House Guests. House Hunt. Enchiladas.

My Dad and step-mom drove in Friday night to spend the weekend with us. I made the Crockpot French Dip Sandwiches for dinner (told you I was going to make them next time we had company) and then we just settled in to watch a movie.

Saturday we went to lunch at Maggiano’s then drove around the area we’re looking to live. We went out for mexican that night, so basically we just had a weekend of good eating :)

Knox and Hadley had a blast spending time with Poppy and Mimi and I’m pretty sure the feeling was mutual… Dad and M drove back to Tennessee Sunday morning.

Other than that - the house hunt is in full force around here. We went to look at one Sunday afternoon, and have several other possibilities, but so far nothing’s set in stone.

We had the inspection for our house this morning. The guy was so sweet and said everything checked out fine. As he was finishing up he got a call from the buyer’s and their realtor saying they were on their way. (?!?!?!) So I had to pack up the kids last minute and high-tail it out of there. They were probably here for a good 30 minutes. Glad I cleaned the house! It just makes me antsy because they have a 10 day option...

I feel so boring for having nothing else to talk about. This truly IS what’s consuming our lives at the moment.

I did try a new Pinterest recipe tonight…

White Chicken Enchiladas. Just get a load of that cheesy, bubbly goodness. It was fairly easy too.

For the meat I marinated a few large chicken breasts in an Italian dressing and taco seasoning mixture, then baked and shredded them. I only used 7 of the 10 tortillas but it still filled up this large dish. Maybe I just over filled mine?

I served them with chopped avocado and salsa on the side, and salad. Yummyness.

Looking forward to MDO tomorrow :) We have a program picked out in our new neighborhood and I’m registering both kids for next year - Knox will go to Pre-K on T/W/Th and Hadley will go on T/Th. Knox is really ready for that 3rd day, and I’m looking forward to one-on-one Wednesdays with Hadley… I’m hoping I can get at least Knox in to finish out the year once we move. The lady says there’s a spot open, but she has to make sure no one else on the waiting list wants it. I actually haven’t talked to her since we got the contract, so I’m going to call her tomorrow and I should find out one way or another. Fingers crossed!

Alrighty, I still feel so boring today. Ha! Bless you if you’ve hung on this long ;)

Pump It Up

Thanks for all the congrats on our house! We’re busy scoping out home prospects online and we’ll hopefully walk through some next week. It’s like waiting for the stars to align though. There’s 2 elementary schools that are top in the state, so it’s our first priority to be in one of those. And on top of that we need something that’s up-to-date and that I like.

{Their favorite hiding place these days…}

But anyway - the rest of our week was just shuffling paperwork, dotting I’s and crossing T’s, and scheduling the inspection and appraisal. (Which I pray both go well!) Friday we got a little break from the crazy - our friend Carter turned 4 and had his party at Pump it Up!

H with my water… Story of my life.

William was cracking us up getting sweet on Zoey!

Hadley was just there for the snacks…

…

See what I mean?!?! She has been non-stop eating the past few weeks. Growth spurt???

Knox is no longer allowed to sit beside the birthday boy. After we sang Happy Birthday he blew out the candles before poor Carter could get to them. SO embarrassing! We gave Carter a do-over :)

Both of Britney’s boys have January birthdays, just a few days a part. Since she was sweet enough to watch our kids so we could go to James’ company party, I told her I’d re-pay her in appliques :)

LOVE this madras!

And I thought this stripe looked so appropriate for a 1 year old boy :)

My Dad and step-mom came in to visit for the weekend, so we’re off to have some Saturday fun :)

It’s A God Thing

I know I promised to not get all obsessive over the house selling on the blog, but…

WE HAVE A CONTRACT!

We listed the house last Tuesday, and this all happened yesterday, so that’s 9 days on the market! I’m feeling very blessed, but gah… I wasn’t mentally prepared for everything to move this fast. Wow.

So this is how it all went down… We had the low-ball offer come in last week from the first people that saw it. We came down quite a bit (looking back we shouldn’t have) but they weren’t willing to budge. We had a showing on Friday, but our realtor told us they didn’t have to move, they’d just been looking at houses for a year. They requested a copy of the survey and our disclosure so we sent that off, but I’d kind of written them off. We didn’t hear anything back from them all weekend.

Our realtor showed the house to one of his clients Tuesday. He said they thought it was perfect for what they needed/wanted and they were going to put in an offer later on this week. They just needed to get approved to buy a house before they sold theirs. I was excited!

Well…

That same night (Tuesday) we got our second offer! But NOT from the people who’d seen it that day, it was from the people who saw it Friday. It was more than our “goal” selling price and they offered to pay closing costs. We countered Wednesday just to change a few minor details, they accepted and that was that. See what I mean… CRAZY. I’m so thankful we didn’t take the low-ball offer last week. God had something much better in mind :)

We close on 2/23 which, ironically, is 3 years TO THE DAY that Knox and I moved to Texas/this town. (James was already living here.) I have so many crazy emotions right now. I’m 100% certain this is the right move for us and that God is behind it, but I’m also kind of sad to leave behind this town and especially our house.

