Makenna Turns Two

We can scarcely believe it, but our little Makenna Rose turned the big *TWO* this month. Wasn't it just yesterday that we brought her home from the hospital?

We decided to forgo a big party this year and have a small, intimate celebration with family. Our home is teeny-tiny, anyhow; eight adults, one toddler, and a small dog make it feel plenty crowded enough!

Both sets of grandparents were present, as well as "Uncle Aaron" and "Aunt Hunter." Temperatures were bitterly cold outside, but we stayed warm and toasty as we celebrated this special little lady of ours.

Like last year, I decided to make a homemade birthday cake for Makenna. Randomly enough, I took a Wilton Cake Decorating course at age fourteen. It was me and about eight other middle-aged women. I loved it! I've kept all my specialty cake-decorating tools since then but sadly have seldom utilized them. I figured if there's any good excuse to put my mediocre skills to use, it's for the birthday of our own child!

In case you're wondering, that's Peppa Pig on her cake, from Makenna's favorite TV program. {It's really rather adorable because it's a British show, so all the little characters have British accents!} I'm pleased enough with how the cake turned out given that I began the process of decorating it at 9:00 p.m. the evening prior to our celebration. However, it's made me itch to put in even more time and effort into future cake/cupcake decorating endeavors.

I utilized the banner I made for Makenna's birthday last year and simply replaced the "1st" with "2nd."

As the party got underway, Makenna was relishing being the center of attention!

It was such a fun-filled, happy event. Makenna loved every moment, as did we! A special thank you to all our families for putting in so much effort to make our little girl feel loved, even if you weren't there to celebrate with us in person!

Hello FREEDOM!

Matt left Monday morning for work training in Arizona and won't be back until Friday of next week {it's a long training!}. Yesterday, I drove to meet my mom in Indiana and handed over Makenna to her care until Friday evening.

That's right--I am free of both child and wifely duties for the next few days! All of my time is my very own!

 I may or may not even have celebrated by eating a Party Pizza {one of my super-guilty indulgences that I hardly ever allow myself}.

Once Makenna comes home Friday evening, I will only have her until Sunday afternoon, at which time I will hand her over to Matt's parents for ANOTHER four days and three nights of freedom.

I planned for Makenna to have these fun getaways with her grandparents during Matt's work trip at the prompting of my best friend, Laura. She has taken advantage of similar opportunities and convinced me that I'd "be a better mom for it." It's true---this is a time of both recharging and opportunity to accomplish many things for which I normally don't have the time.

I have so much I am planning to do during this time {which is already passing by much too quickly} and I've already given myself pep talks about how I'm trying to cram too many projects into too little time, so I need to know that they won't all get finished. To begin with, I decided to undertake painting our basement since it has been completely cleared out for the new carpet installation. I wasn't originally planning on this and it is quite time consuming, but since I had envisioned painting the basement at some point anyway, it really would've been silly not to take advantage of the both the fact that our basement is all cleared out and that Matt and Makenna are both away. We spend a significant amount of time in our basement as a playroom for Makenna and our family room {which contains the only TV in our home} where Matt and I like to relax in the evenings and on weekends. I am really excited about making it look prettier and feel a bit more cozy. The new carpet will make it look amazing, too!

After handing Makenna off yesterday, I drove back to Michigan, went to Ikea, went in for a dental cleaning appointment, and painted half of our basement. I have vowed not to waste this time!

It will be hard to maintain a balance between the many projects I want to tackle and making sure I take time to relax and enjoy myself. I am still needing to fit in my 19 hours of weekly work, too. I have plans next week to have a shopping day where I will leisurely browse all the less-kid-friendly stores I rarely visit anymore and partake in one of my favorite pastimes: sipping a Starbucks and spending a ridiculous amount of time browsing the Barnes and Noble book shop.

I must go...time to work some more, finish up the painting, and then head out to meet my small group for ice cream this evening!

