Thanksgiving 2014

This year we celebrated Thanksgiving at Todd's sister's house.   This was the first holiday they've hosted-- and there were about 50 people! It was very hectic, but so fun! Most everyone brought a dish. My mom was able to join us also.

Reese plays photographer!

Impossible to get a picture with everyone looking and smiling.  This was the best believe it or not!

My little girlfriend, Adeline!

Kissing Cousins!

Reese's First Day of Preschool!

Reese had been attending "school" since she was 18 months old at a center in Middleton, called Magical Beginnings. We originally sent Reese because we thought it would be great for her to get the social aspect of being at day care, to be away from us, and as an added bonus was to have a safe place for her to be when I had my weekly OB appointments in the city towards the end of my pregnancy with Adeline.

While we enjoyed sending Reese to MB, we knew that we wanted Reese to attend an actual Preschool vs. keeping her with a center for Preschool.  After lots of research, we decided on Fox Hill School.  Reese started attending summer camp that they offered 1 day per week in July to help ease with the transition (since change isn't one of Reese's strong points).  She seemed to really enjoy her time there, so we kept our fingers crossed that she would flourish when she fully made the switch.

Reese's first day was September 5th.  She absolutely LOVES it there, and I can say after 2 months of her attending, that it's been the best decision ever.  Reese comes home singing songs, with lots of art work, and the sense of community within the school is next to none. Reese doesn't cry at drop off, and truly enjoys her time there and loves her teachers.

Do you think she was excited? Ha!

Daddy with his girls

Mommy and the girls!

Walking in 

Peeking into her classroom with her buddy, Luke.

"signing in"

Thumbs up to a great first day!

Follow Up to My Last Post

So, I have some explaining to do after leaving you with that last post, eh?

Todd and I bought our house back in March of 2011.  At the time, we were pretty sure it would be a home we would live in for a long time.  Over the past 2.5 years we made lots of changes and upgrades to make it more the way we wanted it.  Before we moved in we painted all but one room, ripped up carpet, installed hardwoods on the first floor (second floor was already hardwood), gutted the family room, and gave the upstairs bathroom a mini facelift, and replaced fixtures in both bathrooms.  We eventually had a fence installed, a pool installed, a patio installed, and did some major work to the landscaping.  We also had a security system installed, and an Anderson storm door installed on the front, and had the driveway sealed.

Even with all of the upgrades there were still many things that we wanted to change on the house.  First and foremost, we hated the kitchen.  The previous owners had just renovated it about 4 years prior to us buying it, so we hated to gut it right away, but it was just not our taste. The exterior siding and color-- yellow is so not us. The upstairs bath. Twin pedestal sinks, and an old jetted tub with gold hardware is not my idea of luxury.  No master bath.  Lack of closet space in the master, only one car garage, and most of all no basement (or bonus room for the girls) since our house was on a slab.  The upstairs windows needed replacing, as did our roof, and our driveway. We knew that some things couldn't be changed, but we wanted to do as much as we could within reason.

We decided to get a quote to do an addition in hopes to add a second car garage with bonus room above, and a master bath/walk in closet above the existing family room.  At that same time, we planned to replace the upstairs windows, and exterior siding and roof. We knew that it'd be a pricey project, but we loved our home, and if it all worked out, we planned to stay there for a really long time.

After the quote came back, it was clear to us that the decision was made for us, there was no way we'd sink that amount of money into our house as we'd easily out price the neighborhood, and still wouldn't have a new kitchen or upstairs bath.  The numbers didn't work.  On to Plan B.

Plan B was to have our house appraised by a local agent, and to see if listing made sense.  The market has been crazy, so we knew that we'd probably get more than we paid (including the upgrades we'd done), but we just weren't sure what we'd do if we sold.  The inventory was so low.  We wanted to stay not only in the same town, but the same section of town (making our options even less).  After meeting with our realtor, we not only decided we were going to list and hopefully sell, but that if all went well, that we'd be building instead of buying!

With all of that said, things moved extremely quick.  We were under agreement in less than a week, and  had to get creative. We are currently renting a two bedroom townhouse for the next 8 months while our house is being built.  I'll update about that progress soon. We are SO excited about building our dream home.

In the meantime, here are some pictures from our listing! You can go back to see the befores here!

SOLD.

So this happened yesterday...

They say that when one door closes, another one opens. Even though it's bittersweet leaving a home we've created so many memories in, it's time to look forward to this amazing opportunity of building our dream home. So long little yellow house, you've been good to us.

MORE TO COME. STAY TUNED.

Reese's First Soccer Season- Fall U4

We decided to sign Reese up for fall soccer this year in Middleton since they have a U4 league. Reese was super excited about the idea, however when it came time to actually play soccer, she became very shy and didn't want to participate.  Todd had to constantly be out on the field with her, telling her to stay with her team.  As the weeks went on, she did better.  I'm hoping this spring will be better because she'll know what to expect, and she'll be a bit older.  I think she really does enjoy the game.  Plus, an added bonus is that her buddy Cecelia was on her team, and should be again this spring!

Of course we went with pink shorts, cleats, and a pink soccer ball! ;-)

This was at Reese's first "game"--- she had her own little fan club! Gavin and Charlotte made the cutest signs for her!