Better late than never

Not that my life is all that interesting or anything but blogging once a year just isn't enough.  One day I'll regret that.  Since I'm not going to catch you up from my last post in January I'll bring you up to date on the more important things.  Since then we've celebrated Will's 33rd birthday, Callan's 4th with a princess party

                                        Snow White & Cinderella


and Lizzie's 3rd with a luau. 

L's new chair-pretending to sleep after her party

We had a busy summer with lots of fun.  Me and the girls created a bucket list for the summer with different activities that included anything from 'play with chalk' to 'blueberry picking'.  We got all but 5 things marked off and most of those 5 weren't really smart picks on my part.  Like camping for instance.  Only had one somwhat close to camping experience so I'm not sure what made me think me, my husband and 2 young girls would excel at that.  Oh well, maybe in a few years.  We had fun trying to plan things that were on our list and my little task oriented mini-me's loved marking the things off.  Here is a picture with Reagan at the creek...one of our new favorite summer activities.

We have had our house listed with Coldwell Bankers for the last 6 months in an effort to sell it since it wasn't going anywhere by owner.  We've purchased another house and are fixing it up so that when our current house does sell we can be ready to move in.  It has been a huge project and one that we're not all that excited about at the present moment.  I think we are just tired seeing as we go over there and have gone over there every free moment we have.  Most of the time we spend 2-3 nights at week over there painting or cleaning or painting or sanding or painting.  It has just finally caught up with us so we took the last 2 weeks off just to enjoy some normal family time that most of you probably got this summer.  The girls do wonderfully over there and although there isn't much to do they have used their imaginations and come up with entertaining things to do.  We are down to the last bits of painting and flooring to finally have it move in ready.  I'm sure one day I'll post some before and after pictures but I can't promise that it will be today.  So in the meantime the contract on our current house is up this Saturday so if you know of anyone wanting to purchase our house, please put them in contact with us immediately.  We would really like to only own one house...as would our pocketbook!

New house

We haven't gone on any trips this summer mainly to save money for our house payments but we did take a last minute trip to Memphis to spend the night and go to the zoo.  My poor kids are so used to the yucky carpet padding at the new house that they asked if the carpet at the hotel would be clean.  Bless them!  We had a great time getting away from the 'real world' for a night.  Although we always have high hopes for our little family sleeping whenever and wherever on the road, it doesn't usually happen as so the somewhat sleepless night turned into whiney girls the next day (me included).  Oh well, still made some memories and Lizzie napped the entire trip home from Memphis. 

 

 

 

Today was a day of firsts at our house.  The girls had their first day of 3 and 4 year old preschool.  C started her first day at the Ready, Set, Read program at the library and both of the girls started gymnastics at the Y.  It truly was an exhausting day and I almost took a nap when they did but hopefully once we get into the routine we'll be rested better.  They did great at all of those things and although Tuesdays will always be tiring I'm glad they had different activities to help them learn in different ways.  I need some good crockpot recipes because it looks like we'll be gone during dinner time on Tuesdays and Thursdays and I refuse to eat out regularly so I need something I can come home and put on the table.  Suggestions welcome.  I've had a lot of failed Pinterest meals so I need some proven winners!

We are hoping for a quick sale of the house and move, a last minute beach trip and a visit to Florida to welcome our new nephew sometime before the end of this year.  Will is also planning several mission trips to Peru, Brazil, Paraguay and Africa.  It's going to be a busy time for us. 

 

Daddy & naked Lizzie

My cousin Ashton following in my Alpha Gamma Delta footsteps!  Go squirrels!

I'm not sure I really caught you up on anything but like I said the most excitement we have these days is watching potential home buyers creep by our windows.  We like to stalk them and figure out what other houses in the neighborhood they might be looking at.  Told you it was exciting!