House for Sale!

So, as many of my astute readers guessed, we are trying to sell our home! 

It all started on the cruise.  Lance and I had a conversation something like this:

Me: Our house is too small.  I feel cramped at home with all those testosterone-laden little boys.

Lance: So, should we start seriously thinking about buying a new house? 

Me: Nah, that's too much work to think about on a cruise.  Let's hit the buffet and then take another nap.

Lance: 'kay.

So we got home and didn't really think anything of it, other than we'd put more effort into it probably next spring.

But then I randomly started to look at homes online.  And I found a house that I just couldn't stop looking at.  And the more I looked at it and the more I researched it the more I loved it.  And then I showed it to Lance, and he really liked it, too.  And it was weird because we really were not house hunting, but we both really felt like we should take a look at this house.

So last Saturday we did.

And we loved it.  And we knew that we could raise our expanding (Although not expanding right now, so stop it, rumor mongers!) family there for the next 25 years or so.  And we got really excited.  And we thought and pondered and prayed and felt like we should move forward with it.  And we know it's a little crazy not to look at any other homes, but if we know that this is the house we should move forward with, then why bother?

(Side note: I'm not really comfortable to giving out all the info about this new house yet.  Just seems a bit... not-so-good too me.  So I'll just give you the basics: it's about 2 miles from where we live now, Spencer will be able to go to the same school, we'll still be in 3rd ward, and it's literally twice as big as our current home.  Because our family motto is, If you're gonna go big, go BIG.  Or something like that.)

So we called our realtor on Monday, met with her on Thursday, listed our house on Friday, and are having our first open house tomorrow from 1-3pm.  (Tell your friends.)  

We have set into place a five-step plan:

1. Put house up for sale (DONE)
2. Sell house (hopefully done sooner rather than later)
3. Put offer on new house (hopefully done sooner rather than later!)
4. Move out of old house (Boo!  Packing and moving are necessary evils!)
5. Move into new house (Hooray!  I want that new house!)

Why the whole sell-our-house-first-and-then-make-an-offer plan?  Our realtor says most homeowners aren't too keen on contingencies in their offers lately due to the economy, and we believe her.  So we have got to get our home sold - quickly - and at a good price.  (In this case, we're hoping to just not lose any money.  Stupid economy.)

We have been working ourselves to death trying to get this house ready.  Okay, it's not been that bad.  Because remember way back March when I started my little spring cleaning kick?  Well we had been working room by room since then, so most of the house was already in pretty good shape.  I feel so blessed to have been prompted to do that!  We've just been cleaning a bit more, spot painting, moving stuff around, that sort of thing.  Oh, and we had to paint the very last wall in the entire house that had never been painted before and it just looked awful - and it was in Spencer and Josh's room.  Of all the rooms in the house, this had to be the most annoyingly difficult one to get done, what with the boys needing to sleep in there and all.  But we did it and it now looks great!

But it's been going well.  Very well.  Amazingly well.

And although we're exhausted and the poor kids are feeling a bit neglected (they're not; they just feel that way) and the real estate economy is in the pits, I feel good.  With all that's at stake, with all that could go wrong, I'm not nearly as anxious as I could be.  (Oh, I'm a bit anxious - just not that anxious.)  Even if everything doesn't go exactly according to plan, I really do know that things will still work out for the best.

So.  That's my story.

Prayers, good thoughts, and warm wishes will all be gratefully accepted on our behalf.  As will cash donations and/or offers to buy our home.  (Haha!  Just kidding.)  (But not on the buying of the home part.  We'd definitely love to sell it to you!)

Top Ten Excuses

I've been a little bit of a slacker when it comes to blogging lately.  And I'm afraid it's probably gonna get worse.  Here are my top ten excuses reasons why:

1.  It's summer.  There are a lot of fudgesicles to eat - and to clean up.

2.  Cole has turned into Mr. Must Destroy.  Seriously, he gets into more stuff than either of his brothers ever did.  He can unroll a full roll of toilet paper in 9.3 seconds flat.

3.  Spencer has turned into a grouchy 15 year old.  Smart-mouthing, whining, attitude, rolling of the eyes... yes, he's so much fun to be around.  So there are a lot of time outs and other punishments, like having to pick up toys (*gasp*), to enforce.

