I Signed Your Crack!

Hello friends! I have so many exciting things to share with you tonight!

First of all, today is my precious friend Jordan's 25th birthday. People, the Snow Babes are five years from thirty this year, and we are in a bit of shock about it. Go easy on this one...I love her.

Happy Birthday, sweet Jord. I love you and miss you and wish you the most wonderful day!

In other news, I have made some EXCEPTIONAL gluten-free meals lately, and feel I should share them with you...

For example, Pizza Bianca. And yes, those are potatoes. No really. And they were heavenly. Spencer and I sat in silence while we scarfed, looking up at each other every couple of minutes to 1.) Shake our heads in disbelief 2.) Make sure we hadn't suffocated from too much pizza shoved down our throats 3.) Cry 4.) Thank the LORD for gluten free pizza dough. We loved it so much, I am making it again on Friday. And probably again on Monday. And Friday.

Or this. This is grilled tilapia with a chimichurri sauce and charred vegetable rice. I think this whole meal was like 350 calories. And they were DELICIOUS, every one of them. AND, what do you do when you only eat 350 calories for dinner?! (minus the wine, of course, but who cares) You go get puppy cones!!

First, you wait patiently for your ice cream.

Then, you devour said ice cream in three or less bites.

Then you lick your chops and say your thanks for all the joy you have just experienced.

I love her. This is seriously exactly what I looked like when I finished my Sheridan's. We are twins. And soulmates.

On a more serious note, I wanted to share a quick minute with you about a really cool thing that happened to us last week. We did our Frame Tour (!!) on Wednesday night last week, and were blessed to have many of our most precious friends there to share that experience with us. We continue to be completely overwhelmed at the excitement and support of our family here in Lubbock. I don't know what we did to deserve such wonderful friends, but we could not be more grateful. Thank you to everyone who came out and wrote blessings on our walls, prayed for us, acted interested in all my paint colors, and showed your support for this next milestone in our lives. WE LOVE YOU and can't wait to have you over for dinner. Probably pizza with potatoes on it. Here are some fun pictures from our special night:

Us in the Master Bedroom Hallway...

Our amazing friend Eric, giving us the low-down...

Sweet words from our friend and Sales Person, Judi...

Me in my new kitchen!

And look at these sweet girls...

Everyone blessing our home...

I seriously have so many amazing pictures and memories from this night, and I hate that I can't share them all here. There were so many wonderful, encouraging blessings written on our walls. I just can't say enough how special this night was to me.

Okay, so are you guys still there? I seriously have to start writing more often so you guys don't have to spend an hour catching up with us. I think that was supposed to be the reason I started this blog in the first place...? Thank you for reading. More coming soon! We got sheetrock today! Like, real walls! It is amazing... Brick tomorrow. Post coming right behind it.

Love you all,

The Ingrams

Congratulations to our Graduate!

Congratulations are in order for our big Scout Girl! Tonight she completed Week 6 of Puppy Class! We ended things with a pool party, and Scout was the bravest swimmer in class! We are so proud of our girl. To celebrate, we took her to get a puppy ice cream cone, which she devoured in approximately six bites. Of course, my camera ran out of battery before I could catch that action. Next time...

Scout, this post is dedicated to you. First, let's start by meeting her classmates:

In back, we have Eva. Eva only made it to a couple of classes, but she really came a long way. Spencer threw her in the pool tonight, and she was a pretty good sport about it. Congrats, Eva.

The Collie is Grace. Grace was the shy student, not very interested in socializing with the other puppies in the class, but very interested in chatting with their mommies. I think my girl probably overwhelmed her a bit with her outgoingness, but Grace made it through. High five, Grace.

And in front, our best friend from class, Sally. Sally was our favorite friend. We like when she tried to bite our face off, and in return, we grabbed her by the inside of her mouth and drug her around the room. Every week. We will miss sweet Sally. Congratulations big girl!

P.S. Sally was actually a stray and is looking for a home. She is a sweet girl, and very smart. Not such a big fan of the water, but other than that, she was great. Please let me know if you are interested in this lovely lady!

And, of course lounging around in front, my girl.

