"The Hunt"

Well, tomorrow the hunt for a house officially begins. Our house in NC is under contract and supposed to close on September 14th! It is such a praise that it was only listed for about 10 days. Mike has been in Dallas for the past couple of days scoping everything out for us. We are very limited in where we can live cause the church is in the city. We will live in the closest suburb which is Richardson, TX. However, it is a unique market there that mainly consists of older brick ranch style homes from the 1960's to 1970's. I am trying to not look at to many that have the same appliances, carpet, etc.. from 40 years ago. There are many that have been remodeled which I am very thankful! I'm sure it will be a journey for us over the next couple of days and for my parents as they watch both girls. It is the first time I have been away from Anna over night. She is such a good sleeper though that she should be fine. Ellie will enjoy all the attention. I hope you are all doing well. It is so hot here in GA. I'm thinking the southeast has been way more hot than TX this summer. I think we are fully prepared with the majority of days since July being 100 degrees. I hope to post a picture of a new home soon!

Sold....???

We may have sold our house in Youngsville today! We knew it would happen there are just a few details before we sign the contract. It has been quite a journey with this house, but I can tell you I am so glad I am not going to be a resident of Youngsville, NC. However, as we were driving out there last night to meet the lady who wanted to buy it we kept saying we'd miss the country. There will not be to much country in Dallas. I'm sure every once in awhile we will have to drive north and see some cows and land! The house next to ours was for sale and a young couple bought it about two weeks ago. We put a for sale by owner sign in ours and they called us to look at it for their mother. This family will now have almost 3 acres with the combined property and they will e living right next to each other. I'm thinking this is how people do it in Youngsville! A unique fact about our land is that we found a tombstone right by the deck with a guy's name on it who lived for 86 years. One lady was scared that he was buried there? It reminded me of a story that Stephanie Armstrong told me that they once went to a visitation for a person who went to their church in Franklin County where Youngsville is located. The visitation was held at their house and the body was in a bedroom. We have learned that funerals in rural North Carolina are very strange. Anyways, we are very excited that the house is sold and we don't have to deal with it anymore!
We are flying to Dallas next week to try and find a house. We should be able to move sometime in September! It is still so crazy to me that we are living our last few days on the East Coast. We are trying to do some things we will no longer get to do when we are Texans. Tonight, we are going out with some friends to Chapel Hill. It is one of our most favorite places mostly cause of the Tar Heels. We are not taking the girls which will be nice cause I think we have been with them everyday for almost a month with no break besides church nursery. It should be a nice night, but kind of sad because we will probably never go there again unless Ellie goes there for college! I am posting a picture of Anna. She is almost sitting up and started baby food this week. She's 6 1/2 months old and I took both girls to the doctor last week. Anna weighed 13 lbs. 2 oz. and Ellie weighed 20 lbs. 4oz. We were so excited cause we were hoping Ellie would make it to 20 lbs. at her 2 yr. checkup!
Anyways, I hope you all have a great weekend and I'll keep you posted on the house.

Charlotte's Web......

Today, we had a very fun morning. I've been taking Ellie to the free kids movie almost every week. Last night I looked online and saw that Charlotte's Web was playing at a theater nearby our house! I have been wanting to see this movie and I think secretly Mike wanted to see it as well. It was the first time he's been able to go with us so it was really fun. It was such a sweet movie and we love Dakota Fanning. I hope she doesn't end up like Lindsey Lohan. She's to sweet and cute to grow up. Charlotte's voice was played by Julia Roberts and there were many other stars who had voices in the movie. It was so much like the book which I loved as a kid. Ellie did so well and Anna just looked around and enjoyed her bottle. Anyways, just wanted to share with you all and encourage you to see this movie! Mike was so shocked at how well the kids did at the movie and he said "Do you think we could take them to see Bourne Ultimatum"? I don't know if our girls need to see that much action or violence for two hours, but it would avoid getting a sitter!I hope you all have a great rest of the day and stay cool!

Happy Birthday Ellie!

We had Ellie's 2nd Birthday party on Wednesday night. I think we are still recovering from all the fun! We ended up having to have it at our house cause it was supposed to be 104 degrees on Wednesday. We went with the Dora theme which was mainly just lots of pink things! Our small group from church came along with Kim and John Hurley. They are some of our friends from seminary who live in our neighborhood. There were 6 kids there and two were babies. I think this is the perfect amount cause more than 5 kids under two could easily lead to disaster. The crazy thing was they all behaved great and there were no melt-downs. They all love parties we have decided. We had pizza which every kid loved along with the parents! I made cupcakes with pink sprinkles and ice cream for dessert. Ellie along with all of her friends seemed to enjoy the cupcakes very much. They also had candy in their goody bag. I think Ellie's best bud Cana was up until 11:00 at our house playing with Ellie. The sugar high was pretty crazy how it affects children. The next morning her mom said she woke up saying "party, party". The Via's came back over last night for a game of mexican train dominoes and Cana walked in ready to party. Ellie stayed up until 10:00 last night then we put her to bed. Cana watched Mickey Mouse Club in our living room until almost midnight. The summer is so crazy and we love "laid back" friends like us! Kelly said she thinks Cana is going to always want to come to our house cause she has so much fun.
I am guessing many of you got our email that we are moving to TEXAS! I never thought I would say those words, but we are really excited. We are not so sure about the "Big D", but we know working at Watermark will be an awesome opportunity. We have so much to do in the next month or so that just thinking about it gives me a headache. However, we know it will all get done and most likely by October we will be Texans. Please, pray for us as we have a house to sell here in Raleigh and then have to decide what house to buy in TX. We will be living in Richardson, TX which is the closest suburb to the city. We will truly miss the east coast. I am confident there is no greater place to live in the USA, but we know that Mike has been called to be at Watermark. I hope you all have a great Saturday. Enjoy the birthday pics!