Wordless Wednesday: Sweet boys

Corrie sweater

Ellie got a new sweater made by aunt Corrie.  I've been meaning to get some pictures of her in it.  Of course, the one time I think to take a few pics, she did not want to sit still!

Wagon

One of Ellies birthday presents was a baby doll that has her own wagon.  She's been giving her babies rides, but decided she wanted in on the fun.

Of course, if Ellie gets a ride, Zach wants a ride!

Finally thawing

The past week in Cleveland has been a rough one.  We were hit with several inches of blowing and drifting snow and then a few days later we were hit with sub zero temps with wind chills anywhere from 30-50 below zero.  I'm not sure how much snow we actually got because of all the drifting.  Some spots only had 3 or 4 inches, some had almost 2 feet.  

We were stuck inside for much longer than the kids would have liked. We had a pipe start to freeze and my car completely froze shut.  We ventured out for the first time yesterday.  All the doors were frozen and it took 20 minutes to get the layer of ice off the window. Thankfully, we are back above 0 and a heat wave is coming our way. We should be in the 40's this weekend.  It was nice having Jon home for all but one day of our crazy weather to help with the restlessness. We're slowly falling back into our routine of school, play dates and Jon going to work every day.  

The only good thing (I think) that came out of all of this is we have a chance of seeing the northern lights tonight.  A sun flare mixing with the polar vortex blah, blah, science, science is making this possible.  I'd like to see them before I die.  Its great that I might be able to see them from my back yard!

Wordless Wed.: Armpit toots: What happens when daddy's in charge!

One dapper dude

Ben insisted on wearing his new bow tie from aunt Prasti.

Party

I just realized I forgot to put up pictures from Ellies "party" last week.  We stayed very low key and had aunt Corrie over for dinner and brownies.

Ellie happened to have a couple presents to open including a tutu from aunt Corrie.

I think she's showing off her tattoo in this one.

Happy third birthday baby girl!  

Stats

Ellie had her 3 year check up today.  It's so cold, I took her up myself while all the boys stayed home.  It was nice being out with her alone.  Even though she didn't want to go to the doctor, I think she liked the fact that she was the center of attention.  Ellie weighed in at 26lbs (9th %) and 34inches (still not on the chart). Her blood pressure, eyes and ears were perfect.  Other than being crazy feisty and stubborn, we didn't really have anything to discuss. She eats completely random foods, meaning nothing that we would have for dinner on any sort of regular basis. Other than that she's "normal", healthy and right on track!

Expensive start

I know that with the possibility of buying a new house in the next few months, we're going to have a few expenses coming up--inspections, radon tests, repairs, and random new house items.  Unfortunately, we started racking up other expenses today.  While on their way to go sledding this afternoon, the boys got a flat tire and then the battery died.  I'm glad it happened all at once and I'm very grateful a friend was right around the corner to help, but this makes me nervous about the car.  We've been putting off some repairs because they aren't small repairs.  I have a feeling we've just started down the slippery slope of car repair bills.  Of course this comes just a couple weeks after Jon took his car in for an oil change and walked out $1000 later with other repairs.  2014 is shaping up to be a very expensive year!

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!