A Lot Going On

This is the end of my second week back to work with my wonderful part-time, work from home job. And these last two weeks have been crazy, to say the least.

But first, let me back up to update a little more on Project P.R.B. If you remember, two of three goals I set to achieve by the end of July were to hold a yard sale {to help eliminate all the items from the major household purge} and to paint our office desk.

Sadly, neither of those were achieved by July's end. We had arranged and made plans to have the yard sale on the last Saturday in July. To my immense frustration, the weather forecast was threatening rain with multiple possible thunderstorms, so we decided to postpone the event. And then during the final days of July when I had planned to tackle the desk project and get it painted before I began my seasonal work, Makenna came down with some sort of virus which had her running a fever for nearly two days.

I vowed not to despair over my foiled plans.

So then, on the first Monday of August, I officially started working again. On Tuesday, it seemed Makenna could be coming down with yet another sickness. This time, it was much worse--she contracted croup. Our poor darling was coughing the most awful sound, and by Wednesday she started with a fever, too. Caring for her took up much of my free time.

And on top of this, I was finishing any last-minute preparations for our yard sale, because this past Saturday was our rescheduled yard sale day. By Friday, our house was a complete and utter disaster with the categorized piles of items sorted here and there, ready to be taken out and displayed in the early hours of Saturday.

I am happy to report that our garage sale was a success! Not only did we bypass the minimum amount I was wanting to make in order to feel that the whole effort was worth it, but we made just $1.50 short of my overall goal. What we earned was exactly enough to put together a new coffee bar in our dining room, which will give me a lot more usable counter space in our little kitchen. {I will be blogging the results soon when the coffee bar is all put together!} I can't even begin to tell you how wonderfully free I felt after eradicating all that stuff for the yard sale, whether it was purchased or later dropped off at the Salvation Army. It was as if a thousand pounds were lifted off of my shoulders, I tell you!

Then this past week, we had another big event. If you might recall, we live in the greater Metro Detroit area, and we had some massive rainstorms come through Monday evening that left a wake of devastating flooding. I'm not talking about flooding up to the rooftops or anything that severe, but rather several feet of water in many folks' basements, and most major roadways closed due to the flooding {which in places, flooded enough to almost submerge cars}. Apparently there were even a few elderly folks who drowned.

It is quite a sight to presently drive up and down our street and the surrounding neighborhoods. Every house has piled furniture, carpeting, and boxes upon boxes of personal items at the curb for the garbage service to haul away. I was blown away when I went on a walk with Makenna to see all the damage that was done. And that's when I realized exactly how lucky we are.

Most people had inches, if not feet, of flooding in their basements due to sewer backup. We, however, did not have that. We have a sump pump in our basement and for the first forty five minutes or so of the torrential rains, we didn't realize that our sump pump didn't trigger for some reason. Matt was able to trip it and the pump started working immediately and stayed working, thankfully. But we did have a carpeted area of about five feet by ten feet that had gotten well-soaked from water coming up through our sump pump hole. {Our basement is partially finished with dry wall and carpeting, and one area of our basement is completely finished, which we have made into a cozy little family room.}

We diligently worked at getting the water out, cleaning the carpet, and drying it as much as possible. But the damage had been done and there was no question that unless we wanted a super-stinky basement {that likely would have ended up moldy, too}, we'd have to pull out the wet carpet. The wetness had spread to a very large area, so about half of our basement carpet was taken out.

And then, by some miracle, we discovered that we have some kind of allowance in our homeowners insurance policy that would help cover damages. We don't have flood insurance so I don't know how this worked out exactly, but when they said they wanted to send us a check and waive our need to meet the deductible, I was beyond ecstatic. We haven't heard of anyone who has had any kind of insurance coverage to help with repair and replacement, which is such a shame given that most people had much worse damage than we did.

