Playing Catch-up

Hey Everyone,

It’s been several months since I’ve posted anything.  I’m so glad you decided to come back and check in!  I’ve posted several entries today so make sure you keep scrolling to catch-up on the Penney clan!! 

PS- Comments always rock!

Christmas

We had a wonderful Christmas this year!! Drew is at a really fun age because he is old enough to “get” it!! He was such a trooper throughout the holidays with us packing and getting ready to move that I felt like he got a little jipped out of the holiday spirit. It was WONDERFUL showing up to Midland and seeing my mom’s Christmas tree up and all the traditions I had grown up with! Since my mom and dad watched Drew a few days before Andy and I headed to Midland, she really took up the slack with Drew and all the Christmas traditions! I’ll let the pictures tell the story!

A few weeks before Christmas we took Drew to see Santa. Drew told Santa that he wanted “more Big 12″. We asked him in the car what that meant, and he was wanting Big 12 helmets that he could actually wear. Santa wasn’t too sure he could find that but remembered that Drew wanted something to do with the Big 12.

At Drew’s school he had a Christmas party and they got to wear their pajamas to school that day. Drew thought that was pretty cool!

(Here is Drew’s class- there were a few absent that day- yes Drew is the only boy in his whole class!)

Making ornaments

Opening presents- I don’t know if you can see the picture he is holding, but his teachers gave a black and white photo of the kids praying to us for Christmas. If you want to make a pregnant momma cry- that’s the way to do it! I LOVE it!!

Drew’s most amazing teachers- Ms. Holly, Miss Cassie, and Drew

Christmas Eve Service- Drew loved the candles and asked through the whole service when we would get to light them. It was so pretty when we finally did! These three are a mess!! Drew thinks that Jaycee hangs the moon and Sadie thinks she is just as big as the other two!! So fun!

After our traditional Fondue meal, the kids got to open the traditional one present…

…pajamas!! Got to have new jammies for Santa to come!!

(I just LOVE this picture of the three of them!!)

The “Big kids”!!

Of course you have to write a letter to Santa and leave him some goodies!

With a late night and no nap on Christmas Eve, Drew decided that he wanted to sleep in while his cousins were discovering what Santa brought them. We decided to go wake him up. Here is what he found…

A new bike and all Big 12 pennants (phew…glad Santa came through with something about the Big 12 since you can see the excitement about the bike!!)

Opening presents… (JuJu and Grandaddy gave Drew all 32 NFL football helmets and JuJu made a football field to go with it. Drew learned all 32 teams that day and plays with his helmets daily- I’d say that was a hit of a present!!)

Jaycee and Sadie enjoying the sit and spin that Drew gave to Sadie!

Of course you have to have the early morning, no make-up, jammie family pic!

We also had to try out the new bike. Drew is about a half inch too short right now but should be just right when the weather gets nice and it is bike season!

Then off to Waco to open more presents! I didn’t do a very good job about taking pictures in Waco. I just got a few. I hate that.

Uncle Matt made Drew a field goal- does he know this kid or what?? Isn’t that the coolest thing?

Of course we had to try it out!

Since we’ve been home the weather hasn’t really cooperated with us, but we finally had one nice pretty afternoon where our backyard wasn’t a complete mud pit from all the snow. Andy set up a football field just for Drew (Tigers is even written in the end zone!). He thought it was the greatest!

Well that about sums up our Christmas holiday. It was a whirlwind this year and I’m looking forward to a more normal one next year!

I have another doctor’s appointment for Cooper next week. We’ll hopefully get some good 3D shots of him and I’ll post them and give you the updates of baby coming! I’ll try to do better about blogging now that life seems to be settling back into routine (only to be interrupted with a newborn!!)

Until Next Time…

 

 

Our Beautiful New Home!!!

