Wow, it's been a while!

Shame on me for not updating the site in over a month! I should be updating as we go through this crazy time so I can remember this stress in the future if I ever get the urge to move again. The clock is ticking, two weeks from Friday we are selling the house that I've spent all but 6 months of the past 26 years in and moving to our "dream" house. I can't believe the house was on the market for only 2 weeks before we accepted an offer on it. We've scrambled and found a house that we just adore on a lot that we just adore, with a location that is not where we planned. Doesn't something always have to give? I tried and tried to find a house closer to Bill/Dad/Mom but in the same price range we couldn't find a really decent house with a decent lot. It just wasn't out there in the right location. Our realtor brought us to the new house and I didn't even know it was on the list, I don't remember looking at it online and I just thought where is he taking us? As soon as we got to the top of the hill I had a "wow" moment and started falling in love with it.

I will have to take pictures of our house, the walls are bare, the kids' rooms are almost toyless and the closets are almost completely empty. The basement is filling with boxes however. I've had a few days where I've gotten pretty nostalgic about the time and memories I will be leaving behind here but as soon as I get wrapped up in that the neighbor's yippee dog starts yapping and the household across the street revs up their cars with their noisy stereos blasting and I remember the things I will not miss. Who knows, a year or two from now I may be feeling so isolated that the sound of a random dog barking or noisy car may be a nice sound. At this time I doubt it but stranger things have happened.

So, with only two weeks left I am kind of running in circles. Some days I can wrap my head around all the to-do's on the list and get something done. Other days I just wander from room to room not really getting anything done. It's frustrating and I feel so bad for the girls. They pick up our stress even when we are trying our hardest to hide it and they are acting up so badly right now. We are conciously trying to fit in some quality time with them but they are still feeling the stress. I found myself yelling at them to not play with the empty boxes today. I remember being a kid and an empty box was like the best toy in the world. You can do so many things with an empty box. Why in the world don't I designate an empty box for each of them and let them have a field day with their box? I guess that is precisely what I will do tomorrow morning and see what they come up with.

Here are a couple of pictures of the new house

kitchen - I am so excited to have a nice kitchen!

I love the little path and it's nicely landscaped around the front and driveway. Unfortunately they are taking both the rocking chairs and the porch swing so we will have to find new ones for ourselves. I tried to get them to throw them in there with no luck. I'm excited about the new floorplan, the master bedroom is on the main floor and both the kids will be upstairs along with an extra bedroom for a craft/playroom.

No more 2 year old in this house!

Happy Birthday to our dear sweet Reagan!!! I did manage to take just a couple of photos but I wasn't awake enough to take pictures of her opening her presents this morning. She had a great day with her new presents, a trip to Chuck E Cheese and finally her requested dinner of chicken nuggets, waffle fries and crescent rolls followed up with ice cream and cake. This will be a fun summer with both of the girls getting big enough to really go on some adventures. It is so nice that Reagan has been fully potty trained and is now talking clear enough to get her point across (in between screaming). Jason and I have been thinking that it is time to take a Laura Ingalls Wilder tour around Minnesota/South Dakota seeing as he and Piper just finished the serious for the second time. We also have a serious itching to go camping a few times this summer. We think both of the girls will really enjoy it now that they are old enough to go hiking and exploring.

Easter and Reagan's Birthday

We had such a fun weekend between Reagan's Birthday party and Easter. We went to church, then off to Dad's and then over to Marilyn's for Easter. We enjoyed spending the entire day with family, it was almost like Christmas, we traveled and ate and received presents everywhere we went. The girls would like to get used to doing that. Piper and Reagan started getting into the candy and once they got a taste they couldn't control themselves and by 6pm they were crazy!!! Today Reagan asked for M&M's for breakfast and requested cake and cupcakes for dinner. Just because it is her Birthday I actually considered giving her some M&M's at breakfast but then I remembered her bouncing around last night and came to my senses. Here are a bunch of photos, they are not even remotely in order though.

At Marilyn's digging into their baskets
Oh they are so cute! Brecken wasn't very happy but we managed to get a couple of photos where she doesn't look like she's complaining.

Piper and Claire both looking so pretty in their dresses

Egg hunt at Dad and Jill's in the yard. I changed them out of their dresses to play outside since we played soccer and t-ball for a while too.

Piper has a serious advantage over both Reagan and Brecken in egg hunting. She knows what she's looking for, is fast, and a bit greedy.

Reagan got her birthday presents from Dad and Jill, she was very excited to two pairs of shoes, these are her new Tinkerbell tennis shoes and she got some pink sandals.

Back at Marilyn's digging in baskets

showing off her pink sandals

Poor baby B, it was naptime and she got stuck outside looking for eggs. She wanted nothing to do with crawling in the grass at the moment.

Piper had her baskets and most of the eggs before Reagan even knew what was going on. Good thing Bill and Niki took Brecken to a corner of the yard and kept Piper looking on the other side or Brecken wouldn't have gotten anything.

I've had a few years to figure out how much candy the girls get from Grandma's and Grandpa's and Aunts and Uncle's, I told the Easter Bunny to just put a few jelly beans in some eggs and loose change in most of the others. Not to mention Jason and I experienced a very unhappy Piper one Easter morning after she got into way too many jelly beans and M&M's, refused breakfast and melted down by mid morning.

Reagan was having a ball!

The Easter bunny brought the girls a t-ball stand and a soccer ball. Heather and Aydan got Regan a little bat and ball for her birthday and they were both very excited about it but neither can pitch it well enough for the other to hit it so we were happy the bunny brought a stand.

Princess Reagan's Birthday Party

We celebrated Reagan's Birthday today and she enjoyed every minute of it.

She loves her new bike!
I asked her if it was time to do presents and she jumped right in.

Just hanging out looking cute! She wanted to wear a dress so I asked her to pick it out and she picked out the pinkest, fluffiest dress she could find.

I can't tell if she's going to be a tomboy or girly girl, she loves barbies and pink dresses but also loves cars. A few weeks ago I asked her what she wanted her cake to look like and she said race car so here is her cake.

This is such a cute picture of Niki and Brecken!

Showing off her new doll blankets her Great Grandma Marilyn made for her.