The carpet company came out today and we can re carpet our entire basement for $20 less than the amount of the check we're receiving from the insurance company. We are still in disbelief!!! Oh my goodness, what an incredible blessing we have received. We are praising the Lord because truly in this situation, it is only His hand that could have provided this gift for us.

Next week, this beauty will be in our basement:

A tremendous blessing in disguise from the water damage.

And now, here's to hoping things quiet down around here and we can settle into a little bit more normalcy!

Project P.R.B. Update

I am pretty excited because {for the most part}, I have completed part "P" {purging} of my project and I'm well into part "R" {reorganizing}!

{See explanation of "P.R.B." here}

The house has been sorted through from literally top to bottom, and this is what I've come up with for the yard sale:

{caution: ugly basement photo!}

This photo does not include our big ticket items, either. It will be so nice to sort through this, get it prepared for the sale, and get it OUT of our house!

I've reorganized our kitchen, which I've been itching to do for months, and made a few changes to maximize storage space in our tiny kitchen {I'll write about this later}. I've also mostly gotten our utility room under control, thanks to the new shiny set of utility shelves we purchased to help with organization. I'd never thought I could be so excited about adding utility shelves to a space!

I also pulled out all of the bins from our attic to purge and ended up reorganizing all the bins of baby items and clothing. I added labels, too; nothing fancy like you see online but at least functional. That's one of my quirks, too--I have more peace of mind knowing the baby clothes are folded nice and neatly in their bins. Maybe other OCD-types can relate? Anyone??

I have planned a lot of "before and after" photos to share of things we've done around our house. We've been working hard, but there's still much to do.

Thanks to project P.R.B., I'm feeling so much better about the overall state of our house. Lots more things to share soon!

Project P.R.B.

Our house is a disaster right now. You can't come in. I won't let you.

Ok, really it's not that bad. Except for half of the basement.

I'm in the midst of some major projects around here. In fact, I've come up with my own little name for this massive undertaking {because I'm just a nerd like that}: Project P.R.B.


P = Purge
I got rid of very few items when we first moved from our apartment into our house because I felt unsure of what we'd actually need and use in our bigger place. Now I know, and the excess has really started to eat at me. Especially with all the stuff that comes with having kids, I'm really feeling the urge to simplify as much as possible.

So I am going through every corner, every closet, every box and bin and purging my little heart out. It feels amazing.

Because we have a fairly significant amount of stuff to get rid of, I'm setting it all aside for now and planning to have a yard sale later this summer. I'm hoping we can at least make a small sum of cash that can help pay for some upgrades in our kitchen that don't fit our current budget.

The pile of items "to yard sale" is growing by the day and is making our basement rather precarious. Hopefully the bigger the pile, the bigger the income, but for now, it's a major eyesore and I can't wait to get all of that stuff out of our house!

R = Reorganize
We all know the tale of how we moved into this home exactly three weeks to the day before the arrival of our first baby. That means that our whole house was unpacked in quite a hurry. Whether we had unpacked just before Makenna was born or in the weeks after, we did it all without a lot of thought and just for the sake of being entirely unpacked.

I have put a little effort into making things more sensible and functional for us since then, but I haven't majorly tackled it all as it should be. As I've pulled everything out to complete the purging, I've put of lot of thought into how to best organize or reorganize items to make our life easier.

Unfortunately this has become a bit painstaking. I'm spending so much time trying to visualize or put something away one place but then decide it would work better somewhere else. The fact that I have such strong OCD tendencies does not help one bit!

B = Beautify
I've always been a stickler for organization but I haven't always paid much attention to making the whole scheme beautiful and elegant. I freely admit that I've gotten sucked into the organizing/home decor blogs out there and fallen madly in love with the thousands of ideas for pretty organization. The photos I've seen have made me hang my head in shame at my brown cardboard boxes, even if the contents within are organized.

Yet it also doesn't fit our budget for me to run out and buy lots of pretty new containers and such. I'm going to have to get pretty creative--spray paint, wrapping/contact papers, and whatever else I've got on hand will probably be the tools I use to attempt some more aesthetically-pleasing storage spaces.



