Monday, September 29, 2014

beach: day 1

#turnertrip14

mimi, papa, uncle brian, aunt jaime,
madeline, eden, ronnie, brette and myself
 made it to seaside, florida.
its so pretty and
so relaxing.
 
we rented a house so
every family has their own bedroom
and their own bathroom.
the girls can nap or play
and we have the space for both.
here is the house we rented,
rightfully named amazing grace
and its right across the street from the ocean.
 
 
here is day one in photos.
a little sun, a little rain
and a whole lot of cuteness.
 



 
 
 
 
ronnie and i managed to escape for a little walk around
the town while brette napped.
its such a cute community.
you can walk or bike anywhere,
the houses all have white picket fences
and every store and restaurant is local.
i love it.

 



 

 
 
 

Thursday, September 25, 2014

the barn house

would you like more detail about the new home 
ronnie and i will be living in for
(most likely) the next twenty years?

i have a wonderful "meant to be" feeling
about this house.
the one i will lovingly refer to as the barn house
you probably can't tell from the pictures because of all those trees,
but the front it shaped like a barn.
and for those of you that have read this blog 
from the beginning,
you might remember back in 2011
ronnie and i were seriously considering selling
our house because we found a house that we both loved.
in fact, that's when ronnie bought the "for sale by owner" sign
that we finally used this summer.
only took us three years. 
i actually wrote about the barn house twice.
first, here, when ronnie was in love with it.
and then, here, when i was in love with it.
we didn't buy it back then
because it wasn't the right time for us.
but believe me when i say that i was super disappointed about it.
we would still drive by it every once in awhile
and i would always say-
we should have bought the barn house!
so imagine my surprise when ronnie and brette were out 
for a drive and called me at work to let me know the
barn house had a for rent sign in its yard.
um, say what?!
i was so excited.
we weren't having that much luck on our house hunt
and i was worried that we might end up living with my parents
or renting something until next spring when the real estate market
was back in full swing.
i immediately called the rental company and asked
if they owners would be interested in selling.
they got back to us the next day to say - yes!
apparently the previous owners were transferred suddenly to colorado
for work and didn't have enough time to sell it and since
they had friends that did rentals they were just going to try that.
fortunately for us, the owners had moved out the end of july and 
the place had never been rented,
so its been vacant for about two months.
it made the buying process easier because
we could rush it without forcing its owners out in a short amount of time.
in fact, the whole thing only took a few weeks. 
i am finally getting my barn house!
we close on it tomorrow and will start the renovations.
we plan on putting in new floors, taking down the popcorn ceilings,
painting the trim and all the walls. 
we will continue to live with my parents until
the floors and ceilings are done 
because that would be a mess to have brette in.

hopefully soon i will be sharing our renovation progress.
i can't wait.

 

Sunday, September 21, 2014

a house into a home


it's no longer ours.

we signed the papers.
handed over the keys
and said goodbye

Thursday, September 18, 2014

the next adobe

we bought a house!
i have lots to say about it
and lots of plans for it,
but right now two little girls are spending the night 
at their grandparent's house and
since i live here - -
i am getting kicked out of the room so they can go to bed.
for now - i'll just leave you with pictures. 

 the front

 entry way

living room

kitchen
 
kitchen
 
family room

  
family room
 
master bedroom

second bedroom
 
 third bedroom

  
forth bedroom
 
  
laundry room upstairs
 
three acre lot - wahoo!
also backs up to a conservation park

we're very excited!



Wednesday, September 17, 2014

moving on


 oh. my. gosh. 
seriously, moving has to be one of the
worst things you can ever do.
the worst.
and, ronnie and i had a ton of help.
i can't imagine doing it alone.
we probably wouldn't have made it.
nervous breakdowns, suicide, pure exhaustion...
something would have taken us out.
 the amount of stuff shit ronnie and i have 
collected over the last six years is unreal.
 my parents, my brother, my best friend kassie, her husband,
ronnie's two best friends, jason and cale, and my aunt all helped us.
we couldn't have done it without them. 
also my sis-n-law stepped in and watched brette for me.
there was no way it was safe for her to be around during all the moving.
it made things a ton easier to have her elsewhere so
we didn't have to worry about the 
basement stairs or the front door being left open. 
we did the majority of heavy lifting over the weekend,
but everyday since, we have made trips back to grab a few more things.
(hence being too busy to blog much)
as i type this, ronnie is on his way back from the house because 
he had to load our refrigerator.
i'm crossing my fingers he has miraculously managed
to fit every last bit of crap in his truck so i don't have to go back tomorrow.
BUT i'm pretty sure tomorrow (our last day of ownership) 
i have to stop by and pick up two vaccuums and a carpet cleaner.
who needs two vaccuums???
not to mention that we are now living with my parents in warrensburg
(40 minutes away) so "running over to the house to get stuff"
is no short trip. 
at least by this time tomorrow we will be done.
done.
done.
done.

(the boys trying to get our deep freeze out of the basement) 

 my mom and kassie organizing the kitchen.

my brother taking a break on our couches.

 my dad loading the pods.

and me - - organizing and keeping my troops on track. 
i should have been a foreman.


a big thank you and round of applause to all our helpers.
thank you. thank you. thank you. 

and stay tuned... 
ronnie and i bought a house!
we close on it next week (fingers crossed).
i'll share pictures tomorrow.