And now, for a little reflection on how far we've come this semester...

First Day of School: So excited!

This is our first day of class, meeting all our new friends!

P.S. Why does she look so tiny in this picture? Has she really grown that much? She has like, DOUBLED in size!

So this is us a few weeks later, playing with our friends:

And then, of course, trying to eat our best friend Sally.

And then, just when we thought we couldn't possibly have any more fun, we got to go swimming!! We were a little nervous at first...

But then we felt a little better...

And then her Papa threw her in, and she was forced to just go for it. (P.s...this is about the time my camera ran out of battery. What else is new. I don't even have pictures of her diving OR her back flip into the deep end.)

All in all, it was a great day, and I am so proud of my girl and the rest of her class for making it through Puppy School! Can't wait to take all we've learned and master some really great tricks and commands! She is such a smart girl!

And a tired girl. In fact, this is what she is doing right now, as I am writing this:

It was such a big day for this sleepy girl.

Congratulations, Puppy Class of 2010.

Love,

One Proud Mom

Our House. In the middle of our street.

Hi guys. Remember me? Your resident Scout-loving, gluten-hating, blog-writing, Mrs. Ingram? I know, I know, I owe you all a BIG apololgy. But, if you only knew how much fun we've been having, you would understand! Allow me to explain...

First of all, I went to Nashville! I think I will dedicate an entire post to this trip later this week. I mean, it wouldn't be fair of me to expect you to understand the absolute AWESOMENESS of this trip when I mix in information like "I climbed INSIDE a huge, powerful, swallowing waterfall with my best girl Jordo" into this huge, catch-you-up blog post. It just wouldn't be right. You need time to DIGEST that kind of information. So, look forward to spending some time with me and Jord and Nashville later this week. For now, I leave you with this:

Cheers. Cheers to these precious girls that let me drag them all over their hometown and make them go in every store and pretend to talk me into buying things so my husband wouldn't leave me. Cheers to this precious winery and double cheers to the wine I was drinking at this very moment. That alone is worth a trip to this place, people. Believe me.

So, after many days of girl-talk, pool-time, shopping, wine drinking, waterfall climbing, shopping, sangria drinking, and boy-talk, I came home to my sweet husband and my sweet pup and my sweet life. Coming home is one of my favorites.

Especially...when I came home...to THIS.

Walls!! Have you ever seen such amazing, beautiful, perfect, sturdy walls in your life?! Me either. Atleast I thought. That is, until I saw THIS.

Walls AND trusses! I couldn't believe it. One day later, and this little monster. I feel like it was just yesterday she was just a slab. But, then it gets better:

It's...it's like...a HOUSE. I can't get over it. This is what it looked like when we were there last night, so I am guessing tonight they are probably installing our carpet. We are so excited and feel so blessed and can't wait to have you all over for dinner in our new pad.

Tonight we picked out paint colors. Blog on that coming soon.

Oh, and one more thing. Tomorrow night is my girl's last night of puppy class. She is having a pool party. You will totally be seeing a blog on that one.




The good news is, we pretty much have our whole week of blogs planned out already! How exciting! One last thing,

Is she not the cutest thing you have ever seen? I love her more than my luggage.

Okay, that was the fast and furious version of our Ingram update for tonight. Be looking for upcoming promised blogs. For now, tonight's episode of Breaking Bad. Is anyone else obsessed with that show?

xoxo,

The Ingrams

I've Missed You!

People! You SERIOUSLY need an update from the Ingrams! We have just been having so much fun, we forgot about our little virtual friends! But, I have missed you. It's true!

Okay, so here's what we've been up to:

First, here's our best friend. He's a rock star and he's gonna be famous, and when he is, Spencer already asked to be a groupie. So there's that. Sorry ladies...

But this dude already has a groupie. And really good best friends. So lay off. I mean, look how excited Spency was to see his friend!!

See?? That's love... And so is this.

We are bests. Don't mess with us.

In other news, we have some pipes now! Scout Girl was the most excited of all of us to see our future plumbing. See look!

If that face doesn't spell excitement, I don't know what you want from me, people. She is so precious. So is our plumbing. Here it is:

Yea pipes! Our little Katie is just moving right along!

