House Saga: The Prep

One we cleared out the junk from the house, it was on to the serious stuff. With the exception of the master bedroom, upstairs bath and the outside shutters, we had painted absolutely nothing in the house. After seven years, things were looking pretty bad. Actually, they didn't look that great when we moved in, so now they REALLY looked bad.

I didn't do anything but house stuff for a month. Seth got a complete break from school. He used his time to figure out how to turn on the projector and DVD player so he could watch cartoons whenever he wanted to. And they watched a LOT of Garfield cartoons.

A Facebook status from that month: "Should my sweet children happen to inform you that we spent the day coking, please know that they really mean "caulking.""

I had so much fun caulking things like this 1/2 inch gap on the basement stairs:

Yes, our house was clearly built with a lot of love and care.

On top of the expected repairs (which were many), we also enjoyed a few unexpected ones. Like when we had granite counters put in, only to come downstairs a day or two later to find this lovely leak on our ceiling: 

We can't prove anything, but we think the granite guys knocked the valve just enough to start a slow drip (which is why it took so long to notice it). Sigh... 

Our lovely new hole (which Kevin repaired gorgeously)

And our lovely new granite countertops: 

And a beautiful new sink! 

I basically wore the same outfit for an entire month of painting.

These are my gorgeous pants: 

Not too bad for painting almost an entire house!

But let's not forget our favorite part: The Saga of the Shed. Here's brief recap:

(Shed is located on our property, but is apparently in an HOA drainage easement. HOA has never accessed said easement and does not intend to, but insists the shed be moved anyway).

HOA: Move the shed!

Us: Seriously? All our neighbors have sheds in the same place. It will look stupid if we move it.

HOA: We don't care. Move the shed.

The County: You have to get our permission before you can move your shed from one spot on your property to another spot on your property.

Us: Seriously? On our own property? Okay...(We go pick up a shed-moving permit)

HOA: You can't move your shed unless we give you permission.

Us: Wait. You were the ones who told us we had to move it in the first place. And we have a county permit.

HOA: We don't care. And we don't care about the county--you have to have OUR permission to move it to a new spot BEFORE you move it to a new spot.

Us: (Move the shed anyway and put in a fire pit over the giant dead spot where the shed used to be)

Moral of the story: HOAs are basically only useful for keeping harmless, well-meaning people from doing harmless, well-meaning things. But go right ahead and leave trash all over the common grounds or park your rusted-out, immobile car for three years--the HOA will turn a blind eye. They've got sheds that must be moved!

After a late, late night finishing up painting (2 am...I am way too old for that nonsense now), we were ready for pictures!

Aaron Update

Oh, this little monkey! He is so adorably rotten and I love him to pieces. He's definitely been my hardest little one, but he's also so much fun.

Still hasn't really added anything to his vocabulary, but his comprehension is great. Tell him it's time to brush his teeth and he'll stick out his tongue. Tell him to go read books and he'll head to his room and pull them off the shelves (he LOVES reading--I'll find him in his room sitting in a pile of books, happily turning pages). He also understands "lay down" and "num num" (he heads to the high chair for food). 

Ah, the lightswitch game.

He can't turn them on--only off.

Guess who gets to turn them back on for him?

Favorite books include: Hush, Little Baby; Doggies; Freight Train; The Very Hungry Caterpillar (or Aaronpillar, which is how I read it to him); Goodnight Moon

Possibly (possibly!) he can say "Seth" ("Seh!"). Not sure about it, but he says it all the time when he's with his siblings. Still won't say Mama or Dada, of course. 

Aaron likes to do things on his own timetable. Didn't sit up until almost 9 months. Didn't crawl until around 12 months. And wasn't in any hurry at all to walk. Seth and Catherine were both late walkers (14 months), so I expected that. But when 14 months passed, then 15 months, then 16 months...I started to wonder.  Finally, at a little over 16 months we had a walker! And he wasted no time: he took his first steps one day, then was walking around the kitchen the next. He just likes to keep us guessing!

Aaron's favorite place to be:

In the pantry, begging for food

When happy, he'll crawl around and tilt his head from side to side while babbling and cooing. We call this the Bobble-Headed Baby. 

I used to think Catherine was going to be my strongest-willed child. Pretty sure Aaron is going to win that title. There are few things he enjoys more than pestering his sister (by destroying her Magna Tile princess castles, by shrieking at her repeatedly, by following her around, etc.).  And he's not afraid to go on the offense. Here they are fighting over dirty Roomba parts (why, children? Why?):

Aaron won this battle by climbing up her face and pulling her hair.