4.  It's u-pick season, which means we'll be spending a lot of time outside picking yummy fruit.  Like the 19 pounds of strawberries we picked this morning.

5.  Kids tend to get horrendously messy after picking fruit, eating the fruit, and rolling around in the mud that the fruit is growing out of.  Messes like that take a while to clean up.

6.  This fruit must also be cleaned and either frozen or turned into jam.  Yummy, but time consuming.

7.  Have you noticed a theme here?  There's a lot of cleaning going on.  Not really so interesting to blog about.  I mean, do you really want to read about how many times I had to sweep the kitchen floor today? (Three)  I didn't think so.

8.  We've been doing a bit of home maintenance lately.  Like painting our door and shutters blue.  They now (unintentionally) match our Camry and a nice flower pot I have out front.  Sweet.  Okay, it also must be said that Lance has done all of the painting.  But I've been doing lots of stuff inside, like protecting the painting zones from crazy-curious babies.

9.  We've been hard at work teaching our kids really important stuff.  Like how to give proper high fives.  This is an important life skill, people.

10.  We've started a really big, really scary, really exciting project which promises to take up a lot of my time for the next few months.  It's still very preliminary so I don't really want to go into details, but I promise to fill you in on it when I feel the time is right.  (Dear Rumor Mongers and Grandparents: I am not pregnant.  Sorry to get your hopes up.  That is all.) 

Happy First Birthday, Cole!

Cole's first birthday was Saturday.  I know is sounds passe, but this year really has flown by; time seems to go faster with each child.  (This can be good or bad, depending on the day.  And temperament of the child!)

It still boggles the mind that a little human being can go from this

to this

in just 12 short months!  Simply amazing.

Oh - did you notice the birthday cake in the background?

Any hard-core computer gaming geek out there will recognize that cake in an instant.  (Ten extra bonus points if you correctly tell me where the cake is from without Googling it!)  For everyone else, here's a clue: The Cake Is A Lie.  (If that doesn't mean anything to you, then try this.)  

I had been searching for cake ideas for quite a while, but hadn't found anything that I liked.  Then I found Spencer playing the game and saw the cake and said out loud, "I could make that."  And Lance retorted with his usual, "Prove it!" and the rest is history.

Yes.  My baby's birthday cake is based off of a very popular video game.  Should I be worried that this doesn't seem the least bit unusual to me?  

Here's what the cake looks like in the video game.

And here's mine.  Not so bad, right?  (Yes, I got a bit overzealous with the white frosting.  Cole didn't care and neither should you.)

Most of our day was very non-birthdayish, cleaning and running errands and such.  But that evening I decided we should go out to the restaurant I had wanted to go to before I had Cole but never had the chance because he came early. 

At El Meson I had their fajitas, which came out super-hot and sizzling.  All of the steam kept blowing towards Cole; he wasn't quite sure what to think.  (Much to our amusement!)

Side note: don't you just adore his little baby curls?  I do.  Lance keeps threatening to chop them off.  I think he's just jealous of Cole's extreme cuteness.

After dinner we went home for cake and presents.  Cole wasn't quite sure of what to make of the cake.  The first time we sang to him he acted shy and wouldn't even look at the cake.  I accidentally blew out the candle while we were singing, so we sang again.  He was a little more into it that time.  (And of course we recorded both. :)

Then it was time for presents.  It's very safe to say that Spencer and Josh were much more excited about this than Cole.  They "helped" him out quite a bit.  They were also very proud to have each picked out a small gift for him.

They were nice enough to actually let Cole play with some of his toys after.  (With frequent reminders from mom and dad of whose birthday it was.)

A great big thank you goes out to both sets of grandparents for the wonderful gifts!  If you were here I'm sure Cole would give you a great big chomp of appreciation.  (He only bites those he loves most.)

Isn't he so cute sitting cross-legged?  I'm not sure where he picked that up, but he does it a lot lately.

Finally, it was time for cake.  In our family we give our one year old's a great big slice with a good scoop of ice cream and then let them go to town.  Fortunately, the weather was really nice so we were able to do this outside.  

It took him a few minutes to get into it, but he quickly got the hang of it.

Truly, is there such a thing as too many pictures of a baby eating his first birthday cake?  Nope.

