Starting over

I feel like this blog has officially come full circle! I started this blog almost 4 years ago after we found our first home. Today, I'm posting about finding our second home! 

Obviously I haven't been blogging regularly so many of you don't know the ins and outs of our house hunt. We always had a goal to stay in our first home (in Richardson) for 3-5 years. I started looking at real estate casually last summer when we had been here for 3 years and it gradually got more serious as time went on. Still, Mark and I didn't see anything in the last year that we wanted to make an offer on. It was kind of scary. Also, in an ideal world, we wanted to be able to buy our next house while we still had our first home. In reality, that wasn't going to work! North Texas didn't seem to really feel the effects of the housing crisis in 2008 and had already begun bouncing back when we bought our home in 2013. It's gotten crazier and crazier each year. We patiently watched our home value climb higher and higher and heard horror stories of our first time home buyer friends make countless offers on homes just to be outbid by $40,000 and 36 other offers. It's crazy! 

After inventory started to heat up this Spring, Mark and I quickly decided that now was the best time to sell our house to avoid any unneeded stress and timing with the baby coming. We hoped that we could take the equity/profit from the sale of our first home to pay the majority of our down payment on our next home, so we got our house ready and it went on the market on April 21. We decided to clear out for the weekend so we could have as many showings as possible, only have to clean the house once, and avoid the stress of the process. My parents graciously let us stay with them for the weekend and we were glad we did so! There were 17 showings on the first day and two open houses over the weekend. We were told it was a madhouse of people and it showed when we came home to SUPER dirty floors. We ended up with 14 offers, all over asking price, and ended up accepting an offer that was 50% more than what we paid for the home 4 years ago. We were so relieved (and blessed)! We knew this part would be easier than finding our next home, but never imagined how easy it really would be.

The hard part was finding a new house. When asked "What area are you looking in?", we would sigh, take a big breath, and ramble off a handful of cities. See, Mark and I had just happened to pick Richardson 4 years ago because the price point was right and it was within a decent commute of both of our offices. We never had any ties to the city before we bought and had just ended up here. The majority of my family lives in Arlington and Fort Worth (west of us about 45 minutes - 1 hour) and especially after having kids and staying home, I've wanted to be closer to them since we see them more often now. However, we quickly grew to love Richardson and our church family and friends so we started to feel pulled in two different directions. Our family would give us a hard time about living in Richardson or Plano and our church friends would give us a hard time about moving anywhere more than 15 minutes away from them. It was/still is really hard! I made pro/con lists, tried to reason my way one or the other, and mostly just prayed and prayed and PRAYED for direction on what the right answer was and where we would end up. I STILL don't know what the "right" answer is, but I believe that my prayers were answered and we were simply led to the home and city that is right for us, right now. 

First, we made a hesitant offer on a home in Plano. The house was nice enough but needed new carpet and a few 'fixes' to make it work for us. The yard needed an overhaul and it didn't have the fourth bedroom we wanted so we would have had to convert a room into our office. We low balled them with our offer and sort-of hoped they wouldn't even accept it. Well, they didn't. They didn't reject it, but they wanted us to come up in price. With no hesitation, we said "thanks, but no thanks" and walked away from that house. The next day, a house came on the market in north Arlington. I was hardly looking in that area anymore because I thought we would probably rule it out, but I looked at the listing that was emailed to me out of curiosity. When I flipped to the first picture of the interior of the house, I said "uh oh" to myself. It was exactly what I had been wanting, stats-wise and also style-wise. Each flip of the picture got me deeper and deeper into the rabbit hole and I immediately sent it to Mark with the caption "OMG! Why isn't this in Richardson???" Either way, he and I both liked it and were open enough to the idea of living in Arlington for me to check it out the next day. 