He also scratches.

He LOVES the outside, which has been really rough with this miserable cold weather. I'll catch him heading out the door in bare feet when it's below freezing. He's going to be one happy boy this summer!

Now that he can walk, he loves playing chase with Seth and Catherine. He ends up getting knocked over quite a bit, but not enough to deter him.

This kid and the dishwasher. I have no explanation for the overwhelming draw he feels toward this appliance. Our loading and unloading has to happen while he's asleep now, because he can hear us opening it from any level of the house and will come running:

We went through a horrible phase where he was taking only one nap a day at NINE IN THE MORNING. Gratefully we are now on the regular afternoon nap. Aaron may be hard in some ways, but he loves his crib and (generally) goes right to sleep.

Lately he's insisted on bringing all his doggie stuffed animals out of his crib when he wakes up. Very adorable .

He loves his shoes and will hold out his feet for you to put them on. He's still pretty terrible at walking in them, though. 

He loves baths, although he prefers to bath alone so he can play and splash without being yelled at. On this particular day he figured out that sitting on the drain means the water never goes away:

I can't believe this little guy heads to nursery in less than a month. Where has the time gone!?

Catherine

Catherine loves to find tiny flowers and bring them to me as a gift. I love it, even if she might be raiding the neighbors' flower patches. 

Her newest talent is scaling the fridge door handles (note to self: get legitimate (non-iPad) picture of this skill). I blame Jon's genetics for that one. His siblings are part monkey.

I found her hiding one morning, holding some toilet paper in her hand. When I questioned what she was doing, she responded, "I don't want to tell you." Always a good sign.  Turns out she was trying to open something using a sharp, serrated knife and got that piece of skin between thumb and pointer finger instead. It was bad, but not stitch-worthy (I hope). 

Another day she asked for a washcloth to clean off the "yucky water" from her marker. It only took one sniff to clue me in: "yucky water" = cooking oil. She was floating her markers in the deep fryer (turned off and put away, but apparently not well enough away). Why? Why? Why? I find myself asking myself that pretty frequently with this girl.

Catherine loves the idea of candy more than she actually likes candy. I'll frequently find her throwing away something that she's only taken a single bite of. Or adding a mildly sucked-on lollipop to her collection of mildly sucked-on lollipops (which I eventually just toss):

She has loved my new-to-me iPhone. I don't have any games on it, but she doesn't care: it has a camera! After scrolling through my pictures I realized that probably 70% have been taken by Catherine, such as this gem (me, teaching singing time):

(I'm leading the music, not yelling, I swear)

I'm actually glad she snapped this one: it was one of my last (or THE last) singing times before they split our ward. We were bursting at the seams, but it still makes me sad to think about. I loved my huge Primary that had to meet in the gym! 

But more often than not, the pictures are of random things: Aaron's milk cup, Seth's elbow, the top of the table. Or selfies. Selfies, selfies, selfies: 

Totally cracking up here.

Last summer, Catherine started falling apart in nursery. She would cry and beg to leave. We never really figured out what was going on: the noise, maybe? Because Jon was out of town and I had to lead singing time, she ended up coming with me to Primary. I sent her in with the Sunbeams and she fell in love with her teacher, Stephanie. They are kindred spirits. She loved Sunbeams with Stephanie and would go without complaint.

But then Stephanie got released and we went to Arizona for a month, plus a trip to WV for Christmas. By the time we got back, it was time for her to legitimately head into Sunbeams (with a bit of a delay due to the ward splitting). 

I thought it would be easy since she had already been attending Sunbeams. 

Ha. Ha.

She spent her first singing time (yes, I'm still chorister) screaming on the floor in front of me. And it hasn't gotten much better in the weeks since. She doesn't like the noise and she doesn't like that I don't call on her every time. It's super fun.

My adorable, ridiculous Sunbeam

She still adores Seth and will almost always do whatever he asks. If you ask her what she wants to watch, she'll turn to Seth and ask him what HE wants to watch. I hope Seth is enjoying this while it lasts!

Aaron is a different story. She either LOVES him or can't stand him. She's either bringing him milk and blankets and telling him how cute he is or she's screaming at him and telling him to go away. And he thinks it's hilarious, so he pesters her even more. 

Generally speaking, Catherine doesn't play too much with her toys or dolls. Give her random, non-toy items, however, and she'll play happily for hours. Here she is putting her babies down for a nap:

She later asked to eat one.

Cannibalism?

She's also a ballet drop-out (like her mother before her). We gave it a good try, but she never really loved it. It's too scripted for her--she wants to do her own thing, not follow a teacher. We're putting her back in gymnastics next month. 

