Mothers Day

My Mothers Day was very low key.  I got sweet cards from my girls that they made at school, and a beautiful long stem rose at the drive through line at Chick-fil-A.  I got to treat myself to a pedicure and manicure too.  There was no big party or gathering this year.  We went to a baptism on Sunday for some friends of ours, and just enjoyed the weekend as a family.  It was nice to not be too busy.

Under Contract!

It has been exactly one week.  We've had 20 showings, and two offers.  The first offer came in last Sunday, on day 2 of showings.  But it came in offensively low, so we passed.  We got our second offer today, and it is a full asking price offer!  Yippeee!!  Now we are on to the inspection process, oh and finding a house for us to live in.  Fortunately, we were able to push our closing date out to 7/25, so we have some time.

The house also got painted this week.  It looks great!

I am so relived not to have to do showings anymore.  Seriously!  Showing a house with small children is not fun.  I do not recommend it.  It is hard enough to keep my house presentable on a day to day basis, and this week I've had to keep it looking like a magazine.  It has been way to stressful, and I definitely nominate myself for the "Bad Mommy of the Week" award.

In other happy news this week...  Nora has become quite the dare devil, and has no fear.  This was her at the grocery store on Tuesday.  She about gave me a heart attack.  Aren't you glad I took this picture before rescuing her?  Buckles ain't got nothin' on this girl, and I am in so much trouble!

Also, I'm 14 weeks along with Spud.  I feel like I'm 20 weeks along with how big I'm getting.  Taking bets on when the not so kind or thoughtful looks and comments start in public. Ya know, because I'm pregnant and have 3 little ones already.  And for some reason, this causes people to make funny faces at you and throw in their two cents about my family size.  As if my family size really affected them...  Moving on...  I'm feeling good and my nauseousness is dissipating.  My energy is coming back too.  Just in time, because I think its going to be a very busy summer.

Nora's Sink Bath

We finally got around to getting Nora a bath... er, um a sink bath at Ma & Pa's house.  She did not have as much fun as her sisters did when they got their baths, but we did get some cute pictures of her.

FOR SALE

The house is officially on the market!  We have showings being scheduled for the entire weekend, and we plan to keep ourselves busy with several parties, and some much needed family time.  All the while, keeping our fingers crossed that the right buyer comes along very soon.

I put together this little flyer about our home and the neighborhood for potential buyers to take with them.

The photos of the house turned out amazing!  I recently found the CD of pictures from the realtor that listed our home when we bought it.  I thought it would be fun to do some comparison.  We really have done a ton of work to the house.

Spud is FB Official

I announced that we are expecting Spud on FaceBook today.  Now the world knows.  I was so nervous about announcing this.  Probably because it is so unexpected, and I am/was nervous about what everyone else would say and think.  Why should I care though?  I shouldn't care, but I'm human.  The reaction was wonderful.  I received so many happy congratulatory comments.  It made me feel so loved.

Spud is growing well, and so am I.  Oy!  My body is expanding at a record rate.  Not sure how much longer I can get away with thinking that its "leftovers" from Nora.

8 weeks

10.5 weeks

We had the 12 week ultrasound done and everything looks good, for the most part.  The purpose of this ultrasound is to check for down syndrome, and spina bifida. They measure a space in the baby's neck and take blood from me.  Well, the neck space measurement came back at 2.6.  This is apparently a gray area.  Doctors say that under 2.5 is normal, and over 3.0 is concerning.  So we went ahead and did a more detailed blood panel to have more conclusive results.  I am not worried about it at all, just want to be sure.  The blood results take about 4 weeks to come in.

The final push to list the house

This weekend was the final push to get the house ready to list.  My parents took the big girls for us so that we could get more work done.  We met my mom half way up the mountain and shared a Frosty at Wendy's.

I stopped at Target on my way home to get more bins to put things in to make it look pretty- a suggestion from the stager that came last week.  The blossoms on the trees were so pretty.  Even in the craziness that is going on, it was refreshing to be at Target with just Nora and to see the pretty trees.

The girls had so much fun at Mamma and Pop's house.  My mom just got little ducklings so they had a great time playing with them.

We have just about filled the storage unit.  There is nothing left in the house except for necessities.  My house looks like a magazine!  The photographer comes tomorrow after the house cleaner comes.  I can't believe this is happening.  It has gone so fast!  We are praying hard that the timing works out and that we find our new home soon.

Take your Kid to Work Day

Cecilia got to go with Dad to work!  She was so cute, and so excited about it.  Ball does a great job with the kids and lets them explore all the cool stuff, and does a science demonstration for them with liquid nitrogen and robots and other cool engineering stuff.  Jon didn't get any work done, but he did get some awesome quality time in with his daughter.

Moving Status Update

We've been diligently working on the house to get it ready to sell.  We've rented a storage unit and cleared out most of the non-essentials.  The drywall is finished in the basement.  We've been painting the basement now.  Several miscellaneous projects have been getting wrapped up.  The painters for the exterior of the house are coming next week-ish.  We've also been looking at a few houses.  We've been very picky as to what houses we actually want to see.  Our basic criteria is a two story house with 4 bedrooms upstairs, and a newer home that does NOT need a lot of work.  We are done working on the house.  One of the main reasons for moving (besides we are out of space) is that our current house still needs work, and we would rather have time as a family, then to be working on the house constantly.  The last house we looked at, we really liked.  We liked it enough to even put an offer on it.  Even though we knew it was a long shot because our house is not even on the market yet.  We did not get the house, but it made us all the more anxious to get our house on the market so that we don't miss the right house when it comes on the market.  So, we have decided to move up our list date to May 1st.  Yikes!  That is right around the corner!  We have had so many people come and help us get the house ready to sell, and we feel so blessed to have this many awesome people that are willing to give their time to help us.

Easter 2014

Easter fell on April 20th this year.  It was also the 15th anniversary of the shootings at Columbine.  So this year was bittersweet.  Honestly, I focused so much more on my family, and the JOY that Easter brings, that I made note of the anniversary, but didn't dwell on it.

Easter started with a wonderful surprise on Holy Thursday: my brother Pete showed up at the front door just as Jon and I were heading out to mass!  I was so surprised!  Jon and I made it to all three services of the Triduum again this year.  It was beautiful, and it continues to be my favorite part of the liturgical year.

Easter Sunday was spent at Ma & Pa's.  I bought the girls' dresses on Zulilly months ago, and they were perfect.  I was lucky to find them matching in all three sizes!  

Nora: 7th Month

Nora is quickly proving to be more like her very active and independent big sister Cecilia.  Oh man, I could be in big trouble.  She is very busy, and is a monkey.  She is pulling herself up on furniture, and starting to cruise around them.  She is the fastest crawler in the west.  She absolutely loves her sisters, especially Cecilia (go figure).  She has been teething something fierce.  Drooling all the time, and up a lot at night, but also very snuggly.  Most of the time she is a very happy baby.  She really does have the best smile, and lights up the room with her beautiful blue eyes.  She keeps me on my toes.