I'm a procrastinator. {That's always something I'm working at!} So I'm a bit ashamed I've not gotten around to doing all of this until roughly a year and half in our house. In typical Deanne-fashion, I am pushing myself hard to get things accomplished as I have only a few remaining weeks until my "work season" will start up again. Once that happens, it's so much harder to get major projects done.

So here are my "musts" in the coming weeks:
1. Complete the P {purging} and R {reorganization}
2. Have a yard sale
3. Paint our office desk

Yikes. Wish me luck!

I'll try to keep you updated on the progress, and possibly even share some cringe-worthy photos of the current chaos in our home.

In the Garden

I simply adore gardens. I love the scent of flowers in bloom but really more than anything, I love seeing lush, green foliage all around. I have always fantasized about creating my own luscious garden, complete with paths, paving stones, and stone benches. It would be my own little secret garden--a place to escape, reflect, dream, and take in the beauty of the moment.

Perhaps this will be possible in a future home. For now, we live in a tiny home with a tiny yard, and as I'm a novice gardener, I'm perfectly fine with that. We are working little by little at making our backyard a place of relaxation and beauty, while also learning the investment of time and money it takes to maintain a well-kept, pretty yard.

I planted some of my own flowers this year {it wasn't in the budget last year}. But I was delighted to discover last spring that there was already beauty existing in our yard. Up sprung two large bushes full of peonies, and I was in love! I only wish these beauties stayed longer than a few weeks. It seems that the loveliest of spring blooms are here and gone in such a short time.

Thankfully the bits of bright flowers I added this year will keep things feeling cheerful all summer long.

More about gardening adventures to come later, as I share about my herbs and vegetables...
{Like the fact that the bunnies already ate all of my pole beans plants! Sigh}

The Nursery

As soon as Matt and I learned we were having a girl, I knew exactly the color scheme I wanted to use for the nursery. I have always adored grey and pink--it was practically a no-brainer for me!

We chose grey walls with white furniture and lots of pink accents. This way, in the future if we'd like to switch the pink for another accent color, it will be fairly easy to do.

And now, welcome to Makenna's nursery...

My sister Erin found the adorable "big deal" decorative photo which I love so much!

I had found the mirror hanging above Makenna's changing table at Ikea years ago. The basket on her changing table and the baskets on her bookshelf were a steal at HomeGoods.

Below is what the bookshelf looks like after I straighten it up. As you can imagine, on nearly a daily basis, Makenna pulls off most of her books and toys. But that's what they're there for! {I just have to put it back at the end of the day--me with my OCD tendencies!}

The decor I'm most proud of is below. I came up with this original idea {and I say "original" only because we are in the age of Pinterest and "borrowing" ideas} whilst wandering around and around Michael's craft store when I was about 38 weeks pregnant. I found these adorable wooden cut outs which I painted white and affixed to canvases that I had spray-painted pink. I already knew exactly which Bible verse I wanted hanging above our baby girl's head.

The little pink toy chest was also a steal at HomeGoods. Makenna loves playing with all of her stuffed animals. They get lots of snuggles and kisses from her, which melts my heart!

It will be fun to see how Makenna would like to decorate her room when she's older, but for now I am throuroghly enjoying making her space girly and fun. The fact that she loves to go in there on her own to play and look at books makes my heart very happy.

If we have another girl, I'll probably not use pink in the other nursery as one of the colors. We have plenty of pink going on in our lives already!

{But I will tell you that Matt and I would love to have a boy--it's no secret!}

The Final Weeks before Makenna

We had the most wonderful birthday celebration for Makenna this weekend. The birthday party post will be forthcoming, but here is a sneak peak:

{all party photos courtesy of our generous, dear friend Jay Bryde, retired professional photographer. She is fabulous!}

As I mentioned in my last post, I'm taking a look back at what our life was like one year ago from now. As I've spent these last many weeks completing project after project, shopping, making party decor, and staying up late to get things done, I was reminded of how scurried I was at this same time last year, not only having just moved into our first home, but expecting the arrival of our baby girl at any moment.

