Welcome to our home!

Welcome to our new home! We have had a whirlwind of a Thanksgiving weekend, but thankful we are! Thankful and Blessed are the two words we just can't say enough. We could not have made our move into our new home without the great help of my parents, Sean's dad, and many wonderful friends. Thankful. We are so blessed to have such loving, wonderful friends and family to share in this new chapter of our lives. Blessed.
Here is a sneak peek at our new home as I have had some recent requests for an update on pictures. Needless to say our days have been long and my eyes are weary, so I will be brief and update more later. Enjoy!

Our foyer

dining room off to the right of the entrance

half bath off the dining room and kitchen

The entrance of our home

Our real fireplace and built-ins

Christmas tree...a work in progress

ornament-less on the bottom third of the tree

view of the kitchen from the living room

back splash with built in spice rack

full wine fridge!!!

view of the living room from the upstairs

built in lockers...still need some organizingLuke refusing to go down on his tummy, he is such a "big boy"

Step 1...innocent little boyStep 2....now I am standing
Step 3...now I am on the table playing with the "balls" aka Christmas ornaments

Closing time...

Well, the day has arrived...we will be the proud home owners of 167 Auburn East Lane, Coralville, IA 52241 approximately five hours from now! (We hope, we are waiting on the final appraisal, if not today, tomorrow). We are so excited and in the same breath overwhelmed thinking of all we have to do in these next several days. But yet, oh so worth it!
Sean and I had our final walk through this morning and much to our surprise the house was immaculate and more than we could have imagined it would be. It is somewhat surreal to think that we just built the home we will raise our family in, and most importantly enjoy many wonderful memories!
We are hoping to move some things from our townhouse tomorrow, just Sean and I...(wish us luck), and spend our first night there tomorrow! Friday we have the moving truck lined up and a "few"helpers! Calling all helpers!!!!!!! Free Pizza and Beer!
We are overjoyed to say the least and feel so blessed to make this house a home to our family.
As the Thanksgiving holiday approaches, we find ourselves overwhelmed with the amount of thanks we have for all the wonderful blessings we are so very fortunate to have, amazing friends, and most importantly loving family. We are truly thankful for the beauty of our friendships and loved ones.
Happy Thanksgiving from our home to yours!

Dear Lord, thank you for loving us; And providing food, shelter, and each other. Every moment of our lives is a gift; And we appreciate all the time You have given us. Thank you for all our good fortune. Amen.

Cool Kid

One Cool Kid

Mama's boy

My little love

Luke has become quite the mama's boy and I am absolutely love with that thought! Well, most of the time...not when I am trying to make dinner around a hot stove and he wants to be in my arms. Every other time, I love that he always wants me! His latest is grabbing onto my legs and wanting up. Lately I start walking and he hangs on to my leg for dear life, laughing all the way as we walk across the kitchen floor. I mean, look at this adorable little smile, how does it not melt your heart??? Ok, so I am a little biased!

Happy weekend everyone! We have a busy weekend in store for us. We received word that we will be closing on our new home Tuesday at 4 p.m. Which means, this weekend I will be cleaning closets and cupboards and packing up our stuff in the townhouse. Sean has a couple buddies coming in town for the Ohio State game, my parents, brother Bryan and his wife Kate are also coming in for the game. Thankfully my mom is staying back to watch Luke so I can get somethings done around the house. I am still a die hard hawk fan, but after that loss last weekend, I have opted to stay home and work around the house than go to the game. I am so excited, yet still trying to get my arms around the fact that we are MOVING!!!!!!!!!

We have our big move set for next Friday. Sean has the truck lined up and is recruiting any and all help for Friday:) Thankfully all our stuff in storage is ready to be loaded and moved!

Gunner Update

Thank you for all your notes and doggy prayers for our boy Gunner. Unfortunately Gunner dislocated his left hip which was keeping him from bearing any weight. Fortunately, with time and rest he should heal. We didn't do any scans to see if anything was torn and have decided no more surgery for Gunner. She gave us some pain meds and called for rest. We are hoping that in time he will begin to weight bear more and more everyday. Gunner's days of playing ball or running for that matter are over. As long as he can walk, that is all we can ask for. He seems to be doing better already, as he has started to put his foot down every once and awhile.

Furry Child

Does anyone else have a furry child that you love more than you thought was even possible? Well, if you do, you will totally understand how we are feeling today. A year ago we chose to have Gunner's left ACL reconstructed. He recovered great from the surgery and we felt like he was on the road to recovery. Last May, while we were rehabbing him at the lake, he hurt his right leg. We decided that we would have his right ACL reconstructed this Fall once we moved into our new house. Gunner is 8 but acts like he is two, he is so playful, full of energy, and doesn't miss a beat. Not to mention how wonderful he is with Luke and how much Luke loves his friend Gunner. Unfortunately, somehow over the weekend and into yesterday Gunner hurt his left leg again (the one he had surgery on). Our poor furry child can not walk:( We are so saddened by this and we are not ready to make any decisions about him leaving us. Sean has an appointment with an orthopedic vet specialists tomorrow and we are crossing our fingers that it is something as simple as a broken screw or plate that can be easily repaired. We have some important decisions to make regarding what surgical care we will do and what we can not do for him.
Please say some doggy prayers for our furry child that we receive the news we want to hear tomorrow. My heart aches for him because he knows he is hurt and will not even attempt to move. He has the biggest heart and still let's Luke pull on his ears and sit on his back.

latest obsession

Luke's latest obsession...

