Life Changes Galore

So from the previous post, it's obvious that we have some life changing events coming up. A new baby definitely qualifies for life changing. Life improving, yes. But life changing. Well we have more than one big event in the works. We have to soon get a new vehicle-one that will fit THREE car seats. Those things are pretty expensive.  How ever will we pay for said vehicle? Well we decided we'd just sell our home to get the cash. Just kidding! That isn't EXACTLY what we thought. It is, however, actually happening. We won't sell our home JUST to buy a new vehicle.

With this third baby we also find ourselves in need of a bigger home. Our current place is pretty great. But. It only has two bedrooms. Rick and I claim one for ourselves. We won't share. We're selfish that way. That leaves one room for Chelsea, Brienna, and coming baby. I know it has been done by other families before. I don't see it working out for us. Chelsea and Brie wake each other up early enough and often enough as it is sharing a room. It is also necessary for Chelsea to be asleep before Brie goes to bed, otherwise neither kid sleeps. They talk and play and make noise and bug each other. That's dandy enough except Brie is ready for bed at nearly the same time as Chelsea nowadays. Hallelujah! That is a great thing!

(Our solution for this sleeping at the same time is simple: Chelsea goes to sleep in her new big bed in the bedroom. Brie will not stay in the toddler bed unless she is unconscious when you put her in it. And it doesn't last all night usually. So. We moved the crib downstairs when the new furniture arrived. Brie just sleeps downstairs, sort of in exile in the crib, but not really. She seems to be happy in her crib and doesn't mind being alone. It works out peachy. And now we are spoiled by having had them separated and sleeping so much better.)

Less than a week ago we contacted the Realtor that helped up buy our condo. He's really great. We met with him and two days later he was showing us a house he knew about but was not actually ON the market yet. That is why we called a Realtor. The housing market has such a fast turnover rate here that the good stuff disappears IMMEDIATELY. Realtors have insider status and can do such things as showing us a house that hasn't even hit the market yet. Any of you that follow us on Facebook (which I realize is most of you, so just bear with me as you hear this all again) you've already heard about the results of said viewing. It was quite nice but seemed too small and a little dated. A couple days later we looked around at some more houses and lots for new construction. The girls LOVED looking at the houses and running around and sliding on the bare floors. Chelsea was definitely NOT impressed with the partially built ones. They were too messy. Ha!

Now keep in mind that the mortgage insurance rates are going up in two weeks, so it would be advantageous to have an offer made by then in order to keep the lower rate. So that is the general timeframe we are working with. I've never been concerned about selling our place. It's in a price range many people want and can afford and it's pretty good quality and better than many of the similarly priced options out there. (Which is why we chose this place in the first place!) We expected to have to put an offer on something going up in order to get something decent. So after looking at our options, we decided that we did after all want to go with new construction. We had one picked out, had visited the lot and found it satisfactory, and were prepared to go forward. (This is still less than a week ago. It still hasn't even been a week since contacted our Realtor. Can you say whirlwind?)

Well Realtorman was made aware of one house that came on the market the very day that we were going to go ahead with the construction deal. Ok. We wanted to see it. It sounded like a pretty sweet deal. It was three bedroom, one full bathroom, one 3/4 bathroom, double garage with a triple wide driveway, room for two more bedrooms downstairs complete with egress windows, etc etc etc. And it was only six years old. AND just under our peak affordability. Sweet!

We looked through it. It was found satisfactory, despite a semi finished basement. That part has great potential. The whole upstairs is complete and beautiful along with a huge family area downstairs which will meet our needs for the time being quite nicely. What did we do? Well. We finished our paperwork for selling the condo, cleaned and took pictures, listed the condo (which may show up on the website tomorrow), and made an offer on the beautiful six year old house with a semifinished basement.

