Final Countdown!

Well it is finally here, the week of our big move!  We got most of the house in boxes now and put them on a trailer we are storing at Ryan's Dad's for now until we are ready to move it over to the new house.  We are doing the walk through on Sako on Wednesday at 1pm.  Then hopefully closing on Sako on Thursday evening around 5 or 6pm.  Closing on Laurel will be Friday at 1pm.   The cable and the phone/internet people will be there on Friday afternoon to set all that up, and the washer and dryer will be delivered on Friday as well.  Mom is coming to help me unpack all day Saturday which will be so great, even if she can just watch the kids while I unpack it will help so much.  It's looking like we may be hosting Super Bowl with my family on Sunday too, I hope I can get most of the house put away and organized by then!

My birthday was Friday the 28th.  It was very nice, Ryan took me on a dinner date to The Goings and it was so good.  The food and the service were both awesome.  Ryan's parents watched the kids for us while we went, the kids had a great time with them.  I got some housewarming gifts from my parents, a kitchen basket and a house plant and I got a gift card to Hobby Lobby from Ryan & Christine, that was so nice of them.  I look forward to spending it.  :)

Well we have a super busy week this week, finishing packing and cleaning and I have invoices for work to do this week.  I am going to try really hard to get all my work done before or by Thursday.

I have decided for the time being to leave the carpet as is.  In just a few months we will be needing to carpet our basement and so it would be wise to just do it all at the same time to save some money.

I will post pictures once we get in!

A Few Frustrations..

So we are moving into our new house in one week from today!  Pretty crazy.  There is still so much to do and a lot of packing.. It all feels a little overwhelming right now.   We visited our house yesterday because I wanted to see the paint in the kids rooms, which turned out nice.  Just a small smudge in Jack's room on the ceiling but an easy fix for them.   I love the huge dining room and the tile in the master bath is ooh so sweet! And the cabinets are gorgeous, love them.  They still have to put in all the granite counter tops, I am nervous and anxious to see how that all ties in and how it will look after it is in.

However the carpet in the bedrooms and the living room is HIDEOUS!  :(   I totally hate it.  It is a gross color, the style and the quality are TERRIBLE.  Shame on Ed for even considering putting something like that into his "setting the standard in quality" homes!  I am really upset with it.  I am going to go check to make SURE that that was the correct sample that we chose.. and then if it is I am picking out a nice carpet from Home Depot and having it installed. Unfortunately that will have to happen after we move in which will be a pain in the butt but I am not paying this much for our house and everything we want and hating a huge part of it.  It is so bad...   The pad is fine, we will just replace the carpeting.  I wish I could sell it back to Ed, it really is garbage carpet - and he can just keep it.

I'm headed to Home Depot after we check with our builder's model home and see if that was indeed what we picked.  I'll have someone come and measure and pick out something nice.  I feel just sick over this..  :(

We will also not be able to have our house painted until much later.  We talked to the shermin williams rep and he said that you cannot paint unless it is above 35 degrees night and day.  If it gets below freezing within 24 hours after the paint goes on it can chip really bad.   So we may not be able to paint until spring, which that is a minor deal really.  I think they were going to paint it soon but now that we know what can happen if the conditions are not right for painting we will be telling them that they have wait.  I don't want to have to repaint it in a year because of chipping etc.  I just hope that it won't be like pulling teeth to get them back here when the time comes that they can paint..

What a Crazy Month!

This last month has been pretty eventful for the Becker family!  The biggest news is that on Christmas Eve we sold our home!  What a blessing that was! The buyer is a single mom of two girls who go to Sunflower school, which will be so nice for them since the school is right around the corner.  She just loves the home and I'm so glad it is going to someone who will really appreciate it and take great care of it.  She also will be purchasing our washer and dryer from us, which is great.  Ryan is looking forward to not having to move those!   We purchased our new washer and dryer from home depot this week.  They will be delivering them the day we close.  I am very excited to try them out, I had considered a few different models but decided on this one because it has an enormous capacity (5.2 cu ft.), it top loading and has a lot of nice features that will be useful with our cloth diapering.  Here is the set we got.  http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc1v/R-202192411/h_d2/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053

We close on our new and existing home on Feb 4th.  That will be a very busy day!  I stopped by our new home yesterday and they have all the sheet rock in, the bath tubs, fireplace and the heating unit.   We are starting to do some packing now.  I packed up all the kids room decor and will start packing summer clothes, and closet items this week.  

Jack is 9 months old today!  He is now 17lbs 2oz.  He was 15lbs 14.5oz last month so he had quite a growth spurt this time! He eats 3 solid meals a day now and breastfeed's every 3-4 hours. He loves to eat whatever we are eating.  I also started him on a sippy cup today.  I got the Zo*Li BOT cup which I LOVE it is a straw sippy which is just what a wanted.  It works wonderfully, is dishwasher safe, has a sliding cap to keep the straw clean when traveling, and it has a weighted bead type thing on the bottom of the straw which allow the baby to get every last drop of fluid no matter how they are tipping the cup.  It is genius!  I'm go glad I ordered 4.  Here is a link to all you mama's who may want to check it out.  http://www.abesmarket.com/catalog/product/view/id/2831/

He has been sleeping through the night really well lately.  He has his left top tooth coming in it finally broke through the gum last night.  Before you could see the white through the gum but now you can actually feel the tooths sharpness.  Jack is really getting around! He crawls at turbo speed and climbs up on everything.  He can even climb stairs now!  He walks along furniture really well and if you hold his hands he walks himself all over the place.  He loves peek a boo, and taking baths with his sister.  I have some cute photos to share of there recent bath time.  

Lydia is very excited for her 3rd birthday coming up.  We will be celebrating it on the 17th in the evening.  She has asked for a Strawberry Shortcake theme.  :)   I am having this cake made for her.  http://www.flickr.com/photos/24367079@N04/3322819716/  She is asking for furniture for her calico pet house that she got for Christmas.

She is working hard on learning her letters and their sounds.  As per a friends recommendation (thanks Lee Ann) she is learning to use the computer as well as reading with the readingeggs.com program- It's very fun for her and she enjoys it a lot.  We bought her a little mouse with one click button so she could learn to maneuver it easily.  

She is really going through the terrible 2's lately however.  Some days are great and others she is testing me every chance she gets.  She has a lot of trouble sharing with Jack!   

My birthday is the 28th, and I am planning on using a gift card to the chop house that my parents got us for Christmas on the 29th to use for dinner and maybe see a movie too with Ryan while my parents watch the kids.  I am really looking forward to it.  Ryan and I haven't been out in a VERY long time.

I'm so excited to get into our new home.  I know it will be stressful for awhile with trying to get unpacked and figuring out my office so I can work.  I have lost sleep a few nights over just that..  My office is going to be in the basement but when we move in it will not be finished and there will not be any electricity down there so I will not be able to set it up right away.  I am not sure if I will just have to set up the office in our living room for awhile, or try to work off a lap top and many trips to the main office while Ryan works on getting me set up down there.. still undecided as to how we will work that out.

Ryan's Dad celebrated his 50th birthday yesterday.  We threw a little party for him on Monday.  Seth was in Gillette this week so he was able to be there for that.  It was great to see him again and we are all so happy that he is done with his term in the Army and he and the family will be moving this way.  They are looking into moving to Colorado Springs.  Ryan's Mom had a little accident yesterday and broke a bone in her hand.  She went right back to work but please keep her in your prayers that she has a quick recovery.

I hope you all had a very blessed Christmas and a happy New Year!   Here are some photos and a cute video of Jack...