quote of the day

Sitting in our new living room, Lydia: "This our home?"

Me: "Yes, this is our home now."

After a minute of thought, Lydia: "What's our other house do?"

Good question!

no more cribs

Our "baby" is sleeping in a big boy bed! Seems like just yesterday we had 3 in cribs.

Now...if we could just get a couple little ones out of diapers...

not home yet

Last night we took a break from moving and house work and had a family night. We went to a festival with all kinds of live music, fried food, and toddler fun. After we polished off a family-sized bowl of ice cream, it was time to go "home". We told the kids we were sleeping at the "new house" and Lydia quickly responded, "Not new house! Home!"

We are experiencing a whirlwind of transitional emotions and not-so-favorable behaviors from our little ones, who are both excited about the "new house" and not quite understanding the permanency of moving. The "new house" is fun, but it's not home yet.

(I agree.)

There was a big planter left in front of the house, so the kids and I planted some clearance annuals in it, just to make the place feel a little bit more like home...

storybook house

I had great intentions of blogging our way through the moving process, but that's not working out so far. We are still living at our old house and don't expect to be fully moved out for another 2-3 weeks, although we are working hard to get the bedrooms ready. We hope to start sleeping at the new house this weekend. The kids are getting tired of going back and forth A few days ago when we arrived back at the old house, Reggie started to cry with big crocodile tears and say, "big big house!" The sooner we can get "settled", the better, but there is lots of work to be done.

I've been calling our new house the storybook house. The night we went to look at it the first time, our realtor's wife came along (they are our neighbors). We pulled into the driveway, and she said, "Wow, this is the house that every girl draws pictures of and dreams of living in someday!" I agreed!It is a traditional 2-story house. On the main floor is the kitchen, family room, living room, a bathroom, and formal dining room. We are going to turn the formal dining room into a play area for the kids. No matter how hard we've tried to have play areas separate from family areas, the kids want to be where we are, and most of the time that is on the main floor. When they get older, it will probably be an office/homework area, as I don't envision using a formal dining area much.I'm glad I have a step stool because the kitchen has really tall cabinets!This is the view from the eat-in kitchen to the front door. The half bath and coat closet are on the right and the stairways are on the left.Every square inch of the house needs fresh paint. This is the formal dining/"play area" looking into the kitchen.This is a view from the kitchen into the family room.View from the family room to the living room. You can see the front door and the stairway to the second floor.

The second floor has three good-sized bedrooms. I'm excited about having everyone's room on the same level - the boys will continue to share a room. There is also a full bathroom and a master bath.

The basement is finished with a large family area, half bath (in case you've lost count, that 3 more toilets then we have now!), laundry area, and a room that we plan to convert to a 4th bedroom (guest room).Here is a picture of the back of the house. One of our biggest desires was to have a good-sized yard with some privacy, and this one fits the bill! It backs up to a pond, so there are no houses behind us.

quote of the day

From Brett: "Reggie needs a sneeze-nex".

good-bye city life

Feeling a sense of nostalgia, I flagged the ice cream truck down and the kids and I enjoyed cold treats today. It was the first, and probably the last time, I'll buy frozen treats off the musical truck. There are aspects of city-living that I love - the diversity, the hustle-and-bustle, the being 10 minutes from just about anywhere I want to go. This neighborhood has embraced us as they've watched our family grow. But there are aspects of city-living that have worn on us the past 7 years - the cramped spaces, the crime, the sub-par school district. The neighborhood we're moving to is only a few miles from us, and we're hoping we've selected an area that still has some of the things we love about city-living, but less of the undesirables. But I don't think there's going to be any ice cream trucks.

Which, until today, the kids thought just played music. ; )

quotes of the day

Reggie came up to me after playing outside, took his shirt off, and said "I'm all sweaty".

While talking about the days of the week, we said on Sunday, we go to Sunday School. Lydia expanded, "And I wear my flower shoes!" (She only gets to wear her "flower shoes" for church and special occasions.)

"accidental landlords"

I took the kids to the sculpture gardens today. They were only mildly interested, but it was something we hadn't done before.

Brett started asking about the picnic he had helped pack as soon as we arrived (9:30am), so I guess that was the highlight.

I worked on packing up the kitchen and emptying out the hutch and the kids found a new hiding spot.

We also signed with a property management company. So our house is now both for sale and for rent. The property management company calls people like us "accidental landlords". We were not looking for an "investment opportunity". We are just one of a growing number of families who want to move and don't want to or can't afford to come to the closing table with a big check to get out of their house. We'd love for our house to sell - but having someone else paying our mortgage for us until we see a shift in the housing market might work out better in the long run. We're just hoping for SOMEONE to want to pay to live here!

The kids had some spontaneous fun with the garden hose today...did I mention we're getting a privacy fence at our new home?

ready...set...go!!!

The kids and I have slept in our own beds 4 out of the last 18 nights! The 4th of July was a fun weekend with Bryan's family. But I forgot my camera, so I have no evidence...

Today, we hit the ground running. We close on our new house in 9 days!!! (I decided not to post pictures until we close.) Fortunately, we packed up a lot of stuff this spring to stage our house. At this point, there is no one moving into our house, so we are not up against a deadline to vacate, but there is still plenty to do. Bryan has been getting estimates to get a fence put in the backyard and working on the details of the closing. Today, I went through the kids clothes and packed up everything they won't need in the next month. I listed several items we don't want to take with us on craigslist. And I bought a waste basket for one of our new bathrooms. I'm just a little excited!

roadtrip part 4

The last leg of our trip was to Okoboji, IA where we had our annual family reunion. We spent a couple days at a lake house with my grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, parents, brother, sister, and their families. Something special about this year's family reunion was I got to meet two new family members - my cousin's baby, and my other cousin's fiance. The weather was a bit chilly for beach and lake activities, but the kids had fun on the playgrounds with their cousins. After the family reunion, we stayed a few more days at my brother's mother-in-law's cabin on the same lake. Fortunately, the weather warmed up a bit. Turns out, Lydia loves roller coasters!

Seven cousins on a slide!

Brett had fun driving Uncle Dave's boat!

roadtrip part 3

From Grandpa's farm, we went back and spent a few days with my parents. We went to the children's museum and the zoo. At the museum, the kids liked the water play area, the hot air balloon, the large light-up floor piano, and the balls.At the zoo, the kids enjoyed the animal museum, feeding the goats, and the playground.
My favorite part was riding the camel with Brett!