We bought this house 2 years ago in April. It was very much a God thing then too. We needed to be out of our rental house STAT and we just couldn’t find anything. Then this house popped up. It had been under a contract that fell through last minute. It was a divorce situation, the husband had already moved out and the wife was in process of moving to Indiana the first time we walked through it. (Literally. She was there with her sons moving out boxes.) It was priced to SELL. But it was a mess. The carpets looked awful, it was painted strange colors, it was dirty, and there was cat hair on everything. (Knox and I both are highly allergic.) But for some reason I felt led to it…

We narrowed our choices down to this house and a brand new one. We were about to put an offer on the new house when I told James I just really felt like we needed to be in this one. Granted, it needed some work and we’d have to replace the floors, but I loved the neighborhood and it was in the top school district. With the price so low, I just felt it was a smarter buy. Honestly - we bought this house because we knew it’d be an easier and profitable sell. We were right :)

{These are all our pictures on the realtor sites.}

We put so much work and love in to it, I get kind of sappy thinking about us leaving it behind :( It may not be a feature in BH&G, but it’s been good to us. It was an answer to our prayer when we needed a somewhere to live in a hurry, I’m sure the seller’s prayers were answered when we bought it, and how well it’s done on the market has also been an answered prayer. Without a doubt, it is exactly where God wanted us to be these past 2 years. There is no other explanation for how I (as picky as I am) was able to see past the cat hair, stained carpets, and wall paper border :)

And now He’s calling us to be somewhere else… So let the house hunt begin!

As sad as I’ll be to leave behind the house, our neighborhood, and friends, I’m really excited about what’s in store for us. Many of you have asked where we’re moving, all I can say is that it REALLY is the city, not a suburb. It’s a well-kept, older area and most importantly - it’s like 10 minutes from James’ downtown office! I can’t even imagine…

I’m sure we’ll try to walk through some houses soon, but for now I’m still trying to process everything. Ha!

Weekend Update & Videos

We didn’t do anything too crazy this weekend. It was mainly just trying to keep the house clean and ready to show…

Cleaning house while the children are growing is like shoveling snow while it’s still snowing.

I came across this quote on Pinterest the other day. So true! It’s so hard for me to figure out the best order to clean and stage rooms for a showing with the kids home. I usually start upstairs, gate that off, then do the rooms I can close off downstairs, and then load the kids in the car 15 minutes early (with a DVD and windows open) so I can do a quick cleaning on the living rooms, dust mop, and open all the doors and gates I’d closed off. It’s a whirlwind!

James let me sleep in Saturday AND Sunday which was amazing. I was so exhausted from the non-stop craziness of the past few weeks.

I LOVE Hadley in this bubble!

Saturday James and Knox went to have the oil changed in the truck, while H and I made a Target run. We then met up and all went to Costco and out for dinner at MiMi’s. We had a family movie night when we got home. We rented Aladdin :)

Ta-Dah!

I also followed the UCA College Nationals - as I do every year at this time - on Varsity.com… I made the trek to Disney World for competition all throughout high school and college. So many great memories - I MISS those days! I love being able to watch all the great routines and cheer along online, though. So proud of my Alma Mater - University of Memphis All-Girl got 2nd, Coed got 4th, and Pom got 1st in Hip-Hop (always) and 2nd for pom. (Go to Varsity.com and type in “Memphis” in the search bar to see the routines.)

Lots of Hadley pictures this week… She’s developing quite the little personality! She’s all girly girl, for sure. And oh my gosh, the SASS. I didn’t think it was possibly this early on… *SIGH*

I pulled some videos off of the cam-corder the other day. This is my first test run with it. (This was the day after H’s hemangioma procedure. It looks REALLY swollen and bruised in this)

I told James since I’m the photographer parent he needs to be the videographer parent. He got some good footage of the kids this weekend…

Here’s a little of Hadley talking on the phone…

Obviously Knox is super annoyed by the camera these days.

Last one…

Anyway…

Sunday we got the house clean and then drove up to the area we’re planning on moving to to look at some houses… I think we definitely found some possibilities, but I don’t want to set my heart on anything until we get a contract.

Speaking of the move - we had a CRAZY first couple of days on the market. To make a long story short… 3 hours after we were listed on Tuesday we got a call that we had a showing the next morning. The house was shown at 9am Wednesday, we got feedback saying they were very interested and wanted to see it again at 4pm. It was shown at 4pm and at 8pm we had our first offer - 24 hours after we were put on the market! CRAZY. We countered, they countered, we countered… But in the end they just weren’t wanting to pay what our house is worth based on comps, and we aren’t desperate to move so it didn’t work out. It sure worked me up in to a frenzy though!

We’ve had a few more showings since, including one this afternoon. Our realtor said they LOVED the house… I’m not getting my hopes up about it, but I’m so glad our house is showing well. Everyone who’s come through has had good things to say about it and shown serious interest. We’ll see if anything happens this week :)

Back to the Basics

Well, our first few days on the market have been crazy. I just wasn’t mentally prepared for everything to move as fast as it has. I’ve vacuumed the floors 5 times in less than 48 hours. I’m physically and emotionally drained… Nothing is official yet, so I’ll detail more when I know more.

