Yard Sale

We've decided to have a yard sale... I believe the end of April. A friend from church is going to be doing it along with us (and anyone else who would like to... just let us know!)

One thing I've noticed while unpacking is that we have too much of everything. My girls clothes are a bit out of hand. With so much family and friends, we get a TON of hand me downs. We also have a bunch of people who like to shop for our girls. So we have ended up with so many clothes they won't fit in 2 dressers and a closet! 

I actually searched online to try and find out home many clothes my girls actually need. Here's what I've settled on, and this is a bit more than what others have suggested... But oh well. I don't like laundry and don't want to have to do it everyday!

7 short sleeve shirts

7 long sleeve shirts

5 shorts

3 skirts

5 jeans

3 other pants

2 sweatshirts/hoodies

2 Nice dresses

4 Casual Dresses

1 Winter Coat

2 Jackets

Shoes:

Sneakers

Crocs or swim shoes

Sandals

Black Dress Shoes

White Dress Shoes

Snow Boots

Rain Boots

Flip Flops

My girls love being girly and wearing skirts and dresses, and that's what people buy them most often, so we're keeping more of those than what I read about. The long sleeved shirts and atleast half the pants will be put away for winter, along with the coat and snow boots and such. With this breakdown of it all, we should be able to have only one drawer a piece for each girl along with the clothes that hang up. 

This does not include their school clothes though. I want to have about 10 outfits a piece for the girls for their school uniforms. We're a bit over that right now for Taylor, but next year, we should only have to get a few things since we've got a few size 4, 5, and 6 (This is hoping Madison gets into the Pre-K program that Taylor is in now.) 

Anyways - We're going to be cutting back on tons... My clothes, Toys, Linens, etc. Probably some craft stuff as well. Hopefully we can get some extra cash out of this yard sale to help with fun summer stuff... Or maybe we'll make enough to pay for our fence! That would rock. Either way, I'm more excited about the extra space than the extra money. I'm trying not to get too carried away and just get rid of everything! Cause at this point I don't want to clean it or unpack it or put it away.  It's a good mood to purge in though.

Can't catch a break,

But we can catch a bug!

Make that a few bugs. It seems like one of us has been sick since we moved into this house. I'm trying real hard not to hold it against the house... it's not her fault after all. But it's annoyed me.

The first week here I was out with Pneumonia. The Second week, Chris had the flu. We had a tiny break last week thank goodness, because it was Chris's birthday. But this week again, Taylor has the flu!

According to her teacher, half her class has it.

I'm going to go get tons of Lysol and soak this house in it.

Even our puppy Tubman has been sick today. He has the runs. I feel bad keeping the poor puppy put up, but I can't let him loose in the house. Not after all the poop I cleaned up this morning.

Anyways - I have yet to have my house spotless at any point since we moved in. It doesn't look like it's gonna happen today either. At some point it will be. And when it is I am taking photos and posting them 1. so that you can all see our home and 2. because it will probably never be spotless ever again.

If only we can all feel good at the same time.

Happy 30th Birthday Christopher!

In case you didn't know, my Handsome turned 30 today! 

We started the day with some breakfast in bed. French Toast with OJ and a yogurt smoothie.

Afterward Christopher got out of bed (He sleeped way in!) We all went and had lunch with Taylor.

Next it was time to go to the DMV (or County Clerk's office) for Chris to get a new drivers license. His expired cause he's so old now.

After he got a new license (including a new pic that doesn't look like a 15 year old boy) Christopher went to go see War Horse all by his lonesome. It kinda becoming a tradition of his.  He did the same thing last year.

The movie wiped him out, because after that he came home and napped for about 3 hours. Then he woke up to this:

 Me and the girls had  put together some fun little stuff to celebrate. I finally broke out my Cricut and made the cute banner and tags for the gifts. 

 We got Christopher some drinks and snacks to take to work. (I had originally planned on surprising him at work with all these awesome treats so everyone would be crazy jealous of his delicious treats and awesome wife.  But chris took the day off instead... so now all of you can be jealous of his delicious treats and awesome wife!) (Also, please excuse how crappy my handwriting is. If I had any idea where my printer was, I would have printed out cute labels instead of using my gosh awful handwriting. So ignore them and pretend they're some crazy obnoxious cute font.)

  Me and the girls counted out 30 double bubble gumballs (30 blows) and 30 dumdums (30 sucks.)

We also made this fantabulous card. the girls signed it themselves and decorated the inside. 

I made one of Chris's favorites for dinner: Sloppy Joes! With manwich of course. Though I forgot buns, but chris doesn't mind, he eats it all by itself! We also had mac and cheese (of course) and I made cream spinach just to add some veggies to our dinner. Chris's stomach was a bit upset from the jalapenos he had on his nachos when he went to the movies, so he couldn't enjoy dinner as much as he wanted, but that's what comes with old age! The inability to eat whatever you want without repercussions. I've had to stop using onions in everything because Chris's stomach just can't handle them. He's such an old poot.

