775 Feet

According to Google Earth, that's the distance, door to door, from our current house to our new house. After a week of offers, inspections and negotiations we're all set to buy a new house! We were prepared to stay in our current house forever. It's small, but it's also almost paid off. You can put up with a lot of inconveniences when you don't have a mortgage. We had been floating the idea of sharing a home with Scott's mom and decided to start looking for a house that would accommodate all of us. Well this one was the third one we officially looked at (we went to a few random open houses) and we all fell in love with it. Here are some pictures of the new digs:


Not sure what we're going to do with a built-in wine rack, but maybe our friend Bob can help us with that. I know the pictures look great, but she's a bit of a fixer-upper. And the architecture is...interesting.



But it's 2750 square feet in a neighborhood we love with enough room for Dorothy and our growing family.



It was built in 1940. The previous owner didn't take very good care of it. It was purchased by a guy who "flips" houses. He gutted the interior but the exterior (roof, stucco and windows) still need some TLC.



Lovely fireplace, huh? We were given specific instructions from the inspector NOT TO USE it as a wood burning fireplace but can support a gas insert. That was a bit of a disappointment.



So, all in all we're really excited. We're trying to be realistic about how stressful and complicated it is going to be to sell two houses and move two households. I know it's a little silly, but I'm most excited about having a basement. We only have a crawlspace in our current home and with the amount of "stuff" generated by two kids it will be nice to have some storage space that doesn't necessitate me putting the bed on raisers.

The Holy Grail

Finding the perfect bathing suit is extremely difficult. I hadn't bought a new bathing suit since before Adam was born (or thought of). Having children hasn't grossly misshapen me, but I no longer look good in my cutsie little tankinis. So I began my quest for the perfect bathing suit. Well ladies (and gents, sorry guys), I've found it. Hapari.com has all sorts of mix and match tops and bottoms. The best part? The tops are actually long on me! Full coverage, no tugging, woohoo! Here's what I ended up with.
Top:

Bottoms (perfectly formed bum is not included):

I feel like Sandra Dee in this bathing suit. Cute and completely comfortable. I feel like I could get out of the pool and actually lounge around without the need to shroud myself in a towel. Anyway, it was difficult to limit myself to one top and bottom but I managed with the consolation that I could go back and buy another one later:)

Our Little 'American Idol'

I sang this song to him every night when he was a baby. I'd like to think I did it without the dramatic ending...

My Hidden Talent

I did this young lady's hair for prom last year. Tonight is her senior ball and I did it for her again.




I told her to come back when she gets married:)

In Other News...

The garden is tilled thanks to the help of a very kind friend. We'll plant the veggies tomorrow.



It's official. We went to the allergist today. Adam is still allergic to milk. We don't go back for two years. Two more years of dairy free. Bleh.

"Where's My Janie-Girl?"

Occasionally Adam will look around and ask this question. He just loves being near her.

The feeling is mutual.



May they always love each other this much...

Well, That Dream is Dead...

but at least Adam is still alive. Adam has a milk allergy. When we took him to the allergist a year ago they told us his allergy was the type that he may outgrow. He hasn't had any reaction in the last 8 months. Granted, we haven't given him dairy, but he does encounter it occasionally in ways that we can't prevent. That lull in reactions had me excited at the possibility that he had outgrown it. Anywho, he stuck his finger in the puddle of melted ice cream on the table and then put his finger in his mouth.

Not good. So, the days of buying 3-4 different kinds of milk continue (skim for me, 2% for Scott, soy for Adam and whole for Jane when she is older). We should cancel our annual appointment with the allergist this week. I don't need to pay a $40 copay to know that he's still allergic to milk.

The upside to all this is Adam couldn't have cared less. As with his first reaction, he was completely oblivious. We let him entertain himself by jumping off the couch (a treat) while we monitored the reaction. Luckily, two doses of Bendryl did the trick. If we use the EpiPen we have to take him to the hospital.

Thinking of Going Back to Work

Do you think if I work here they'll let me lick the bowl they make the guacamole in? You don't know how long I've waited for this day.

Father-Son Campout

Our church holds a Father and Son camp out every year. Scott was excited that Adam was finally old enough to take camping. He was a little worried about the weather but decided to pack up and just go. They stopped at an old-school playground on the way. I hyperventilate a little at the thought of Adam climbing that big ladder.


Having a blast.


Adam, trying out the tent.


At the campground, Adam got to hang out with one of his good buddies.

The morning after a rainy night in the tent.

I love this picture. It totally illustrates Adam's absolute love for life.

A successful camp out.

What I Love About Spring

Sweet neighbor girls.

Sweet boy smiles.


Clothes on the line.

Sweet baby feet.

My lilac bush.

The way Jane's eyes look in the evening sunlight.

"Stir Crazy"

There is no better way to describe my day today than "crazy". My friend Kelly and I have been talking about painting my benches and her picnic table for about a month. Kelly bought the paint ("Edgy Red") and so we decided today was the day. Here are the before pictures. My benches:

Kelly's table:

We got out every toy imaginable for the kids and got to work.

Scrape, sand, clean. Moving right along.


Unfortunately, while we were working, the situation with our children quickly deteriorated.

No problem. We're not above parking our children in front of a Disney movie. Back to work.


We were barely started when something akin to Lord of the Flies started to go down in the living room. There was some biting and someone left with a broken blood vessel in her eye (sorry Lena). Most moms would say, "Okay, let's call it a day." Not us, we decided to feed the masses, find comfy places for them to sleep and carry on. Things went really well once we could concentrate our energy on the task at hand.



Despite the chaos we persevered and conquered. Unfortunately, that meant our children were slightly neglected for the day.

The best part of this story is that after that chaotic day I piled my kids into the car, rushed home, cleaned up and made dinner from scratch before Scott came home. After dinner I was outside with Adam talking to the neighbor. After realizing that I stayed home with my kids her question was, "Don't you get stir crazy?"

Um. No.

Matchy Matchy

I think we need to better explain the meaning of "match".


**He wore these "matched" shoes all day.

Holmes Update

Jane thinks her hands are super-cool and is using them quite well these days. She grabs all manner of things like hair and noses. She even grabbed my credit card out of my hand this morning. Yup, that's my daughter.


Adam continues to be a great big brother. His flaw being that he may be a little too good. He loves to bring Jane toys. I heard her grunting and came out to find her covered in toys from Adam. They included and giant Elmo, a ball, a puppet and a play cell phone. Thanks Adam.


Adam loves marble tracks. This one is the first he constructed on his own. Good job buddy.

Easter Weekend: Cousin Fun

Scott's sister and her family stayed with us over Easter weekend. Adam and his cousin slept in the playroom. This made for two very tired boys. Can you find Adam in this picture?

There he is. He fell asleep on the floor after playing for about an hour.


It was fun to see they boys get their Easter baskets Sunday morning.


These two are so cute together. They really like being together (except when they are fighting:).


It was a great weekend and we were glad to be able to spend so much time with family.

Easter Weekend: The Hunt

We did our Easter egg hunt at Dorothy's house. This was Adam's first time so to teach him the concept we put one Skittle in each egg. He was highly motivated to find more eggs. The only problem was that he wanted to stop and open the eggs each time he found one.