She's 3!

I can't believe our little girl is 3.  Some days it seems to go so fast.  Some days I'm amazed shes only 3.  Ellie is our feisty, out of the box, crazy, challenging, drama queen. She's going to make a great teenager some day!  She knows exactly what she wants, which is a dress she can spin in, anything Minnie Mouse, complete control over the remote, any toy in the area and Zach.  She loves to sing and make up songs with aunt Corrie who happens to be her favorite person (besides mom and dad of course--I hope). She loves fruit and what ever dads eating and flowers. She talks almost as much as her brothers and can scream just as loud.  She is stubborn and hilarious.  She makes me laugh when I'm not thinking about strangling her.  She keeps us on our toes every minute of the day. 

2010

2013

She's made all the paper work, waiting, traveling, social worker drama and hospital madness worth it.  I don't know what we'd do with out our feisty jelly bean.

The big show

Christmas seemed to go by in a flash this year.  All of the sudden it was Christmas Eve and we had a house full of people, food and gifts.  Jon read Twas The Night Before Christmas before babies went to bed.  We let Ben and Sam stay up a little later than normal to watch A Christmas Story with the adults.  Jon made us a feast.  After the boys went to bed we finished the night with another movie favorite, White Christmas.  

We actually woke the kids up Christmas morning.  We were tired of waiting for them to wake us up so we got the job done.  It felt like we were opening presents for days.  Here are some of the highlights:

We trashed the living room, but the kids had a great time doing it.  Jon made us our traditional Christmas breakfast feast and we spent the rest of the day trying to sneak in a nap.  We never left our pj's.  It was a great day!

Christmas pj's

The kids were very excited to put on their Christmas jammies this year.  Ben has been all about zipper pj's, but only has one pair that fit...until now.  Zach was very excited about "being" a giraffe.

Christmas morning picture with a ridiculous amount of presents in the background.

Merry Christmas.

Never mind

Things sure do change quickly around here.  One minute our house is sold, the next minute its not.  We got a call from our realtor last night that the buyers have decided to back out of the deal.  

We found out last week that they looked at our house before they were prequalified and didn't really know how much they could afford.  They were approved for $5k less than we were asking for on the house.  We accepted on the condition that they paid closing costs.  They said yes, but apparently the fact that they had nothing left for any repairs that might be needed (or anything else) was weighing on them.  Of course we found this out only a few hours after we heard that our offer was accepted on the house in Strongsville.  

That deal was contingent on our deal so now both houses are back on the market. 

I was disappointed last night and still am a little bit, but overall I'm doing better than I thought I would.  I really liked the fact that the house was 5 minutes from Jons office and I REALLY liked the kitchen, but I still prefer Lakewood.  I just have to assume that a better house will be waiting for us when we finally sell our house...for real next time.  

Zach

This pretty much sums up Zach!

Strongsville

I grew up in Strongsville.  I was sure that after I got married and had a family, Strongsville would be the last place I would ever live.  Guess where the house is that we put a bid on today??  I'm excited to see how this goes, but its still a little sad.  I love Lakewood.  I mean I LOVE Lakewood.  I don't like that we might end up 20 minutes away, but its only 20 minutes.  The house we bid on is 5 minutes from Jons office, it has 98% of everything that was on our need/wish list and look at the kitchen...enough said right??  What you can't see is the amazingly large window overlooking the back yard and the wine fridge under the counter.  Yep, I said wine fridge!  We asked for a lot so I'm assuming they'll counter, but we left plenty of room to negotiate. Obviously, our house has to pass 2 inspections before we can actually move forward.  Its really nice to be able to see the "prize" and not feel like we're wandering around aimlessly and might end up homeless!  We'll keep you posted. 

Wordless Wednesday: Silly boys

Mustache

This was from Thanksgiving and I forgot all about it.  Jon was having a little too much fun with the boys.

Sold!

Are you kidding???  You might remember a couple days ago I told you we were going to have a showing before the house is even on the market??  We got the call last night, they want the house.  They made an offer, we countered and they accepted.  Holy crap!  The couple is using a VA loan and I've heard the VA inspection can be tough so nothing is for sure yet, but assuming all goes well, we will be leaving our house anytime between the end of January to the end of Feb.  Jon is never going to be able to top this Christmas present!  Its bitter sweet.  I'm excited to look for something that suits us better, but this is our home. Nothing will ever top the woodwork, craftsmanship, community and memories.  More details to come...

