Open House

We are on the move...well trying to. We need more space. We are busting out of our 1500 sq ft 3 bed house. It's been great for our little family. We love the neighbors, cul-de-sac with playground, the elementary school, the convenient location and have made wonderful friends in our ward, but we knew we needed to eventually move to get more space. We moved in 9 years ago and thought we'd be here for 3-5 years. Ha! Thanks to the housing market for tanking we stayed longer than originally thought. But it's been fine. We have made this house our home and have good memories here. I get all sentimental thinking about it. 

We met with a Realtor a few weeks ago to see our options (if it was even feasible to sell now, with it being still valued lower than what we owe). She came out the next night to see the house and said she had some clients that were actually LDS and that this would be perfect for them. Well, the following Monday that couple came to look at it and loved it. They wanted to make an offer on it. It wasn't even listed yet! We were thinking of listing it in March, but after hearing that someone was interested we went for it. We set an open house date for Feb 1st, but then debated whether to even list it or just let them make an offer. Well, long story short, our Realtor talked to her broker friend who suggested we just list it to get good market exposure (Kyle wanted to do that too). We did and upped our open house to a week earlier. My Mom and Dad had come over to watch Kate play basketball the weekend before our open house and she helped me paint all our doors and door frames so that was perfect. We had that all done and I could do all the other paint touch ups. We got the house ready and listed it on Friday Jan 24th and had our open house on Sat the 25th from 1-4pm. They came on Tuesday before we listed to take pictures and I need that wide lens he used because it makes everything seem so big! 

We had a showing on Friday afternoon so we went to the kids' school playground with a friend during that time. Then Kate had a bball game that night. We got an offer from the people who looked at it on Friday. Saturday morning we had a couple showings in the morning so we left at 9:45am and didn't get back to our house until 4:15pm because the open house was from 1-4pm. So for the entire day we went to the mall, got McDonald's then met up with some friends at the zoo. All the kids fell asleep (Kate is lying down underneath Kyle's coat), they were exhausted, so after the zoo we just kept driving. We still had a couple hours to waste. We drove to Mt. Vernon, turned around and came back. It gave the kids a good nap. When we got back to our house a couple was just walking up the steps to look at the house so we waited in the car. Thank goodness for our DVD player in the car. Then we finally got in our house. We had an hour before we had to leave again for a couple more people to look at the house. Then around 6pm, we babysat a little girl for a couple in our ward for a few hours. We had to make the exchange in the parking lot because people were still in the house looking at it, haha. It was funny. The baby slept the whole entire time so that was a blessing. At 6:15pm we were able to go inside our house and we made dinner and got the kids in bed. It was a long day. There were 10 groups of people that looked at the house today. 

We talked with our Realtor that night about the offer we got on Friday night. We had to answer to the offer by 9pm on Saturday. Basically, it was a good offer. Better than the one the LDS couple was going to make. So we countered the offer, because there were some minor changes needed, and they accepted our counter offer on Sunday! We had an inspection set for Thursday. Today! Crazy how fast it all happened. And good thing we listed it, we got a better offer. Our Realtor did say that a couple other people would have made offers, but they wanted to close sooner than we could. We need time to find a house. This offer we accepted closes on March 7th and allows us to rent back week by week if we need until April 7th, which is so nice. Here we thought our house would take a couple months to sell and it all happened within 24 hrs! Now for the inspection and appraisal to come in fine. eeks! We are nervous about that. We also need to find a house. There was one we've been looking at since November and I had talked to our Realtor about making an offer on it and that night it went pending. I was so sad! Everyone is telling me that something else will come up and it will be fine. I sure hope so! Time is ticking. And can I just say that I'm tired of cleaning and picking up the house spotless for showings, open houses and inspections! ha! The back of our suburban is full of extra toys that we moved out of rooms to make it look less cluttered. Can't wait for my trunk space back. Putting groceries in the car from Costco and Winco was interesting today without space in the back. :)

January Happenings

Where has January gone? I've been awful about taking pictures this month and about blogging. I think after Christmas I'm all pictured out. I don't know, but I need to pull out my camera more. 

 L-R: Paxton, Lindsey, Ellie and Rylee

Lindsey loves going to preschool. We do a little co-op with other kids from Church and we have it once a week on Mondays for 1 1/2 hrs. Simple, but good for these little guys. She asks often if she has preschool and the mornings she does she gets dressed super fast. Here they were being Kangaroos with their pouches, thanks to Franki for the picture. :)

Chelsea keeps me on my toes. She hardly plays with toys, but instead plays with shoes, purses, ipads/iphones, tupperware, wipes, towels, etc. and pushes chairs and stools around to climb on. 