Oh, and one more thing. Last night we went to dinner with some super fun friends. These are good people, people. You should get to know them. Especially this little monster:

This is Autumn, my little not-niece and I seriously love her. Speaking of love...

These two aren't half bad either.

Haven't we been busy? Whew! What a weekend!

As for me, tomorrow I am off to Nashville to visit my sweet friend Jordan for the weekend. I could not be more in need of/excited for/looking forward to/desparate for a weekend with this lovely lady! Be looking for some super sweet posts coming soon.

Howdy Nashville (and hopefully Tim McGraw),

The Ingrams

Permit!

Hello friends!

Guess what we got today...? A permit! Yahoo! And what did I do right after I recieved it? Drove straight to my homesite to make sure someone was working! I really should cut these folks some more slack... And what did I find when I got there?



These precious gents! I mean, look! They are already digging my footing! I couldn't get over it. I was jumping around screaming and squealing and trying to explain to these guys that this was MY home, and could you PLEASE pose for a picture, but they had NO clue what I was talking about, nor were they interested in a photo session. Either way, I snuck this little pic of everyone hard at work on my home. How exciting!

And so, I couldn't just squeal and scream alone! I needed my girl to check this thing out. So, she jumped in the car with me and Spence tonight to take a look...

I mean, this is one excited girl! On the way there, she was asking all kinds of questions about her neighbors, "How big is the backyard?", "Am I still in the district with my puppy class because Sally is my favorite friend and I CANNOT move to another school..." It was precious, really. And we got there, and guess what?! A fully dug footing! Which means there will probably be some concrete out there tomorrow! I just want to sit right there in the middle of all that dirt and wait for whatever comes next. This is super fun.

I realize you can see nothing from this picture. But, trust me, there is a pretty little Katie outlined in there somewhere. More importantly...

Scout girl loved her backyard. And so did Spence. See?

This is good stuff, people.

Cheers to new homes,

The Ingrams

Chicken Enchilada Soup

Friends, let me tell you something.

If this soup...

that I made for dinner is Gluten-Free, I don't know why more people don't ask to have this disease. Y.U.M. You should see this happy little husband sitting next to me enjoying his second bowl. Gluten-free chicken enchilada soup is pure bliss.

Thank you, Mom, for sending me this little piece of recipe heaven.

Whew, I'm stuffed. Time for ice cream.

Your favorite blimp,

Brianna

Our New Home

As promised, here is the low-down on our decision to build a brand new home. Spencer and I had been looking at used homes for about a month, with the help of a wonderful realtor, Melissa Smith. If anyone is ever looking for a used home here in Lubbock, this is your girl. Anyway, because we never dreamed we could afford to build a new home, we spent several weeks looking at used. We eventually found a home that we loved, and made an offer. When the counter-offer came back, we were pretty dissappointed. From there, we went back to the drawing board, and met with Judy, our wonderful Sales Person with Betenbough, to explore the option of building a new home. Long story short, we figured out we could make it work, and are so excited to be building a brand new Betenbough home! It is so exciting to get to experience this process from the other side, to see how wonderful of Sales Team we have, and to see for ourselves that my company really does provide what they say they do: "More home for less money". We could not be more thrilled.

We will be building a "Katie" floor plan - a 1400 square foot gem on a precious cul-de-sac in a community called Quincy Park. As the name implies, we will have a park within walking distance! Little Scout girl could not be more excited. We will also be closer to my work, which will be great for my early morning arrivals. This is what she will look like:

Isn't she adorable?! And now the inside...

Yea! We especially the front and back porches, the dining room in the front, and the isolated master bedroom with TWO CLOSETS!! Can't wait to hear what you all think. Here is some more fun...

This is our flooring, cabinets, and countertops...

These are our exterior colors...

What do you think? Isn't it going to be beautiful?! Can't wait to hear what you think. One last one, just for fun. This is Spencer and I at our Pre Construction Meeting. We are supposed to permit on Tuesday, and should be ready to move in about 90 days from then. Get ready for pictures of our footings this week! Yea!!

More coming soon!

Love,

The Ingrams