House Hunters Finale

Our house hunting excursion has come to a close, WOO HOO!!! We bought a house on Saturday and are in the process of financing, inspections, and final walk throughs. It is one huge stress relief to have somewhere to move when we have to be out of our house on August 24th (we close on our new house on the same day!) The house is located in Evansville, WI (about 20 minutes south of Madison). Still close enough for us to make the trips to work/shopping but far enough away to have a smaller school district and bigger yard :) We are very excited to get into the new house and make it our own. We will be doing a little remodeling as well. We plan to get in right away on the 24th to begin painting and then we will also be replacing the carpeting. I think our plan is to get back into the house this weekend to measure for carpeting and check out the spaces we will need to paint.

This past weekend we had Briana (an old co worker of Kyle's) come up to take Reese's 2 year pictures and some family/maternity pictures as well. Unfortunately, her computer crashed this past Thursday that holds all of her editing materials/tools, so we wont be able to see our finished pictures for a few weeks (hopefully!) :)

I have my 36 week appt on Thursday and at this one we will check to see if I am dilated at all. I again am going to re-iterate to my doctor that having this baby (and be in and out of the hospital) by the 24th is ideal :) So that puts me at going into labor (or being induced) by the 21st at the latest. Let's hope she can make it happen :)

August is a busy month for us looking ahead. Kyle and my anniversary is the 8th, my birthday is the 18th, we are closing on the house on the 24th and moving the same day, and our little boy's due date is the 26th. Lots and lots of fun filled things happening in our lives!!!

Treinta y cinco

35 weeks! I am 5 weeks away from my due date and had another ultrasound today. Baby boy (who still does not have a name) is growing like a weed and is healthy as can be. The sonographer said that I am proving the studies wrong that say that having "marginal cord placement" (meaning the cord is not attached to the middle of my placenta) lessens the baby's growth. Not this baby. He weighed in at 6 lbs 11 oz today...yikes! Looking at another 8 1/2 to 9 lb baby like Reese. Hopefully I won't have to push for four hours to get him out like I did with her. He still has a full head of hair, and I personally think his facial features look like Kyle on the 3D images....guess we have to wait and see though!

We had such an exciting and fun filled weekend. My sister and her kids arrived in town Friday afternoon and Reese was beyond excited to see them. She loved following Aidan around and being his side kick, while pretty much "ignoring" Aubrey. They didn't play a whole lot together, but when they did, Aubrey was so cute and wanted to "take care of" Reese. I think she knows she is 4 months older :)

Saturday was PARTY DAY! Reese woke up from her nap to come down stairs to see the house transformed into an Elmo Party! She had such a fun afternoon opening presents, eating an Elmo cake, and playing in the slip n' slide and pool. A successful 2 year old party in my book, and it ended with her serenading herself to sleep with multiple renditions of "Happy Birthday to Reese" in her crib :)
Yesterday we headed down to my parents to swim so Reese could see Aidan and Aubrey a little more. Reese is a little dare devil of a fish. I'm pretty sure she would jump in even if no one was standing around. I can't wait to get her into swimming lessons sometime soon so she can have as much fun as she did yesterday. She just LOVES the water!

Tomorrow we plan on celebrating Reese's birthday by taking her out to dinner at Ella's Deli, a neat restaurant on the East side that has a carousel. She loves riding the merry-go-round, so what better for her to do on her birthday!

I'll post pics soon of Reese's party. My sister was in charge of the camera so once I get them from her, I'll share them with you!

Dang Bee...

Reese got her second bee sting on Sunday. We were watering flowers when we must have disturbed them in the down spout by our garage, and a crap load of them flew out right towards us. I grabbed her arm and swooped her up as we ran into the garage, but one already got her. Again, no reaction, so she must not be allergic.

We are still looking for houses and put another offer in on one tonight. Hopefully should here back within a day or two. Then we will move on to our third choice, and possibly put an offer in on that if we need too. I have also started looking into rental houses in our "worst case" scenario that we need to move and don't have a house bought yet.

Reese has a big weekend coming up, her 2nd birthday party!! She is super excited and has been practicing singing "Happy Birthday" to herself, and trying on the party hats we have bought :) It is so fun to see her get excited for it this year, since last year she hadn't a clue why everyone was staring at her and singing. I am also excited for my sister and kids to come into town since we haven't seen them since March. It will be fun to see how Reese and Aubrey interact as they LOVE to talk to each other on Skype.

We did get about a minute and a half rain tonight!!! Just enough to wet the driveway....better than nothing I guess!

Run Forest, Run!

