Short Sleeves!

It might only be 26 degrees outside, but it's March 30, darn it, and my boys are wearing short sleeves!

Reid is clearly thrilled with my request for a picture, which makes me laugh because of his little stubborn personality coming through...

Packing Fun

Our house is in complete disarray.  And understandably so, as we are closing on our new house next Friday (8 days!!) and moving the following day.  Everything is, thus far, falling in to place, though I'm continuing to trust God's hand in this process. The appraisal for our current home came out fine and to my knowledge, everything is going ok with regards to that upcoming closing as well.  The buyers did have to ask for a loan extension deadline, but the reasons seemed to be valid and not ones of big concern.  Prayers that that continues to be the case would be appreciated.

Just a glimpse of what our house is looking like.  Bare walls, bare entertainment center, and boxes (both filled and unfilled) taking over the entire house!

In the midst of the packing, the boys are having fun playing with chaos in the house.  Boxes everywhere, toys as they know it packed up, and they are also discovering new "toys" with which to play.

While I know they shouldn't be playing here, and I was telling them to get out, I couldn't help but snap a couple of pictures first.  And I have to say, this was definitely Reidees led...Micah was only doing it because younger brother was.  We may have a little stinker on our hands, but he's so darn cute to get too mad at!

Micah's been as intent as ever in working on his writing skills, and I continue to be impressed with what he's learning.  He also, tonight, started writing math equations out of the blue.  A boy after my own heart, I tell ya.

All of this writing is on his own.  He was working on his uncles and cousins today - too cute to be a part of.  Love this kid!

And just to make sure Reid isn't overlooked :)  Love this kid too!

Roomie Weekend!!

Last weekend my husband was gracious enough to let me getaway.  And 3 other husbands were too.  My college roomies and I were able to get a girls weekend away, no kids, from Saturday - Monday.  It's been 8 years since the four of us have been together, and the last time it happened, Julie was pregnant with the first kid of the group.  And now, I'm pregnant, with what is seeming to be the last...though you never say never :)

After much consideration, we decided just to stay in Chicago-land area since 2 of us were already here.  So Beth flew in from the northwest and Julie from the southeast, and we had a great weekend of food, comfies, and basketball (it IS March madness after all).  I am just amazed, again, about what a Godly, solid group of friends the four of us are and I'm so blessed that we found each other back in college.  Lots has happened since graduation, but we are still a solid group of friends and I'm very grateful for that!

I truly don't have many pictures from the weekend, but wanted to document what I have for the memory books.

We started the weekend with a brunch at Katie's house Saturday morning, husbands and kids included.  Reid has taken to a baby doll, which are nonexistent in our own house...as of now :)

Beth playing Skip-Bo with Ellie.  I'm sure she's missing that activity now!

After leaving Katie's house, we drove through Wheaton and downtown Naperville, stopping in Starbucks to catch up a little.

We didn't just eat food and lounge around...we also had a roomie bonding time with all of us working out in the hotel gym!  Talk about dedication.

I am in that picture, nice and pregnant ;)  And I promise I worked out...I was just done at picture time.

Lunch at Noodles.

Lounging in the hotel...one of our favorite activities.

We created a chart/graph of all our kiddos.  I might have been obsessed with the chart, but it was a fun little activity.  We realized among the 10 (with one to come) kids in our group, they are all born within 6/7 months of each other, on average.  We also realized that every kiddo has a school buddy with the exception of baby girl Lauffer still to be born, which we thought was pretty neat.

And our last lunch before heading out to the hotel.  We discovered that Beth had missed her flight almost 8 years ago, heading back to Portland from my wedding, so we hurried out of lunch to get to the airport.

Our one and only picture of the four of us.  Not the best shot, but the best we could do.

Thank you girls, for making the effort and time to come and be together.  I love you all and am so blessed to have your friendships in my life.  Here's to next summer in Michigan :)

Miscellaneous Items

With Christian traveling most of February and half of March, it's been a lot of Momma and her boys time.  We've certainly missed having Daddy around more, but we've made it work and are grateful that Christian's seemingly in a little less busy time for work than the last 6 weeks.  

We got good at taking "selfies" to send to Daddy on his trips :)

Boys and their cars!  I think this one lined up to 47...

Micah was very excited about giving to Jesus.  He just got this "buddy barrel" from church (which he calls his buddy bear) and this was the excitement after putting money in it for the first time.  Christian and I are now trying to figure out an allowance system of some sort so that Micah actually learns the value of money and what we give back to God for his generosity to us.

Reid loved seeing himself in these pics!  Or seeing Momma.  Or "Ca-ca" as he calls Micah :)

A good one for Daddy!

Micah's been spending hours it seems on activity books.  The most recent was a superhero book I picked up for him in London.  He's covered it pretty thoroughly, and this crossword was pretty impressive.  

Grandma would be proud, as that's one of her favorite pastimes!