Spencer and Josh were a little neater.  But only a little.

Soon Cole had had his fill of cake.  This was the finished product.

Then it was time for some tasty sand from the sand table.  (Cole's favorite afternoon treat.)  Mmmm...

I know.  Gross.  The first thing he does every time we go outside is grab a handful of sand and stuff it in his mouth.  Every time.  I could fight him on it, but why?  It won't kill him, and I'm assuming that eventually he will grow out of it.  Or we'll run out of sand.  One of the two.

When you have three sticky little boys, one of whom is sticky and sandy, and a nice warm day, what do you do?  Break out the sprinkler, of course!

Cole didn't really get all that clean.  He got wet and then crawled around and got more dirty.  Speaking of crawling, check out this cuteness.  When he's on the cement he doesn't like to crawl on his knees.

The evening ended in Cole's favorite way: with a warm bath and a cool sippy cup of milk.  Then he proceeded to stay awake in his crib for two hours past his bedtime.  I think he was a little wired from all the cake and a little excited by the days' events.  (Which made for a fuuunnn day at church the next day!)

Happy first birthday, Cole bear!  You are such a good, joyful little guy.  We love you so very much are are so happy to have you in our family!

Apparently I'm Not a Girl

Josh announced to me this morning that he wanted Mommy hair - which means long, thick, unevenly wavy, and terribly unmanageable, especially in humidity.  (Well, perhaps he just meant the long part.)

Me: You want long hair?

Josh: Yes.  Mommy hair.

Me: But only girls have long hair!  And you're a boy. 

Josh: But you have mommy hair!

Me: Yep.  Because I'm a girl, right?

Josh: No.  You aren't a girl - you're a mommy!

Me (knowing when resistance is futile): Hmmmm... I guess you're right.  But you still can't have long hair.

Josh: Can I have a snack?

Last Day of School

Today was Spencer's last day of school.  For a last-day-of-school surprise we met Lance for lunch at the Pizza Hut buffet - Spencer's favorite.  

Spencer is notorious for dropping pizza at buffets.  We don't go to them all that often, but when we do at least one of his pieces lands on the floor.  This time he walked back to the table sooooo verrrry carefully with his pizza.  It was cute.  Unfortunately, when he got back to the table he stood a little too closely to Cole, who took advantage of the situation and swiftly swatted Spencer's pizza onto the floor.  I just about peed my pants trying not to laugh while I consoled poor Spencer, who was quite close to tears.  (I am a terrible mother, I know.  But Lance and I had just mentioned the whole dropping-of-the-pizza-thing 37 seconds before.)  Cole looked on with a pleased look on his face.

Buffet disasters aside, Spencer is quite excited for summer vacation and, more importantly, to be a first grader next year!

Life With Boys

Today I had one of those mothering moments that can only be genuinely appreciated by those who have spent a good deal of time with little boys.

Late this afternoon Josh was on the floor playing with his trains.

In his birthday suit.

That's not the weird part.  In fact, it made perfect sense because earlier he and Spencer had been playing with the hose in the back yard.  He of course was soaked, and the only natural thing to do was strip down and then get back to playing.  (Inside and outside, of course - thank goodness for that privacy fence!)

Anywho, he had fiercely ignored my requests that he get dressed, and I didn't have enough fight left in me to force the issue.

While I was on the phone I started to hear Josh in the other room, screaming and wailing and generally making a big fuss.  I came in to discover poor Josh trying to hide from Cole, who was bound and determined to grab Josh's... er... manly bits.  That baby was on a mission, and he was pretty well succeeding.  (When Cole wants something he will stop at nothing to get it.  He suddenly develops super-human strength and speed.  It's pretty impressive.)

You can imagine how well this went over with Josh.

I had to quickly get off the phone and save the poor child.  Cole howled in protest as I picked him up, mid-grab.

In my mind's eye I can still see Joshie's scowl as I gave him his underpants and told him to get dressed.  I didn't actually say "I told you so", but I didn't need to.  I'm pretty sure he saw the smirk on my face.

Beach Bums

Today Spencer's class had a beach party, which meant he had to be appropriately attired.  And if one child's in a loud Hawaiian shirt, then all three should be!

Now I can't get  Margaritaville out of my head.  And neither should you. (You're welcome.)