boxes, balls and birthdays

It has been quite awhile since I have posted anything, that should attest to our craziness. Less than a week before our planned closing date on the new house, my eagle eye spotted a dark spot on the floor in the study that our trusty inspector didn't find. Well, 5 days and lots of arguments later the owners finally opened up the wall and a very slow leak in a water pipe was revealed. We ended up closing just one day late, but with more stress and hassle than we'd expected. The sellers did cut us a check to cover some of the cost of repair, but we still had to make it happen. So, instead of closing Thursday with ample time to pack and finalize things we closed Friday and had all our friends and family lined up to help that afternoon. It was rushed and crazy, but all of our belongings did eventually make it over here. Also, I want to send out a HUGE Thank You to all those who watched the kids packed up all of our stuff and the all the friends who repeatedly loaded and unloaded the truck. Thank you, Thank you. We couldn't have done it without you!!

We are now slowly unpacking and settling in. I truly forgot how much I hate moving, but here we are. The leak is fixed. The guy who was supposed to fix the drywall is still in process and we only have one room and a closet that are still completely disastrous. Well, the garage too, but who counts a garage anyway. :)

So, did we close on the other house?...
No of course not. We like to give our agent lots of stress. Our buyer had some credit issues and the poor thing repeatedly tried to finagle an underwriter to sign for her. She kept trying while we put our house back on the market. Here we go again! At least this time we weren't living there so there was no rushing in and out at a moment's notice, shoving oranges down the garbage disposal for a fresh "citrus-y smell". We did however learn that about a week into the house being re-listed that we didn't have the electricity turned on. Back when we had moved into our new house we had scheduled it to be turned off a couple of days after closing to give the lady a couple of days to get situated. Well, she never did situate herself in our house and we forgot to turn the electricity back on. With all that being said and with no electricity we received another contract on the house about a week and a half later for a thousand dollars more. This guy has excellent credit and he has already sent people over to measure for new windows. Smart move--that house was very drafty. Anyway, we are supposed to close this Friday on the 9th. That will be a great Mother's Day present to me if we do. Having two mortgages is not good for my nerves.

Well enough house stuff...the month of April also brought T-ball and birthdays! Emily and Dallin both started their T-Ball practices and games. They are so incredibly cute. They are learning and improving so much. David is Emily's coach and Dallin's assistant coach, so now our Thursdays, Fridays and Saturday mornings just got busier. But it is fun!










And....drum roll please....
if you can believe it Kylie is now 1 year old. I can believe it! It has been an exhausting and ever challenging year. But that little trooper made it and there were many many moments when we never believed this day would come. She is such a sweet and precious baby. She has put up with and endured so much pain, from surgery to infections (kidney failure) and then recovered from it, UTI's and intensive physiical therapy at least twice a week, every week. My precious little angel from above. She is such an example of patience and tolerance. We love her so much!

her cake











Also, as a side note, her birthday came the week after we moved in, so we made her a cupcake and put a hat on her. We decided that this year and this year only we instead would celebrate the day she came home from the hospital, June 4th. It was the happy day last year, not her birthday and so her huge bash will occur that anniversary.

Dallin turned 3 the following week and he had informed us for months that he wanted a CARS birthday party and a baseball birthday party. Well, what are we to do? We had T-ball in the morning, rushed home threw a home CARS themed birthday party, then I set to work making a baseball cookie cake. We then headed to McDonalds where we had all the family meet and sing and give presents. From there we went to the Astros and let him cheer for his favorite team. By the end of that day I think every mixing bowl I own was dirty. I had his big cookie and then of course the next batch was the "milk free" batch for Emily and Heidi our niece--full of Vegan chocolate chips and margarine. Whew! What a day! However, that little boy of ours had a great time. He was happy and gracious and eventually held up three fingers when he said "I'm 3!"




His new bike


As I was going through my pictures I also found some from the "Walking with the Dinosaurs" event that we attended (http://www.dinosaurlive.com/). David got tickets from work. We went with David's sister and Jacob and Nicole. The kids had a blast and the dinosaurs were amazing and life size. Way Cool!