It's official

There is a big "For Sale" sign in our front yard right now. Before I was a homeowner, I never thought about what it would be like to sell a house. I thought a lot about owning my own home and being able to hang as many pictures as I wanted (we lived in an apartment where we were allowed 12 -- no more -- holes in the wall), and could paint the rooms however I wanted. I'm finding that selling a house is kind of stressful. We have only had it shown twice now, (which is pretty good since it has only been on the market for less than a day!), but I am obsessed with the house being spotless right now because I don't know when someone will want to see it. I am also surprised to find myself feeling sentimental about the house. For all of its quirks, it has become a special place. I have been through so much here. When we first moved here it was so hard because Morgan left almost immediately. Braden, Lydia and I were on our own here for 16 months. We missed Morgan and all of our family so much, but we made this home a place where we wanted to be. It is also the place where we learned how to live as a family again after Morgan returned from Iraq, and the place where we welcomed Liam home. It may not be a palace, but we have put a lot of ourselves into it, and I will miss it. Our realtor put a really nice virtual tour on the internet at: http://www.ubuildtours.com/tours/templates/flash_tour/tour2.php?pt=131599
I thought I would share it with all of you so you can see what we have been doing on the house.

Trip to White Sands

Over Spring Break I tried to do some fun things with the kids. One day we packed a cooler and drove out to White Sands. It is only about 25 minutes away, and is always a fun trip. They had fun playing in the sand and sledding down the dunes for hours! On the other days we went bowling and roller skating, and enjoyed being able to relax from our busy schedule.

It's official! We will be transferring to Germany in June. The kids have mixed emotions about leaving their friends and the only home Lydia remembers. But they seem to be somewhat excited about visiting castles, riding trains, and taking the bus to school next year. We have millions of things to do to get ready for this move -- have a yard sale, sell the house, have the movers come three different times, ship the cars, etc. It is overwhelming, but we are excited for the wonderful new experiences we will be having.

One of the things Morgan is working on very hard is finishing up the projects around the house. He just finished refinishing the kitchen cabinets in deep cherry and they look beautiful. He and a friend also put up a nice new fence in the backyard last week. We won't do too much more, but we have already done so much that the house looks completely different. I am going to make a scrapbook of before and after pictures of each of the rooms, and hopefully I will get the chance to post them on this blog. I think that one of the best selling points of our house is the hard wood floors throughout. Also, we have a nice big workshop out back (which was a major selling point for Morgan). We had electricity installed in it last year. We also had a nice big patio put in the backyard last year. We have done so much, I hate to leave our first home.

Easter

You can't really see it in this picture, but I made Lydia's dress. My friend, Kimberly helped me. She has three girls, and our friend Anna also has three girls, so we made them matching dresses. Then we bought matching outfits for the baby boys and matching shirts and ties for the big boys. They all looked so cute on our big Easter Egg Hunt. We hosted Easter Dinner and the egg hunt. It was so fun. The kids had a great time (all twelve of them!).

Pinewood Derby

Morgan helped Braden and his friend Alex build awesome, super-fast cars.

Weighing the cars down. The closer the cars are to five ounces (the weight limit) the faster they are.

All of the hard work paid off. Braden came in second in the whole pack!

Name that Baby Results

You all did a great job guessing the order of the babies. Everyone who responded was correct -- the order was Lydia, Liam, Braden.

Playing Catch-up

Here are some miscelaneous pictures from February:
Braden, his best friend Alex, and Lydia participated in the "Fun Run." They all ran two miles!

I was so proud of Braden when he earned the "Writing Wizard" award at school for a haiku he wrote.

Liam fell asleep in the high chair!
Braden and Alex

As the title of this post suggests, I am trying to play catch-up right now. Not just with pictures on the blog, but everywhere in my life. It seems like I am on a never-ending quest for the elusive state of being "caught up." I regularly think "If I can just catch up on (fill in the blank -- laundry, housework, journaling, blog, scrapbooking, etc.) then I can just keep up." But after 7 1/2 years of being a mom, I don't think I have ever achieved caught-up-ness. Luckily, even though my mind tells me that it is impossible, something inside keeps hoping that I can do it. I think that is what keeps me going every day. Hope.