Help Has Arrived!

When we put our house on the market, my mom came to help get it ready for Open Houses and showings.  (You can read about that visit here and here.)  This past summer, she was gracious enough to come help us pack and get ready for the move.  While she was here, we took some time out for fun stuff, too.  I've promised her ONLY fun, and NO WORK when she comes back this summer.  

Love a photo bomb, especially by such a cutie!

 We were sad to leave the pear tree in our back yard.  We couldn't resist a little fun - and picking it dry - in the days before our move.

Fun with the kite

- becky

SOLD!

It took nearly 11 months, but we finally sold our house on Kensington.  No more Open Houses.  No more showings.  No more frustration with having to constantly keep things spotlessly clean.  (We're fairly clean people, but showing clean and every day clean are two entirely different things.)

 Isaiah had some anxiety about the sale of the house.  He was excited, but I think he wasn't understanding the time in between we sold the house and we're moving to a new house.  Nearly every night in August, I woke up to find Isaiah had moved all of his blankets and was camping out on the floor of our room.

Packing was fun.  Not.  The fun part was finding things that we hadn't seen in a long time.  She Ra dolls?!  Haven't seen those in YEARS! Mallory is the new #PrincessofPower.

 When shopping for new TVs, one should always check out the 3D glasses.  Especially since we're not buying a 3D TV.  Try it at the store while you have the chance, kids.

Unpacking entertainment - fishing at the lockers :)

How does one reach the outlet to plug in the bar fridge?  Send in the 3 year old, of course!  Good thing she is a good listener helper.

I should be looking a the sign the other direction because the house in the background belongs to the neighbor.  HA!

I know all in God's time, and I don't mean to sound like I am complaining, but it was really hard to have 3 months off, move into a new house, and go back to work full time 2 days later.  Sigh.  I guess that explains why I'm so far behind in my blog.  :)

- becky

Rocket Science

OK, so maybe it's not exactly rocket science, but installing a new ceiling fan is quite a challenge!

Before

See - looks like a pretty tough job to me!

After

It works!

- becky

Big Kid

After the carpet was installed, Tim and I had to put everything back together. What a job that was! Wow! Anyway, I'm telling you this to explain the huge mess in the background of these pictures. :)

I came down the stairs to find Isaiah sitting on the couch. He looked so grown up to me! I quickly grabbed my camera to take a few quick (and adorable) shots of him.

If you know me at all, you know that I don't like it when people say big boy. I don't know what it is; for some reason, it makes my skin crawl. That being said, my baby is now a big kid!

Aren't my parents done putting my bed back together yet?! I'm getting tired here!

- becky

New Carpet ~ The After Pictures

Upstairs Hallway

Entrance to bedrooms with carpet tour guide, Mallory

Family Room Downstairs

I rushed home on my last day of school to check out the rest of the new carpet. Now don't get me wrong. I think it looks and feels great, but I'm a little disappointed at how the family carpet looks the same as what we just replaced. I guess we liked what we had, but it was so worn and just needed replacing.

Isaiah and Mallory love, love, LOVE their new train table. BIG THANKS to the Thompson family! :) I like the reading corner to the right of the fireplace, too.

Okay, here's the picture you've all been waiting for... Drum roll, please!

The basement/Mommy's hideout/kids' playroom:

You see! I told you I was able to recover it from the mess it had once again become! This picture is taken from the opposite angle of the picture in the last blog entry, but that's because I can actually walk down into the basement again! :)

Notice the entertainment center downstairs. We opted to leave that downstairs for dvd storage. It is just way too big and took up too much space in our family room. The tv in the family room now sits on the coffee table that used to be in the living room - see picture above. I also laid down the extra new carpet. It's much softer and more fun to sit down on than the utility carpet!

Oh, and notice Isaiah. He said, "Watch exercise?" He likes to "work-out" to the Leslie Sansone Walk at Home dvds that I have. Too cute!

- becky

New Carpet ~ The Before Pictures

We finally did it. We've needed to for a long time, but it is such a big project. We got new carpet. To avoid paying an installation fee twice, we decided to carpet all three bedrooms, the hallway and stairs upstairs, the stairs downstairs, and the family room at one time.

Tim worked really, really hard removing all of the old carpet, padding, and staples in the nights before the new carpet was put in.

Upstairs Hallway

Entrances to all three bedrooms

Isaiah's room

So, we had to find places for everything in all of our bedrooms and most-lived-in family room, right? Geez. What a chore that turned out to be!

The first day of the installation was two of the three bedrooms. Where do you put all of the bedroom furniture while this is done?

In the third bedroom, of course! (Mallory's room)

Sleeping arrangements were interesting throughout this process. Tim and I slept downstairs for two nights. The kids joined us down there on the second night. I had the pleasure of sharing the air mattress with Kicky Kickerson, a.k.a. Isaiah.

Our house was an absolute disaster. I was glad all of this was done on our last week of school. I could escape the madness by going to work. It was also easier having the kids out of the house at day care/school for most of the day.

Our living room and basement became the family's closet.

Living Room

Contents of master bedroom closet

For Lent this year, I gave up Facebook and cleaned the basement. Let me tell you. I am so proud of all of my hard work down there. It has become a functional (Mommy Hide-Out) room. The kids love, love, love playing down there. Unfortunately, that was one area of the house not getting new carpet, so it became storage...

Oh.My.Goodness. All of my hard work. Right down the drain. :(

Have no fear! After lots of hard work, napping kids (well, one napping and one "resting"), and a week or so of summer vacation everything is cleaned up again. :)

- becky

All Done

Well, Mom's visit is "all done", as Isaiah would say. We had a super fun time, and we wish that the rest of my family had been able to come up, too. Now we count down the days until Mallory gets to meet the rest of the family - both my side and Tim's - in July.

It's tough living so far away. However, I can say that we have learned to make the most of what time we do get together. Whether we're playing cards or shopping or whatever, we always have lots of laughs and make new memories to smile about.

Here's Mom standing in the one patch of snow that we had left (which is now gone, by the way).

Something that's ALMOST "all done" is my maternity leave. I go back in about a week and a half, and I can't say that I'm looking forward to it. Don't get me wrong - I love my job and enjoy working with my fellow teachers. It's just going to be really hard to be away from my children. Isaiah, Mallory, and I have had the bEsT time together. Isaiah has learned so much, and Mallory is growing like a weed. I know that Jen will take good care of them for me while Tim and I are at work. It'll be summer vacation before I know it! :-)

Something that's NOT "all done", but I wish was is my restructuring of the basement. I was able to get it started, and now I'm on the computer instead of working on my latest project. Oh, well. It's spring cleaning time! The Fox Valley Thrift Shop picks up tomorrow, and Goodwill picks up on Saturday. It's time to pass things on that we don't use anymore to someone who will use them. I want a scrapbooking/playroom!

- becky