Breaking the silence

It's long overdue so here I am blogging for a brief moment in exchange for much needed sleep. Life has been very busy since I last posted about our then upcoming move. We are fairly settled in our new home now though it's taking alot of time to get used to so much space. It was surprisingly uncomfortable at first, but now the abundance of square footage is getting to feel somewhat normal for all. I'm still in love with my washer and dryer and we've christened our grill and deck properly with alot of alfresco meals! And did I mention I can practically float in my bathtub? Seriously.

Ella is having sleep issues and we think it's most likely emotions from the move, her recently acquired glasses and the unavoidable teasing that comes with that, as well as getting used to sleeping in a room without us for the first time in her life! Hopefully she can work through it soon because it's getting awfully crowded in our bed in the wee morning hours. BTW she looks gorgeous in her very stylish purple glasses--pictures soon.

Nicholas had his 1st birthday if you can believe it. Uncle Jeff and Aunt Marion came up for the party which was Easter weekend and we had a great visit with them. It was also good to host a party and house guests less than 2 weeks after moving so we had alot of incentive to get unpacked in a hurry. Nicholas took a few steps alone right before his birthday but about 2 weeks ago really decided to walk instead of crawl. I'm still getting used to that. He loves going down our long hallway.

Two weeks ago our friends the Hudson's came down from Minneapolis and stayed with us. The kids all had a great time playing together. Our friends the Hanson's also drove over from Grand Rapids on Sunday and the 6 of us adults went out to celebrate David's Architectural licensing and Craig's newly published book. We went to Alinea. That's a whole post needed right there coming soon. Let's just say: Spectacular.

Last night, actually this morning, we returned from a long overdue visit to California to see Nana and Pa. David traveled with us out there but returned earlier than us. We had alot of fun including a first trip to Sea World for the kids, a visit to the County Fair, Mother's Day, planting tomato plants, etc.. We were able to spend alot of time with my sister and nieces too which was very nice. Our trip home was a disaster and I'm in no hurry to get on an airplane again, but we are safe on the ground and successfully endured 10 hours aboard a plane with no meltdowns. I think I have a new issue with ATC that I will probably blog more about later. I'm just thankful to be home safely with my children.

Just wanted to break the silence. I'll be back soon with more stories and some pictures too.

Monthly post and 865 to 2287

Apparently I've fallen into a monthly posting pattern. Hopefully this will change and become more frequent again soon. Big news here is that we are MOVING!! No, we did not sell our condo. Surprise surprise. We decided to bite the bullet and rent it out for awhile instead. This allows us to go ahead and move into a bigger rental property ourselves. And no all you realtors out there, we're not going to buy another place until our other one is sold. Two mortgages are not something we desire.

So finding a tenant was painless thanks to craigslist and a good landlord website that does complete tenant screening for you. Well, I had to do some of it. But anyhow. It's done and we found a really great tenant or so we think at this point.

More importantly we just signed OUR lease yesterday. It was a bit strange to sign a rental lease after being homeowners for so long. I guess we are still homeowners, but now we're renters too. Ha! But I'm over it already. Here's why. We now live in 865 sq ft and are movin' on up to 2287. No, that's not a typo. We found a beautiful condo that someone is renting out for a greatly reduced rate due to the rental market being saturated right now. The place is beautiful SPACIOUS and more than we could have hoped for really. And it's only a few streets south of us so the move will be short. I can't wait to see our new neighbor's faces when they see our strollers and bikes parked in our spot in the attached indoor heated parking garage. :-)

Gabriella is loving school and Mrs. Laura is teaching her how to read. She successfully read the first two pages of Hop on Pop over the weekend. Nicholas has finally mastered peek-a-boo and loves to play it now that he can cover his eyes instead of covering his head. He's also a climber and gets into everything. We'll be spending some budget money on babyproofing devices for sure.

David is working hard and hoping to not have surgery on his achilles before our move. We should find out more info on Thursday when he sees the orthopedist. It's a 4-year old injury that's never gone away and recently became much worse.

I'm going a bit crazy trying to figure out packing, moving detail stuff, child watching and trying to find time to sleep in the midst of it all. I think I need a Nanny for the next few weeks. At least my nights are now freed up from apartment searching. Once we settle into our new home we will have plenty of room for overnight guests so NONE OF YOU WILL HAVE ANY EXCUSES ANYMORE! We will even have a sofabed that we just acquired from some friends and multiple bathrooms from which to choose. AND you'll have a place to park your car if you drive here.

We have plans to get the children photographed outdoors around Easter time and will be having Nicholas's first birthday party Easter weekend if you can believe it. I have just a matter of weeks left to get his birth announcements out by etiquette rules. Emily Post please don't check my postmarks.

We had a nice visit to St. Louis over Presiden'ts Day weekend and Nana was just here visiting us for several days too. Here's a few pics to share with you. More later!

At the park on one of our recent winter-spring days

playing with Uncle Jeff

Meeting Titus with Aunt Marion

The 3 polka-dot cousins

At the park with Nana on the one nice day we had while she was here.