But right now I just want to play catch up. Between all of the holiday and New Year posts, Hadley’s laser procedure, and now putting the house on the market, I’ve gotten a little behind on blogging the day to day kid stuff. Which is why this blog exists. Warning: I’m functioning on little sleep. I’m just gonna type whatever comes to me so this could get random…

I always say Hadley’s my mini-me. She loves to do everything she sees me doing. Talking on the phone, putting on make-up, brushing her hair, pushing shopping carts and strollers, carrying babies, and CLEANING…

Haha! Y’all think she’s seen me do that a time or two? It’s her favorite. She gets a hold of those wipes and just goes to town.

Here’s Knox singing his bedtime prayers…

He does a different version every night. This was his Slow and Deliberate; but sometimes it’s soft and sweet, sometime it’s LOUD, and sometimes he only puts the emphasis on the ending words. But it always melts my heart so I finally got it on video. I know our sweet little bedtime routine won’t last forever. I want to remember this :)

I’m seriously considering changing the name of my blog to We Just Can’t Have Nice Things… How many times did I make fun of my mom for saying that? Now I know the feeling all too well. Now that H is just as active as Knox, I spend these days chasing after my two little Texas Tornadoes. They play SO well, but they also make messes SO well. And get in to things they’re not supposed to…

:( Hadley thinks my Willow Trees are her own personal Barbies. I’m actually surprised this didn’t happen sooner. I’ve since taken the handles off the doors of the curio I keep them in.

There are also 2 or 3 pictures of her within her reach. She’s obsessed with them! She carries them around the house saying Awww, baby! It’s baby!! And she kisses them… Should I be worried???

Along those same lines… I took the Christmas decorations down last Wednesday. When Knox woke up the next day he was devastated to see the Christmas tree was gone. And also Baby Jesus! He was fascinated by the nativity this year, so that’s why I bought a wooden children's one just for playing purposes and put MOMMY’S Willow Tree nativity on the mantle. Out of reach… (HA!)

I about cried when I went to pack away the set. I noticed one of my stable animals was missing! I’d caught him playing with it a few times before, so there’s no telling what happened to it. I really hope it shows up :(

So yeah… WE JUST CAN’T HAVE NICE THINGS. Which sucks, because I like my nice things.

They’re also at an age where it is torture to take them both out on errands. I try to do EVERYTHING on MDO days now. Even shopping for their shoes…

I felt like my grandmother walking in to Stride Rite with this, but it worked. (Hadley’s looks a little weird because she wouldn’t stand still. I got a better one on the back.)

As much as they wear me out, I wouldn’t trade any of it for the world! They are such good natured kids, they don’t have a mean or spiteful bone in their bodies. They just like to play hard. They may make me loose my mind, but at least they keep life exciting.

Besides preparing to the show the house and chasing after the kids, I’ve been shopping end of the season sales for some great deals. I’ve found several things for myself, but mainly I’ve been stocking Hadley’s “to-grow-in-to” wardrobe.

People always ask me where I buy H’s clothes. I never know how to answer because I get them from so many different places. My one piece of advise is shop ahead. I keep an eye out for season-end sales, especially around holidays when you can add a coupon code on top of the Clearance price. I rarely buy something that is not a steal. (It has to be REALLY cute.)

Here’s a few things I’ve picked up recently that have come in…

I got these from Remember Nguyen’s end of the year sale. All on Clearance with an extra 40% off! I was iffy on the blue dress, but OMG…

It’s so gorgeous in real life. This may be good for Easter.

Patycake Kids was having the same type of sale. H could use more bubbles, so I got the pink one for now and the other 2 are to grow in to. It was my first time ordering from them but I LOVE the quality of these.

I’m still waiting for a few more orders - mainly from Zulily - but this is the secret to how I shop. I enjoy dressing my kids and I’m picky about quality. But I’m also cheap… Ha! Some people assume I spend a fortune on the kids wardrobes but if you shop ahead you don’t have to. (And you will thank yourself when they grow in to them!) All of these were cheaper than any outfit from Gap or Gymboree, and will last longer.

With stocking the wardrobes comes cleaning out the closets. I never know how to do Hadley’s…

These are the “casual” clothes that fit her now.

And these are the smocked/boutique clothes that fit her now. Ha! Granted - many of these can follow her through several seasons, and even years depending on how much of a hem they have.

These are 18-24mo things that she should be able to wear throughout the spring and summer.

And these are 2-4T things to grow in to, and in the back are her holiday outfits - some of which she may be able to wear again next year.

I keep onesies, shirts, PJs, leggings, socks, and tights in her drawers.

As far as cleaning out old things, I usually donate play outfits and keep most of the smocked/boutique things as long as they’re in good condition. Right now they’re packed in to a giant bin, but I want to organize them in space bags by size to keep them nice.

OK… So there was a little bit of everything in this post, but at least I feel caught up. Now I’m off to prepare for another showing!