Monday, September 27, 2010

Pre bedtime car ride

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Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Beach Trip!

So leaving off from my last post.... we arrived at the beach Thursday night (after selling our house that day!) around 8 pm. We stopped for dinner on the way and Kylie was ready to be out about a half an hour from the house, but it was a good trip in general. Since we didn't get to the beach until 8, they were excited when we got there so we let them stay up late to avoid battling bedtime. We also decided to try to let them sleep in the same room so Kylie wouldn't have to sleep in with us... it actually went pretty well! We put Kylie to bed first and let her get to sleep and then took Noah in for bed after she was asleep. It went really well until about 5 am when we heard through the monitor, 'Hi Kylie-girl!' It was cute but then they were both awake! But they both actually went back to sleep so that was good. The other two nights went well and they both slept all night.

Friday morning breakfast....


Kylie was obsessed with this inner tube and kept putting it on and crawling. :) It was cute... we decided she was trying to tell us something and headed to the pool.


We had a pool at the house which was so great!! -- except for the fact that we only made it to the beach one time all weekend because we were having so much fun at the pool! :-)




We spent most of the morning out there and then lunchtime and afternoon naps Kylie slept in her pack and play and Noah and Waylon laid down together in our bed! It was cute to see them sleeping together and I think they both had fun with that. :-)
Andrea, Sean and Savannah arrived while everyone was sleeping and - you got it - we headed back to the pool. The plan was to hit the beach that afternoon but we were having so much fun, we just stuck to the pool.

Here is Kylie in one of Savannah's 2T size bathing suits!!! Wow, we have a big girl.


This was a popular game for the weekend... crawling underneath the coffee table (and not just for Kylie!)

Friday night, we had a yummy spaghetti dinner and then Noah and Savannah watched Dora and Diego before bed and I caught these great shots of them sitting together. :-) So adorable!!





Saturday morning, Noah and Savannah found a horse to ride!!! :-)

Then we finally made it to the beach!! It took us a while to get organized and all the stuff gathered and by the time we made it to the beach, it was around 9:30. We planned to stay until lunch but the kids started fading fast around 11, so we packed up and headed home for an early lunch!!








This picture kind of reminds me of this one of Noah when he was just a little older than she is now...

Savannah and Kylie had matching bathing suits! :-) Savannah LOVES Kylie and they are going to be good buddies.






We got a nice long nap for all the kids so Kay, Dick, Andrea and I lazed by the pool while Waylon and Sean stayed inside and watched football... a nice break for everyone!

After the kids got up, we took a walk down to the pier to get ice cream and play some video games. It was fun!






After dinner on Saturday night, the guys decided to try to fly some kites out in front of the house. 'Try' is the key word - but everyone had fun watching anyway!






Everyone was very tired that evening from all the fun in the sun so we ALL went to bed easy and early. Waylon and I spent some time going through house stuff that evening and worked through our plans.
Sunday morning, we packed up and headed out of town by about 9:30 (checkout was 10 so we didn't have time to hit the beach or pool before we left). When we got home, the kids napped and we took off again to go look at a few houses with our realtor! It was a quick trip but we did get a few ruled out and had mexican for dinner on our way back.
Monday, Waylon went back to work and the kids and I had a nice catch up day at home. We did venture out for a quick trip to get Noah's hair cut after lunch but that was it. It was good to get some things done around here.
I was bummed though cause I dropped the video monitor and broke the video part. We love being able to watch her on there so I figured out how to hook it up to our TV and see her on there! Here she is during naptime. :-)

That afternoon, we took a walk and Kylie wanted to try out Noah's bike. It won't be long and she'll be riding all around!

We've been taking a lot of after-dinner walks with Maddie et al over the past few weeks. I guess we are trying to get our fill of having them so close!! We are going to be so sad to leave this neighborhood....
Noah stopped to feed our neighbors' chickens. He even let them peck the food out of his hand!!

Then he took Maddie home from their after-dinner date. :-) I LOVE LOVE LOVE this picture.


We tried to duplicate the shot with Kylie but you know how that goes....

Our game plan for the weekend -- my mom is coming through town this weekend (for her high school reunion festivities outside of Charlotte) so she'll arrive tomorrow night. Then Friday, she is going to keep the kids busy while I start packing some (Waylon has already started a little!). She'll leave at lunchtime on Friday but then Saturday morning, Waylon's parents will come over to hang with the kids most of the day while we HUNT HUNT HUNT for houses. Sunday, my mom will come back through town and keep the kids in the afternoon while we HUNT some more (a theme for the weekend!). We are hoping to either find a perfect resale or decide on a neighborhood in which to build by Sunday evening. We'll see! I think we are ALL going to be very tired by then. We are just so lucky to have so much help from our family and friends!

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Way behind -- but what's new?? :-)

Well, I didn't really think our lives could get any crazier but I was definitely wrong on that one!! :-) We sold our house!! I can't believe it. It was on the market for 2 weeks when we had our first showing and that was that. We are closing on October 18th so now we have to figure out where we are going!! More on that later though.... this post was supposed to be done before we left for the beach last week but I never got around to it so I'm going to update the past few weeks in 2 parts.