We sure love this little girl and all her interesting ways of seeing the world!

Snow Again!

Snow is a big deal around here:

Especially for little girls who just want to build a snowman: 

Notice the cast and Jon's shoe?

Some of us don't own snowpants and are forced to watch from inside: 

Selling the House: The Saga Begins

Our plan was to stay in our townhome for ten years, which was right about the point where Seth would be ready to start middle school. A few months ago Jon said we could probably move sooner since our finances were in better shape than we were expecting. The plan was to start looking at homes in early 2015 and get serious about things around late summer/fall.  It was a good plan, and I was full supportive of moving into something with a yard and a garage ASAP. 

While we were in WV for Christmas, Mom Blood spent a lot of time finding acceptable homes for us to buy. We kind of wrote it off since we weren't planning on moving for a long time, but I guess it got Jon thinking.  As we were driving home, he announced that interest rates were probably going to start going up, so we might want to buy a house sooner than we expected.

I pinned him down as to the meaning of "sooner": in a few months. Which meant we needed to get our house ready to sell ASAP. As soon as we got home I begged boxes from friends and started decluttering and boxing up unneeded stuff. 

Aaron was super helpful at unloading things I'd packed into boxes:

Guess I can count on his help when we need to unpack!

This was our living room while we waited for our POD to show up:

And the basement:

Amazing that we have so much 'unnecessary' junk!

We miraculously fit everything in our POD and sent it off to storage, hoping we wouldn't have to get back into it and dig out the summer stuff I'd optimistically packed away. Next would come the fun part--painting, caulking, and prettying up the house! Luckily we had help from some of the best: our friends Kevin & Joanna. Kevin is a firefighter/handyman who agreed to help us fix things up. He and Joanna also have an excellent sense of style and space (which Jon & I seriously lack--we are very utilitarian). They gave us advice on staging, paint colors, and bathroom updates.

Now it was time to spend the next month getting everything done (while neglecting my children and Seth's schooling). 

It's Christmas...Again!

We didn't have room in the van to bring all our presents, so we saved the gifts from the Mikesell grandparents until we got home. It gave the kids something to look forward to instead of being sad to leave all their cousins/aunts/uncles/grandparents. 

Minecraft Zombie stuffed toy!

Frozen stuffed (and talking) toys!

A new, bigger bike so Seth's knees won't hit the handlebars anymore!

Catherine also got a bike, but I didn't get any pictures.

Not like she could ride it with her splint on anyway.

Aaron got his own set of princesses so he would stop stealing Catherine's.

Of course, she has now claimed possession of all of them...

Hand-crocheted, amazingly soft blankets from Grandma Cathy

(Aaron would not let go of/stop looking at the truck.

He took it to bed with him that night)

Helping Dad assemble his bike

Thank you for spoiling us AGAIN, Mom!

We love you!

Other Adventures

Aaron would sit himself in here and wait for someone to drive him around the house.

Good thing so many of us are suckers for those cheeks.

After another night of whimpering, we decided to take Catherine into urgent care. She came home with a splint and x-rays of what they thought was a broken patella. We were told to drug her, keep her off her leg and to take her to an orthopedic when we got home.  Guess who felt like the mother of the year after making her wait so long? Poor little girl!

It's Christmas!

Seth was the first one up and headed straight to the stocking:

Playing with his requested remote-controlled car: 

Aaron was thrilled with his Nutter Butter bites.

Which, coincidentally, make an excellent breakfast: 

And Catherine was ecstatic about her Elsa doll that talked.

Santa was just happy he managed to pull off that last-minute request: 

Waiting to open presents and watching "Let It Go" on my phone: 

That's right: little boys love Frozen, too!

Aaron looks adorable in his cousins' hair bow: 

Serious Aaron with Uncle Timmy: 

Aaron loved his balls from Uncle Scott & Aunt Mary: 

And Seth loved the Magna Tiles we got for the kids: 

(Super expensive, but totally worth it! They play with them every day!)

Aaron needs some help opening his bus: 

Frozen hat and gloves from Aaron: 

(allegedly child-sized. That's one huge-headed child)

Minecraft toys! 

And the awesomely attractive group shot:

I somehow missed the part where we were taking pictures, so I and my children are all in our pajamas. But I managed to get almost everyone looking at the camera! Jacob doesn't count).

And for me?

: my awesome, awesome knife set that I picked out and made Jon buy for me! 

How did I live for so long without good knives?!

We had a lovely, relaxing Christmas and were all quite spoiled and happy.