Room to Grow

Paul and I are always very spur of the moment people. This past week has been nothing but typical for us but was definitely unexpected.

It all started with the thought that we would be purchasing a home next year. We began to save and even though we were planning a year out, I was driving myself insane by looking at houses, land and neighborhoods in our current town.

For one, our house is way too small for our family. We moved in as a family of five and have since grown. Secondly, we rent since we did not want to buy in an area that was unknown to us and I want to own our home.

We love our current town and we also love our current neighbors. So much so, that even though Paul has an big commute, we were all for staying in this wonderful town. I had mentioned to Paul that we should live closer to where he works but he always ignored it.... Until last Friday. I'm pretty sure the commute finally just got to him, but Paul began to send me houses in an area closer to his office. Since it's a totally new area, I want to rent again until we know for sure that we like it. We found a few homes for rent and took a drive on Saturday to see the neighborhoods and homes.

Now, we are looking at big homes and can I just say, very few met my check list. I mean, one looked like it was meant to be in a western movie. One had the model home right next to it so all sorts of strangers would be pulling up in are hood. One was out in the middle of nowhere ( I actually liked this one but CVS was like 15 minutes away...unacceptable). Another had a cliff for a back yard. Sure it was fenced in but with Cooper's past history, he would be over that fence and on his head in no time.

Everyone was starving so we hit up Smithfield's. First ever experience for me and it was pretty good. Of course we had gotten a late start but there were 2 more houses to see even though it was dark. We drove into the neighborhood for the other homes and fell in love with one of the homes. Perfect neighborhood, big enough house, community swimming pool, closer to Paul's office. My mind was made up right then and there. We came home, sent an e-mail and had an appointment to see it Sunday afternoon.

I couldn't sleep at all with all the crazy running through my mind so I was dragging the next morning. Ashleigh came home (she had spent the night at a friends house) and looked awful. Turns out she wasn't feeling well so I had Paul take her to urgent care. The urgent care visit took way longer than I expected and we were going to be late for the showing. I was an emotional mess but the agent was able to meet us a little later and we finally made it to the house.

It was perfect. Amazing! I mean the pics did nothing for this house. I was in love and ready to sign. Our hopes and dreams came to a crashing halt when we found out there was actually another applicant for the house from earlier in the day. Paul's exact words " That makes me sad." LOL I love him!!! We got home and I cried until Paul caved and agreed to offer more money than they were asking. I wanted that house and would do whatever to get it. Let me remind you, me=emotional wreck that weekend. I wanted a bigger house closer to his office but I didn't want to leave my friends, town and transfer the kids schools at the end of the year or remove them from their soccer teams. Probably not the best time for me to be making financial decisions, but whatever!

The agent sent the application to us and said he would review it Monday. Finally, Tuesday afternoon (after another day and half of depression wondering if there was still a possibility that he may give it to the first applicants he told us about) we heard from him that everything checked out and he would be pulling our credit/criminal background. By Wednesday, the agent said the house would be ours! OMG those were the longest 4 days ever. Maybe not really, but it felt like it.

We went from not even thinking about moving out of our house, to finding a house in a totally different area and getting it within a week. That shit cray! LOL The kids are super excited and Coop keeps asking when the movers are coming. Ummm, "you're looking at them kid." We have a ton to get done.
Ashleigh is finally starting to feel better, but just when things got better, Cooper was struck with a fever, chills, and headache. I feel so bad for them when they are sick! I am scheduled to get my wisdom teeth out on the 9th...eeeek! I'm so scared. Ashleigh and Addy are having their birthday party on the 18th...don't be surprised if the house is mostly cleaned out by then y'all;) We've got to get the kids transferred and they still have soccer practice. We still have to sign the lease on Saturday, so I guess something could change in the meantime, but I hope everything goes as planned. Let the fun begin!

Got Moves?

Ashleigh loves her iTouch! Actually the entire family, including G, loves Ashleigh's iTouch. Ashleigh is also obsessed with video taping herself. The kids (Sn: I always think of baby goats when I refer to them as kids, but I think calling them children sounds too formal, so I think of baby goats often LOL ) kept trying to video tape themselves, so I offered to help.

Ashleigh, Cooper, and Addison making their debut to "I'm Sexy and I know It" ...the Chipmunks version. Use this link and enjoy!

Cooper was able to convince me to dance as well, but the video was somehow deleted. Not sure how that happened ;)

Christmas 2011

Yes, I'm slightly behind but I want to make sure I posted about this past Christmas. For some reason, Christmas seemed like it took forever to get here, and then once it was over, I couldn't believe it had happened so fast.  We have never been so prepared for Christmas in past years. We are always shopping for everything the last weekend before and wrapping Christmas Eve night after the kids are in bed. This year we had everything done a few weeks before (except final touches) and I wrapped everything prior to Christmas Eve. Even though we still had to put everything out that night, it was probably the least stressful Christmas we've had.


On Christmas Eve, we made cookies. We whipped up some basic Chocolate Chip cookies (Nestle recipe). I had some white chocolate, so I decided to dip some of the Chocolate Chip cookies in it ( actually Cooper did this). They tasted amazing and my only wish was that I had dipped all of them and not just some ;)

The kids dropping the cookies on the tray.

The Basic Chocolate Chip

Basic Chocolate Chip dipped in White Chocolate 

Then we made some yummy Sugar Cookies.

Then it was time to decorate the cookies! 2 cups powder sugar and 4 tbsp milk. YUM!

