Our New House

We finally closed on our house January 15, 2010. The house buying process was pretty easy peezy until we got to closing and then the bank selling the house became pretty greedy and we had a long 2 week fight with them. NEVER deal with Chase bank. They are horrible. But all in all, it wasn't that bad, and we are very happy with our new home. Now to the good part... pictures! Blogger makes it kind of hard to organize so they might be out of order. (Captions are underneath the pictures).

The front at night. I will get a better picture later.

Welcome to our home!

Our New Address!

Our front window before being frosted.

Front window after being frosted. Yay for privacy!

The powder room at the front entry.

This is our bedroom.

More of our bedroom and new furniture.

Our new dresser.

Our bathroom.

Our closet.

Under the stair storage. IT IS AWESOME.

The dining room with our tiny table. Looks like we need to save up for a new grown up table.

The right side of the kitchen with our new appliances (A Christmas present from my parents- We don't normally get gifts like this but they took Mattie to California for the National Championship game and they don't like doing for one without doing for the other, so Thanks to my families obsession with UT football (and their love of course ;)) we have new, beautiful appliances.) We LOVE them. They really finished off the house.

The left side of the kitchen. Our stove/range was damaged when it was delivered so we are waiting on a new one.

A view of the whole kitchen.

Another view of our Living Room. Our bedroom is the door to right of the front entry.

View of Living Room from Dining Room. Complete with lazy dog.

View of Living Room from entry way. It is long and narrow so we had to get creative with the couches. Notice our lazy dog sleeping on the couch again. :)

TV area in Living Room.

The guest bathroom upstairs.

Another view of the guest bathroom.

The larger extra bedroom (AKA The grandparent's room- hint, hint- come visit!)

Another view of the larger extra bedroom.

My home office in the loft area.

Another view of my home office/loft.

The smaller extra bedroom/ Heath's Office. (AKA The Longhorn room)

Heath's study area in the smaller extra bedroom.

New front door hardware.

Old door knobs. I am not a fan of gold so these had to go.

Our new beautiful bronzed oil door knobs installed by my very own handy man Heath.

Old Sliding Door Handles

New Sliding door handles

The jungle up front that we need to tame.

My new nemesis- the common weed. I will kill them all!

Ally loves her new backyard! And we love not having to take her out on a leash!

So there you have it. We love our new home and have enjoyed getting settled and making it our own. The best part- Not having to move for like 5+ years and not having to live in an apartment! We feel truly blessed right now, especially as so many others struggle over in Haiti to survive after that tragic earthquake. Our thoughts and prayers are with those affected in any way by this sad event.

If you haven't already, please head to one of these sites and donate for the recovery and rebuilding of Haiti. Every dollar helps. We did the really simple text option and it will just add our donation onto our cell phone bill.

www.helphaitinow.org

www.redcross.org

www.clintonbushhaitifund.org

We took home more than gifts this Christmas...

We took home the cold virus! Yep, we've done it again. Both of us have some nasty little upper respiratory yuckiness, although Heath is just a little congested and I've (as usual) got the full blown virus fun. So I have been trying to get lots of sleep and drink plenty of fluids which has left no time to blog about what an awesome Christmas we had. So here we go...

Thursday night we headed over to Ben and Mer's for our annual Christmas Eve Bash. This year we had the pleasure of having the J's, Cody and Bandaid there also. We had a breakfast buffet for dinner and I must say Jeremy makes the most awesome omlets ever. Then we let the girls open their gifts from us (and my parents) since we don't see them on Christmas day. After that, it was the Breinholt Nativity Christmas Devotional Spectacular via Skype. All and all it was a very fun time. We left a little earlier than we would have liked because surprise, surprise we had gotten snow that whole day and the roads were a little slick as the day went on. Us Texans don't do too well driving unless it is bright and sunny outside :)

Then Christmas day I fought the urge to wake everyone up at my parent's at 5 a.m. and let them sleep in until almost 8! Man, am I good daughter/sister/wife or what? :) So we got up and opened presents and hung out for awhile and then we got packed and headed out toward Wolfe City. My grandma and aunt wanted us to do Christmas with them this year there and so we packed the car with humans, packages, and dogs alike and headed out on the now thawing roads. My grandma wanted to do dinner at her house (which is right next door to my aunt's) so she prepared an all out feast for us all. It was a tough time for them as they were struggling through the holidays without my cousin Colin, but it was great being there with everyone. After opening presents at my Aunt's we went off to Gran's for some much needed rest (the whole waking up at 8 was catching up to us) and then we headed home the next day. That was also the day I woke up with the dreaded sore throat. After that we just lounged around at mom and dad's playing with our new trinkets. Then on Sunday we headed back to Austin so we could get some paperwork into our lender...... because we close in 5 days!!