This is what I came up to after Reid had (I thought) decided not to nap for the day.  I had given him books in his crib and opened up his curtains so he could see, and after 20 minutes I went to get him out and found him like the above.  Silly boy!

Life is not slowing down, as we are in the midst of packing and boxes and getting ready to move.  I am doing my best, however, to still give the boys attention and make sure they are feeling loved and not neglected.  A tough balance some days!  

Name writing

Micah has been working on writing names in the family, and I have to say I'm actually quite impressed.  We have had a smattering of nice days in the midst of snow and cold lately, so we're taking advantage and doing what we can outside.  Below are Micah's attempts at everyone's name (except for baby sister's, which we are still very much undecided on at this point!).

So proud of himself :)  I love it!

Brothers tumbling fun

The boys have been enjoying a little wrestling after dinner, where Micah will ask Reid to hold on to his back and then Reid will take Micah down.  It's quite fun to watch and I love the moments of joy and laughter among the boys before crying and fighting ensues!

Children's DuPage Museum

We were given 2 free tickets to the Children's Museum that expired in a timely manner, but given that's a pricey place to be we couldn't let the free tickets go unused.  The boys had fun, as usual, and it was a nice break to our "regular" winter activities.

Micah was very proud of himself for using grown-up tools, and while I couldn't really help him due to Reid, he was able to try out a hammer and a saw.  He was thrilled with his piece of wood afterwards :)  I told Christian next time we're both there, this is a place they need to spend time!

Reid really took to the train table while we were there.  He loves trucks and trains and I'm looking forward to getting a spot in our new place where we can pull out some train tracks and let them stay out for a bit without being in the way!

House for Sale

Going, going, gone!!

So in the month of February alone, Christian and I began looking at potential houses, just to get an idea of what was on the market.  Three days after we went out with our realtor we made an offer on a house and signed a contract 2 days after that.  We then had to worry about a house inspection, appraisal, loan approval all in the midst of traveling to London in the middle of the 5 day contingency period.

A week after we get back from London, our current place at Lincoln Station goes on the market.  Leading up to that was lots of packing and putting stuff in to a storage unit, cleaning and deep cleaning and painting and so much more to be ready.  Christian is gone most of this time, and I'm working hard to make sure our house is ready to list.  When he's around, he's helped me tremendously, but there's only so much that can be done in 36 hours between traveling ventures.  We are all working hard and list our house on Thursday, February 20th.

The next 4 days were crazy as Reid and Micah slept in a different house each of those 4 days.  We had 11 showings over Friday - Monday and received 1 offer on the house (with a second cash offer that was ALMOST received!).  While the 1 offer was lower than we thought we would get with the actual listing price, it was higher than we thought we would get a month ago when we decided to move forward.  I'm not sure if that makes sense, but ultimately we're pleased with the price...as well as the fact that by Tuesday (with a listing on the previous Thursday) we entered in to our contingency period.  No more running the boys crazy with having to be out of our house and have it show ready!

So...prayers moving forward would be for the inspection, and the one I'm most nervous about, the appraisal.  We have 2 more business days to have an inspection done, and then at that point the 5 day "cold feet" period is over.  We then move to waiting for the appraisal to be completed and I'm praying it's close if not higher than our agreed upon contract price.  Our neighborhood is quite an anomaly with only 1 traditional sale over the last 5ish years, so it's hard to know exactly what our place will appraise out at.  IF we meet the contract price, we will have lost 74K in our town home over the time of ownership.  That's not a misprint, but something we have sadly accepted with realizing that God has provided for us in a way beyond our imagination and are trusting His guidance and leading moving forward.  I have highly felt his presence over this insanity that has been February 2014, and am believing it will continue to be there as we press on.

Our closing for our new place is set for April 4th, and the closing for our current place is set for April 14th.  It's perfect because we get 10 days, including 2 weekends, in which we can move and settle in to our new home.  Hopefully we can get some painting done in that timeframe and be able to move in a little in that 10 days before the heavy lifting is done the second weekend.  And then we'll be able to work on getting settled in for 2 months before baby girl makes her appearance!

It's been a fun and crazy month.  Stressful at times, but filled with excitement and hope for what the future holds.  Thank you all who have been praying for us during this time, as well as helping out with childcare for the boys or company for me and the boys while Christian has been traveling.  We are extremely grateful and appreciate your kindness.

I will continue to update as information is made available.

Micah's Artistry

Micah has really grown in his ability to draw people, and it's amazing to see.  I love watching his imagination expand and the way in which he can capture it on paper.  He's really taken to coloring/drawing lately and loves any moment Christian or I will sit down and spend time drawing with him.

We've also begun taking pictures and sending them to Daddy throughout the day.  February was quite a busy traveling month and this was a way for us to connect with him while he was away.  Below is just a couple of them.

I love how Micah's hand is grabbing my cheek here.  So sweet.

He's also taken to taking pictures and sending messages as much as I'll let him on my phone.  I thought this was a cute one he captured of Reid in the van.