After Thanksgiving, we were on standby pretty much the month of December because our house could’ve been ready literally any day. We ran into a few problems, as to be expected when building a house that delayed the expected move-in date of December 15^th. After the 15^th rolled around we were just waiting every day for the phone call setting our closing date. We ended up getting a phone call that gave about a five day notice that we were closing on Tuesday, December 22^nd. They worked their tails off trying to get us in before Christmas- and were successful!! Timing seemed to work out perfectly. We took Drew to Lamesa on Sunday and met my parents so they could watch him for a few days. That gave us enough time to finish packing, close, and move without tiny tornado “helping”!! We had some awesome friends that helped us out, two guys (Colton and Kyle) that Andy knew from Frenship, Jay and Coleen, and Sarah and Garrett (Garrett who even took half a day off of work just to help). Their help did not go unnoticed because we are TRULY grateful!!! We finished moving at 11:00 PM on Tuesday night, got up Wednesday morning to clean our old house, and drove to Midland for Christmas at lunchtime. It was kind of hard leaving our house that we hadn’t even been in other than sleeping, but it was nice to recoup at the grandparents’ house during Christmas! After Midland we headed to Waco to have Christmas with Andy’s side. Andy and I left Drew there so we could come home and try to get some things unpacked and arranged before Drew came. Our priority was to have Drew’s room mostly painted and set up so he would immediately feel at home. Little guy was such a trooper being gone for nearly two weeks! We truly appreciate both sets of grandparents helping out! We couldn’t have done it without them!!! Pops and Grams brought Drew back to Lubbock and I have never seen him SOOOOO giddy! He LOVED, LOVED, LOVED, his new room and house! It was priceless. We still have a long way to go before we feel settled but it is getting there slowly but surely!! Let’s just hope it gets there before baby does!! Here are the latest pictures that I have. All these pictures were obviously taken before furniture and boxes. Once we get all our rooms set up I’ll post more (don’t expect that anytime soon though!!)

Living Room (Standing at the front door)

Living Room- you are looking into the “sunroom”- officially the office now.

The office

Master Bedroom

Master Bath #1 (standing at the door)

Master Bath #2 (standing at the sink)

Master Bath #3 (standing at the tub)

Laundry Room (right next to the master bedroom, off of the garage)

Guest Room

Boys’ (and guest) bathroom

Drew’s room (looks totally different now that we have painted and put up chair railing- pictures to come when officially complete)

Cooper’s Room (yes we have officially decided on a name!!! Cooper Lane Penney). We haven’t even started on this room yet- guess I should start thinking about that since his appearance is 4-6 weeks away!!

Living Room (standing at the hallway that leads to all bedrooms except the master bedroom). Notice my beautiful Texas Star door!! (The entrance to the right of the door goes to the kitchen)

Kitchen/Eating area

Kitchen!!

So far we have LOVED having a little bit of wiggle room. I didn’t get a picture of the front of the house because at the time a big UHAUL was blocking it, so pictures of the front and back will come in time!

We have been very pleased with everything so far. Of course we are finding kinks here and there that need to be worked out, but it’s nice to have somebody come fix it (unlike when you just buy a home and have to fix the kinks yourself). Heritage Homes did an amazing job!! Oh yea, they did end up having to buy our house and that was one of the easiest transitions possible- closing on both houses at the same time and only moving once- couldn’t ask for a more perfect ending!! So if you are thinking about building here in Lubbock, we highly recommend Heritage Homes!!!

Up next…pics from Christmas!!

 

Way Back When…

Alrighty, so this has officially been my longest stent from blogging but life has been crazy and it quickly became very low on the priority list. So when you get so far behind do you go back and blog from months ago or do you just pick up from where you are today?? Well since I blog mostly for me (my form of scrapbooking I guess) I figured I better at least do a little recap of at least all the holidays I haven’t posted. So let’s go all the way back to October!!

For Halloween Drew was a football player- no surprises there!! He LOVED dressing up in his Cowboy’s uniform but really loved the special touch of the eye black. He still asks for eye black on a regular basis!! Drew’s KDO had their annual Tricycle parade. This is one of my favorite things that his school does. It is so fun to watch all of the kids dress up in their costumes and ride around on their bikes, scooters, push toys, or any mobile toy you can imagine. After the parade, I was in charge of Drew’s class party. Each parent is responsible for one of the holiday parties and I’m so glad that I have my duty done! I knew it would be crazy at Christmas and Valentine’s with a new house and new baby so I’m proud of the foresight for signing up for the Halloween party! We made pumpkin crafts, ate pizza, and frosted homemade sugar cookies (my first attempt at making cookies from scratch!!) The kids seemed to have a great time!