So here we are in Austin, 5 days away from closing, and couldn't be more excited! We can't wait to be in our little home together and make it our own.

Wishing you all a Happy New Year. May all your dreams come true!

Or a dead lizard.....

Wow, so out of all the boring posts I've written, I thought at least the "We're getting a house" post would get more buzz. I must be down from three readers to one. Maybe this will be more entertaining, but I doubt it. We've been in Keller for the past three days or so. Friday we drove in and then Saturday we went to a Casa Manana play with Mer's family and the girls. I haven't been there since like elementary school field trips. It was a pretty cute play minus all the smoke in the air for the lights. My eyes couldn't breathe through all of it. Other than that it was the best seeing the girls light up when Santa would come out. Ah, to be young again.
After the play, we headed over to Mer's parent's house and hung out for awhile. Mer took the girls home to put them in bed, and Ben stayed with us so he could watch the Cowboys game. We decided to spend the night over at Ben and Mer's so we took Ben to my parent's to get our things. Heath took Ally out and she was acting weird after that. She kept roaming in a circle around the couch. Mom thought it was because she knew we were leaving. I was thinking, "The only time she does this is when she has snatched something up and knows she's done wrong." So she jumped on the couch next to me and I opened her mouth and behold, there was a small piece of a stick in her mouth. Looked almost like a root of a plant or something. Then I looked closer, my eyes got wide, and in my best disgusted girly girl voice exclaimed "Or a dead lizard!!!". I was holding in my hand a tiny, shrunken, dead house lizard....from my dog's mouth! Yuck. I promptly threw it away, washed my hands, and reminded myself to not get "kisses" from Ally for a long time. Dog's do the darndest things!
So after all that excitement Sunday we went to church and then headed over to our friends Scot and Amy's house. They recently bought it about 7 months ago and we have yet to go and check it out. We had a great dinner, had fun catching up, and had a little friendly competition on the Xbox. Good times all around. Looking forward to more fun this week. Merry Christmas!

We're homeowners!

Well, not quite yet, but almost! A couple weeks ago we put an offer on a house that was exactly what we were looking for. We have been looking at houses ever since we lived in Roanoke, but then we found out we were moving to Austin. Once we got here, we kept looking, but nothing in our price range ever came up in North Austin (there were tons in South Austin but that area is scary).

So one Sunday, I did my usual search in Pflugerville and only one house popped up. Very unusual since there are normally at least three pages worth of results. This house was so cute. One of those row type homes with the cute white fences. Then I looked at the price. Awesome. So we decided to drive by and check out the neighborhood. It was the cutest neighborhood we'd ever seen. So three weeks later and after a ton of paperwork, the bank has accepted our offer and we will close on January 5th! We're pretty excited and can't wait to have guests in our new home! Come visit!

Also, in other good news, Heath has survived his first semester at UT and came out with some pretty awesome grades. I'm so proud of him and super excited to have him home all day during his break. Although it doesn't do much for my productivity :)

Hope everyone has a great Christmas and love you all.

P.S. I'll put pictures up soon. Our only computer decided to die right after we found out about the house so I'll have to download the ones we have on Heath's phone.

One second

One second can change your life. One second can change everything. One second can put you in field goal range, you make the field goal, and then your favorite team is going to the National Championship game. Thank goodness for that one second :)
Hehe I bet you thought this was some profound blog about a life changing event. Nope, just about the most stressful, yet exciting game I've ever experienced. Saturday, Texas played Nebraska in the Big 12 Championship game and it was a nailbiter. It was insane. Neither defense was letting anyone by, both offenses were playing pretty bad, and the officials seemed to have been taken off the street and offered the job right before the game. So it came down to the last play with one second left and a kicker who is now my hero. I sat at the tip top of the Cowboy stadium swaying with nausea, knees feeling like they were going to buckle, and a slight feeling that if something didn't happen soon then I would certainly pass out. See Nebraska thought the game was over when McCoy threw his last pass and so they stormed the field and started to celebrate. Tisk, tisk Huskers. But there was a review and whispers in the stands that the clock was wrong. The judgement on the field: there was ONE second left of game play. Mack sends out our kicker and there is a hush among Horns fans. I can't take it anymore. I sit in my chair, pound my head into my hands, and begin fervently praying to Heavenly Father that we will not lose this game. A selfish and unimportant prayer to most, but you don't don't know my father. The guy who's life revolves around Texas Longhorn football, the guy who chose his career around the football schedule, and the guy who already had his reservations set in Pasadena, CA banking on this win. Yes, THAT guy. I did not want to drive home with that guy, spend the rest of the weekend with that guy, and gosh darn it I did not want him to be unhappy. So I kept my head down and my eyes closed. There was a hush, then cheering, and I looked up to see a smile on my dad's face which can mean only one thing. We won! We WON! One second and one point, and Texas is heading to the National Championship. Now all this obsession may seem crazy to you, but for me, the little girl in the cheerleading outfit who held her dad's hand as they entered the stadium all those years ago, it was pretty darn awesome. Hook em Horns, and thanks for an awesome game.