To finish off our wonderful day, we went to Lowes and got Chris this beauty below:

We had to have a grill of course so that we'd be able to grill out for Chris's party on Saturday. He's pretty excited about it... even went so far as to say this was the best birthday present ever. I'm glad he likes it and I'm glad we were able to get it for him. I can't wait to grill some veggies on that thing! 

Happy Birthday Handsome. I adore you and I'm so glad your parents made you 30 years and 9 months ago. Thank you Pat and David!

More to come

I haven't really blogged much lately, especially with any pictures. Life has been nuts. The first week in our new home, I had pneumonia. The second week here, Chris had the flu. And my wonderful nieces have been here pretty much the whole time we have. We have unpacked enough to live in our house and not much more. Hopefully things will calm down soon and we'll be able to start getting a routine down in our new home.

Christopher turns 30 tomorrow and we have some surprises planned! Hopefully they all turn out well. We're also grilling out on Saturday for his b-day! A new grill is his birthday present and I'm letting him play with it for his birthday! How nice am I?

Last week we sent in our application for Madison to start Pre-K next year. Me and Chris both agree that she really needs this class. It has opened Taylor up so much! She has learned a ton and grown so much. Madison can definitely use the same. She likes to act all shy and baby-ish, but she's growing up too. I don't know if it's the fact that my baby will possibly be starting school, but I've started to get a tiny bit baby hungry. I don't honestly want one right now, but the idea of another baby is a pleasant thing again, most of the time. I tease Chris about it alot, but we know the time isn't right yet, and probably won't be for a while. But it's fun to talk and joke about it.

Next week we will register Taylor for Kindergarten. We're so excited. We're going to ask that Taylor and Lily be put in the same class, and hopefully Mrs. Sanders class. We'll see if they'll let us. It'll be weird next year to not have my babies at home, but it's exciting. Maybe my home will be clean and stay that way for once. We'll see.

Anyways, I'll update and post new pics soon. We just have to take some.  Til then...

Home, Sweet Home

We closed! Last Monday (the 27th) we were able to close on our house, which was a pleasant surprise because we didn't think it would happen until Tuesday or Wednesday. I was able to paint the living room and our bedroom during the week (thank you Krystin for your help!) And we slowly moved stuff over through out the week (Thank you Matt, John, Michael, and Steven). Last night we spent our first night in our new home. It was GREAT to be back in our own bed. The girls had to sleep on the couch because we couldn't find their bedding amid all the tons of boxes in the garage. At the moment I have unpacked all of my kitchen stuff and it is mostly set up. Chris is installing my under the counter radio/cd/ipod player as I type and then I'll put away the last few things and my kitchen will be all done... That is for the next couple weeks til we buy the paint for it and we start decorating it.

We're taking it all a room at a time, and the living room is our main priority, since this is where we'll spend the most time as a family. Our living room is shaped a bit funny... actually it's just a rectangle, but the placement of doorways and the closet and the air vent created a problem when it came to furniture arrangement. But me being the crazy person I am spent a couple hours online looking at living room furniture placement til I figured out where all our furniture should go. I can't believe it took me so long to figure it out, because now that it's all in place, it seems like the room was made to be set up this way! We have just a couple other pieces of furniture to get before this room will be done. I want a little writing desk for the laptop and a bookshelf, and then a HUGE basket to keep our blankets in.  Oh, and some pillows for the couch! How could I forget the pillows? And eventually curtains for the window, but the blinds will suffice for now.

Then comes the kitchen and little bathroom. Then our room and bathroom. Then the girls room and bathroom... then the guest bedroom and finally the laundry room.

I am thrilled to finally be settled. After 9 moves in less than 8 years, I'm over it! I don't want to move again for another decade! And that's our plan for now. We'll probably stay in this home until the girls are ready for high school. We have plenty of space with room to grow (another kid or two ;) ) It's kinda funny because me and Chris have talked about moving into this neighborhood since we got married. And now we live here! It is a huge blessing to have found this house in the area we want.

We have also had a couple other changes in our lives. I am no longer working at all! I no longer am keeping anyone else's kids but my own. I am trying to get a job at the YMCA, but it may not be working out after all. I am excited though for all the time I will get to spend with Madison. I've never really had a chance to be alone with her and I can't wait to help her learn and just hang out with my favorite little Moo.

And the last big change in our lives will happen in the next few days. We are adopting two little puppies! They are beagles, a brother and sister. The boy is named Tubman and the girl is Harley. They will be fixed tomorrow and we'll bring them home 24/48 hours after that. And I can't wait. It does mean that I need to get pretty much everything unpacked before then though.  So I probably better get back to it.

Pictures will come soon, once all the boxes are gone and stuff is put away and clean, if that ever happens ;)