Kate has been enjoying basketball. It started out rough with a tough game, but they have improved and done much better with the other games (and not to mention the other teams have been a much better match). She has practice twice a week and games on Friday or Saturday, sometimes both. It's over with in a couple weeks. They are the Blue Tornadoes. She loves it.

We've had some nice sunny but cold days lately so we get outside to enjoy the fresh air for a bit. Chelsea likes this tire swing so she will sit on it for a while. Preston and Lindsey joined her too and had fun spinning around. Of course, I like to make it go faster than usual to test them. I'm so mean. I don't have any pictures of Preston, but he's enjoying Kindergarten and doing well with his AR reading. He reads books and takes tests consistently. I'm proud of him. He is happy when he gets to go to school. One day when he didn't have school he moaned that he couldn't go to school. hahaha.

I was working on Chelsea's baby book trying to update it before I forget everything. Good think I made notes after well child visits and on my calendar or else I'd be clueless about stuff. It's amazing how fast time flies when you go back and look at pictures. I found these of Kate and Preston when they were little and I remember them doing these things and remember taking these pictures, but it feels so long ago now. I loved Kate's white fuzzy hair and Preston, even though he was a tough baby, still had some cute moments. That sounds bad, but he was very hard as a baby. 

Last week, I found Chelsea up on the dresser after her afternoon nap. Seriously?! I hurried and took a picture b/c I thought it was hilarious. She was giving me the most evil grin ever. She's done this a couple times since, but was crying the last time she ended up here. We've tried scooting her crib closer to the other side of the wall, but then she gets the laundry out, bangs the light against the wall and pulls Kate's decorations off the play kitchen so that doesn't work. Then, we push it towards the dresser and she bangs the top drawer open and close. She also pulls out all the ointments, lotions and combs we have in the top drawer. It's a no win situation here. Good thing she's cute.

New Years Eve

On the to do list for when we got back home...build Preston's Lego Fire station. Kyle helped him with the big parts and Preston built the vehicles. He was so excited to have it finally built. Legos are so cool. There are doors on it that roll up like a garage door...genius!

After we got back and started opening up presents, we were overwhelmed with boxes and stuff. Stuff everywhere!  We are busting out of our house as it is so we were wondering how we'd find a place for everything. It took a couple days to sort through everything and take down the Christmas tree and decorations and lights and get the house back to normal. That's kind of the bad part of Christmas...dealing with the aftermath and making room for new things. The fun part for me is shopping for the gifts and giving them. We also had to make a few returns so we did that on New Years Eve. Kyle took off a few days so he had a little over a week off between Christmas and New Years. He enjoyed the time off and he deserved it. New Years Eve was laid back. We got Thai food takeout and all the kids were in bed by 8pm. Kate was going to stay up until midnight, but was not feeling well (come to find out she had Strep Throat). Kyle was watching a movie and I was reading a book. We watched the countdown and then went to bed. Pretty exciting! We have big hopes and dreams for 2014 so hopefully they come true!

Second Christmas

On Thursday, we played basketball up at the High School with most of the adults. My Mom, Jeni and Aubree were nice and stayed home to watch the kids. We played for an hour and that was long enough. Man a college size basketball court is big! :) It was a lot of fun though. After lunch, my Dad, Jeff, Sadie, Kevin, Marci, Derek, Kyle and I took most of the kids and went on a hike up on the mountain through the sagebrush and up to a rock cave. It was a beautiful sunny day so it was nice to get some fresh air. Then the boys went on a motorcycle ride later that day. It was a busy day!

Jeff and Sadie packed up and left after breakfast. Jeni and Kevin took their kids to go visit Gma and Gpa Sabin in Ellensburg. Then Marci, Sara, my Dad, Kyle and I played the Farming Game in the morning for a couple hours. We have played that game for years. Fruit is always the best yet my Dad always sticks up for hay. haha. It's because that's what he mainly farms in real life. :) My Dad took Sara and Zane to meet Derek in George to go back home. Jeni and Kevin had dropped off their kids after lunch for my parents to watch them so they could go celebrate their wedding anniversary. Friday night was the big bowl game of University of Washington vs BYU. My Dad and Kyle were rooting for UW and Marci was rooting for BYU. haha. It was a good time and UW ended up winning. 

We celebrated Christmas with Dee Ann, Melanie and her kids on Saturday afternoon in Tri-Cities. We ate lunch with them, exchanged gifts and played more games.

Pictures with Gma Dee Ann

Kyle went outside with some of the boys to see their new Christmas presents and Lindsey was testing out her new scooter from Gma Dee Ann (or tooter as she calls it). 

Chelsea got a play castle from Gma Dee Ann and Lindsey was checking it out. 

While the kids were playing games Melanie got this picture of Reed and Preston sharing a chair and playing together. Adorable picture. 

