Exciting things are happening!!

Ahh!! This has been one busy and exciting week!

HOUSE SHOPPING, PUTTING OFFERS ON HOUSES, AND ALL THE STRESS THAT COMES WITH IT :-)

We have been looking at the house market for a couple years now. We just noticed that this winter the prices have gone down quite a bit and some livable houses were in our price range again :-P

We chatted with the in-law's (we own a percentage of current home with them - they live up we live down)
We decided it was time to do some house shopping! EXCITING!
The week before we had planned to go house shopping our top two houses dropped in price! EXCITING!
We did some house shopping on Saturday. A BIT MASSIVE THANK-YOU goes out to Armand and Arenda for taking the kids for the day (and at 8:30 am to boot)!!
We put an offer on a house Saturday eve, it went back and forth a few times and we got a GREAT DEAL! It's also move in ready!! No renos??? Well maybe the kitchen in a few years ;-P you've gotta redo the kitchen if your Dad builds them right? And I know what I'll be missing after having a kitchen with so many bells and whistles :-P
Possession date is May 13!! Anyone wanna help us move? ;-P
We are super duper stoked about all this! We get our own yard!!! I can kick the kids downstairs or outside to play! We have a super awesome garage, and WINDOWS!!! YAHOO!!! Oh ya, and two bathrooms!! We are so thankful to be able to have our own house!! Once we move in the friends and family that live close will have to come for a visit and those that live far away will have to come stay at our place for a bit! We even will have a GUEST ROOM for you!!! No more 'borrowing' the in-law's den/extra room upstairs, or cramming you in Miriam and Dylan's room! YAHOO!! Yes, that's right Becca you will even get your own bed!! No more sharing with one of my kids lol! Those are only a few of the things that will change, there are so many more but I won't bore you with them all! :-P
This house is not considered a mansion in our country, but it's a mansion to us - I think anytime you almost double your living space you feel like you are in a mansion! :-) And we even get a double over-sized heated garage!! whoop whoop!! We are both a bit overwhelmed and I have cried quite bit! We are very thankful and feel very blessed to have the opportunity to buy our own house! :-P
Check it out - Here

A BIG HUGE THANK - YOU also goes out to our Realtor, she did an amazing job, she was fast, informative, accommodating and very helpful! She is one of the reasons we got such a great deal!
Also to our mortgage broker for finding us a great interest rate, answering all our questions and sharing so much information that you don't necessarily get when you are dealing directly with the bank. (and to my Uncle Henry for reccommending him)

Till next time!

Invisible Mom's

I thought I would share a link to a post on a blog that I read.
I thought it was very interesting and true - I haven't read any of this lady's other posts so I'm not sure what her other posts contain but this one is very interesting! And true! Makes me feel better about washing dishes that will be made dirty again, cleaning a house that will get dirty and dusty again and so many other things that seem so fruitless at times. Read the post! I think this post applies to all those people, that feel like they are doing things that no one sees, or seems to care about :-)

http://tails-of-motherhood.blogspot.com/2011/03/to-all-invisible-moms.html

Dishes and Soaking up the Sun.

Whatever Miriam does Dylan has to do as well!


Miriam and Dylan drying the dishes after lunch on Sunday :-)





SMILE!


SPRING SUNSHINE!
Ok so spring is a great time in our house!! We get sunlight coming in the windows!! (This is a big thing for us)!! In the spring, the sun is low enough in the sky that is actually shines into our windows! During the summer, it is too high in the sky and the tree in the backyard blocks lots of the sunlight. In the fall it usually comes in a bit - but not as much. During the winter the snow is usually too high in front of the windows so the sun can't shine in. We are hoping that soon we will be able to enjoy the sun shining into our windows during all seasons, then we won't have to wait till spring to enjoy the sunshine from inside our house! :-)
Although we can't wait to get out of this basement suite, there are things that we will miss... my kitchen is one of them :-P, and front load washer and nice dryer, flat top stove and convection oven, not having to drive for a babysitter - my Sister (in law) Rachel lives right upstairs :-P

Dylan and Miriam are fighting over a nice warm spot in the sun :-P

Bye Bye Car

We sold our car yesterday :-S
Selling it was part of our orginal plan when we bought the van, (we just didn't want to buy a used vehicle and sell the reliable one we had until we had driven the new-to-us one for a while). Now we know the van hasn't acted up in (almost) a year, so it was time to sell the car. We have mixed feelings about it because we really really loved that car. We also really enjoyed the luxury of owning two vehicles for almost a year :-) Last summer was a great time and we were able to get out and do so much! We will miss it. Hopefully in a few years (or maybe one year lol) we will have that luxury once again! For now, the car has done it's job and served us well. We sold it. Now we have some extra money for a down payment on our own house! :-)


Bye Car, you have served us well! :-)

True Love

Matthew and I have been writing messages to each other on the wall in the shower for a long time now :-P Both with foam bath letters and with bath crayons :-P But this one that Matthew drew this morning beats all! :-P Yup I have the best hubby ever!

Wishing for Summer

I thought I would change my background to a picture my sister Sherene took. I can't wait till the warm weather blows in and we are playing at the park in a tank top, shorts and flip flops! Yay for summer!!

123 magic?

Just thought I should do a quick update on how the 123 magic stuff is going.

It's still going very well, although if I slack then the kids notice right away and try to get away with almost everything. :-P As a result I realize right away when I'm not doing it right. :-)
We seem to be having a bit of a hard time when we are out though - sometimes I don't have a time out spot and sometimes I don't have a timer so I have forgotten to tell them they can go play :-S (I should just put a small timer in the diaper bag).
The only thing I would love to change is that we use a chair for a time out spot and I would love to use a room as a time out spot - but right now their room is a bedroom and a storage room. So if they tried to rip it apart they would succeed! and I wouldn't be able to just leave it that way, I would have to clean it up asap. (If it was just clothes blankets and toys I could just leave it) :-P Maybe when we sell our portion of this house and buy a house of our own we will have the luxury of using a bedroom for a bedroom and nothing else :-P Then I could use it as a time out spot. :-P

I still highly recommend this book :-) but as before: READ it before trying it and saying it doesn't or won't work with your kids :-)

Happy Helper

More pics

Oh I did take 3 pictures when my family was here :-P Here they are:





Dylan found Auntie Becca's cheesies! :-P Miriam decided to join him and eat some too :-)