As you can tell, we spent the weekend in Keller attending the Big 12 game. Thanks so much to mom and dad for a great weekend and for taking us. We loved it. We also got to meet up with Tami and Jason to eat before the game and tailgate before and after. Seriously, best game ever. Then on Sunday we got to see Ben, Mer, and the girls. A great weekend all around.

Catching Up...

Lots has happened lately but I just haven't been in front of the computer long enough to write it all down.
On the 13th, Ben, Mer, and the girls headed down from Ft. Worth to visit us. It was so great to see them and so much fun having them here with us. Friday, we met up with the Mathis' to eat. We were going to eat at our favorite Mexican food place (Trudy's), but the wait was so long we bailed on them and walked over to Chili's where they seated us immediately. Saturday, we rode the bus to Campus. It was funny to see Mallory's face in amazement as she realized she didn't have to be buckled in on the bus. We showed them where Xhaxhi goes to school, the store where you can buy anything Longhorn, and the Tower/Capital. Then we headed back home via bus and rested for a bit. After that we headed to everyone's favorite place....Chuck E. Cheese's! 300 tokens later we had Syd walking out proud with this awesome Tink toy and 4 bags of cotton candy. It was pure awesomeness. Then the boys headed back to the apartment to "put the girls to sleep" which means feed them tons of cotton candy and let them stay up :) Mer and I headed to Round Rock to shop at the Outlets. I always enjoy me some Mer time. All in all it was a great weekend and we are so grateful for them coming and sharing in the magic that is Austin :) Love you guys! Oh, a funny side note. Syd knows we live pretty far from her, but it was funny, she kept saying "When I get back to Texas..." and we tried explaining to her that she was still in Texas, just another city. Her words were" Yes I know, its just another country" Hehe, so apparently we live further away than Mom and Dad Breinholt.

This last week we headed home to Keller for Thanksgiving. We headed down Wednesday afternoon and our three hour drive turned into 5 1/2. No bueno. The break was awesome. It was nice to have 4 days of fun. Mom and Gran cooked up a great Thanksgiving dinner which we enjoyed throughout the weekend. My mom had a small disaster with her water valves the day after Thanksgiving and so Jeremy(and JaeLyn) were nice enough to come over and fix them all. Thanks again! My family is helpless with things like that so it is nice that the Breinholt's are so hands on. Then Saturday, we ate dinner with Ben and Mer and had a fun game night after that. Then we had a 6 hour drive back, and will be doing it all over again next weekend for the Big 12 Championship game. I'm a little ready to be in just one place for awhile. We have so much to be thankful for this holiday season and are truly grateful for all the many blessings we have in our lives. Happy holidays ya'll and Hook Em' Horns!

A Wedding and a Win

This was one crazy weekend but an awesome one at that. Friday afternoon we flew out to Utah for Heath's sister's Wedding. They were sealed at a new Temple (pictured above) that was absolutely beautiful and the reception was amazing also. I love going to the Temple, especially for Sealings, and hearing those same blessings that were given to Heath and I almost four years ago. I know that the work that goes on in Temples brings together families for eternity and I'm so grateful to have that in my life. I am so happy for Kam-a-roo and it was nice to finally meet her husband Chapan. He seems like a really sweet guy and I couldn't be happier for Kami. So after flying in late Friday night, we woke up early Saturday and headed to the Temple, attended the Sealing, took lots of pictures (some which I will post as soon as I get them from Mer/Bandaid), went home for a little bit so I could watch Texas get a touchdown (It was Texas/OU weekend), headed out for lunch at Carino's, headed to set up for the reception, took some more pictures, had the reception, cleaned up the recpetion, woke up for church, went to church, took a nap, then flew back to Austin, arrived in Austin at 11:00pm, went to bed, woke up for work/school at 7am. PHEW! I told you, a crazy weekend, but well worth it. It was so nice to see Mom and Dad Breinholt, K&K, J&J, and all the kids. K&K's kids are getting so big! It's crazy how fast they grow when you don't live near by. Hopefully we'll get have a longer visit to Utah sometime soon. So thanks everyone for a great weekend in Utah and we were so glad we could be there for Kami's special day!

P.S Texas beat OU! Heath and I (and Kent and Ben) were checking on the score via our phones throughout the day. The nailbiting game ended with a Texas win which allowed me to wear my O Who? shirt home with pride. Great job Horns! Now let's just finish the season off with all wins! Hook 'Em!