well, it's official!

we closed on our house (friends camp) last wednesday and are officially "renting" from the new owner. we closed on our new house (shirley) today and will gradually start get our "stuff" over there! :)

the shirley house is almost 3000 sq. feet and has 5 bedrooms and 3.5 baths on just over 2 acres . . . it will give us the room we need in a great setting for kids to grow up. it needs a lot of work, but it's something that through the years we'll be able to make our own . . .

we closed at 1 o'clock, but left without money and without keys! i was slightly in a state of depression. we just shelled out a TON of money and left to get back in our car and drive to the house we no longer own. . . it was a bummer! we did end up getting the keys later that day (at 5) because the old owners didn't close until 4. we had all the kids and headed to the new house to check things out before the work begins!

bailey and i looked at flooring samples and talked about changes (LOTS of changes . . . just 2 different categories . . . 1. change before we move in 2. wait until we have money again) and the girls ran like crazy through the house. they are excited . . . but i don't think the reality has totally set in . . . i don't know that they really understand we won't be coming back to friends camp after we move all of our stuff . . .

ken willingly gave up the room "with a view" that she had previously chosen and opted for one in the front of the house . . . kam and mck will start off sharing a room, although this may not last long, and will have the bigger of the 4 rooms with a view of the horses next door . . . our new little guy will have the room right off the playroom . . .

now we're ready to rip out some floors (yes, the longhorn in the entryway will be among the first things to be demoed!!!), lay some paint, mow some grass, and start moving in! :)

the infamous longhorn mosaic in the entry . . . yes, that will be going!

we have until may 24 to be officially "out of here", but lots of work to do at the new house to get things ready!

catching up . . . on the house stuff

okay, so i am slacking . . . still! we have been so crazy busy lately that i haven't even had a chance to update our blog! so here goes . . .

we sold our house!
we took a week to fix things and clean really well, put the house on the market on friday, march, 27, then left to go out of town that sunday. we got a call at the hotel on monday night that we had not one, but TWO offers on the house. talk about crazy! one offer was way too low, but the other was what we were hoping for! So, we will be closing on the house next wednesday, april 15, and leasing our house back from the new owners through may.

we've been house hunting!
we spent all of last weekend looking for a house. grammy and grampy came to watch ken, mck, and kam so that we could "hit it hard" and find something fast! we saw 17 houses in a day and then went back to check out 2 of them on sunday. it's tough to find what we're looking for in a house that doesn't need a ton of work, but we found lots of houses with "potential"! is potential what we should be looking for when we need to move out in like a month and a baby is coming in about 3 months? :)

we made an offer . . . or two or three!
we found a house with almost 2 acres that is perfect for 4 little bailey kids to grown up in! it's more country than where we are now . . . with horses right next door! the house needs a lot of work, but a lot of it we can do over time! we're just waiting for them to accept our "final" offer and we're hoping to close in a couple weeks . . . keep your fingers crossed for us! looks like baby bailey #4 won't be coming home to friends camp street. :(

pumpkin play dough playtime

this fall craft from family fun magazine was a hit! the girls mixed the play dough and kam turned the noodle stems green! the kids made pumpkin families and giant pumpkins! what a fun afternoon! we even brought it to grammy's house to play on turkey day! :)

morning meltdown

okay, so anyone who has seen kam lately has seen her puppy. seriously she has become scarily attached to her stuffed animal/blanket. well, because she's been carrying it around everywhere (totally my fault) it has gotten DISGUSTING! i've said for the past few days we need to give puppy a bath. kam's immediate response, "NO!" so i planned to sneak puppy away or take it at night, but never had a chance to . . .

so this morning i told her we were going to give him a bath. she grabbed the puppy and ran. she backed herself up to the couch and just kept saying "NO!" after several coaxing attempts, i bribed her with a candy corn. she ran with a smile into the laundry room and put him in. she waved to him while he spun around. then ran to get her treat! :) so i'm thinking "ha, who knew it would be this easy?" . . .

yea, well, that didn't last long. she finished her candy corn and wanted to get puppy out. like now! she had a major meltdown (and hello, we were only on the wash cycle - still had to dry him!) poor thing. she just lost it. nothing helped. we went in and watched him spin around and tried to distract her by playing but then she'd hold her hands out and cry sadly "puuuuppppy?" oooh! talk about breaking your heart. seriously between the crocodile tears and her pouty lip, i am a whimp!

so, i gave in. we stopped the cycle in the middle of spinning and dried him super fast. you would have thought it was christmas when she got him back. . . gotta have a new strategy next time! :)

here's how it played out in pictures . . . :(