Baby Stuff, Planning

Big news! We’re expecting and its a boy…

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What a fun ride this year.  The big news for the year is that Jen is pregnant.  As of this week, she’s 28 weeks along.  We haven’t purposely waited to make an announcement, but its been a very busy year, so no online announcement ever really made its way.  We first found out in June that she was expecting, one week before our trip to Las Vegas.  We flew out for my work (a conference) and then stayed to celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary there by seeing KA at the MGM Grand.

After we returned, we patiently waited to find out what we were having.  We both fully expected that it would be another girl.  On my mom’s side of the family – its all girls and one boy.  On Jen’s mom’s side of the family – all girls.  We really didn’t expect any different, but in September, we got a surprise.  We’re having a boy!

Needless to say, it seems perfect for us.  We’re excited and ready for his arrival at the end of January.

Peyton is happy to be a big sister.  She had chosen the name for a little girl, so there was a little disappointment that we wouldn’t get to use the name she chose, but overall she’s loving the idea of becoming a big sister.

A lot of things change in six years.   For Peyton’s arrival, we launched this website and chronicled her development and delivery.  For baby James, this blog wasn’t needed thanks to Facebook and sharing everything there.  They are certainly different, but it still helped to share the news.   Our friends had twins about 2 years ago and there are all these new things that didn’t exist when Peyton came along.  We’re learning from our friends again and finding all the newest things.

I know my cousins have all said that they have tons of pictures from the first child and none of the second, and so on, but I guess in our case, we have lots of posts about Peyton and none about James.  Somehow, I suspect that photos are a given with Jen — she’s always snapping photos, so I don’t think we’ll have a shortage of the new baby.

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Family, News

New job, new hobby

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Its been a while since we have updated the blog. Jen, Peyton and I are still settling into the new house. As spring has come around, we did something we’ve never done before. We turned off the heat and air conditioning. The house, because of how its built, is near steady temperature during this time of year and so we occasionally open a window to cool things down, but for the most part, the house is feeling great. We are also spending a lot of time on our screened back porch and talking. We have cut off the TV and we’re spending time in conversation and I am really enjoying that.

A little over a month ago, Jen began a new job at Coastal Carolina University (our alma mater) as their Sustainability Coordinator. She’s settling into her new opportunity and its going great. She has a lot of supportive students and staff and that’s making the work enjoyable. It is keeping her busy and there is a lot to do around campus building upon the success of her predecessor.

And last week, Peyton began gymnastics classes on Wednesday evenings. She’s so super excited about it and wants to show us both all that she has learned after class. Jen took her last week and she’s asked me to come this week so that we can both watch. She really really enjoys it and it was her choice of what to do. We will try to post some photos and video of her in coming weeks.

But things are doing pretty well in the Sellers house. More to come soon.

Family, Friends, Home Building, Milestones, News, Year in Review

2010 year in review

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** I started writing this in December, but I never was able to bring myself to finish this entry. 2010 was a tough year. 2011 is a fresh year and as sad as it is to move on from some things, its truly a fresh start in many ways. — March 21, 2011 **

2010 is going to be remembered as very tough year.  There were personal highs and very deep lows this year in our lives.  This year will be the year of a new beginning with our house.  We celebrated the house with some close friends on Saturday night to celebrate and thank them all for their support, love and help along the way as we have gone through the process of building.  Without them, we couldn’t have completed the build.  And that was a large, very good night for us to celebrate. It represents a big milestone in our lives. As part of that night, we asked each of them to bring a photo for our family and friends wall. Its one of the final touches we are adding to our house. We purchased a “tree of life” metal wall sculpture made by a local artist as the focal point of that wall and we are surrounding the tree with photos of all the people who are most special to us. The photos we adding at the party were just the beginning as we have lots more people to add to our wall. These strong relationships are so valued and needed for us to be healthy and their support in the last year has helped us pull through some difficult times. Continue reading 2010 year in review →

Green Home, Home, Home Building

Landscaping has been added

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Landscaping has been added around our house and the driveway has been created.  Our friend, Robbie Prince, and his company, Carolina Outdoor, has been on-site this week and working on building flower beds around the house and putting in bushes and flowers.  He suggested Magnolia trees at the corners fo the house, holly bushes, loropetalum, and a crepe myrtle at the corner of the back porch.   We are extremely happy with the results.  He will be adding mulch to the beds today and finishing up.

Family, Friends, Green Home, Home, Home Building, News

House completed, and we’ve moved

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What a busy month it has been.  Our house was completed on October 30 and we received our certificate of occupancy.  The next day, we celebrated Peyton’s birthday and we were able to show the house off to Jen’s parents who came into town for the birthday celebration.

After receiving the certificate of occupancy, we still had a few minor things to be completed in the house – trim paining and the such – but all the major construction was completed.

We moved in the following week and although we planned to move furniture and rent a truck on Saturday, with the help of some of our fantastic friends, we were able to move in the last furniture late on Friday night.  My cousin Brett, his wife Trina, and our friends Annie, Madelyn and Russell all were huge helps in moving us in so quickly, as well as unboxing when we got to the new house.  My mom and dad came in on Friday during the day and helped unbox and move some of the bigger furniture, too.

Saturday night, we enjoyed a fantastic dinner welcoming us to the neighborhood.  Our neighbor and friend Kendall fixed prime rib on the grill.  Tammy and Kendall hosted all of us so that we could meet our neighbors and celebrate our new house.  Tammy also prayed for and asked for blessing over our new home.  Afterwards, we gave a tour to my cousin Amanda and her boyfriend Justin – and they helped us unpack some more afterwards.

Peyton is really enjoying her new room.  She loves sleeping in there — and a bad habit she developed in the rental house has disappeared.  A lot of nights in the rental, she would come into our room during the night – around 3am – but that hasn’t happened once in the new house.  She loves her room and is really comfortable in it.

I’ll be posting some new photos soon of the completed house.

Green Home, Home, Home Building

Nearing completion

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The punch list is getting shorter. We are crossing things off the list every day and we are nearing the end of our build. We are planning the big move for the first weekend in November. The house will most likely be done earlier than that date, but Peyton’s birthday will be the same week that we expect completion. We are planning a birthday celebration when we would otherwise move. And that just means excitement all around.

In the past few weeks, the front steps have been laid, the back patio has been poured. The electrical trim has been almost completed – all (except one) of our lighting fixtures have been installed. Our appliances have arrived and have been installed. Electricity has been turned on and permanently connected to the house.

Since my last update online, the counters have been installed and most of the plumbing trim has been installed. The tile has been installed on the floors and in the master bath shower. The bathrooms have all had their final coats of paint on the walls.

The week to come will be impressive. This week, we will have hardwood, paint and final plumbing installed throughout the week.