Friday, September 12, 2014

moving on out

i can't believe the days in my house are numbered.
i am excited to move on to something new,
but i'm also sad to say goodbye to our first home.
we bought it back in 2008 and
have since gotten married,
added two puppies,
renovated the entire thing
and became parents.
how can i leave the house with all those memories?
it will be hard, but
the excitement of what is to come makes it worth it.
we are trying our darndest to get most of our things
moved out this weekend.
ahhhh - only 3 more days!
we don't have to be completely out until next thursday,
but with ronnie working 10 hour days
and me working everyday, trying to get it done
during the work week seems impossible.
plus, packing up a house with a one year old
should be an olympic event.
i put something in a box
and she takes it out.
i boxed up our bathrooms yesterday and
literally not five minutes later
i found several things of dental floss in the toilet
that she had gotten back out of the box.
how does she manage this?
nothing is safe.
 

 
wish us luck this weekend,
lots to do!
 
 

Tuesday, September 9, 2014

eye see you

brette gets what she wants when she's with her mimi.
if its shiny {and not a toy}, then that's what brette picks out.
i remember as a kid we were not supposed to wear
other people's glasses because it could hurt our eyes.
but if brette wants to wear my mom's glasses,
well then, by all means.
 
just look at this face.
i think its hilarious.
she doesn't know what to do when she has them on
and she doesn't move a muscle.
i'm sure mimi won't think this is such a good idea
when brette breaks them,
but for now, i guess expensive eye glasses are a plaything.
who knew.



Thursday, September 4, 2014

brette update

 
 
since i did a little update about our moving situation yesterday
i thought i'd do another update today,
this time on brette.
i stopped doing my monthly recap when she hit a year,
but she's definitely still changing everyday.
let's see...
her hair is getting long with sweet curls in the back.
we're still fighting cradle cap,
but we bought medicated shampoo so
hopefully it clears up soon.
her eyes are a gorgeous blue.
she has a mouthful of teeth.
so many that i don't even know the exact count.
she's wearing a 4 diaper,
and 12-18 month clothes.
 
she takes milk three times a day:
morning, afternoon and night.
she can hold her own cup
and knows the difference between the ones that you
have to tilt your head back
verses the ones with a straw.
when she drinks out of a sippy cup,
she straight napoleon dynamites it.
its hilarious.
she eats breakfast, lunch, afternoon snack and dinner.
she can sign for "more" now.
that helps the whole grunting-for-more-food thing she does.
currently, i'm working on "please" and "eat."
i would like for her to tell me the difference between
when she's hungry and when she's thirsty.
hopefully that kicks in soon.
we're working on holding her own spoon,
but its awfully messy.
 
her sleep schedule is changing because of my work schedule.
she still sleeps through the night and
has been getting up around 8:00 lately.
since i go to work at noon,
we've started trying to put her down for
only one nap a day while at jaime's.
i'm crossing my fingers she loves it,
because its definitely a game-changer.
yesterday she slept from noon to 2:35.
and was in bed by 8:00.
so far its working.
 
she can point at things in a book when you ask her to.
where is the dog?
where is the cat?
things like that.
she can also point out things on your face.
where are mommy's ears?
where is mommy's nose?
its so amazing to see her grasp language.
i think she understands more than i give her credit for,
but we are constantly talking and labeling what things are.
she likes to take things out and then put them back in.
she'll take all her toys out and then put them back.
or she'll take every dishwasher tablet out of the box
and then put them back in it.
over and over.
some other favorites:
a winnie the pooh book that plays music
stairs - she loves climbing stairs
bathroom/kitchen cabinets
mommy's shoes
her swing hanging from our front tree
bath time
louie
the cable box
(i couldn't turn it on for like a week after she messed with it. its off limits now.)
 
she's a crawling machine and can pull up like a champ, but
we're still working towards walking and i feel like she's
a long way away from her first steps.
we have a meeting with parents as teachers this week
so maybe i'll get some tips.
 
basically, to sum up,
she's my favorite little girl in the whole world.
baby b.
 



 

Wednesday, September 3, 2014

housing update

we're not living on the street, yet.
but close.
our buyer got back to us and
we close on our house on september 19th.
my birthday.
happy freaking birthday.
kidding.
kind of.
i am really excited to have this part of the process all done,
but i really really really wish we had our next house picked out.
 
you know when you go shopping "just to look"
and you don't really plan on buying anything but you
end up finding a ton of stuff you want?
but then when you actually need to buy new clothes
you hate everything?
yeah, that's us.
we liked so many things when we could only put in contingent offers.
and now that we really need to find a house,
nothing seems like the perfect fit.
blah.
its definitely frustrating.
and the fact that we just rolled into september,
means the real estate season is coming to a close.
not a lot of new stuff will be on the market for
another 6-7 months.
shit.
 
start sending me listings.
we need help.
 

Tuesday, September 2, 2014

timber

we had a little accident over the weekend.
brette has started bear crawling.
you know, when she has her hands on the floor,
but instead of being on her knees,
she's on her feet.
well i guess she lost her balance and
face-planted into our hardwood floods.
ronnie saw it and said she had no way of catching herself.
my poor peanut.
she busted her lip,
so by the time i ran out of the room to see what
was going on,
she had blood all over her.
and when i grabbed her i got it all down my shirt too.
we looked like murder victims.
i gave her a cold washcloth
that she sucked on and i applied
light pressure to her lip.
i feel like it took forever to get it to stop bleeding,
but it finally did and she was left with a fat lip.
she looked like angelina jolie's kid.
i wish learning how to crawl/walk came without injury,
but i have a feeling this is just our first of many.
blah.