On Halloween, we went with our dear friends Trick or Treating. I didn’t grow up trick-or-treating so this is still a new experience for me. Our church has a “Trunk-or-Treat” at the civic center and it has gotten so big that a kid could get eaten up and swallowed if you aren’t careful! So we opted not to go to it this year. It was a very enjoyable evening spending time with the McKinnon’s (some of the greatest friends you can imagine!)

Andy also wanted me to take advantage of taking a few “football” poses that we imagine seeing on a jumbo-tron someday when he’s playing football for real!!

After Halloween,  the ultimate craziness started!! We were under contract to sell our house and found out literally a day before closing that the buyer was cheating on his income taxes. So needless to say- the deal fell through. That was our second contract and our house was officially under contract between the two contracts longer than it was ever on the market. Back on the market we went the week of Thanksgiving. At this point our house was not very “showable” because we had already started packing and boxes where everywhere!! Plus, we were under a time crunch because we knew our new house could be ready at any point. But life goes on and we still had our agreement with our builder to buy our house if it didn’t sell.  So we were feeling just fine about the whole situation and the true meaning of Thanksgiving hit us hard. We were very thankful for all that had been provided and taken care of.

Drew had his very first preschool Thanksgiving program. I’m such a sucker for those kinds of things. Since our church doesn’t offer kid’s choir anymore, I was eating it up!! We were a little nervous about how Drew would do because he literally could be the “Ham” or he could completely clam up. He ended up being a good mixture, he sang every word but wouldn’t do the motions. It was too cute (at least from the parent’s perspective!)

Then we headed to Waco for Thanksgiving to visit Andy’s family!

(Sweet Claire- Isn’t she ADORABLE!!!)

All the kiddos (Cody, Claire, Carter, Drew, and Riley)

And of course you can’t have Thanksgiving without a little backyard football!!

Well that got us through Thanksgiving. I plan on posting pics of our new house and Christmas as well, but I’ll do it in another post. Thanks for enduring memory lane for me!! Sorry it’s been so long for the blogging arena!!

It’s a BOY!!!!!!!

Well most of you reading this probably already know that we are having another boy!! I’m just a few weeks behind in blogging! Anyway, we are THRILLED! Drew wanted a brother more than I anticipated and was SO happy to have it confirmed (although he thought it was a boy and probably wouldn’t have believed me if it wasn’t- so I guess they really do have a 6^th sense about it!) I had the opportunity to take Drew to my “BIG” sonogram with the sonogram specialist (my doctor does sonograms in his office every visit so I’ve already had several, but this was with a different doctor that has much higher equipment and is trained at more details and such and is able to spot any potential problems much better). It was AWESOME!! I can’t get over how much technology has changed just since I was pregnant with Drew! The sonogram lady was wonderful with Drew and explained to him what he was seeing. I was surprised at how much he understood. The baby looks wonderful!!! He seemed to have an A+++ report card. The doc said as far as babies go he couldn’t ask for a more healthy and perfect baby! YEAH!!!!! Let’s continue to pray that his growth will continue on the same path. We are halfway there!! Anyway, Drew loved listening to the heartbeat and could have listened to it all day- he kept asking to hear it again and again. Luckily, baby was awake and started kicking and Drew went NUTS! He kept screaming, “Mommy, he’s kicking a football, he’s kicking a football!!” SO CUTE and SO DREW!!! My belly has also popped this month and Drew has started talking to my belly a lot more. I think it was still pretty abstract for him until he really started to see the belly grow. He is going to be the best big brother. We still don’t have names yet but we are working on it. When the nurse asked Drew what the baby’s name was he told her “Floppy”. He has called the baby that ever since. The nurse thought that was so funny that she even put it on one of the sonogram pictures. I hope you enjoy them!

Baby was weighing in at 9 oz., at the time I was almost 19 weeks along.

Tiny foot- his little pinky toe sticks out just like Drew’s does- I can’t believe I can already tell that!!