Kids

The kids did their Christmas program at church yesterday. They did a great job, especially that first reader.  He was pretty cute!

Santa

We headed down to Strongsville Friday night to visit Santa.  

Zach was amazed by all the lights and couldn't get enough of the trains.

Ben and Sam went right up to him and got down to business.  Ellie was ok as long as dad was holding her. Zach was relieved I put him on Jons lap and not Santas and he refused to look at Santa.  Another year or two and maybe Jon can stop visiting Santa too.

Obligatory tree pictures

Merry Christmas

For Sale

I know, I've been ignoring the blog for a while now.  I have a good reason though.  We've been cleaning, purging, fixing and staging our house so we can sell it.  We have (occasionally) 6 people fighting over a bathroom and always wanting to be in a kitchen together that is sometimes too small for 2 people.  We talked to a realtor, crunched the numbers and decided we'd give it a try.  The realtor is coming over today to tell us how we're doing and if she thinks anything else needs to be moved, changed etc. We're going to have pictures taken on Monday and have a brokers showing on Tuesday.  We also just found out that even though the house isn't officially listed yet, we already have a showing on Sunday.  While I know the odds of us selling our house on the first showing are heavily stacked against us, its fun to dream!  We've started looking at other houses on the market.  We've looked at one that we really like, but its in Strongsville. Its pretty close to Jons office, but its not Lakewood.  When we first decided to move to Lakewood, I didn't think I wanted to live here. Now, I can't imagine leaving.  Unfortunately, the houses available in Lakewood right now just don't have what we're wanting.  We're looking in all of the surrounding areas, but aren't in love with anything else.

Thats our news for now.  I'll try to put some kid pictures up soon.  In the mean time, anyone want to buy a house??

Plaid

Its officially cold when all four of them break out the plaid!

Tree time

While cooking our second Thanksgiving dinner of the week yesterday, we put up the Christmas tree.  We heard repeatedly that this was the boys most favorite time of the year.  You know they're getting older when you only have to separate one or two ornaments from the same branch rather than 15! 

The kids had craft time with Gram today and made ornaments.  Apparently the babies were not a fan of the paint, but they turned out great.

Gram braved the paint on hands and feet and we got an early Christmas present from the kids.  The kids had a blast and they love crafts.

Wordless Wednesday: Zipper pj's

Football

Cross Point held their first annual turkey bowl yesterday. The men played flag football and the kids did actual bowling with turkeys.  It was cold, it snowed and we froze, but we had a good time.  My man caught the ball with his face then decided his hands would be better and got a 1st down.  

We had our jubilee service this morning.  It was basically a big party that started with dessert and ended with a turkey dinner.  I'm officially excited for Thanksgiving!

Tap dancing queen

Corrie has been taking tap dancing classes this fall.  Her recital was last night so we grabbed the kids, met up with some friends and enjoyed a great show.  Corries group was #7 in a long list of groups.  I was positive the kids weren't going to last longer than her performance, but they surprised me.  Ellie sat on Jons lap the entire night.  After every single group she asked for 1 more.  Half way through Sam kept asking to go home after 1 more, but other than that, they did great.  Zach danced on my lap, Ben chatted with our friends and Corrie stole the show!  She was the only one in her group that remembered the whole routine and she looked great doing it!

Don't let her lack of smile throw you off. She was enthralled and is looking forward to her first dance class. So much for our savings!
You did a great job Corrie.  We're so proud!

Leaves

Its almost as good as playing in the snow!

Crowded

Yes, thats 2 turkeys, 2 Thanksgivings in 1 week.  I hope someone knows how special they are!

Rain Forest

One of the boys friends had a birthday yesterday and wanted to go to the Rain Forest to celebrate.  We met them up there and, as always, spent little time looking at animals and most of the time climbing on things!

Their idea of nice smiles!

Zach and Ellie could have stood there all day.

Another "nice" smile.  Seriously??

Pottery

When Jon was in college he took a pottery class. His cups and bowls are displayed in the dining room.  Ben decided he wanted to take a pottery class too.  Momo and Papa got him a class at the Beck center for his birthday.  He spent several weeks making a plate, mugs, giraffe, wind chime and a few other items.  Its going to take a while for everything to be fired and finished, but we do have one of his finished projects.  Bens mug is on the left and dads mug is on the right.  Not too bad for his first try!