I grabbed the neighbors to helps with the decorating:)

 Finished Cookies

Paul was able to get his Dad's train up and running. The kids were super excited and so was Paul!

Addy was so tired (she ended up falling asleep on the floor in a few minutes LOL)



Our neighbors came over to exchange gifts

 And Genna had her first taste of a candy cane!

After the kids were in bed, we made finishing touches to the presents and placed them under the tree.

Best Photo of the Year (IMO)

Christmas Day was great.  The kids opened presents and it was so nice out that they were able to play with the outside gifts all day! Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!

Happy New Year!

Wishing you and yours the greatest year yet!

This year we hosted the neighborhood NYE Party, therefore we were able to ring in the new year with great friends, food, and fun! It was a blast (we even had a chocolate fountain! You know you're jealous!LOL) and we are already looking forward to the next get together.

A pic of the girls:

The kids:

It was quite the party after our quiet celebration last year...I don't even think the kids stayed up till 12:00 last year! Amazingly, Bean slept through all of the noise, music, kids screaming and horn blowing. 

Here's a pic of the kids from 2011 and 2012:)

Last Year (2011)

This Year 2012

So we made it through 2011 without any major catastrophies. Now if the world doesn't end this year, I think we'll be good!

Self Delivery

A few weekends ago, I convinced Paul to go to the furniture store to "browse". We went with all of the kids, which is always fun and in no way stressful. ;) After browsing and discussing all the living room sets we might consider, I ran into a set that I instantly fell in love with!

It turns out that it was a set that had been discontinued, so while we saved money, delivery wasn't an option. These are the moments Paul looks at me with the "this is why I should have a truck" look. We decided we would buy them and figure out a way to get them home over lunch. Paul went in to the closet U-Haul place to see how much it was for one-way (so we wouldn't have to drive back to Raleigh to drop it off). He also wanted to see how much another place would charge, so we drove over there to check it out but they ended up being closed. So instead of going back to the U-Haul store we had just come from, Paul called the U-Haul # and told them which store. We headed back towards the U-Haul store while waiting for our e-mail confirm and when we got it I realized that they had booked the truck at another location. We turned around and went to pick the truck back up.

After what seemed like driving around all day, we got our couches loaded up and brought them home. This is when I give Paul the "where are your brother's at when you need them" look. With 4 kids running amuck, I helped Paul unload the couches from the truck and into the living room. These are NOT light couches by the way.

Paul pulled out the paper work to call the nearest U-Haul drop off to us, but there were already closed, so we had to drive all the way back to Raleigh.YAY! When we finally got back to the house, I had the pleasure of helping Paul carry the old couch, love seat and over sized chair upstairs to the bonus room. Just for reference, Paul and I should never attempt to be on any shows like Amazing Race. We may get the job done, but it is not pretty!

So by the end of the night, we finally had our new living room set up. No one can sit in these unless they ask permission first LOL

Halloween 2011

This year I was determine to make the kids their Halloween costumes. For some reason, the idea of making them cave kids had popped into my mind. I figured felt would be super easy to work with and I convinced Paul to buy me a sewing machine.

I started out with Addy's outfit. I traced the outline of a dress she had, cut it out, sewed up the sides and hot glued black triangles onto the dress. After I finished hers, I decided that we should all dress up as the flinestones. I bought the bone hair piece at a Halloween store to complete her "Pebbles" look. It was cold out, so she wore a turtle neck and leggings underneath.

After going through the list of characters on the Flintstones, we decided Ashleigh would be "Betty". 

  

Cooper was of course "Bam Bam".

 

Next came "Fred" .... 

Then "Wilma"....(my necklace was foil that I made into balls and wrapped with felt)

And we couldn't have the Flintstone's without Dino.... I made G's out of fleece (so she was nice and warm) and it was more stretchy than the felt, so she was able to move around easily. I added a zipper for easy access and hand sewed on the tail.



I made everyone go out to our annual festival, Hollyfest, even though it was freezing and wet. It was a huge mud hole and even though there were a TON of people there, I am pretty sure we were the only ones there in a costume. LOL At least we were awesome! 

We came home and headed over to our neighbors for an awesome Halloween Party. I made "witch's brew" and it was delicious. I'll post pics and the recipe later (I forgot pics today but am making again tomorrow).

This by far was our best Halloween and I am already looking forward to next year.

Green level Gourd Farm

I finally convinced Paul to go to the pumpkin patch. It's something we love to do BUT they are always crowded and expensive (especially around here) so Paul was really trying to put it off. I found this cheap, little farm pretty close to us, so I was able to coerce him into going.

Are my kids the only ones that don't get the concept of putting their heads in the head holes? When I would get one kid in, another would leave their slot, so I just gave up and took a picture :/

Green Level Gourd Farm was only $4 a person and we really just wanted something low key this year with a tractor ride, which it included. They didn't really have a "pumpkin patch" but did have some really nice pumpkins for sale. They had some chickens, bunnies, goats, and 2 donkeys one of which was showing off more of their anatomy than I cared for.

I really liked this hen/chicken (it was super fluffy):

Some goats:

Everyone took their turn on the tractor:

The tractor ride was driver by a man that we think may have been "cajun" or super "country" because we couldn't understand a word he said, but he was extremely happy and friendly. He took us through the woods and the wagon had these clapper hands tied to the rails for the kids. We would stop by halloween decorations placed throughout the woods and the kids go clap the clappers to make the decorations move or make noise. The kids really enjoyed it!

There was a little play area with these ride on peddle tractors:

Some more pics:

We all had a great time! We'll see how next weekend pans out and maybe we'll try out another one;)