New town, new home, new school...oh my!

Well, we've done it. On Thursday, we took the girls to Tyler where we stayed to look at houses and schools. Scott and I quickly realized that Mary Ella is getting increasingly anxious about the move as she played 101 questions about every detail of our trip and move as we traveled up to East Texas. Addy, who is not our best traveller (putting it nicely), actually had a remarkable trip. Molly? She just slept....yea, a kid that sleeps in the car seat! She didn't even stir at the stop lights. We rolled into Tyler at about 6:30pm and checked into our hotel room at the Marriott Residence Inn, but you would have thought we were at the Ritz if you had your eyes closed and were listening to Mary Ella's description. She kept going on and on:

"Wow, look...they've got phones with cords"

"Look mom, the chair moves..."

"A stove, mom, we have one of those..."

"Mom, look, there's a bathroom!"

In the middle of all this excitement and explosion of pent-up car energy, we heard Addy just a giggling. I round the corner and find her giggling at herself in the full-length mirror (no, I don't have one...just standing up on the bath tub does the trick). I look over at Scott and he says, "We really should get them out more often". I nearly fell out laughing. So maybe our kids are more sheltered than previously thought....

We had our family slumber party and woke up bright and early for my sweet in-laws to pick up Mary Ella and Molly. They were taking them back to Shreveport for some spoil'n (that is a major understatement). Once they left, we went to meet the realtor. Basically our goal was to look at houses/schools to get familiar in preparation for serious house hunting in March. Well, as I've learned, plans evolve and change. It is a loooong story, but this house, we believe, was meant to be ours:

This is the col-de-sac lot we've always dreamed of and the house is perfect for our family of five. Pending all the inspections and "official" stuff, this house will be ours April 30th. A few changes will be made in May and we will move in June.

Down the street is a brand new elementary school called Jack Elementary. We went, visited and were very impressed.

Mary Ella will begin kindergarten next year! I just can't believe it.

We returned home Sunday...tired. When I say tired, I mean tired, wiped, exhausted, worn down....ready to get back to our normal, what ever that means! So we've been retraining sleep patterns, eating habits, and, well, sassiness all week. However, all the fun was worth it and I think we are settling back in.

A quick aside on Molly...the child has some cheeks and the cutest dimple in the left one that I could eat up every time she smiles. We took her in for her shots at 2 1/2 months and her weight was in the 75th percentile! Yes, I'm still nursing her and she is doing well as long as I stay off the dairy, poultry, rice, and oats. Not too much longer and she will probably be going to the "top shelf" formula like Addy did, but we just want to get her through the winter and cooties season since the two big sisters like to smooch on her all the time. She is three months today and so much fun. Phase 2 of the "baby fog" has lifted as she is being consistent about sleeping through the night and establishing a predictable sleep/wake cycle. Of course most of her daytime napping occurs in the carseat, but hey, at least she's sleeping.

Well, I guess I better catch some zzz's of my own. Scott is on call and usually those are the nights the children like to surprise me with night calls of my own. Nighty night!