaving something to fully appreciate it. I loved our home in Celina. Sometimes I wish that we were back there. I know that we are where we are supposed to be though. We actually drove back from El Paso childless. Wow! You may say to yourself. How did they manage that?!? I have a wonderful Mother-in-law who wanted to spend some time with her grandaughters and I told she could without any hesitation. Actually just a little bit with Mady. I wasn't quite ready for her to be gone from my sight for a week, but I have dealt with it. We really needed this time so thanks Sherry for being so kind to take the girls for us!!! I have been getting the house in order and hopefully will have everything in its place when the girls come back tomorrow! I have spent all week doing stuff around the house and pampering myself! For graduation my other mother-in-law, Pam, gave me a gift certificate to the spa here in San Angelo! I had a day of pampering! It was wonderful! I had a manicure and pedicure while laying down? Now how many of us can actually say we have done that? I hadn't until this week! It was wonderful! Thanks Pam for thinking of me and giving me something that was much needed to help me relax from such a stressful semester. I will post some pictures soon of the girls and Christmas. I might even throw in a graduation photo!