Moving!

We've been talking about finding a house with some land for a while, we were tired of living in a neighborhood.  We had one neighbor we really liked, otherwise, we were surrounded by a weird group of people.  Our kids didn't really go play with friends in the neighborhood like we had hoped so we were living in one for no valid reason.  Beyond it being what we could afford when we bought it.  Me taking a full time job changed all of that.  We had been kind of poking around for fun and went to look at a few places.  We weren't really seriously looking until I kind of broke.  That seems to be the way it goes.  We are fine... Until we aren't.  In this case it came down to being sick and having to deal with the neighbor's ridiculous barking dog.  That thing NEVER shut up.  We talked to the neighbors multiple times, nothing was changing.  It had a deep bark that echoed off all the ridiculously close houses around us.  It would sit in the middle of the yard and bark.  Just sitting there, nothing was around, nothing was moving, it would just be barking.  I was sick, tried to take a nap multiple times and Every. Single. Time. That dog was barking.  I ended up with a sinus infection that I shouldn't have had to deal with and I was finished.   Let me describe this to you..

Neighbor 1: across the street, awesome, we'll actually miss them

Neighbor 2: kitty corner, had kids out on the front porch smoking pot constantly, saw multiple times where they were buying out of a car right there on the street

Neighbor 3: rental house, people smoked on the front porch and in the summer, without ac our windows would have to be open, smoke went straight into Carson's room

Neighbor 4: The nightmare dog

Neighbor 5: They had rock up against the fence that was breaking it. Asked them to move it multiple times, they never did.  Daddy finally climbed over the fence and moved the rock so we could repair it.  They also had a dog that liked to break into our yard.  It broke the fence in multiple places.  We brought it to their attention and they did nothing, so we had to patch it to keep their dogs contained. 

Neighbor 6: their fence fell down in a wind storm and they just left it.  They didn't fix it for months. Just had the broken fence, which absolutely wasn't ours, sitting there.  

Keep in mind, neighbors 3-6 had yards that touched ours.  We actually had another neighbor that shared some fence, it wasn't much and we didn't have any problems with them.

Anyway, we were done and everything was kind of a hot mess around us.  Pretty soon, looking for fun became serious.  We had a realtor friend that we worked with and she was awesome.  We saw three really weird houses. One could've been really cool but would've needed a total overhaul, it was trashed.  Really glad we didn't go that route.  We just didn't have the time to devote to a long term project like that  We saw three houses besides the one we ended up with.  Initially our impression was that it was too "fancy" for us.  When we went back around and saw it again it wasn't as uppity as we originally thought.  We put in a full price offer with $5000 earnest money and it was accepted.  

Then we had to rush to actually finish our house.  There was touch up to do, cleaning to do and of course... All the baseboards.  We made it in time!  Lucky for us we had painted the outside last summer (never again by the way).  Here are the professional pictures.  4 bedroom, 2.5 bath, living, dining, family, den, laundry, and bonus. 3100 square feet.  2 car garage.  About 1/5 of an acre.  Big for most neighborhoods here unfortunately. 

Here are the professional pictures of the new house.  Not all of the rooms are pictured.  4 bedroom, 3.5 bath, living, dining, den, butler's pantry, and bonus.  3400 square feet.  3 car garage and of course, the shop.  On 4.5 acres.  It has a few things we could do without (2 stair cases?) and we lost the laundry room.  There is a room between the garage and main house with an optional washer/dryer hook up.  After experiencing walking through laundry to go in and out of the garage in our first house.... we decided to put the washer/dryer in the closet upstairs where there was an existing hook up. 

Getting ownership ended up being ridiculous.  The mortgage broker that our realtor suggested ended up being completely incompetent.  We come up on the closing date and we are told there is an issue on OUR buyer's side.  They get it sorted.  Then our lender tried to push us into an FHA despite putting 25% down.  We said no because it required mortgage insurance.  Then at the 11th hour, we're told that there was a process that they didn't realize existed for our loan.  Which THEY found and recommended.  It was part of an investor's package and there was an extra approval process that was required.  That our people didn't do.  We were told you WILL be approved.  We just have to get through the process, which there is no way to speed up.  We ended up rolling the dice.  We began moving our belongings into the garage and shop of the new house.  Of course our buyers wanted possession Friday.  Which meant none of the people we would've asked for help were available.  Fortunately, Grandma and Papa H made the trip from South Dakota with their big moving trailer.  We got it done, we had to take time off work and we all just about killed ourselves, but it was done in time.  Grandma Peggy came down and helped clean up as we were finishing the move and we were really grateful when some of Daddy's family came and helped us move some of the bigger items upstairs.  I told Daddy that if we move again, I want to hire a moving company.  Or even pay some high school kids to come help.  We moved in December 19th, without owning the home.  We basically rented it from the prior owner until we were FINALLY able to get our loan approved and closed January 10th.  We were coming up very quickly on the "I'm not doing this anymore" point with the prior owner.  It was VERY stressful.  

As always, the very first thing we did was paint the kids' rooms.   As we go, we have to paint all the ceilings white.  Eventually we'll need to change out or paint all the baseboards.  

Kayda's 

Carson's

Dillon's

The next project was turning the downstairs "laundry" into a mud room. 