You see, the theme of our whole house hunt was that we weren't going to find the perfect home. We were told to be 'reasonably in love' with a house but not to expect it to blow us away. And during all of that questioning of where we would end up, all I kept saying was that we just want the right house, no matter where it is. Seems backwards for some, but we had narrowed down our location for certain reasons and after that point, we just wanted the right home! Our must haves were a second living room, a large backyard, mature trees, and ideally 4 bedrooms. I anticipate being home a lot more as we get older and add another child to the family and I just want my home to be my haven. Anyway, this house was perfect. It had been purchased 3 years ago by a couple our age and they had completely transformed it. New floors, new paint, light fixtures, landscaping, bathrooms, counter tops, pretty much everything had been updated and it was all updated according to our tastes! It was double our square footage and had the room count (and more, including a dining and breakfast room and a DREAM laundry room) that we kept searching for and had come short of, until now. 

Mark and I had already talked about making an offer the night before I saw it. We knew we had to act fast in this market so he had basically given me the 'go ahead' to make an offer without him seeing it. So, that's what I did! We put in a solid offer with instructions to our realtor to persuade them to accept it before the weekend (and more offers came!) and said our prayers. Somehow, someway, it worked. Our realtor was blown away that her persistence worked and the sellers accepted our offer less than 24 hours later (even with other offers on the table and a weekend just beginning!) We ordered our inspection for the same day (highly unheard of) and Mark finally got to see the house in person. He loved it, too! It was everything we had been talking and dreaming about for the last year.

Crazily enough, after almost a year of wondering, questioning, and hesitating on putting our house on the market and jumping into the house hunt, we successfully sold and bought a home in a week's time. We didn't have to put in multiple offers, go over budget, or settle for less than what we wanted. Also, although we were open to some small renovations depending on what house we found, we feel super lucky that this home only needs paint in a few rooms (we like the colors enough to live with them in most of the house. I have visions for kids rooms, though!) to still be the home we are wanting. We will be moving when I'm 35 weeks pregnant so we are so thankful that there won't be projects looming over our heads! I think we just needed to trust and take a leap of faith. It all worked out exactly how it was supposed to. 

Of course, I'm still nervous about moving to a different city. This new house will put us 30 minutes further away from our friends. I don't know anyone in the area that I can get with for play dates or girls nights. I don't know where the parks are or where to avoid or where to take walks. It's a little daunting. But I think we will figure it out. Like a friend in our church class said: "Oh, you're moving to Arlington? It's a good thing there are roads between here and there". It's really that simple! There are roads. We will work it out. 

On the other side of that coin, we are about 5 minutes from my grandparents, 30 minutes from my parents, and just 19 miles from Mark's work. He also still has the option to take mass transit, which he enjoys and is a big perk for our bank account and his commute. We'll be in the middle of the metroplex instead of on one end or the other so we'll be able to make trips to see friends and family without it being a day-long ordeal. 

So that's the story of house number two. We learned quickly that searching for your second home is WAY more difficult than looking for your first. We also learned to just trust in the process and that our prayers will be answered. Thanks for following along for all of these years and for making it through this long post. We can't wait to see where this house takes us!

bumpdate take two : 26 weeks

Like last time, I feel like I started ballooning right about 22 weeks. I'm feeling HUGE and people are making comments about it so I know it's not just in my head. Also, major mom guilt over here for not documenting this pregnancy as well as I did with Beau's. :( We've been just a little busy! Sorry, little brother!

How far along: 26 weeks! Wow that went fast!

Size of baby: I'm really bad at keeping up with this this time around...kale? According to the bump. He's probably about 2 lbs and 14" long.

Gender:  boy! And so far we haven't shared initials or names with anyone! Hoping to hold out until D-day!

Maternity Clothes: Pretty much yes. I can get away with some things that are non-maternity but maternity is the most comfortable at the moment. I'm wearing my clothes from last pregnancy but supplementing with some dresses I've found on amazon. Surprisingly good quality!

Loving: The weather has been really nice lately so that's been nice! Also enjoying my healthy hair. It's getting so long!

Loathing: Bending over is kind of a pain these days. 

Movement: Yep! This boy seems to act differently than his brother did, already. I say that he's going to hate car rides (Beau loved them) because he's always moving when we're in the car (Beau always seemed to fall asleep in utero while in the car). He also moves a lot during the night when he should be sleeping (and I'm trying to!) 

