From Busy Street to the Big Woods

Besides the fact that there were so many constant things coming up in the sale of this house, there were also a lot of things we weren't totally sure about. This is the seventh house we offered on. Seventh! After eight months of looking. We definitely bought this house for the location, not for the house. We bought it knowing there would be a ton of work to do and a never ending list of projects. That much is true. I had doubts about this house right up until we moved in. The way it was decorated made it look pretty dreary and unwelcoming. I had a really hard time visualizing us ever being able to make it look homey. Until we moved in I thought all the walls were a super ugly olive green, but none of them actually are. Their furniture just must have brought out those tints. Anyway, I knew I just needed to see our things there to know how it would work out. It is nothing like anything we had looked at. And it's in a completely different town then we were looking in, farther from Carl's work. But it is in a beautiful location. It's considered rural and it's at the end of a cul de sac in the woods. Our kids will never have an excuse to be bored here. There are literally adventures waiting to happen everywhere you look. So while we were unsure of it right up until the last minute, we are so, so happy that this is the house God had for us.

Chaos at our old house!

Our little movers.

Home!

We were very thankful to have lots of help with our move. Carl's parents came up and helped clean the new house between closing and moving day. And it needed it. It hadn't been lived in for about a year and everything felt a little grimy and dirty. They worked so hard getting it ready for us to move in while we worked on packing. We had amazing friends who came and helped with loading and unloading the truck and my mom came the next day to help with the kids while I unpacked everything. We are so grateful for all of their help. I'm not sure how we would've done it without them!

First mail at our new house: Mercy books!

Since we've moved in we've gotten started on a lot of projects, but we've also been met with unexpected challenges. Such as mice. We've had two mice die in our walls. It's a four level split home, with the fourth level being an unfinished basement. Carl has lost track of how many mice he has caught down there. He has patched multiple entry points outside, and we went almost a month without any, but they are back again now and we don't know where they are getting in! Thankfully, they have not been in the rest of the house. With the exception of one that of course made it's appearance when Carl wasn't home. I was folding laundry and watching TV when I started hearing a bunch of thumping and banging around in the shower. I was freaking out, but I finally walked over to the bathroom to see who/what was in there and I saw that terrible thing run across the bathroom and into a little hole in the wall! Then I called Carl and he told me he was so glad it was a mouse because my panicked voice made it sound much worse. He asked if I closed the door and I told him, "No! I just screamed at the top of my lungs and ran away as fast as I could!" So that is a problem that has taken a lot of Carl's time over the last few months.

He has also cut down about 30 trees in the back yard. The builders of this home literally just cleared a space in the trees to put the house and while we live on 3.5 acres, there is not really a yard. So there are 30 down and a lot left to go to clear a space for the kids to play.

Since moving in we've had a lot of fun exploring the area. As soon as we were here and unpacked we knew it was exactly the home we'd been looking for, even though it was nothing like the home we were looking for! It is perfect for us. And despite it's never ending issues that we keep finding, we have no regrets. We love our neighbors, we love driving through the country to get home, we love seeing horses, cows and goats on our drive to almost anywhere, we love watching our kids playing outside and we even love the layout of the house. Despite the fact that we will be fixing things forever, we are so thankful that this is where we ended up! We lived in our other house for nine years. And after being here only a couple of months, we already feel more at home here than we ever did there.

I think they're going to like it here. :-)

Last Days in New Hope

Since we spent the last two weekends of July camping, we didn't have much time to get ahead with packing for our move. We camped for five days, were home for two (just long enough to wash the dirt out of everything and repack it) and then camped for four more days. Then we came back, washed the dirt out of everything and unpacked again just in time to start packing our whole house! Plus I was a little tired, because, you know... pregnancy. So it was a little crazy. But I was still bound and determined to make sure we got to enjoy a few of our favorite things in the area before we left.

So here are some of  the things we did instead of packing during that last week and a half in our old house. :-)

We went to a few of our favorite parks.

And the best splash pad!

We went to the Lego Americana Roadshow at the mall.

We ran a lot of errands.

And we had a lot of fun at home amidst the chaos too.

The king with his walkie talkie on his belt.

The jester?

And the princess.

Always a princess.

Here she's just pretending there's a baby in her tummy. But since then Aria has become convinced that there really is one in there. She talks about her baby kicking her and tells people to feel her baby kick regularly. She leans forward as far as she possibly can and tries to kiss her tummy. She is so excited to meet "my" baby though.  Hopefully that excitement will make her forget about the one in her tummy when it isn't also born that day!

Just more proof that one of my kids can't do a single thing without the other two following.

We had pizza with our dear neighbor, Marlene. She told us we wouldn't see her on moving day because she would be in her basement where she couldn't see the truck or watch us leave. We were sad to leave her too! We've already visited her several times and I'm sure there will be many more.

Part way through that week Carl and I got this fun news in the mail from the doctor!

We found out through a blood test. But we kept it a secret until my ultrasound a couple weeks later. Mostly because I didn't trust the scratch off. I needed to see the baby before we told people. :-)

We closed on the new house on August 7 (or maybe the 8th. I honestly don't even remember!) And we moved on the 12th. Buying this house was a crazy experience. Their realtor was very difficult to work with and it felt like almost daily he was threatening to back out. We didn't feel confident that it would all go through until we walked out with keys. It felt like a deal just waiting to crumble if we so much as breathed wrong! That's probably partly why I procrastinated on the packing. I didn't want to be fully packed and then have to unpack it all again!

But we got keys!

The day before the big move Carl's parents came to help with the kids while I worked more on packing. They had been begging all summer to do a lemonade stand and I knew that our new house would never be a prime location for one, so I bought everything and hoped Grandma and Grandpa wouldn't mind sitting with them. The kids had a blast and were so happy they finally got to do it. :-)

Little T-Ball Stars

Tyler and Carsten both played T-Ball again this summer and loved it! It was fun watching them play and seeing them so excited each time.

Carsten was always pretty focused and very into the game. He ran for every single ball and he never gave up. It was a great sport for him!

Tyler loved batting, but was kind of a space cadet in the outfield, which added a lot of humor. His coach nick-named him Born Ready, because he was never ready. Tyler thought that was pretty funny. And he tried to be ready, but he just got so distracted! At one game he actually got hit with the ball (not hard) because he was drawing in the sand and singing VBS songs at the top of his lungs. It was amazing. :-) He started asking if we could get there early so he could get all of the sand drawings out of his system before his games started.

 The ever so attentive fans. :-)