We took out an upper cabinet and the wire shelf above the sink....and got to work. 

 

Kayda turns 13!

In the midst of getting ready to move, we celebrated Kayda's birthday.  Our first official teenager!  She has a few of her best buds and they went to an escape room.  It was a REALLY neat room.  It was decorated to a theme and they could call for clues if they got stuck.  I know I tend to take things over, but I didn't want them in the room alone.  So I sat on the floor and read my book while they explored.  They did pretty well!  They finished a couple of minutes late but they had a great time!  Then the girls came to spend the night. 

Ivy, Mackenzie, Kayda and Kaitlyn

Of course, on her actual birthday we did a small celebration.  

 

Dillon's soccer

This. Kid. Is.  Awesome.  He ended up being one of the captains this year (along with CJ).  He was a huge driver for the team.  He directed his teammates, kept the energy up and was everywhere you could possibly need him on the field.  He was a midfielder this year and rocked it.  After working so hard to be an offensive player he really is the best of both worlds.  He can do it all.  He is hesitant to take a shot on goal.  He'll be open but he has drilled passing into his head so much that sometimes he passes it when he shouldn't.  That is an area for him to work next year.  

CO CAPTAINS!

We had sweatshirts made this year.  This is the kid's third year playing together.  We handily named Carson's team the cheetahs too.

We started spending a LOT of time with this group!  We got together regularly and it often was talks of soccer.  

Me, Dad, Dan, Aaron, Austin, Beckett, Darcy and Trish

Our beautiful frosty day, needed the picture for both posts of course. 

Random post-game pizza

The coaches were "paid" this year by the club, which seemed weird, especially because they keep talking about budget issues.  Anyway.  We used the money to go to a trampoline park.  The boys had a blast together, the parents did too. 

Aiden, Tyson, Zach, Dillon, CJ, Landon, Aidan, Quincy and out front, Leelan.

We were able to arrange to be part of a after season jamboree for them this year.  We thought it was a tournament so we were kind of disappointed.  The boys went undefeated though!

Austin, Angel, Landon, Tyson, Zach, Logan, Zac, Tucker, Aiden, Isaac, Dillon, CJ, Aidan and Quincy out front.  Then coaches Austin, Daddy and Aaron of course.

Here's the crew that were "helping" this year.  They ended up having to run Scott off a little, he wasn't jiving well with the kids.  Jeremiah is kind of a helper.  Five was too many.

Carson's soccer

I love being a soccer mom, minus the minivan.  It is such a fun sport for me to watch, kind of elegant in a way.  I've learned most every rule which is good and bad.  Anyway, the point is, I love to watch this game.  Fortunately for me, neither of the boys seem like they have any intention of stopping anytime soon.  

Carson has settled into the wing position.  Coach Austin originally was playing him only in a defensive position.  It took some work to convince him to put him in a position that covers the whole field.  Coach kept putting him defensive, and then switching him to the offensive positions.  That wasn't a transition Carson did well.  If he didn't start on offense he would get stuck in a defensive mindset and he wouldn't be as aggressive when put on offense.  

We were the very first people out on the field one frosty morning.  It was so cool to go out on the untouched frost.  I couldn't pass up the picture. 

Since I'm writing this more than a year later, we really can't remember kids names.  I'll fill in how I can.  Tucker, PJ, unkown, Carson W, Taylor, Maddox, unknown, Matthew, Ben, Stephen, unknown.... Man that's cracking me up!

Coach Austin keeps telling us that Carson is his FAVORITE person to coach.  That's always fun to hear.  I don't remember most of his "speech".  It's pretty safe to say that Coach said Carson is awesome.

Daddy's Goes to the Sounders Championship Game

Something that has not happened since the 90's, is that a major sport championship game would take place in Seattle (and never has happened outside).  Thanks to a friend, Austin (who Daddy coaches soccer with), he located a ticket for Daddy to be able to go.  He also tried to get the kids tickets without any luck.  

In the end, the Sounders came away with the championship, beating Montreal 3 to 1!  It was the Sounders second championship in 3 years.

Pumpkin Carving and Halloween

Since we're actively looking to move, this was probably the kids' last Halloween in this house.  That is really weird to think about.  This year the kids each only got to carve one pumpkin unfortunately.  We were also unable to make it to the fun pumpkin patch.  One not so awesome thing about me working.  The boys still aren't real fond of the gooey insides.  Though they're starting to have a little more fun with it.   They're all starting to make more intricate designs on their pumpkins too.  That's fun to watch.  We watched a show called "Halloween Wars" where they do elaborate carvings combined with cake sculptures and candy decorations.  It's really cool, and also inspires the kids to be more imaginative. 

This was the first year we split up for Halloween.  Dillon went up to CJ's to trick or treat.  That ended up being a mistake, CJ got tired (it's really hilly up there) and so they stopped way early.  Kayda walked around our neighborhood with Ivy.  We went around with Carson and snagged his best friend Kailey.  They ended up with matching costumes, coincidence or design?  I have no idea.  Unfortunately in the chaos of kids going to different places I didn't snag a picture of Kayda or Dillon in costume. 

Our lovely town's candy generosity never disappoints!