Symptoms: Feeling a lot of pain early on this time. Lots of pelvic pain and surprisingly, tail bone pain. Having some indigestion but it's not too bad yet. Also started having Braxton Hicks contractions, which I didn't have consistently until about 36 weeks with Beau. 

Best part of the week: We sold our house! LOTS of things have been going on since I blogged last, including a major decluttering and putting our house on the market. We put it on the market on Friday and jetted off to my parents for the weekend so we only had to clean up once! There were a ton of showings, two open houses, and we ended up with 14 offers by Sunday, all over asking price. The market in north Texas is INSANE and we were expecting multiple offers but we were blown away and also so happy that selling our house was that easy. We're really happy about the couple we chose and we are praying everything goes smoothly with closing AND that we find a place to live before we have to be out!

Worst park of the week: We had a hail storm the night after we put our house on the market (of course) and it brought down TONS of pollen onto our driveway, which then got tracked into our house. Also, I'm allergic to pretty much all trees/plants/flowers, etc. So that hasn't been so fun. My allergies had died down but they are back to their miserable state now!

Missing most: Hmmm I think I'm missing that 'not pregnant' body state at the moment. I got to that point a lot quicker this time!

Can't wait for: Our babymoon!!! We are jetting off to Colorado in a few weeks and I'm so excited! We've been so busy that I haven't even had time to get antsy so the fact that it's coming up so quickly is a relief and so exciting!

beau andrew | 18 month update

Oh my goodness. I haven't done one of these in a WHILE! I feel a little rusty! Beau is EIGHTEEN months old today! That feels like such a big number. Pretty soon we won't measure him by months and we'll switch over to boring years, like the rest of the population. ;) 

Here we go...hopefully I can remember everything that has changed since last time!

-He currently has 10 teeth. He has his front 8 (4 on bottom and 4 on top) and has two molars (I think), one on top and one on bottom in the right side of his mouth. He hasn't let me see or feel back there recently so he could have more. We had to start buying drool bibs because his shirt is getting soaked with slobber early in the day!

-Beau is still a great eater. Of course, depending on his mood, he will refuse to eat or throw stuff around, but he will pretty much eat anything. Right now the few things he is 'iffy' on are steak, potatoes, and bbq chopped meat (like pork or brisket). He has loved a few casserole type meals I've made recently and he has definitely slowed down on eating 'pouches' (which we still keep on hand in case our meal is a little lacking on veggies and other good stuff). He LOVES fruit, except for cantaloupe,  and snacks on it every day. Cheese, too. He's only drinking milk and water and I'm hoping to keep it that way for a LONG time. 

-He's had one professional haircut (his first) and a little at-home trim but he's way overdue for his next cut. He has beautiful curly dirty blonde hair that he's always getting comments on. It's unruly, though. I never know how it's going to turn out! We pretty much let it do it's own thing.

-Beau started walking at 13.5 months (I don't remember if I covered this!) and quickly learned how to run. We are learning that he is pretty cautious and only does things that he is confident about so we haven't had any bad tumbles yet...I feel like I'm jinxing myself by typing that!

-This little boy understands EVERYTHING you say and will attempt to repeat it maybe 30% of the time, but it's not understandable, at all. There are probably 15ish words that he knows and I know what he's saying, but he's really not super vocal. He hasn't figured out any hard "ca/ka" sounds and gets his d's and his n's confused most of the time. For example, "nana" almost always comes out as "dada". And "mama" comes out as "baba" a lot, too. He definitely can say "dada", though! He knows lots of animal noises and has a lot of his books memorized, especially Bow Wow Meow and The Going To Bed Book. 

-Continuing on that last point, he LOVES books. I think they are his favorite 'toy'. He's always bringing me books when we're at home and we spend a lot of time reading them. Other than that, he loves toys that he can carry around, take out, disassemble, and 'put in'. He'll dabble in things like cars and the interactive all-in-one toys that have lots of sounds and music, but he really just likes to tinker. He likes putting the various balls we have in his stacking cups and things like that. He loves playing with his Lego duplos and then likes to take them apart and put them back in the container. He also loves to throw. I probably say "no throwing" or "don't throw that" about 30 times a day. Still working on that one...