3D- I was surprised we got some 3D pictures. I heard they don’t like to show them so early because baby is still forming but we got them and I think they are soooo cool!! Notice “Floppy”

Skinny little leg!

3D Face

Skinny little legs and arms!

Front view of baby- Baby look straight with arm across his face and legs folded up on either side

NO DENYING- It’s definitely a BOY!!!

Oh how I love this baby already!! I can hardly wait to hold him and smother him with kisses!!!

Well, I’ve obviously been in a blogging mode today so make sure you check out all the other posts!! Until next time…

House updates

A lot has happened since my last post regarding our houses. First, our contract fell through. Our house is back on the market. All though we are a little annoyed at the circumstances, we aren’t crying a bucketful of tears.  We know God is 100% in control and will ALWAYS lean on that!  He’s so amazing!  I won’t go into all those details but basically we feel very blessed to have our Safety Net program that Heritage Homes is offering us. After what we have seen, we have realized just how fair of a price they offered us. We still have to keep our house on the market and will still hope there is a strong buyer out there, but if not- we are OK- maybe even better! I’m just sad we have to play the realtor game again, although showings have slowed down quite drastically.

On the building end, our house is coming along perfectly!! We have been very pleased with the progress and how easy Heritage has been to work with. We went out on Monday and took a few pictures and discovered all the wiring and “behind the walls” stuff is complete. Andy said he went by on Friday and all the walls have been sheet-rocked. So now we need bricks and the details inside! Here are some of the latest pictures.

September 15, 2009

September 26, 2009-

Roof is finished and wiring inside mostly finished

Kitchen (sink will be in the corner under the windows- walls will have cabinets and an island in the center)

Dining nook- same room as the kitchen (above picture is to the right side of this)

Laundry room- garage on right and master bedroom on left

Master Bedroom/bathroom

Master Bedroom

Master bath- you are looking straight where the tub will be, closets on both sides, double sinks to the right, shower and potty to the left

*Updated from above picture. After seeing how dark our bathroom was going to be we asked to have glass blocks installed- these are right above the tub and made a HUGE difference- so thankful we made that choice!

Baby’s room (the room with the doors is the office is on the other side)

Drew’s room

Guest Room

Guest Bathroom

Office

I didn’t get a picture of the living room- don’t know what I was thinking! The pictures taken on Monday are pretty much the same except insulation is on all the walls and there are a few more wiring things so I won’t post those pictures. I’ll wait until walls are up! Hope you can somewhat see what the rooms will look like- I’d say it’s changed quite a bit since my last posting of house pictures!!

Football Season!

As most of you know my two boys are sports FANATICS!! If you know one then you know the other! Drew is just a mini-clone of his Daddy- which I ADORE!!! I’m sure it melts Daddy’s heart when he hears, “Daddy can we watch ESPN or (whatever team is playing) football?” So all though Drew loves all sports, he is a man of whatever season it is. Drew has become quite the football fan since that is the current season. He LOVES watching football, playing football, reading about football, drawing about football, and of course going to football games. I bet you can’t guess what his favorite teams are? Yep- Texas Tech and Frenship Tigers. Since Andy calls the Frenship games on the radio I have been taking Drew to the games on Friday nights. Fridays have become quite a special little date for the two of us! I enjoy watching him at the games more than anything- he is his happiest! We also enjoy the home Tech football games on Saturdays. We don’t have season tickets but my parents do. Drew LOVES it when JuJu and Grandaddy come to town for the games! We still have managed to find tickets for most games and Drew is a genuine Red Raider. He will sing the Fight Song and clap and cheer, which draws all kinds of positive attention around us! And of course, on Sunday morning when we pick him up from Sunday School we hear all about how he told his teachers about the game the night before and made the building blocks into yard lines and field goals. So right now we breathe, eat, and sleep football- which is ok with me because it’s my favorite season too (now basketball season will be a whole other story). I hope you enjoy just a few pictures from the football season (some are a few months old- but you know how the story goes!)

My mom, Kyla (college roomie), and I all went to the Women’s Football Clinic back in August. We got a tour of all the football facilities and got to meet all the football players and coaches, along with them teaching us a few of their moves on the football field. I’m surprised Leach hasn’t called me with the mad skills I showed him! HA HA!! Anyway, it was a blast and I highly recommend that any woman should take the opportunity to go the clinic! I look forward to going next year when I’m not pregnant so I can participate a little more! Drew thought it was pretty cool that I got to meet some of his football favorites.

