The house is fantastic, and I love love love it. I still have to paint the entire upstairs, but with it not having any heat yet, I'm not worried about getting it totally finished. I set up Haleigh's room and her bed, but she doesn't have to sleep up there if she doesn't want to. She comes home tomorrow from being with her grandparents for a week, so I'm excited to see her reaction to our new home. We were still living at the apartment when she left.

Hayden's walking everywhere now, copying animal sounds, yelling "MAMA!", and is still obsessed with fans, lights, and switches. Oh and tools also. So guess what he's getting for Christmas!

Some fun house photos!!

The living room is finished!



Looking into the kitchen. The last thing I need is some blinds for the windows. And maybe an area rug for the bad patch of carpet by the kitchen entry. Shanny's doing some weird demon-cat thing, sitting on the counter in the kitchen.



Hayden says hi! I'm noticing now that I need to get another valance for that small window.



Small but perfect.

Hayden's room! It is so perfect for a little boy and he loves it.

Haleigh helped me paint my bedroom in her Halloween costume.

I helped out at her Halloween party at preschool. Here, she's showing me her donut she won. They tied mini donuts to a pole with yarn, and the kids raced to eat them without using their hands. Too funny.

I took this photo as the kids were coming in from the Halloween parade. All of the parents were there to surprise them, and most got really emotional! Haleigh was just beside herself that I was there, and she really lost it, except she couldn't get to me right that second with all the people. It took her quite a while to let go of me and participate in the Halloween games, but eventually she went off with her group and had a good time. I'm so glad I was able to go help out!

I am so happy with our little house. We have not moved in yet, but we have to within the next week. Scurrying to get everything done and cleaned up for this weekend so I can recruit some strong people to help me move!



My little house :) :) :)




Living Room (BEFORE)


Living Room (IN PROGRESS)


Living Room (MORE PROGRESS)
Still have to paint the trim, it will be even lighter than what's already there.


Living Room (IN PROGRESS)


Living Room (IN PROGRESS)
Bedrooms to the left, galley kitchen and dining straight ahead


Large Bedroom (BEFORE)
This archway will be covered to turn the once-bedroom-turned-diningroom back into my bedroom! Thanks Dad!


Large Bedroom (IN PROGRESS)
In the middle of mudding the drywall


Large Bedroom (IN PROGRESS)
There was a large china cabinet built into the corner that Dad had way too much fun demo'ing. The room will be Kilz primed and then painted the same as the living room for now. I plan to replace the fugly chandelier with a ceiling fan.


Dining Room (IN PROGRESS)
The other side of that patched wall. The door leads to the basement, galley kitchen to the left, back door to the right.


Dining Room (IN PROGRESS)
Cool bay windows that look out onto the back yard :)


Kitchen (IN PROGRESS)
Basement door on the right. Lori and Mom already started tearing down the two layers of wallpaper. The stove is gone, it was in need of repair but I am looking for something new. Probably will put up shelving and hopefully get my microwave out of the way. That black one was the seller's; mine is white.


Kitchen (IN PROGRESS)
I have lovely orange counters :) The cabinets are in really good shape, just a little outdated. I'm going to look for some new hardware, and probably a new countertop and backsplash sooner rather than later. The carpeting is in okay condition... I may wait to replace that until the kids can keep all their food on the table.


The Basement
The basement is huge, and the seller painted it with DryLoc right before we closed. All I wanted him to do was leave me the paint so I could do it myself! The brighter area has a work table and a peg board but has a wall separating it from the other side.


The Basement
The other side with the washer, dryer, sink and counter. The seller left a rolling clothes rack in the dormer that I brought down here, so with the clothes line there, I've got a nice laundry area! There's a clothes chute from the bathroom also, but it drops right where the nasty floor drain is. I may have to come up with something to catch the clothes up high if we're going to use it.


The Bathroom
Lovely green tile :) Jeanne gave me a great idea to re-grout the tile with black grout. I think that would look cool. The wallpaper has to go. And the floor is tiny pastel tiles. I found a great pedestal sink that's perfect for tiny bathrooms. But that is a project for next year.


The Dormer (aka Haleigh's Room)
This is at the top of the stairs... a little space for maybe a desk or something. There's some built in shelves on the right.


The Dormer
Down the hallway to Haleigh's room. The walls are some weird paneling material... My dad mentioned taping it off and painting it with a sprayer. At the end of the hallway right before the bedroom is a huge cedar closet.


The Dormer
This is the bedroom part. Both sides are the same size, and there's the built-in drawers on both sides. It's cute for a little girl's room, and Haleigh loves it. We had Hayden up here taking a nap the other day. I want to replace the two ceiling lights with chandeliers, and do some other girly things with the walls.