-We are trying to learn how to share! Obviously this will be important when the new baby comes but it's also important now since we are starting to have play dates and things like that. It will probably be a long road but he has shown a little improvement in the sharing area. Recently he's been a little overzealous with sharing his larger toys and has started pushing his friends (literally) to play with the toy, resulting in the friend falling over and some tears. Here come all the hard lessons in life! There must be so much going on in his brain right now, it's crazy to think about!

-Mark has taught him how to kick a ball and they love to play together. Beau put it together that dada is his playmate and it's so funny to see how they interact. 

-Since before his birthday, Beau finally found his groove with sleeping. I think it was at about 10 months that he started being more consistent with sleeping through the night and now he is super consistent. He has only woken up on the rare occasion that he was sick or teething and he goes back to sleep really easily. He sleeps from between 8-9pm until about 8am every morning. And he always takes a nap! No-nap days are non-existent around here. He transitioned to one nap around 15 months and usually sleeps from 12-3 or 1-4 every afternoon.

-Beau LOVES animals. He thinks Motley is the funniest thing and loves to play with her outside and inside. We had to buy some tennis balls for Motley so Beau could throw them for her (instead of the sharp sticks she likes to chew on). He will also go over to her toy basket inside and pick out her rope and try to get her to play tug of war. She's having to learn how to be gentle! He watched me give her the command to 'speak' and now he mimics me and tries to get her to bark. It's the cutest thing! He loves Kitty too. He can say her name (more clearly than most) and will aggressively pet her until she retaliates. He's learning how to be gentle and how to leave them alone when they don't want to be bothered. Beau isn't a fan of little dogs, though. We think he's had a few too many encounters with little dogs that can easily get in his face or jump on him (as opposed to big dogs, which don't need to jump since he's already at their level or shorter) so he always keeps his distance when he comes across a dog that is smaller than him. We went to the Fort Worth Stock Show and he was wary of all of the animals (in cages, of course) except for the cows. He has loved cows for a long time and he was so excited to see them! I was the wary one in that situation! They are all lined up with their rear ends facing the aisle you walk down and I am always afraid of being kicked if I wander too far off the path. I was carrying him and he was pointing to the cows, waving, and saying 'please' in sign language. It was too cute!

-His sign language has just expanded as he's gotten older. He still uses it for a lot of things like 'hungry', 'water', 'drink', 'please', and 'thank you'. He started blowing kisses and that looks almost identical to 'thank you' in sign language. He also nods his head 'yes' and shakes his head for 'no'. He learned how to sign 'play' and 'help' and has started signing without our prompting when he wants something. 

-This little boy is snuggly and I hope it always stays that way! Mama is his comforter and he always comes to me, arms up, if he gets hurt or is in trouble for something. Many times throughout the day he will just come sit in my lap (with a book) or will straddle me and lay his head on my chest or my shoulder. It's like he just needs to recharge for just a few seconds and then he goes back to playing. I LOVE it!!! He knows when we say 'snuggle', 'love', or 'hug' that he can lean in and love on us. Ugh, it's just the best feeling!

I could go on and on about the little intricacies of what Beau has learned over the last six months (since my last update) but I wouldn't want to write a novel. I love having these recaps to look back on and see how far he has come and I'm sure I'll really like having them when the next little boy is here! Beau is our sweet little boy and we are loving every second with him. 

Beau and Ellie visit the zoo

Today, Beau and his friend Ellie (and her mom/my friend Jenna) visited the Dallas Zoo! The kids had never been to the zoo before, and since Beau loves his animals, I figured it was time to let him see them in person! We picked a great day to go. It was mostly cloudy with a little sun peeking out, but it was warm and breezy. It's the week before most schools have spring break around here so we didn't run into any school groups and the crowds (especially before lunch) were really light. We really enjoyed our time there and I can see us going back a lot in the coming years!