House update

The house is really coming along now. Just a little over a month and a half left and we'll be living in it! Here are some pictures from earlier today.

Almost all the the siding is on now. There are just a few spots left to fill in.

The family room built-ins.

Below is a close-up on the tile I picked out for around the fireplace. I love it! The mantel and seat below will be stained dark like the cabinets around it.

Another picture of the kitchen cabinets with the trim added on to it.

6 Years Old!

Has it really been that long ago?

That was then and this is now... Mackenzie celebrated her 6th birthday, first and home on Thursday night with the family. Then with friends at Chuck-E.-Cheese on Friday night.

At first I thought: How can I talk her out of this? But it turned out to be a very stress-free, fun party. All I did was bring cupcakes. We bought pizza, drink and tokens and let the kids just have at it. The kids had a blast and I still had a clean house afterwards. You can't go wrong.
Even the adults got in on some of the fun!

Perfect!

I just found the perfect matching comforters the girls' new bedroom. I've been searching for some cute comforters that are not too expensive, not too wild, not too little girly, something they will like now and will still like when they are older, and will match with the green walls.

Not expecting to buy much I just ran by TJMaxx/Home Goods store today and I found them! The only problem was there were only 2 of them! Ugh! So I sweet talked some worker into calling some other stores to see if they had another one. He said he called 5 other stores and none of them had one. Double Ugh! Well, when I find something I want I am determined to get it. So I put the two of them on hold and went home. On the 3rd store I called I got lucky! Yay! They had one available at the Eden Prairie Home Goods store.

So I shoved lunch into Kenzie and Summer's mouths and drove 1/2 hour to Eden Prairie, bought it, and drove the 1/2 hour back to be back in time for me to watch Courtney. I made it no problem. Then after dinner tonight I drove back to Burnsville and got the other two.

The girls' love them and I love them. And I got them all for 1/2 off the original price!! Double Yay!

Plus, while I was at the store the 1st time I found some perfect towels for the girls' green bathroom. Check it out below!

How far have you gone to get something you wanted?

House update

Here is the latest on the house. First coat of interior paint is on the walls. The vinyl flooring and wood flooring is in (but covered up so you can't see it too well in the pictures). Most of the cabinets are in. They are installing interior doors and trim around door frames and windows. And they started installing siding on the front of the house.

Above picture: kid's bathroom cabinets

Picture below: Main floor bathroom cabinet

Kitchen from 2 different angles

Picture above: Master Bath cabinets

Picture below: Master bedroom doors from hallway
Kid's room

Sold!

It's official now! We signed last Wednesday! I can't believe how fast that went. We feel really blessed.

3572 153rd St. West

As excited as I am for the new house I've been having a heavy heart lately thinking about leaving this home. It's our very 1st home. It's the only home our girls remember. Ainsley was 2 when we moved here, Kenzie was only 6 month old and this is the only place Summer has ever lived.

Barton and I have put a lot of work into this home to beautify it. Bart put in a new front door, made a beautiful flower bed all along our front walkway. He landscaped the bushes and made a red windowbox.

He redid the kitchen and entry way floors and put in a new light over the kitchen table (refer to Before and After post.) In the backyard he made me a spot for my garden, a play area for the kids, made a shed, and restained the fence and arbor. And between the both of us we painted every room in the house.

I'm going to miss our vaulted ceilings and the open floor plan.

I'm going to miss dancing in the living room with the girls to really loud music.

I'm going to miss my neighbors and being so close to Ande and Mindy.

I'm going to miss being able to see down into the family room while the kids are playing.

I'm going to miss seeing each of the kids peeking through the railing at Bart and I downstairs after they've just snuck out of bed.

I'm going to miss Summer's cute room.

I'm going to miss Ainsley and Kenzie's room with the 3-stencil painting I did on their wall.

I'm going to miss all the fun the girls had with their bunk beds.

I'm going to miss being able to see the kids playing out back while I'm cooking dinner.

I'm going to miss hanging out in the hammock with the kids.

I'm going to miss walking to Purple Park.

It's going to be hard to leave this house. Not only for myself but because it'll be hard watching my kids miss our house too. They've already told me they are sad to leave and that makes me sad too.

I am anxious to make new memories in our new house. But I will miss our house.

So weird!

So there it is. We finally have the for sale sign in our yard. On Saturday we had 2 showings and one of them already scheduled a 2nd showing for tomorrow.

We're listed already!

Wow! That happened fast. Just moments after I wrote my last post, my realtor emailed me with our MLS#. Here is our link off of Edinarealty.com
http://www.edinarealty.com/Listing/ListingDetail.aspx?listing=37528882&Popup=1

Listed

Today my realtors came and took a million photos of the interior of the house. I think we'll have a sign in our yard and an MLS# tomorrow. Here is the link of their website with the photos from today and some exerior photos they took late last Summer. http://maurerhomes.com/20146-default.html I just don't know how people keep their houses so clean! Literally 5 minutes after they left the girls messed up the house! How am I going to do this with every showing??

House update

There is more going on inside the house now than outside. They've put in all the plumbing, all the showers and tubs are in place. The drywall is up and they were plastering and mudding yesterday while the girls and I snapped a few quick pictures.

Family room

Kitchen

Entry way

The girls' room

Kitchen and eating area.

Gymnastics

Since I posted about Kenzie's dance class I decided I'd post some pictures of Ainsley in her pre-team gymnastics class. She's the youngest and smallest in the group but she works hard and loves it. Her favorite thing to do is bars.

EVEN shorter!

I had to do it gradually but I went even shorter this time. My lovely camera assistant Ainsley took some shots of me this morning before church.

I like it, I've been wanting to go super short for a while and I finally felt brave enough to do it.

Stone

I quickly snapped this shot this evening. They just finished putting up the stone that the pillars will sit on. You can't see it in this picture but there is also stone on either side of the garage door.

Dance class

Today was Kenzie's last day of dance class so they had a little recital for the parents. Here are a few pictures of my cutie from tonight.

Porch

They are mostly doing work on the inside now but the other day they added on the porch floor.

Now, that's a FAT snowman!

We found this big fella on the way to Cathy's house (it's right near Becky's house too.) We've driven by a couple of time just to get a good laugh.

Baby, it's cooold out there!

Yesterday:
The mercury was at 18 degrees below zero in Minneapolis, with a wind chill of minus 32.


Today:
-8°
Clear Windchill -26

Tomorrow:
Sunny. Highs around 5 below. West winds 5 to 15 mph. Lowest wind chill readings 33 below to 43 below zero in the morning.

No sign of 0 degrees until Friday!

Should I be worried?

The other day I was getting Summer out of the van to run a quick errand and she said to me, "I want to walk in the street and be DAGEROUS!"

And when ever she wants to cut something she asks for a sharp knife.

Bird sitting again

I'd like to introduce you all to Petrie.

We are bird sitting again for a few days and Petrie is a fun bird to watch. We let him out of his cage today and the girls just squeal with delight to see Petrie fly around the house (much to Petrie's dismay I'm sure.) The kids freak him out a little bit with their loud shrieks of joy and they are constantly in his face. He likes me though. He sings for me, kisses me and laughs at me. This evening when I sat down to read the scriptures he landed right on me. I laughed--he copied my laugh--I laughed again---Petrie laughed--the kids were all laughing--Bart was laughing--grandpa was laughing that the bird was copying my laugh--needless to say, it took us a while to get back into reverent mode for scripture reading.

Summer, Petrie and Grandpa