On January 11, 2013, at 35 weeks pregnant, Matt and I closed on our first home. The keys were dropped into our hands and we were racing the clock to get moved in and set up before baby girl's arrival. It wasn't even until recently that I realized our closing date was exactly one month prior to Makenna's birthday on February 11th.

The weeks prior had been massively busy as well. I had been working two jobs up until Christmas. We had traveled to Matt's parents home for Christmas and my family's home in Ohio for New Year's. Then I had my two baby showers the first weekend in January, both of which were out of town, and then returned home to pack up the apartment. That Friday was our closing day.

Once we closed on our little place, we immediately started hauling loads back and forth from our apartment to the house, which was about a 30 minutes drive apart from one another. But we could only move things into the basement at that point because we had a couple of big renovations to complete before our big moving day {see this post}: re-finishing the hardwood floors and re-carpeting the upstairs level.

We hired a moving crew because we lived on the second floor of our apartment complex and our new house had three levels with some very narrow staircases. So, 10 days after closing and when I was 36 weeks pregnant, we were actually moved into our new home. What we didn't know is that exactly three weeks later from that day, we would welcome our Makenna Rose.

I had SO MUCH to do, and I was counting on our little lady arriving AFTER her due date. My to-do lists were endless. Looking back even now, I can't believe all we accomplished after we moved in:
-the entire house thoroughly cleaned {thanks to my mom!!}
-unpacking the entire first floor and the master bedroom upstairs
-walk-in closet and nursery painted
-ordering the rest of the nursery furniture and putting it all together
-prepping the nursery and washing baby clothes, etc.
-shopping for and purchasing a new area rug, loveseat, and couch for our living room
-writing all my thank you notes for the baby showers
-purchasing the rest of the baby items we needed
{and I must once again thank our family that were absolutely crucial in us accomplishing all of this; we never could have done it without them!}

These were just the major things, and didn't include all the endless little things that were completed. All this on top of my weekly OB appointments as well as nannying one day per week and I'm telling you that I rested very, very little. I remember laying down for bed those last weeks, my feet absolutely throbbing from standing on them all day. Though not swollen, I would still wake up in the night to extremely achy feet. Thankfully that was really about my worst pregnancy symptom in the final weeks.

That brings us up to when I was 39 weeks and 2 days pregnant. I was praying and hoping our baby girl would stay in past her due date {and possibly I'm the only mom ever to wish that at 39 weeks pregnant?} and I still had so many things I needed to accomplish that week. But, I could tell something was possibly starting to happen...

Party Prep

It seems only yesterday I was snuggling this sweet infant in my arms:

And now we find ourselves a mere 10 days away from her first birthday.

Next Saturday will be Makenna's big birthday celebration. I am SO EXCITED! We cannot wait to make a huge fuss over this sweet little girl who has brought joy to so many lives.

I have to admit, I've been going absolutely project-crazy over here. It's a good thing my seasonal work has finished up a few weeks ago because I cannot imagine having enough time to accomplish all I've been doing and working at the same time.

I also had to admit to Matt that I have several motivations in throwing a big 1st birthday party for Makenna. Of course first and foremost, I am giddy to celebrate this monumental birthday of Makenna's. I know that she won't have a single memory of the party, but I do plan to make a memory album of this event as a future keepsake for her. I decided to throw myself into the details and make things "fancy", purely because I enjoy crafting and adding lots of special touches.

Secondly, we've lived here in our first house for just over one year now and we have lots of friends and family who still haven't seen it. So this event has become the perfect excuse for me to take on a marathon of house projects I've been dying to accomplish over the past year. I'd rather hit it hard all at once and feel like I can enjoy my hard work much more quickly!