(Barron Batch)

Sorry dudes- I don’t remember your names but you were HUGE!!!

Checking out the locker room- look how tall those hand dryers are- these players are monsters!!

I love this girl, who loves her some football!

Brian Duncan

Going on to the field

I’m so glad my mom came!! I love her!

…and look at her skills catching the football and attempting to tackle an offensive line!

 

Taylor Potts

Coach Mike Leach

Brandon Carter

The girls of course couldn’t be outdone! While I had a MOPS retreat to go to, Andy took Drew to the autograph signing night. He was able to get his football signed by Barron Batch and met the cheerleaders and had a blast running on the field!

Drew is a major fan of Miss Kyla and he saw all our pictures from our Women’s clinic. Andy said the second he saw this he ran up to it and did “what Miss Kyla did”! (see above picture of Kyla) He adores her- isn’t that funny!

I’m sad to say that I’ve taken my camera to almost every game and just haven’t taken any pictures so I don’t have any of us at an actual football game. Oh well, such is the way it goes sometimes! I really need to get some from the Frenship Tigers games!

In addition to Andy calling all the Frenship games on the radio. He has been asked to be a host of a two-hour talk show on Saturday mornings (7:00AM-9:00AM on FM104.3). I’m very proud of him for getting this opportunity! He has quite a schedule from coming home late from Friday night football, to collect all the stats from all the area games, to being on air by 7:00AM but he has seemed to handle it well! He asked one of our friends, Garrett Luft, to be his partner. Garrett hasn’t done any radio work before but he has turned out to be a natural. Andy has really enjoyed working with him and I think they are a great team! I’m very proud of them!

God is Amazing

If you haven’t read my previous post titled “Sweetest Boy on Earth”, go and read it first then come back to this one.  You’ll understand why, I promise!

God simply was laughing at me last week and shaking His head saying, “Regina, when are you going to learn?  I’m in control and know the perfect outcome for every situation.”  

I LOVE seeing God’s face.  He reveals it to me in so many ways and I’m sure I’ve missed it in so many others.  After having my sweet moment with Drew last week it woke me up and reminded me to start leaning on the Lord again.  It seems so easy to get distracted by all the things going on in this world and to forget our true purpose here on Earth.  God sent me such a sweet message through my son about grace and forgiveness that it really was my own spiritual revival in a sense. 

Well through God’s wonderful sense of humor, He sent us a buyer for our house!!  The very person that came to look at our house that caused my mental breakdown but resulted and my precious moment with my son!  Is that not the most awesome gift from God?  Not only did He send us a buyer but he sent us a very sweet and generous one!  He offered us full price, however,  if we would pay his closing then he would let us rent our house back from him until our new house is ready!!!!!  That’s right folks, we only have to move once!!  This was a major stress and worry we have had because temporary housing is very hard to find- not to mention the fact that I’m pregnant and won’t be much help in moving.  Can you believe how simply amazing it has all turned out to be??  I praise God and feel that I need to shout from the rooftops of His praises!!

Sweetest Boy on Earth!!

     I just had one of those “Mom” moments with Drew and I just had to journal it because it was a moment I will always treasure!

   Today was not one of the best days in the world of mom.  Over the weekend we decided to start a project of thinning out our closests since showings had slowed down.  Well you know how the story goes and a project like that ALWAYS gets messier before it gets better.  Well of course we had made a lot of progress yesterday but it was still in a VERY messy stage when I get the phone call about a showing this morning.  I only had an hour and a half before they were going to be here and we hadn’t even gotten dressed for the day or anything.  Anyway, I was running around like a chicken with her head cut off and became quite the monster mommy.  Let’s just say I had a little bit of a nervous breakdown and let it out on my poor baby.  Well, I got it all done in time even though I was shaking, exhausted, and hurting quite badly since this body is not capable of doing these things anymore.  Anyway, Drew and I were loading up in the car to grab some lunch and go to the library so the realtor could come, and I just busted into tears.  Poor Drew had no idea what was wrong with his momma.  I told him how sorry I was for being so mean and yelling at him and that he wasn’t in trouble, it was just Mommy making a bad choice.  Anyway, he starts crying not because he thought he was in trouble but because he hated seeing me cry.  He then tells me that Jesus loves me even when I make bad choices.  I give him a hug and a kiss (and of course cry harder-because how cute is that?) and he holds on tight, pats my hair and starts singing, ”You are my sunshine, my only sunshine, you make me happy when the skies are gray, you never know dear how much I love you, please don’t take my sunshine away”  It makes me tear up all over again just writing it.  Soooooo Sweet!