The Dormer
There's no heating duct up into the dormer! The thermometer reads about 58F if you can't see that. This is obviously something I'm going [to ask Dad] to take care of soon. Haleigh will share Hayden's room until we get heat up there.


The Backyard
We love the little backyard. I'm sure there will be many more photos to come. You can see the cute bay windows here, and I can actually fit my van back here! I was afraid the driveway would be too narrow with the neighbor's fence right there. I'm getting good at it now :)

I talked with the neighbor... they are a couple my age with a 10 month old son! She and I are so excited that our boys can be buddies :)


The Backyard
Hayden likes the grass, but finds it too uneven to walk on yet.



And one last cute photo... Haleigh found another backpack in her closet, so she graciously let Hayden wear her Disney Princess preschool backpack and they "went to school"... which really meant they did like 40 laps around the apartment in their PJs!

Photos and Walking

My little preschooler :)

Hayden is now officially walking, and actually sleeping all night for the first time. His little brain must finally be able to shut off at night, now that he's mastered the walking. It's wonderful :)

And a Partridge in a Pear Tree...

Both kiddos had well-checks yesterday afternoon... Haleigh's was long overdue (tax season! I swear!) and Hayden was about a month late. But they're both healthy and happy and growing just fine.

Haleigh is in the 25th percentile for both weight (30 lbs) and height, she got one vaccine which she was so brave for, and her ears still look great. We did get a referral to a pediatric cardiologist though, to do an echo on her heart to make sure it isn't too close to her breast bone. Like her dad, her little chest caves inward, called something like pectus excavatum, and it would be good to get a baseline test done so they can take action quicker if the condition worsens. Right now she's not having any pain or trouble breathing. She spiked quite a fever last night due to that vaccine I assume, but seems better this morning.

Hayden is also in the 25th percentile for both weight (21 lbs) and height, and he got three vaccines, about which he screamed his widdle head off. His foot is much better and not turned out hardly at all anymore... he just needed to start walking. He takes about 4 steps at a time alone, and he's really good at walking along a wall. He was kind of grouchy last night, but a dose of Tylenol around dinner time helped and he ended up sleeping all night in his own bed. Wow!

Of course our doctor's office changed over to paperless medical records YESTERDAY, so the staff was extra slow in processing everything and it's exactly why two easy appointments took 2.5 hours. But I was patient, and my iPod, Cheerios, and a camera phone really saved us from complete meltdowns.

Other news... Haleigh loves preschool and I love the work she brings home. She's learning to draw in the lines, and she can already recognize just about every letter of the alphabet and even write a few of them.

I looked at another house last night... in a great neighborhood with a really great elementary school. It's super close to the preschool and is closer to my work. It needs some updating, but for the right price I think it's a great house.

The Preschool

We LOVE the preschool. It is really perfect for Haleigh. They have little 20 minute classes - Art, Math, Science, Music and Gym! - some group reading time, play time, a snack, and even Kindergarten prep. I am so excited for her to start next month. She loved it too... she buzzed around playing with stuff in each room while the admin and I were talking, and she even joined a game of dodgeball in the gym before we left with no prompting from me at all! She was not happy when we had to leave, and can't wait to go back. She'll start just two days a week for this school year, and maybe more next year.

So exciting! (and scary that she's old enough for SCHOOL, yikes!)

So Many Happenings

Finally able to be online again. No internet at home, and training at my new job meant no internet on my breaks or anything for a few weeks. Nice to be back. I have 436 unread blog posts in my feed reader. I kinda just want to hit 'mark all read' and start over!

So I have a new job, closer to home, fewer hours, more $$, better mission, more challenging work. Really couldn't be any better. I've had my eye on this job for years and it finally all just fell into place :) I also joined the ranks of soccer moms everywhere and bought my first minivan last weekend. It's a fun burnt-orange color and we all love it. Well, the kids love the DVD players, and I love the quiet.

Our roadtrip, two weekends ago, by the numbers:
448 - miles driven, round trip
448 - deer spotted along the way, both dead and alive (seriously, at least one every mile, stupid deer)
2 - successful potty stops on the way up
5 - snacks and drinks distributed
88 - creative answers to the questions, "Whatcha doin' Mommy?" and the inevitable "Are we at Michigan yet?"
32 - wild turkeys chased off the driveway upon our arrival
1 - super duper cute and adorable 8 week old baby raccoon named Niko
8 - total hours slept all weekend, due to a not-so-sleepy baby named Hayden
1 - barefoot hillbilly playing in the dirt all weekend (not me this time)
3.5 - hours of quiet on the drive home, since we left Haleigh up there for the week!
All together a good trip. Haleigh came home Friday. She always runs around like a maniac and says she loves my carpet when she comes home from up there. They have soft plushy carpet so berber is quite a different feeling. Silly girl.