Finally, this is a real chance for me to entertain. I've always wanted to entertain a large group in our home but since we've previously only ever lived in apartments, we never could accommodate such an event. Now that we finally can, I am utterly thrilled at the chance to entertain a gathering of loved ones in our home for what is really my first time ever to play the hostess.

Despite the myriad of house projects happening, I've become very nostalgic lately with the approach of Makenna's first birthday. I've been reflecting upon our move into this house when I was 36 weeks pregnant, all we accomplished in the 3 weeks before our first baby's arrival, and of course the biggest, most wonderful life change we ever could have prayed for in the birth of our precious Makenna Rose.

These reflections will end up in posts here as we lead up to the party and Makenna's actual birthday on the eleventh of February. Pregnancy, childbirth, and becoming a first-time-mom are such cherished things and I  look forward to sharing some remembrances with you.

A Delightful Household Tip

I'm not sure how many of you out there like to buy scented sachet packets, but if I find a great scent every so often, I'll scoop up one or two to tuck into a drawer or closet to keep things smelling lovely. My mom got me into the habit of stashing one in the dash of my car, and it can keep my car smelling spicy {the scents I most love} and cozy for months at a time.

Last Thanksgiving, we were at my Grandma's house in northeastern Ohio. Traditionally on "Black Friday," instead of hitting the big sales at malls and mega-chain stores, we like to go to a quaint downtown and browse a few home decor and craft boutiques. That's when I came across this delicious Apple Spice & Cinnamon scent and snatched up a few of them.

As I was checking out, the boutique owner gave me the most marvelous tip! She suggested that once the sachets stop smelling as potent, you can cut open the pouch and pour some of the granules into your vacuum cleaner's bag. Then once you start running your vacuum, the air is filled with the scent of the granules! It  makes vacuuming so much more pleasant. And if you have a pet that sheds in your house like we do, it will really save you from needing to change the bags as often because of the yucky smell that often builds up after so much pet hair.

You can add as few or as many granules as you'd like. I'd recommend starting with about 1/3 of a sachet.

Even if you don't normally buy scented sachet packets, I'd recommend picking up one or two just to pour into your vacuum. It's one of my newest, favorite household tips!

Labor Day Fun

We spent this past Labor Day "back home" where I grew up in Stevensville/Saint Joseph, Michigan. We went to meet up with my best friend Laura, her husband Chris, and their two adorable daughters.

It was such a breath of fresh air -- both because I rarely go "home" anymore since my parents now live in Ohio and because I so rarely get a long weekend with my best friend.

It was a weekend filled with good food, laughter, the beach, shopping, relaxing, and catching up on sleep. Of course it was a weekend full of "firsts" for Makenna and I was devastated to discover that I had forgotten my SD card for my camera at home. Thankfully, not only did Laura let me borrow her digital camera, but she was kind enough to take some practice shots this weekend with her brand new, professional-grade camera.

It was the loveliest weekend, one we wished would never end...

Beach babe

Too bad our beach day was cloudy during the time we were there.

Makenna's first test of Lake Michigan's waters--they were a bit cold for her liking.

Makenna had her first ride on the St. Joe Carousel, but on my lap on the stationary benches, of course!

Makenna (6 months), Eden (3 years), and Addie (22 months)

Makenna, Eden, and Addie were the cutest together! Eden and Addie would bring toys and pile them up in front of Makenna. It was so incredibly sweet, and Makenna was so delighted!

My favorite shot

36 weeks

So here we are at 36 weeks today. It seems so surreal that I only have four weeks left to go!

At my check-up a few days ago, I wasn't dilated at all, which I am utterly thankful for in light of our upcoming move. I'm still hoping this little lady won't make her appearance early and if she does, it'll only be by a few days or a week at most.