Now how blessed am I to have such a wonderful little reminder of God’s grace and forgivness?  Children are a true gift from God!!!!

Baby/House Updates

Well since I was so inspired to blog today I better get one last one in! (Don’t forget to scroll down because I have posted a few other posts today as well). The house and baby are both growing very smoothly!!

Drew and I both had doctor’s appointments on the same day a little over a week ago. Drew had his three year wellness check (can you believe they couldn’t get me in until two months AFTER his birthday and I called a month before! CRAZY!) Anyway, he got a perfect report! He weighed in at 32.5 pounds and measured 37 ¾ inches tall, both in the 50^th percentile. I think he has gone through a pretty big growth spurt over the last month because most of his friends just towered over him, but I noticed that he is gaining ground and doesn’t seem ions shorter anymore. Dr. G seemed to think everything else about my sweet boy was perfect!!

We then headed to my doctor for our monthly check-up and got see our sweet baby again!! I thought Drew would be a little more interested since this was his first time to go to my doctor, but he really had a hard time seeing- I thought maybe a nurse would help him stand on a chair and they would take just a little bit of time to point some things out to him but I was mistaken. Next time I go with Drew, Andy will go with us so he can help explain things to him- poor kid. Anyway, it was amazing to see how much my little bean had turned into a baby that is now about the size of my fist- check out our first sonogram pic and then look at the new one- it’s amazing how they change so much in a month’s time. You can even see the spine just as clear as can be!

The baby was still measuring right on track and Dr. K thinks that at my next appointment (Sept. 17^th) we should be able to find out if Drew is having a sister or a brother!!! If he can’t tell at that appointment we are having our big “half-way there” sonogram with a sonogram specialist on October 5^th and should find out for sure by then!

It was so cool to walk down the hall to my doctor’s appointment right after Drew’s and get another perfect report on baby! Talk about a blessing from the Lord to have TWO great reports on both of my babies!!

On the homefront, our house is now officially on the market. It’s a little earlier than I would like but our builders put it in our contract that we had to put it on the market now in order to qualify for that safety net program come closing time. We have had to learn to be creative with keeping house show ready and filling time while people are coming to look. I have been caught in a few situations- one being in the shower (luckily they waited in the car until we pulled out with wet hair and thrown on clothes!) We are averaging about one showing every day or at least every other day. We have even had an offer (from the people that caught me in the shower actually) but we weren’t willing to come down on price right now because we need the extra money to pay for temporary housing. If the offer had been in October we would have jumped on it! We know God has the perfect timing and the perfect buyer out there!

Our new house is progressing nicely:

End of July…

Our lot! Yes we own that dirt…errr weeds!

August 17^th…

Action!!! First time we saw anything happening- laying the ground work for all the plumbing

August 30^th…

We have a slab!

Since this was the first time we got to “walk” in our house we decided to have a little fun with it.

Welcome! Come on in (Drew is “knocking” at our door and I’m letting him in)

Drew found his room and he’s sleeping on his bed! (It will be fun to see if he still picks this as his room when there are actually walls!)

Daddy and Drew are sitting on the Big Brown chair in the Living Room!

I’m leaning up against my island in the kitchen!

One last pic of Momma and Drew in their new house…

We have a feeling a frame will be going up this week! I’m glad that everything is still on pace for December! Come on weather- hold strong!

I do just want to take the time to say that the Good Lord has blessed us in so many ways- more than we deserve! We just want to make sure the God gets ALL of the glory and we want to praise Him for his true blessings!