Going back to Friday, Sept 10th. That morning, my neighbors Gail and Morgan (with her daughter Phoenix) came over for coffee and muffins. It was really nice to catch up and Noah and Kylie had a great time playing with Phoenix! We actually talked a lot about the house being on the market and how unsure we were if it was going to sell or not! :-)

Phoenix and Kylie
Noah and Phoenix

Later that afternoon, we spent some time out on the playset. The weather is cooling down a bit so it's nice to be able to get outside more! And Noah and Kylie are able to play together more these days, too... it's so cute!




Friday night, Waylon's parents came over to babysit and Waylon and I went to Durham for dinner and to see Lewis Black - a comedian that Waylon really likes. I got the tickets for him for our anniversary back in May so it was a nice evening out.
Saturday morning, we went out to West Cary (where we will move - eventually) to look at a few neighborhoods. We had lunch out there and really like the area so we are excited!
That afternoon was Mason and Frank's birthday party so after nap, we headed over to Maddie's house for the celebration. The older kids played in the pool even though it was a little chilly and had a blast. There was good food, good cake, and good fun.


I tried to get a bow in Kylie's 'hair'. :-) She's also doing really well with walking. Still just a few steps here and there but as soon as she decides to do it, she'll be off!


Noah and Stella Dot in the pool. Kylie wanted to get in so bad! :-)

Happy Birthday Mason and Frank!!


Noah loved these butterfly wings - we thought it was funny having them over top of the Redskin's jersey! :-)

Present time!

Then Noah got a hold of the camera... some turned out really great!! He took the following three pictures.






Mason's Oma played with Kylie for a while - she kept climbing up on top of the picnic table over and over! It was funny. :-)

On Sunday morning, Noah wanted to play games on our computer so we set him up at the dining room table playing games on pbskids.com. What a big boy!


Noah decided to nap in his boxers on Sunday and before he went down, he relaxed a bit on the couch. Waylon said he looked like he was 15 here. :-)


After nap, it was time for another birthday party! This time it was for Liam, one of his good friends at school. It was fun because a lot of his classmates were there. All the kids knew each other really well but the parents didn't!

Playing in the sandbox


Kylie liked the swing!

Noah's present for Liam. When I asked what Liam liked, he said 'Superman' and picked this out to give him. He was so excited about Liam opening it so they did it a little early. :-)
Liam, Noah and Kylie

That evening, we gave the kids a bath and put a robe and slippers on Kylie afterwards. :-) Too cute.


And some sibling love before bed. :-)

Monday morning, the kids played hide and seek :-)


Just thought this outfit was pretty adorable!
At lunchtime that Monday, we met Jacque, Elizabeth and Jacob for lunch at Chick Fil A. It was a long trip and we didn't get home until around 2:00 and Noah decided not to nap. We did have a breakthrough though and he stayed in his room (on and off) for 'quiet time'.
After nap, more sibling love....


Thursday, we had plans to head down to Ocean Isle for our annual beach trip with Waylon's family. It was a great weekend (see the next post for that story and pictures)! Before we left though... the house story....
Wednesday, while I was eating lunch, I got a phone call that we were going to have a showing at the house that afternoon. We were really excited for our first showing and Waylon went home early to make sure everything looked good at the house. That evening, we were anxious to get feedback on the showing and see what they thought. We were in the middle of putting the kids to bed when Waylon saw the feedback saying she loved the house and had just emailed over an offer!! We started going crazy and immediately called our realtor. She was in the middle of getting her kids to bed too so she said she'd call us back with details. We somehow managed to get the kids to bed and were so hyper waiting for her call. Turns out, the offer was very low and she wanted to close in 2 weeks!! So we made a counter offer but didn't have much hope she'd come up much since her first offer was so low. We also said that we needed at least a month until closing. So we went to bed a little calmer (and a little disheartened).
The next morning, I had not packed one bit for the beach - I was taking the day off and my plan was to drop the kids off at school, run some errands, pack, and get everything loaded in the car by noon so I could head to a hair appointment. Then the plan was to leave town by 3. Well, so much for plans right!? Just after I got my errands done, I got the call from our realtor that this person had made another counter offer that we decided to take! I was totally out of my mind. I was excited, scared, sad happy... everything at once... and I hadn't packed one bit!! It was madness for a few hours. I wish I had a video of what I looked like trying to pack cause I wasn't getting anything done but I know I was running around like a chicken with my head cut off!! :-)
I actually made it with the packing and made my hair appointment but we had to sign the contract that afternoon so we were a little late leaving for the beach but we were out of town by 5:00 so that's not too bad! Turns out, going to the beach was a great thing cause it allowed us to take a little bit of time to calm down and let it all sink it. We also had time to get a game plan together. We think we are heading towards building a house so we are pretty sure we are going to end up in an apartment - but this weekend, we are going to go out for a marathon house hunting weekend to see if we can find a perfect resale.
So lots of unknowns right now and I'm going to be very sad to say goodbye to this house.... we have so many memories here!! We moved in 2 months after our wedding and have since brought 2 more little people into our lives! Amazing. We also have the best neighbors and are going to miss them so much. This is going to be a great thing for all of us though and we know we are making the best decision for our family. Stay tuned for updates!
Also, stay tuned for beach pictures!