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.