We went and visited Arlene at the hospital in the rehab area. She had fallen and cracked a rib and her pelvis so she had been in the hospital for a bit. Then Dee Ann watched our kids and fed them dinner while we met up with my parents, Marci and Jeni & Kevin at Texas Roadhouse for dinner. That place is so good. Love their rolls. 

On Sunday, we went to Church in Mattawa and we were the only one's still at my parent's. Everyone else was gone by then. Marci had left in the morning to get home in time for her Church. We ate a yummy Pot Roast dinner after Church and then relaxed. After naps, we packed up and left. We stopped in Ellensburg to see my grandparents and my Uncle Larry and his family were all there. That was fun to see them especially since his son, Brook, had just gotten married right before Christmas so we were able to meet his wife, Amy, and see everyone. We got home around 8pm and since the kids slept some in the car we let them stay up for a little bit and play with their toys from Christmas morning that they had to leave behind. They were excited to see everything again. The house was still a mess from Christmas morning with all the presents, stocking stuff and boxes. So we cleaned things up a bit and then put the kids down. What a fun Christmas week we had though. A lot of driving and being in the car for the kids, but they did really good (probably because they are used to it). We are thankful for all our blessings, for the good times we had with family and all the nice gifts we were given!

Merry Christmas 2013!

Christmas Eve!

Kyle had to work until noon on Christmas Eve. I was packing bags and cleaning up so the house would be clean when we got back after Christmas. Then in the afternoon, after Chelsea woke up from her nap, we opened our Christmas Eve gift. It was pajamas, treats, games and Sound of Music DVD. We played the games together. The games we got were Operation and Sequence for Kids.

We had a Christmas Eve dinner by candlelight (the kids like to do this) and they were excited to drink out of fancy glasses. We usually do french dips, but the kids don't really like them so we did an Olive Garden meal- alfredo and noddles with olive garden salad and breadsticks. I don't think they ate that very good either! 

The kids in their new pajamas from Gma Dee Ann. We put out sugar cookies, milk and carrots for Santa and his reindeer. They picked out their spot on the couch to put their stocking and then off to bed they went.

Merry Christmas!!!

Kate came in to wake us up at 7am. We got everyone up and went downstairs together to see what Santa brought. They were all excited for their gifts. Kyle and I were excited to see their reactions.

Chelsea got a new baby with a new stroller, high chair and crib.

Kate got a DSi and she was very excited.

Preston got a Lego Firestation and he was so happy since that is all he's been asking for.

Lindsey loved her Doc McStuffins doll, medical kit and outfit. Oh and the umbrella was a hit too. We had to hide it after a while so eyes didn't get poked out.

We ate breakfast, opened presents under the tree then got dressed and loaded up the car. We left by 10am. We had to be to our parent's house before 1pm for when Jared was calling. We got there around 12:30 and ate appetizers for our lunch. We had our big Christmas dinner that night. 

The view going over Snoqualmie Pass on Christmas morning. The view was so pretty. It made it seem more Christmasy seeing snow. The roads were good and the traffic was great so it made the drive faster. 

Jared!!! I love how everyone hovered around the TV when he called.

He was wearing this vest that said, "I love my Mom". Awwww! My Mom was on cloud nine talking to him. She loved it.

He was going to call around 11am, but moved it back to 1pm so we'd be there. I'm so glad he did that. He was SOOO happy and excited to talk to us. It was good. He thought the kids looked so different and grown up. Other missionaries were in and out of the room when we were talking to him so we were introduced to some of them. The sister missionaries wanted to eat the cheeks of Zane and Baylor b/c they were so chubby. haha. Jared is doing well and zone leader right now. He already is past the half-way mark and we are excited to have him come home next year. :)

We opened up gifts after talking to Jared. It took us about 2 hours to do this and it was so fun. We do it one by one so everyone sees what everyone got. We like it orderly like that. :)

The aftermath!

Getting pictures of the grand kids all together is quite the chore! Getting them to look at the same time and smile is craziness. Zane and Baylor in front weren't having it. They were done. Chelsea didn't have shoes on so her feet were freezing and you can see Preston taking off Hailey's hat in the first picture and her hair is full of static. My Mom gave them all stocking hats to match. Funny memories.

Nativity

We tried acting out the nativity while Kyle read the story from the scriptures. It didn't last too long without the Angel aka Chelsea coming in and stealing baby Jesus. 

We also watched the Joy to the World video the Church made, which is the nativity story of Jesus' birth. We are grateful for His birth, life, death and promises he makes to us so we can return to live with Him again if we follow His commandments. December has been fun as we've been able to do activities as a family and to remember why we celebrate Christmas. We are excited for Christmas and excited to spend it with family. We get to talk to Jared on Christmas since he is in Brazil on a mission and we are excited for that too. We have been blessed this year as a family and are grateful for all that we've been given.