Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Baltimore Trip


Here are the highlights of our trip to Baltimore to have a little Christmas time with Steve's brothers and families!

Uncle Jeff sports his new Michigan Hockey jersey!

Abby gives Aunt Chris some love for the special jewelery box and necklace!

Micah mixes up a volcanic reaction with his new science kit!

Abby gets "the royal treatment" from Herschel....

Eli LOVES his science kit from Uncle Dave, Aunt Kim, and cousin Otis

We take a trip to the National Museum of Dentistry. Fasinating, really. Did you know it existed?

Teeth brushing practice :)

Hmmm...she looks a bit natural in a white coat, don't you think?!

Duck-Pin Bowling

Micah "forces" his ball down the lane!

Waiting....

...waiting...

...it hits!

Eli's turn.

Zeke's form





Uncle Dave and cousin Otis--the kids LOVED seeing their cousin and couldn't leave him alone!


Christmas Highlights

Here are a few of our favorite Christmas memories from this year!







12.25 Thanks, Mom! Love my sweater and socks!

12.25 Zeke with Grandpa



12.25 Abby was very excited to open up her own pool stick!!!







12.25 Mush, Daddy, Mush!



12.25 Daddy after "mushing"!



12.25 Eli's Sphinx...thanks, grandma!




12.25 Zeke got his gloves for martial arts!



12.25 Abby's new coat...thanks, grandma!





12.25 Abby's slippers from Aunt Lolo....so cool!



12.25 Great grandma and Uncle Ted come over for a Christmas brunch.



12.25 Cinnamin rolls before the Christmas morning oven fire :)





....and during. Oops!



12.24 Abby's new Webkinz Jr.




12.25 Christmas morning...don't hold us back another minute, DAD!!!!






12.23 Skating at an outdoor A2 rink when we arrived at Greenfield Village's Holiday Nights...and they were sold out :(








What we've been doing around home

Since I am monumentally behind on my weekly reviews and blogging in general, here's a few shots that show us playing with some of the great Christmas gifts we received this holiday. Thanks grandmas, grandpas, aunts and uncles!!!!

I feel that this week, life may get back to some-what normal! We started up co-op again, which gives me a free Tuesday afternoon to catch up on laundry, blogging, and house-hold stuff. We have been having a good time getting back into school and everyone is working hard!

We have two in the Upward basketball program this winter, Abby started a swim class at EMU with a friend, and I start up a new Beth Moore study (Daniel) next week-yeah!

Here is Zeke making his homemade rootbeer with his buddy; thanks, uncles Jeff and Dave and Aunts Chris and Kim!!



We got some of the Playmobil Egypt sets and the kids have had a great time setting them up and playing elaborate games with them these last few weeks! I have made a couple shelves of one of the bookshelves in our living room a "special toy" shelf. The kids play really well with the toys featured on those shelves and I plan on rotating them avery 4-6 weeks.





Micah LOVES to build. He has plans to build his own full-size house with Uncle Sam sometime. Here he is with a car and a boat built from a set he got for Christmas.







Friday, January 21, 2011

The Story



The picture from my last post is...our new house! We have been "looking" for land (5+acres) for quite some time now. Once in a while, we would get on a kick of looking at houses on line, taking long Sunday drives to the outskirts of town, even calling realtors to show us a house or two. However, we've never really been in a position to move on a house. Until this year! We were tentatively planning on starting our house search this spring. Steve decided to get on our realtor's email listing this fall, so we could start seeing what types of houses/land were available and the price ranges. While casually looking over the email listing one evening, we saw this one and we both paused and thought...we should look at that one! And the rest is history!



Around December 23rd we saw the house for the first time. Steve and I just kept looking at each other, hardly believing what we were seeing! We've had our wish list going for sometime and, of course, were ready to sacrifice things on the wish list if needed. Well...this one had...it all! Even the unfinished basement, the open floor plan, first floor master, the acreage, the pole barn... more than we were even dreaming of actually having!!!


This is a bank-owned house, which, learning from seeing a few others on-line that these kind of deals usually are snatched up in ONE day or so, we knew we had to move fast! So we went ahead and made an offer on Christmas Eve. Due to the holiday and the big snow storm that hit the east coast after Christmas, we finally heard on about Dec 28th that the bank had countered our offer, so we quickly accepted their counter offer, and that day they cancelled two other showings of the house, I think!


Right now, we have had our inspection and well and sewer inspection, we have received the purchase agreement from the bank, and the abandoned well on the property has been properly filled. We can now sign the purchase agreement, and then I think we need to close within 30 days. I have been rather guarded because of the bank-owned aspect of this house...we've been told that they have 4 other offers waiting in case anything fell through with our offer....yikes!


We do have a lot of work to do with the house before it is in move-in condition. It was not trashed by any means, but all the appliances, light fixtures and mirrors are gone, no window treatments remain, fresh paint and carpet need to happen...so, we are going to take our time transitioning, and thankfully, do not NEED to sell our current house before closing on this new house.


We have been so amazed and humbled by God's goodness. "Wow" is all I can think of to say sometimes!


Here is a shot of the dining room; the windows face the front of the house. Built-in china cabinet :)


Great room shot:
Sliding door in great room, leading to....nothing but a very dangerous drop off! No deck yet!



Appliance-less kitchen:

Thursday, January 20, 2011

Our Unexpected Christmas Gift


God is amazing! More on this later...I've been a little...distracted...to say the least! Trying to get back to normal after a three week christmas break, including a trip to Baltimore, and the above blessing falling into our laps! Wow, what a ride it has been, and it's only been a month!