The Big 06

I can't believe it's already been six years since these two beauties came into our lives.

They were so tiny!

They've grown up so fast.

Their first birthday... I love their expressions in this photo

So blessed to be the mama of these two amazing little girls. 

 Happy birthday Maddie & Gracie!

Nine Years Ago...

Nine years ago I married the love of my life.

He's still just as handsome, but not as young looking... gosh we looked young

Now nine years & four kids later here we are...

...& I love him more today than ever.

Happy Anniversary Babe!

I love you!

Twins' First Music Performance

Thursday night marked Maddie & Gracie's first school music recital.  The program was based on the story of Lewis & Clark & the entire grade school took part.

The kindergarten class were Indians.

They made head bands & vests out of grocery bags.

They all looked so cute!

Gracie insisted I take this picture.  She's very... um... creative.

Unfortunately they put the little small kindergarteners in the last row on the final song.  So the twins were kind of hard to photograph.  There's Maddie in the back (I like the kid playing Clark in the front row... look how animated he is.. & look at the girl watching him... makes you wonder what she thinking)

 

Here's Gracie getting back into position.

And there's Gracie way in the back.  For some reason she decided to take her costume off before the show was over.  I really don't understand this because she's worn everyday since then at home.  But she's... um... creative.

After the show I made her put her costume back on.  Here we are back stage with the stars of the show.  They did a great job & were super cute!  I'm having trouble getting the video online, but if I succeed I'll post it here so you can watch them sing "One Little, Two Little, Three Little Indians".

House Hunting: Did I Mention This One

I forgot to post about this house that we tried to buy the other week.  Great house on a big lot & close to Josh's work.  We low balled them, as any good buyer would do in this market, by about $35,000 of their asking price.  They came back with a counter offer of $3,000 less then their asking price.  So I guess they're not ready to play ball.  We'll move on to the next house thank you very much.

Just in case you're keeping track that's houses we've tried to buy 5, houses we purchased 0

Childhood Is Confusing: Maddie

On Thursday Maddie & Gracie's class had Kindergarten Roundup.  This is when the preschoolers who will be in kindergarten in the fall come & visit the class for a few hours.  Kind of like an orientation.  The current kindergarteners show them what they do in class & hang out with them.

That morning while we were waiting for the bus I said to Maddie "Are you excited for Kindergarten Roundup today?!"  She said "Yah!  Is that like where the older kids will chase all us kindergarteners & heard us into the first grade class?"  I think we've lived in the country too long now.

*round·up  (roundp)

n.1.a. The herding together of cattle for inspection, branding, or shipping

Children's Museum

The other day Grandma Karen was in town so we went to Missoula to spend a few hours with her.  She treated us all to the Children's Museum.  I've never been there, & it is awesome.  There are a bunch of rooms with a variety of activities.  There was an art room, a grocery store room, a dress up area, dinosaur boned digging area, play area for toddlers, & a play area for bigger kids, a science area, a doctor room & a really fun water table where the kids could make streams & fountains (or if you're Danica just try to drink it).  It was a blast.  Here are some pictures of the funness (sorry some of them are blurry, my camera's batteries died so I had to use my phone).

House Hunting: Offer Update

So after having a contractor come & give an estimate on all the renovations we decided to pull our offer on this house.  We could have done it, but it would have taken all our time for the next 3 months, all our money, & all our will to live.  Plus, we'd have to do all the renovations before we could even think about moving in. We decided if we were going to end up spending all our cash we'd rather do it with a house we could just move in to.

Funny side note:  they were asking $255,000 for this house.  We offered $210,000 & told them they were over priced & had the comps to back it up.  They came back at $230,000 & told us they were lowering their asking price to $237,000.  That has never happened to us before!  And then we didn't even end up buying the house... I'm sure their Realtor loves us!

So the search continues...

Happy Moms Day

Happy Mothers Day to our wonderful moms!  We are so blessed that you are our moms.  Thank you for the awesome example you have set for us & all your love & patience.  Thank you for the amazing Grandma's you are to our children.  We love you so very, very much!

Josh & his mama Karen

Jessica & her mommy Leslie

House Hunting Continued

We are still on the search for an abode.  Now that Spring weather has hit there are more houses one the market.  The challenge is finding one in our price range that fits our family.  If you want a three bedroom, two bath you have your pick, & at good prices too.  But finding a four bedroom, two bath house is a little more challenging.  I don't think that whole recession status has hit sellers in Missoula yet.  There were a few new houses on the market recently that I walked through.  Here's what happened...

This one is up the Rattlesnake & has enough bedrooms & living space, but the kitchen was super small.  As in a galley kitchen that was probably a whopping 10 feet in length.  And the dining space was even smaller... doesn't work so well for a family of six.  The really special thing about this house was that the owner sat in the living room while we looked through it... and he didn't turn on any lights so it was really dark... creepy.

Then I moved on to this house.  In Target Range, great school districts, huge yard with an empty lot behind.  But again the kitchen & dining area were small.

Beyond being small the kitchen also had this horribly placed stove.  Right where all my children, guests, & eventually myself, would set our hands down on while it was inevitably hot.  Next please...

This one was across the street from the previous house.  I mostly went in it for comparison, but ended up liking the layout better.  Unfortunately, once again, very small kitchen.  Also, I'm pretty sure the Klopeks lived next door (name that movie & I'll give you a million dollars {not really, if I had a million dolllars I wouldn't be posting about house hunting}).  What's will people in small kitchens?!  That's where everyone hangs... make it big.

This was our most recent find.  Back in our old neighborhood, actually only a block away from the twins old school.  Great yard & a huge house, 1700 square feet on the main & in the basement.  The catch is the basement is totally unfinished, but does have a top of the line shuffle board court painted on the floor with seats & a scoreboard bolted to the walls.  The other catch is that it is an estate sale & the woman who had lived there pretty much did not updating to the house since 1969.  So our summer would be spent remodeling.  But the house is big, has a lot of character, & a huge yard, plus...

The master bedroom has this closet "room" (take not of the awesome blue green shag carpet).  There's more closet space here than we would even know what to do with.  Josh & I have shared a little closet since we've been married.  & may I say, homeboy has a lot of dress shirts!  We really like this house, it has 2 living rooms upstairs, and a lot of square footage.  Since it needs a lot of cosmetic work & finishing the basement we threw these sellers a super low ball offer yesterday.  We should hear back today or tomorrow morning from them.  So we'll see... I'll keep you posted.
Check out more pictures of this house here