Pay's Room

Here's baby girlfriend's room.

I spent a lot of my pregnancy thinking about colors and a possible theme for my precious little girl's room.

But when we decided to name her Payton LIBERTY it was a no brainer to do her room RED WHITE & BLUE.

I wasn't sure if it would be "girl-y" enough for me.

But it IS!  I absolutely love it.

It's not finished though.  I've been waiting for the 4th of July decor to hit the shelves to get decorating some more.

And clearly we still need to paint our doors and put door handles on 'em  :)

But here's what we've got so far.

Owls, Squirrels, and Snakes...Oh My!

I am loving living in the "country" right now.  Now that spring is here the trees are so green and flowers are blooming all around.  Animals are also coming around a lot more.

Some of the animals we have around here are

Owls

Squirrels

Hawks

Blue Jays

Cardinals

Woodpeckers

SNAKES

Yes...SNAKES!  But by that I mean SNAKE.  Just one.  I walked right outside my front door and there it was, hanging out right in the middle of the walkway.  Good thing I was paying attention and saw it.  Most days I just walk right on my merry way and don't look down.  Then I would have stepped on it.  Then it probably would have bitten me.  Then I would have screamed.  Then I would have panicked.  That would not have been fun.  

But I didn't step on it.

And it wasn't THAT big.  It was about 1 1/2-2 feet long and about an inch in diameter.  Although, it was a little thicker in some areas since it had probably just eaten a couple of lizards.

My first instinct was to run inside and grab my camera because I HAD to get documentation of the little guy.

My neighbor was outside so I called him over to see if he knew what kind of snake it was.  It's a Texas Garter Snake and is mostly harmless...non-poisonous and will eat all the bugs and small rodents you want!  

Okay!  I'll keep it around!

But I wasn't too keen on it staying there in the middle of the walkway, so we slowly approached it and it gradually backed off and slithered away. 

Here are some of the pictures I've taken of the animals around here.  I'm still working on getting some pictures of the blue jays and cardinals.  They are such pretty birds!

We're homeowners again!

Last August {2011} Nick and I decided to make the move to Houston, Texas.  And on October 1st we were already official Texans.  Because the move happened so quickly we moved first into Nick's parents' house.  Well, his parents own a trailer park in southern Texas where old fogies like to spend their Winters, so they were spending their Winter down there.  We decided then to stay in their house for the Winter.  That was AWESOME so we could spend some time looking for a house and saving our moneys!

By the time April came, Nick's parents were back living in their home in Houston and Nick and I had still yet to find a house we liked.  And let me tell ya, we were taking this whole house buying thing seriously.  We wanted to find a house, move into it, and never move again...or at least not again for a very long time.  The problem was compromising on the many things that we both wanted in our future home.

Anyway, so Nick and I moved into one of his parents' rental homes the second week of April.  Two weeks later, Nick and I found a potential home for us. 

Pros

• Location: It's in an area with tons of trees, has a country feel, but is only a couple miles from the freeway and shopping
• 1/2 acre lot
• No deed restrictions and no HOA, meaning we can do WHATEVER we want with the land
• Big-ish kitchen
• Inexpensive

Cons

• Built in 1980
• Ugly flooring in entire house, each room has a different type of flooring than the room before
• Old and outdated kitchen cabinets
• House wreaks of smoke 'cause they were smokers
• Run-down, detached garage

In the end, we bought it.  But it did eventually get it.  Nick had to do A LOT of convincing on his part to get me to agree to it.  Eventually I agreed because since the house was so inexpensive we would be able to spend the money needed to renovate the entire house and make it OURS!

Despite the fact that there is a whole lot of work to be done on the house, I'm actually very excited about it all.  We are finally homeowners again!  Nick is particularly excited to begin all his new projects on the house.  I'm so grateful to have a husband who loves to do all the hard work!

Our Home!

Lots of people have asked me to post pictures of our house.
I love our house!
It's beautiful and spacious.
The only downside...it's in Maricopa.
But I actually am already growing accustomed to living "way out there."
Here's a tour for those of you who care and won't get to see it in person...

The Front

Walking In
I love how OPEN it is.

The office + Bath #1
This is Nick's hideaway.  And as you can see, one 24" monitor clearly wasn't enough.

Wall sconces courtesy of Susie Crandell

The Living Room + Dining Room
Yeah.  This room is BIG!  And the ceiling is REALLY high.  I haven't even began (begun?) to think what I want to do in here.

The Family Room
I think we've got a good start in here.
Nick is REALLY proud of his sound system.

And just so you know, we got these couches yesterday.  This is what we've been using until now.  I'm not going to lie...I'm going to kinda miss that ugly blue blow-up lounge couch thingamajig.

The Kitchen
I think TRUE LOVE is the best way to express my feelings towards this kitchen.

The Backyard

My little corner!  It looks sad right now, but with a little TLC it's going to be pretty.

The Stairs
LOVE the banister.

Bedrooms + Bath #2
Typical rooms.  Just used as storage for us now.

The Loft
Empty.  But this could be a fun room.

The Master
It's big.  When we were looking for a bed, a lot of the salesmen would ask if we had enough room for a king.  That was usually followed by a chuckle on our part and us saying, "Yeah.  We'll be fine." And notice the gun in the corner.  Nick says it's there so he can protect me :)  Anyway, it's really boring right now, but we have some fun ideas.  Nick actually came up with something really cool for a headboard.  That will be blogged about in the future I'm sure.

So slowly but surely we're converting our house into OUR HOME!
We love it.
Come visit!