Selling our House

Okay, so I am really behind with updating my blog and I do plan on going back to finish all the posts that I haven't done yet, but I felt like I should put one up showing why we have been so busy lately.  We are getting ready to move all the way across the country in a little over a month, and in preparation for that we are selling our house.  This meant intense cleaning, some packing, organizing, touch-up on the house and a few little repairs to help it sell better.  For the last few weeks this has consumed all of my time at home, along with most of Drew's when he is not at work.

I am so happy to say that it looks like our house has sold, after only two days on the market. We are really grateful to be done showing the house because that has been really trying on our kids.  Luckily I have amazing friends who let me come over and relax at their houses while ours was being shown, which made the whole process a little easier.  Still, it is nice to be at the point where I don't feel like my house has to be picture perfect all of the time (just close to).

The process of preparing to sell and then list our house has taught me a few things.

1. I HATE clutter!  It is actually nice to clean things out that we don't need or want anymore.  I don't like things that just take up space so it is nice to get rid of those things.

2.  Cleaning is 1000 times harder with two kids.  Okay, I am exaggerating a little, but really, having two kids makes it a lot harder to clean and keep things clean.

3.  Having friends to help makes things way easier!  I am so grateful for my amazing friends.  I am so sad to be moving away from them, but I know they have touched my life in important ways while I have been here and you don't really loose friends when you move away, you just can't see them as often.

4.  Selling a house is a process and it is better to start prepping early to make the process smoother.  I am so glad that we started discussing this back in January and so we are on track to have our house close right as we leave.

5.  I do not like change!  I know that change in life is good and helps us grow but I am not a big fan of it.  I am comfortable here in my home and community and the uncertainty of moving somewhere new makes me nervous and scared but, I guess that is how we grow.

I am sure I have learned a ton more but those are the things that come to mind right now.  I am really grateful that everything seems to be coming together well and although I am very sad to leave our house, it is time for our family to move on to our next adventure.  After all the work we have put into our house I think it looks very nice and I think the pictures show that.  We have loved this house and made it our home, for just over 2 years.  I am so glad that God guided us to live here because I truly believe this is where we were supposed to be and I have faith that he will guide us, as we move to more new places, so that we will end up where we need to be.

Here are some of the pictures of our house.

The front of our house.

The front sitting room.

The kitchen that I have absolutely loved for all my baking and cooking!

Our family room with all of the toys cleaned out and put away.

Our downstairs study.

The downstairs bathroom.

 Our ginormous master bedroom!

 Master bathroom

Alden and Anders' rooms.

 The boys' bathroom.

 Our back deck that has actually been really nice with all the rain here in Washington.

 I have also enjoyed reflecting on how much things have changed since we moved into this house, as we get ready to leave it.  This is when we had just closed on our house at the end of November in 2013.

This home has been great and we have grown a lot while we have been here.  Alden is now almost 4 and we have a new sweet little boy who is already 1.  I am so glad that we have been here and as we move on to somewhere new I know that I am so grateful that we were led to live here.   I have loved being here and I will always have fond memories of being here but it is time for us to look forward to having new adventures and making new places our homes.

Anders Turned One

I know I say this a lot, but I can't believe how fast my my boys grow up!  Anders just turned one and it seems like time went by way too fast.  I can't believe that at this time last year Drew was still deployed, Anders was still in the NICU and Alden had never met his brother.  Now, Anders is a healthy, strong, growing boy with tons of energy.  Alden loves playing with his brother and Drew is home and has been for 10 months.  I am so grateful for Anders and the joy that he is in our lives.  He is a happy and easy-going kid who was meant to be a part of our family.  I can not even imagine our family without him in it at this point.  I know I was the same way with Alden and I actually love the fact that once my kids are born I can not imagine life without them.

We had a great time celebrating Anders' birthday and I enjoyed making the cake and cupcakes for his little birthday celebration.  We just celebrated with our family and a couple missionaries from our ward who were having dinner with us that night.  It was a lot of fun and I loved watching Anders with his cake because he actually got into it and enjoyed eating and smashing it.  There are also some pictures of Anders from the week of his birthday with some of his favorite things to do.

Anders fell asleep cuddling with me one day and it reminded me of how much he has grown in the last year and how much I love these moments!

Anders is such a cutie pie and I love how cute he looks in this little chair!