I got my own little chuckle in today while grocery shopping at Target with the family. 97% of the time, Reese and I do the grocery shopping (usually on a night on our way home from work.) But today, we decided to venture out as a family to do the task. This is an offer I will never turn down if Kyle wants to go along, because and extra set of hands to corral Reese does a lot in terms of shopping time, meltdowns from Reese or I, and the efficiency of getting the shopping done. Well, not so much today :) When Reese shops with me, she is immediately put in the cart and buckled in. I don't take any chances on that little "monster" taking off on me. I don't think Kyle has shopped alone with her enough to know/think about this little rule, and Reese sure took advantage of that today!! I was talking with an old co-worker I happened to run into, when all of a sudden (in a VERY busy produce section) I hear a little girl screaming and laughing at the top of her lungs. I look away from the conversation so see Kyle chasing Reese down the aisles and Reese looking back with a shit-eating grin on her face, screaming and laughing hysterically thinking "Dad, you can't catch me!" But, in a couple of strides, she was snatched up by him, and taken back to get some deli meat. A few minutes later, I had proceeded on to pick out some bananas, and again from behind me, the same thing. The lady next to me turns and whispered "Don't worry, he will learn his lesson." Not but a few minutes later, Reese was brought over, and strapped down in the cart.  I have to say, I was laughing internally the whole time, and did not once step in to help/offer advice on the situation. Don't think she will be given free roam of Target anytime soon :)

Yesterday Reese and I ventured down to Oswego, Il to one of my college roomate/friend's bridal shower. She is getting married in September, and graciously asked me to be a bridesmaid, and Reese to be the flower girl. I was a little nervous of this 2 1/2 hour trip, mainly since the shower was from 12-3, Reese's nap time, but she did great! She was kept busy being the center of attention and helped Darcy open presents. At the end, her eyes we droopy and her patience was short, so we loaded up and she slept the entire 2 1/2 hours on the way home. Made for a nice, quite, relaxing ride!

House hunting is just that, still hunting. I went to look at another one Thursday night while Kyle was traveling for work, but that was a bust. Today we see 3 more, and then we will rank our houses again and decide where to put in an offer. We did end up putting an offer in on a house last Wednesday evening, but have not heard back. We gave them 3 days to counter, so now we are not binded to it and can place an offer on another one if we choose. Time to move on and keep trucking along!

House Hunters

I can honestly say that I feel like I am on the HGTV show "House Hunters". But I only wish the show would come in, swoop me off my feet, and give me three choices to choose from like they do on the show. We started our official house search on Sunday, seeing 6 houses within the Evansville/Oregon area. We saw a few potentials, but are going back out today and seeing 7 more. Hopefully by the end of today, we will find something we feel comfortable with and possibly putting an offer in on (best case scenario, right?)! Positive thinking is what is getting me through this process at this point :)
We also had a house inspection on Sunday for the buyers who put an offer in on our house, and all was good. They do want a structural engineer to come in tomorrow to check out a beam on the second floor, but all should be good and hopefully we can move on with the closing of our house at that point (Aug 24th is the official close date.)
After talking with Luke (our realtor), to be in our new house before our close date on our current house, and before baby comes, we would need to put an offer in on a house by the end of THIS WEEK. Yikes! Pressure is on. Nothing like cramming in a bunch of house hunting into a couple of days. Reese has been a trooper so far, and her portable DVD player with her Elmo DVD's kept her pretty occupied on Sunday, and I am hoping for the same result again today. I'll update more once we get out and see the rest of them later this afternoon. Wish us luck!

4th of July

We celebrated the 4th of July by going to the Evansville parade this morning, and then beating the heat in the AC this afternoon!
We headed down to our friends house on Main St. in Evansville and enjoyed the hour and a half parade this morning. THANK GOODNESS we were in the shade, because it was a HOT one! Reese LOVED getting "candies" and watching the fire trucks and horses go by. Kai (1) and her, both sat on the curb and intently watched the parade go by. Other than the sweat, it was a success.
We are on the hunt for a house, and are starting our true searching process tomorrow night. We are looking at 3 houses in the Mount Horeb and Verona area, and have more on our list we are looking at on Sunday in the Evansville/Belleville/Albany area. I am hoping something will pop out at us and be a good deal, so we can start the process of actually buying a house.
This heat is sure starting to get to me. I was quite swollen  (fingers/toes) today after the parade, and get nauseous so fast while out in the heat. Even the hot "breeze" doesn't do much for me when it is 102 degrees outside. I am hoping for some relief on Sunday, as it is only supposed to be in the 80s instead of the 100s :)

Movin' on out

Yes, it is true! We sold our house yesterday!!! This brings me feelings of joy, as well as anxiety :) Mainly due to the fact that we close on August 24th, just two days before my due date. Nothing like adding in a little more stress to our daily grind. Overall though, I am very excited and happy that we sold the house because that was the ultimate goal. We knew going into this that this may be the exact situation that would happen, so I have to take it in stride, and prepare myself for a few crazy months ahead. Luckily, we have an AWESOME realtor who is on top of things and willing to help us do whatever to hopefully be in a new house by the time the baby is born (fingers crossed!!!) I am trying not to think of the worst case scenario (having to rent an apartment with a toddler and newborn until we find a house.) So, let the house hunting begin!!!

We had a great pre-4th of July weekend. Tim and Jody (who I have both known since I was little) brought their little boy Mason (1) up for the weekend. We had a blast. Yesterday we went downtown for lunch, and then had a cookout at our house and invited all of our neighborhood friends over. The kids all had a blast playing in the water, eating lots of food, and doing sparklers at night. Today, we headed to the Madison zoo since Mason had never been before and we only live less than 10 min from it (something I will miss when we find a house outside of Madison.) Both Mason and Reese had a great time, and we had to fight to keep them awake by the end, as we were approaching both of their nap times. Nothing makes a summer better than good food, friends, and beer (O'Douls for me!) :)