Bustin' a Move

Full Moon

Brody Turned 1...

...in March.

                 

 (So I'm a little behind, but we finally have INTERNET. How modern.)

Recap: Us

With no pictures. It's gonna be marvelous.

Sophia got hives.
We went to the Hot Air Affair.
The girls got fitted for their flower girl dresses.
Daddy wooed his girls with roses and chocolates for V-day.
Brody pulls himself up on things.
The girls got bundled from head to toe and made a snow castle and cave with Daddy.
Our picture window cracked for no apparent reason.
I painted our living room, dining room, and kitchen.
Ben, Ariel, Henrik, Soren and Freya visited us from TN.
I ran my second 5k.
I beat my first time by 7 minutes.
We played outside in t-shirts.
It snowed the next day.
Abby and I decided to go to Kansas one Tuesday evening at 8:00pm.
We went to Kansas Wednesday morning at 5:00am.
Jazlyn is princess of the pot. (read: potty training in princess dresses)
Brody is taking about 4 steps at a time.

There. You're all caught up.

Reveal #2: Master Bath

BEFORE

AFTER

BEFORE

AFTER

Fine By Me

Running into 2011

I started of the new year by running my first 5k in the freezing cold 2 degree weather. And I even finished in the top 100! (Never mind that there were only 80 runners.)


Our group: Jean, Mr. Duffert, Ryan, Erin, Me, Lauren





Crossing the finish line!



Me and my BSers (Bible Study girls):
Me, Lauren, Erin, Sarah (who came to cheer us on!)

Reveal #1: Master Bedroom Edition

BEFORE



AFTER



BEFORE

AFTER

December

Our December has started off with a BANG. December 1st (Jared's birthday), we were moving into our new house! Two days later, we left for Milwaukee for a family wedding.

All dressed up for the wedding!

Jared's side at the wedding

Upon returning home, we spent the week painting and unpacking (next post), and then in our insanity, braved the 8th largest blizzard in the history of the Midwest to get a Christmas tree...

Ready to conquer the elements

Marshmallow man

Brutal...

and insane.

The girls with their favorite man in the world!

How can this many people ALL be so crazy?

Decorating the tree!

Please note the amazing ornament placement. This is my FAVORITE Christmas tree yet...

Our deck after the storm

Our picture perfect picture window.

Each morning brings a new delightful present!





On Wednesday, we brought the girls to their first movie at the movie theater!
Please note: they both wore their Tangled dresses that they got for their birthday. So funny :)

We saw Tangled (HIGHLY recommend!) and they have not stopped talking about it since.

And THAT has been our December so far.
Now, on to Christmas...
Here we go.

Home, Sweet Home

We have a house!!!
This has been a C-R-A-Z-Y adventure, that I'm overjoyed to be done with. We started actively searching for a house last September (as in, 2009). We attempted to put offers in on 3 houses, but all three times, another offer was accepted before we could even write ours. We succeeded in putting an offer on another house, but got beat out with a higher offer. That's when we started to watch the housing market with an eagle eye. As soon as an interesting house would pop up, we would schedule a walk thru as quick as possible and submit our offer same-day. We found a suitable house (though, not ideal) that was a short sale and submitted our offer, and then proceeded to wait.... FOR.EV.ER. Seven months later, when we still had not received an answer from the bank (no acceptance, OR denial of our offer), we began our search once again. We found this gem, scheduled our walk-thru, fell in love, submitted our offer, and had an acceptance from the bank all within 36 hours!!! What?! Yeah!
After two full months of playing games with our broker, we scheduled our closing date for Novemeber 15th. But our broker wasn't ready. So we requested a two week delay, and rescheduled our closing day for November 30th, with the understanding that if we did not close then, we would have a difficult time persuading the bank to delay again. After two more weeks of shenanigans with our broker, we arrived at November 30th, closing day, with still no concrete promise of closing that day. We didn't even know for sure if we were closing until 11:30am... closing was scheduled for 1:00pm. We arrived, signed papers, and then waited for the funds to wire transfer to complete the process. They didn't come. So we left, with our closing incomplete. BUT! At 5:00pm, we got a call that the funds had transferred and the house was now ours. OURS. Yes, ours.

And we moved in.

Amazing, God. Thank you.

Monkey Butt



Ever since Brody solved the mystery of crawling a few days ago, all I see is his rear end. I missed his sweet face smiling at me all day...



Problem solved.



Step Aside, Elvis

We are getting festive over here this afternoon. I have my "Christmas Tree" candle burning. We're sipping on egg nog. I set my phone to the Christmas station on Pandora, and let the music blare. After a few minutes, a deep, sultry voice crooned, "I'llllllll be hoooome for Christmas..."  Sophia's eyes light up. She looked up at me with excited eyes and squealed,

"That's DADDY singing!! Mama! It's Daddy!!"

"Oh! Really? I think that's Elvis."

"No! It's DADDY!"

Lovely Locks

Sophia and I have really been enjoying our afternoons together while the young'ns are napping...



Sophia worked her magic once again!




Camera ready




Picture perfect



Ready for a date with my little man

He reeeeallly liked my hair... I'm not kidding. He wanted to eat it.

Me and my personal hair dresser

(And by the way, Sophia took a lot of these photos. Not bad for a 3 year old!)

Tread Lightly

Brody is a funny little sleeper. He sleeps in our room in a crib. He can sleep through some of the girl's screams from the other room, but when we make the almost inaudible noise of pulling back our covers to climb in bed, he wakes up. It has become a running joke between Jared and I. Last night, as we climbed into bed, Brody started to stir. I got an inch from Jared's ear and whispered,

"Shhh! You're breathing too loud!"

He came right back with,

"No, I think there was some lotion on my hands that just evaporated."

A loud laugh exploded from within me and I could not contain it. Brody did not wake up. Go figure.

Snow Much Fun

Guess what we woke up to this morning?

The view out our back door

Instant winter

Heavily laden branches bent over under the weight of the snow almost touching the ground

"I wanna get on my snow coat, and my snow mittens and go outside in da snow, Mommy."

 First steps in the 2010 winter wonderland

She was so delighted, she was giggling.

 

Playing with Mama

 

Makin snowballs!

"I like snow, Mama!"

 

Snow throne made by Daddy

Snow princess on her snow throne

Booster chair

Trying out the booster!