We made a decision

Well...after lots of discussion and looking at different properties, we've decided to build our new home. We are very excited and feel this is the best thing for our family.

Here is the design of our new home, there will be a few minor changes with the floor plan and a 3rd car garage but for the most part this is it.

http://www.nhdhomeplans.com/home-plans/plan_detail.php?planid=3583

Last night (Thursday evening) we met with the builder to go over the details and it looks like it'll take about 6 months to get into our new home. One month will be spent just closing on the construction loan.

Our agent May, told us about this area called Conception Park that has eight plots of land after we looked at a bazillion properties. The builder cleared these plots and set them up back in '07 to build $500's type homes. Well since the market has tanked he just wants to build and get something up in this area. Although our home won't be a $500+ home to start out with, we're sure bigger homes will come in and up the value of our home in the future. The builder is excited Luke and I want to be the first to start developing this little area and take on the home owner's association tasks (mostly Luke). He is giving us a package deal with the land and the home so we can't pass that up. Plus, we get prime pick of the plots and we feel we've chosen the best one. One of the most exciting things about living in this development is there is a nature trail that circles all the plots. So it'll be nice to take the kids for walks on this nature trail and feel safe by myself. The next time we go visit it, I'll take pics and share.

SOLD!

That's right...we sold our home! It only took 3 weeks to the day to sell our home and the inspection is being scheduled for this Saturday already. All the hard work to keep it clean and in show condition everyday really paid off. We had showings almost everyday for the past 3 weeks. I had to throw out a roast because I never had time to cook it. I didn't want to cook it in my slow cooker while people were viewing the home afraid that the smell would turn some people off.

Although we're excited, the thought of having to live in a rental home or apartment then moving twice isn't going to be fun. But it's going to be all worth it. We have our financing setup for a home loan and a construction loan we just need to figure out what we're going to do. There are so many short sales out there that we could get for cheap but then there is the excitement of building what we want and having everything brand new. Hopefully we will have something figured out in the next couple of weeks.

In the meantime, we need to get busy packing and finding a new home before March 27th, that's when we close on this house.

Kaitelyn has an owie

Yesterday evening (Monday), Kaitelyn was messing around with the vent cover in her room. After warning her a bazillion times not to mess with it that it would cut her fingers off or pinch them...she got pinched.

Here she is telling us about the owie on her finger.

Luke and I did not show her how to do this, it's all her. We thought it was hilarious and had to share.

I love sleeping babies

Just look at those beautiful eyelashes

Ahhh....he's sleeping so soundly

Selling Our Home

I'm getting a little nervous, our home has been a big hit the past week. It's looks like we will have our home sold well before we find another home we like. We've had 3 strong showings and a broker/agent tour of our home. Of the three strong showings, we have 2 parties that absolutely love our home and it's their number 1 choice, now we're just waiting for an offer. One is scheduled to come back on Saturday for a 2nd look. The broker/agent tour was a BIG hit. We had 15 agent/brokers tour our home on Tuesday. Of those, 14 out of 15 agreed our home was priced to sell. That's really good. Everyone that has come into our home has remarked on how nicely our home is staged and how clean it is. Whew...I get so nervous that people will smell the stinky dogs or be allergic to the pets, but nothing of that nature yet. We have our first and maybe only open house this Sunday from 1pm - 4pm, so we have to find something to do during that time.

It's been an amazing experience so far and I'm really pleased with the agent we picked to help sell our home.

Reed is 2 weeks old already

Kaitelyn likes to cover up all of her stuffed animals and babies.
Here is her horse covered with a blanket and pillows because it was cold.
Kaitelyn was telling me all about it in this picture.

Reed's 1st bath at home

Surprisingly...Reed loves his baths. He loves to just sit in his tub with the water running over him. It has to be on the spray option though.

Big Sis holding Reed after his bath

Reed wanting a piece of that banana

Relaxin' on the cozy couch with his dad

I am so blessed to have these two beautiful children.

Ever So Busy...

Man...we have been so busy since little Reed has joined us. He has made our family complete. It turns out I was scared and nervous for no reason because I have just been on cloud 9 since he joined us.

We took our little man to his first doctor's appointment on Wednesday and it was so traumatic for me. He had another PKU test (that's where they put a nice size puncture in the heel and fill five circles on cardboard paper with blood). I had to hold Reed while they squeezed and squeezed his little heel for blood :-( It was so hard not to cry, myself. Also, we elected to have his little wee wee circumcised. That wasn't too traumatic only because they took him to a surgical room for the procedure and we weren't allowed inside. However, I get queasy having to put Neosporin on it and making sure it stays clean.

Our little man is up to 9lbs now and is growing like a weed. He likes to sleep all day and night, but enjoys eating in the evening time. It's not so fun for me during the day because his milk supply builds up and has nowhere to go. He's been sleeping well at night and only waking up twice to feed. Kaitelyn was an eater, she woke me up every 2.5 to 3 hours to eat. My body always struggled to keep a good supply of milk for her.

Speaking of Kaitelyn, she's such a wonderful big sister. She tries to comfort Reed when he cries and she is always asking to carry him and play with him. When he's sleeping, she will say, "Ahhh...he's so cute". It's so cute to hear her say it.

For those of you that are close to us, you know that we have also been busy getting our house ready to sell. Well...it is officially on the market. Our agent posted our listing on Tuesday evening. It looks great and we're optimistic that it will sell fairly quickly. You see, we live in the Manette area and it has been known to be a desirable place to live. Some of our competition that recently listed their homes have sold fairly quickly. What sets our home apart from most of them is the square feet and just the fact that it is a charming little rambler. I'm gonna miss this home. It's the first home we lived in, in Washington and the very first home we have ever sold. Check out our listing http://windermere.com/tid246143

We have been out looking at homes and land since Reed and I came home from the hospital. It seems as though we have looked at every home in our price range on the market. Right now, there are so many homes up for short sale which can take several months to resolve once an offer is made. We want to be in our new home before June and settled before Kaitelyn's birthday on the 19th. I'll keep you posted on the progress. We have some people coming to view our home on Monday morning then a Broker tour on Tuesday this next week. Then, on Sunday we have an open house. I'm hoping with the tour and open house coming up, there will be some offers coming in. We have found a newer home on a couple of acres that we would like to have, but we're waiting to see if some offers come in before we make an offer.

I have a few pictures and will post them soon. Our camera died on us last weekend and we had to order a new one. We finally got our new camera Thursday afternoon so when I have more time, I will post some pictures.