Anders LOVES these rings!  He always grabs these three rings and then loves to crawl around while holding on to them.  I think it is funny that it is always these three.  They come from a stacking tower with 5 rings but he always takes the other two off and throws them away and then carries these three around.  It is always a scanveger hunt to see where they end up at the end of the day.

We decided to pull this little tricycle that we have out for Anders so that he could push around on the back deck and he really seemed to like it.  He could only push it backwards but it was fun to watch him.

Alden had fun blowing bubbles on the back deck for Anders as he sat on his trike.  It is so fun getting to see my boys play together!

I had a lot of fun making the cake and cupcakes for Anders' birthday.  I love any excuse to make a fancy cake so I am always excited for birthday cakes.  We did lemon cake with a buttercream frosting and a raspberry meringue filling.  The cake and frosting were both really good but Drew and I both decided that we are not big fans of the meringue filling.

It was fun making the bees on the cake and cupcakes because I thought they came out really cute.

We just gave Anders a cupcake rather than a whole cake.

He was not too sure about it when he first touched it...

But, once he tried it he was very happy!

It was so fun watching him eat his cake and I was just glad he was interested in it.  Alden was not interested in his cake at all at this age, so it was fun seeing a kid actually play with and eat their cake!

Anders had fun trying to rip the wrapping paper on his presents.  He was very excited to figure out what was inside!

I just included these pictures because it shows a little of Anders' personality.  He really is very happy and smiles a lot but he is also constantly moving and crawling around.  He doesn't walk on his own yet but he loves to cruise along furniture or crawl very quickly to wherever he wants to go.

Anders also loves pulling things out of boxes and putting them back in.  As long as there is a box to put things in and out of he is happy and can stay entertained for awhile.

I love Anders and I am so grateful that he came to our family a year ago.  He has taught me so much about myself and I have grown so much.  Parenthood is hard and challenging but my kids make it totally worth it and I am so glad that I have them to humble and teach me but also make me smile and give me a hug when I am having a hard day.  I am so excited to watch Anders grow and learn more over the next year!  He is an amzing one year old and it was so fun celebrating his birthday and reflecting on how much he has grown in that year!

Great Wolf Lodge - Day 3

Our last day at Great Wolf Lodge was Anders' birthday.  I can not believe that he turned one already!  It seems like just yesterday he was joining our family.  We had a great day playing at the pool, in the arcade and with Alden's wand.  Alden was very sad when it came time to leave, but he was so tired and worn out that he fell asleep within ten minutes of getting in the car and slept the whole way home.

I am really glad that we were able to go back to Great Wolf Lodge when Alden wasn't sick because he enjoyed it so much more and was able to truly appreciate the experience.  Drew and I had  lot of fun running around and playing there too!  It was just great to have three days together as a family with no work or chores to worry about!

Here are some of the adorable pictures from our last day at the lodge.

We wanted to get a picture of Anders with his birthday ears on but he did not like keeping them on very long so we had to have Alden hold his arms down.  However, you can see that Anders just thought it was funny so I think that made these pictures even more cute!

And as soon as Alden let go of his arms the ears came right off. 

Alden wanted a couple last pictures taken of him in his special "kamp."  He loved having his own little room to sleep and play in!

After this we went to the pool right as it opened and it was great!  There were not very many people there yet and so we had a whole pool to ourselves for awhile which was a lot of fun!  I definitely enjoyed being there first thing in the morning when there were no crowds!  We only stayed at the pool for about an hour and a half that morning but it was perfect.  We played in the pool with basketball hoops first because Alden loved throwing the balls and would swim around with his floaty on in the pool.  Then we went to the wave pool and even though Alden was scared of it he would walk in and sit in the shallow water with us while the waves went.  For Alden, that was a huge improvement to just sit in that pool without crying!  I am so proud of how much better Alden is getting in the water!  The last thing we did was let Alden go play on his favorite water ski one last time.  It was a great morning at the pool.

After our morning trip to the pool Anders was exhausted and fell right asleep in the stroller.

Alden was really excited to go back to the arcade to use the rest of our tokens!

Such a cutie!

Alden chose to get an alligator with his prize tickets from the arcade...

He also got a green one to share with his brother!

They were doing a coloring activity in the lobby right as we were getting ready to leave and so we let Alden do that.  After that we decided that it was time to head home!  We had a great trip and I know that Alden loved it!  He has been talking about it ever since we got back!