And the latest baby bump news:

• According to my last ultrasound, baby girl is estimated to be weighing slightly above average. My doctor estimated she'll weigh around 8 lbs at birth. Definitely not too scary.
• The biggest surprise for me: I am not nearly as uncomfortable as I thought I'd be at this point, especially with my crazy spine. My back pain has not been worsening, swelling is fairly minimal {so far...just recently took my wedding rings off as a precaution}, and though I move a lot more slowly and it is most definitely uncomfortable to bend over, I feel pretty darn good overall!
• Baby girl has been head-down for the last several months, and her head is starting to drop a bit. 
• I'm really enjoying the fact that during this moving process, I am unable to {read: not supposed to} lift any boxes. It's a good thing, too, because with moving from a second-floor apartment to a house with two sets of stairs, I'm getting winded quite easily these days. Baby's taking up my lung space!
• My belly button is STILL an "innie" at this point, though not by much.
• I can really tell our baby girl is running out of room in my belly. There's a lot less kicking and a lot more strong sensations of her trying to wiggle and move around in her shrinking space. And many more times when she hurts me! 
• My big accomplishment right now, especially with being a first-time-mom, is that I don't feel nervous about labor/delivery. I am actually pretty excited for it! {and yes, I have heard plenty of horror stories!}

We still aren't ready for baby yet. We have almost everything we need for her, save a few items, so we really would be fine if she made an extra-early debut, but we of course want to get her nursery all set up. I'm hoping to have it done by 38 weeks. Although I say we aren't ready yet....we really are. We are beyond excited to meet our little one. I keep having the most wonderful dreams about her! And with all the busyness of the next few weeks, she will indeed be here before we know it.

Almost Home

We are a mere few weeks away from baby's arrival and we have just closed on our new home! It's a cozy little house tucked away in one of the loveliest suburbs of Detroit. The house is full of charm and character, having been built in the late 1940's. The style of home is actually called a "bungalow," meaning the master bedroom suite is the one and only room upstairs. 

We are currently having a bit of work done to restore/replace flooring prior to moving in because it is obviously easier to do these projects sans furniture in the home.

The first project was to remove and replace the hideous blue carpet in the master suite.

Stairs going up...

Better than blue, don't you think?

And the current project is having the hardwood floors refinished. Here is {what will be} the nursery with the floors all sanded down.

The staining and finishing will be done tomorrow, and then after a few days of dry-time, we will move in this coming Monday. Hooray!!

Our days have been filled with driving back and forth from our apartment to the house, packing up our apartment, scheduling appointments, and shopping for things for the house and nursery. To say life is a little bit crazy is truly an understatement but it is all an incredible blessing. Lots more good stuff coming soon!

Homeowners

Take a little peek at the checklist below, if you would please. And pay special attention to the first item on the list!



Did you happen to notice that big, fat, red check mark next to "Buy a house"?!

We found a house we loved, put an offer in, and it was accepted! We aren't officially homeowners yet...the closing date isn't until next month. We have had the inspection done and the bank is currently working on our mortgage, so everything is going well thus far.

This means we will be in the big moving process a mere month before our baby girl's due date! I know, I know...we're crazy. But with the exception of a few things, the house is very move-in-ready. And we're going to have lots of help, because we all know I'll be limited to how much I can do with being nine months pregnant at that point.

I am just so infinitely thankful that we found a house we can move into right away. This is such a huge answer to prayer for us. And even if our little girl happens to arrive a little early, I will be content as long as we are IN the house. If we have our baby items ready to go, then everything else can still be in boxes--I don't care. However if she is on time or even late, you better believe I will be nesting like crazy and getting things put away, organized, and feeling homey before she makes her debut!

Right now, closing is set for January 17th. (My due date is February 15th). But the house is already vacant and the sellers are anxious to closer earlier if possible, as are we. It will all depend on how quickly our bank can get the mortgage squared away. So if you would...prayers for that, please!

Matt and I always assumed we'd be homeowners before we became parents. Looks like we should just barely make that a reality!