This is a pretty common scene at our house, pillows on the floor! Luke's latest obsession is climbing onto the couch, chair, and bench and throwing all the pillows on the floor. I will start to put the pillows back and he is throwing them off just as quick as I am putting them back on.

House update...getting closer

We are anxiously awaiting a firm closing date on 167 Auburn East Lane, soon to be home of the Merrick Family! We have been given dates of November 24th and November 30th, so either way, we get to celebrate Christmas in our new home! We have been so pleased with the building process, thanks to our wonderful contractor/builder. You often hear people talk about how stressful it is, and while there have been a few moments of stress, overall we have greatly enjoyed making the decisions and trusting in our builders creativity/style to make our home exactly what we want and more!

Welcome to our home...

Exterior

waiting on shutters, front door, and cedar posts on front porch

Landscaping was done this week and sod will be laid any day
kitchen nook with wine fridge:)
We have all our wine we bought in Napa/Sonoma from our trip in 2006 still in the box we shipped in back in
time for it to be properly stored!
Kitchen
waiting on our hood vent and back splash

fireplace and built-ins

View from upstairs

Master bathroom


Sean's pride & joy

Basement bar

Wordless Wednesday

One year ago today...

How life can change in 12 short months

Random

I have been trying to upload a few videos of Luke, highly requested by Luke's aunts & uncles. Unfortunately, I'm having some trouble so I will keep working on it. In the meantime, I will give you a little recap of our busy little 14 month old! Luke started walking at 10 months old and he hasn't missed a beat since. He loves to hold out his hand for us to grab and then he wants to run in circles around the house. He loves to be chased, the only caveat to that is, he looks back at us when we chase him which has resulted in numerous bumps and bruises. The latest and greatest at our house is we have opted to take the gate down. A few months ago Luke was able to crawl over the gate and up the stairs, as time as past, he has it down to a science and his over the gate in NO time. I was concerned that he would hurt himself worse as he climbs over than if we just took it down. The icing on the cake, he flipped over the gate and his head got stuck between the bottom stair and gate. That was it for me, so the gate is down! One more step towards Luke becoming a "big boy".
One of Luke's other favorite past times...dancing! He gets his moves from his dad. He dances to any type of music and his type of dancing goes something like this....he bounces up and down, but his feet don't leave the ground, he shakes his head from side to side, and swings his arms. He loves to watch us jump, he laughs and laughs, tries to jump himself, again, his feet don't leave the ground!
Lastly, Luke is handing out lots of sloppy kisses. He leans in real slow with his mouth open wide, it is absolutely precious!
We are greatly enjoying our busy little boy and watching him learn and try to figure things out. We are not surprised by any of his latest moves or how he manages to grab things. This morning I had half a banana in the peel laying on the counter. I came around the corner, the peel was on the floor and Luke was sitting on the floor eating the banana like a big boy!
Every day he learns something new. We are so in love with our little monkey boy, he brightens our days more than anything we could have ever imagined. We feel so thankful and blessed to have been chosen to parent our sweet little Luke.

Sean's hunting excursion

Sean got what he has been waiting for all year...a 10 point buck with his bow and arrow! We decided to take some time off this week and just enjoy our life outside of work. Sean drove up to my parents farm last night to get a head start on hunting. He went out early this morning and by the time Luke and I hit the road I had a picture on my phone of his 10 pointer. I am so proud of him. He and my dad put so much time and effort into placing tree stands all over the farm and his second time out this year, he got what he has been looking for! Also very convenient because we have a big move coming up and now he can focus on our move rather than scheduling our move around hunting season. Luke and I enjoyed a quiet home last night tying up some loose ends and hit the road this morning during his nap time. He was a true gem, knowing I needed some quiet time, he slept the entire 2 1/2 hours. By the time we hit the interstate he was out and I had to wake him when we got to my parents. He did wake for a few minutes to give me a little shout out, but he went right back to sleep. We are enjoying some "quiet time" at the farm for a couple of days.

Sean with his buck

Sean is so proud to share this moment with Luke

Dedication

I want to dedicate this post to a beautiful family who have inspired many by their strong faith.
Please view their dedication and make sure your volume is one. Angie's husband is a part of the Christian band Selah. They wrote this song in dedication to Audrey Caroline.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2CnUtVY35o

I discovered this blog shortly before Audrey's birth April 2008. This is a beautiful testimonyof their faith and to the truth that our God has a plan for each life, no matter how short it may be. We are all in His hands!

You can follow Audrey Caroline's story
http://audreycaroline.blogspot.com/

Angie has most recently published her book "I will carry you"

weekend of pictures

Here are some photos from our weekend with the Rozewicz's and Jankovic's, great friends from Michigan.

Luke (14 months) Brayden (8 months) & Melina (19 months)
Boyfriend & Girlfriend "I'm going to get you, this game doesn't mean anything"

Cat Scratch Fever and Monkey boy

"mom, why did you dress us like this?"

cutest kids on the block

Happy Monkey

Our little blessings

Daddy and his monkey boy on Halloween night

Mommy and Monkey enjoying trick or treating

"on to the next house"

My sweet Monkey brightens the darkest of days

Our Little Family

Monkey on the run

"you mean I get candy?"

Erin and I with our lil Monkey's