Change is in the Air

Well folks, our time has come! This has been in the works for 7 years now! We first tried to sell our home in 2009 the summer that we had Bradley. Then we tried again the summer of 2013 without luck. We listed it for sale once more on March 23, 2016 and almost 4 weeks later we got not one--but TWO offers! We are over the moon excited about this next chapter in our life and I can't wait to bring you guys along with us.

Every time we listed it for sale we knew that whatever was meant to happen would happen. It was out of our hands and we would be flexible with God's plan for our life. Looking back, we can now see some big things that we needed to be here for.

Yes we are moving to NY.......Western NY to be more specific, not NYC. Huge difference! 99% of the people we tell this to picture us moving to downtown Manhattan. That is not what we are doing. Our end goal is to get an old Victorian house on some land that we can make our own to grow old in.

If you would like to read about our previous "research" trips that we've taken to WNY, you can read here, here, and here for the first trip in April 2011, and here for our second trip in July 2012. We have definitely put work into the details, and are not going into this decision lightly!

We will miss our family greatly and wish we could take them with us! I just hope they make an effort to visit us and actually see in person the life that we are building.

The timing works out perfectly with Bradley finishing 1st grade and the summer beginning. We have a very generous cushion of savings that I have amassed in preparation for the big move. I will be doing a travel nursing contract that will earn enough money during the summer to be able to take off during the holidays (and snow season!). Nick also has several job leads even! Everything is lining up and we can't wait to see what life has in store for us! I will use this blog to journal the process and our adventures once we get to our destination. Please follow along!

366 Days = 1 Year Old!

Yes this big guy had to wait an extra day for his birthday because it is a leap year, but it was worth it! He is now a one year old with a ton of energy and on the move! Here are the stats:

Weight: 21lb 8oz

Length: 30.5in

At 1 year old you:

• Sleep around 11hrs at night and rarely wake up in the middle of the night
• Tend to be an early riser
• Take 2 two hour naps during the day
• Use a sippy cup great and are drinking milk, water, and formula
• Eat what we are eating!
• Still wearing cloth diapers, and a size 3 disposable at night
• Are getting too long for your 12mo clothes
• Still have dark blond hair and blue eyes
• Are cutting your 8th tooth
• Can stand and balance but haven't taken steps yet
• Like to point
• Say mama, dada, and bubba
• Use your paci when going to bed
• Love to go on trips and walks

We had his birthday party on Sunday and all the family came! I made a hot dog bar with all of the fixings and cake and ice cream for dessert. Jacob got to eat his first cupcake and of course he loved it!

I resurrected Bradley's "1" hat that I made for his first birthday and brought it to life for one more day!

He was very tentative with the cupcake at first, but once he got into it he loved it!

It has been an interesting year that went by fast but slow at the same time. We all survived and thankfully we are starting to get some sleep now! This boy is full of energy and I think he stole it all from me. I know big brother can't wait until they can chase each other around!

Around the House

For sale! If you follow me on Facebook then you already know that our house was listed for sale on March 23. We have had a ton of showings already, and one super low offer, but that's it. Story of our life! We have an amazing realtor this time so all we can do is hope for the best. We are dropping our price on Wednesday so maybe that will bring some serious people. Here is a link to look at the listing: --------click here---------

 To prepare our house we did a bunch more updates to it. First off was this broken old rickety hot tub that was useless even when we moved in 10 years ago! My brother cut it apart and removed it in pieces, then Nick and I leveled the ground and put simple patio pavers down.

 Next was the sliding patio doors in our master suite. They were old, dingy, janky, and very tedious to open. I wanted french doors with blinds built into the glass, but those cost twice as much as sliding doors so I compromised! The installer did an amazing job and was done in about an hour.

Another project was repainting the deck. We did this 3 years ago when we did our deck overhaul (here and here), but it was a thin coat of pain done with a sprayer so the weather did a number on the old wood and it need to be redone. This time we rolled it on and it looks (almost) good as new! And yes, I remembered the paint color--Port Wine :)

And this time I conformed to appease the masses by "staging" my home. I raided my mother's extra froo-froo stuff from her house and put away 80% of my stuff so that the buyer can picture themselves in our house blah blah blah.......Here is one little area:

I also added some simple wrap curtains along the ridiculously long picture window in our living room that looks out over the backyard. It contrasts with the white sheers and white walls, and pulls out the accent colors on the rug and pillows.

That's about all I have for now! The showings are keeping us on our toes, and yes it is super hard and inconvenient to keep your house spotless with two small children just so strangers can walk through it and judge it......