We're almost current here, sorry for my long windedness. The next day (which would be today) the owners of said beautiful house gave us a counter offer. (We offered a lower price and asked them to pay closing) They asked for $3000 more than our offer (which still puts it lower than the initial asking price) and agreed to pay all the closing costs (which will be about $6000 so that is pretty cool.) Did we accept it? BOY HOWDY! Of course! So. Now the thing to do is sell our condo, and the deal is sealed. At this point, the pretty house is still on the market but with a contingency note on it. We can only buy the house if we use the money from our condo sale, so we have to wait until our place is sold to actually pay for it. Thus, it is still available for other folk to view and make offers on. We are counting on the fact that the contingency notice tends to put off Realtors from even showing it, since it's as good as gone. Hope, hope!

We had one viewing of our condo already, yesterday, the first day of even being listed. Realtorman had a client who he thought would be a good match. The guy DID like it and was very excited about it, but after going home and consulting with his parents, he decided he wouldn't be able to afford it after all. Bummer. I was really hoping this would be THAT easy and quick. If he had made an offer, we would be guaranteed the new house as of this moment! But no offer. Grumble. Oh well. So that is where we sit.

How do I feel about all of this? I feel really good. I feel excited. I feel nervous. I feel IMPATIENT. I feel sleepy. Why sleepy? Funny you should ask that. For most of last night I laid in my bed wide awake deciding how big I want my laundry room to be. Should we make a half, 3/4, or full bathroom in the basement? Walk in closets in the new bedrooms? And we hadn't even heard if the owners were on board with our offer! Now that they are, and we are stuck playing the waiting game, I'm going NUTS! I haven't even gone to bed and it's pretty much all I can think of already. I've been obsessive (almost) about keeping the house ready to show at any moment. (Yeah, it's only been a day and a half. I hope it sells soon so I can regain my sanity and loose my OCD tendencies.)

So there we are. I'm really glad I'm going to be gone/working/busy most of the next four days. We gave Realtorman free reign to come over any time, especially if we don't answer the phone. The Realtors are going to have a viewing on Friday, which I think is pretty darn cool. I didn't know they did stuff like that. It WOULD be a lot easier to sell a place or recommend a place that you've actually SEEN before. So I will leave the computer now and pace around making sure there's nothing dirty or gross showing. No bad smells anywhere, dishes are done, sink clean, toothpaste rinsed from the bathroom sink/counter, etc etc etc. Shall I rest? I am having doubts. I'm still really positive and optimistic about a quick sale, but the impatience and the not knowing for sure yet is maddening! Here is a cute photo for you to look at just for getting to the bottom of this wordy post. Enjoy and please say a prayer for us to sell SOON!!! We'd be much appreciative.

Baby Number Three, First Photo

First Ultrasound, 12 weeks

3/21/11

I went to the doctor today for my first prenatal appointment. It was pretty fast. I got all the financial business done (it's pretty easy by number three in the same hospital), initial paperwork such as medical histories filled out, saw the doctor to get my exams, got the ultrasound, gave about ten thousand little vials of blood, and LASTLY peed in a cup. All of this was done in about an hour and 15 minutes. Not too shabby.

All is well with me and the baby. Baby was snoozing during the ultrasound and not squirming all over the place like Brie was. But she/he had a good strong heartbeat around 170. So far so good! Hip hip!

New Room!!!

Here is the progression of this bedroom through the years. When we first moved in we, of course, didn't have any children. In preparation for having this as a kids' room, I left it empty and didn't put anything in it except for a few plastic totes. I didn't want to have to clean it out once a baby came. So for nearly two years it was empty. Then in May of 2007 our first baby, Chelsea, arrived. We prepped her room with a crib and a place to put toys over on this side of the room. 

The pictures are actually cross stitched on fabric, which used to be sweatshirts, which I used to wear as a child. What a creative use for them, don't you think? My mother not only made the sweatshirts all those years ago, but she came up with the idea of framing them all on her own. She thinks she's not creative. Ha. Joke's on her, hehe.

 

Them on this side of the room we have the chest of drawers and changing table, complete with storage drawers as well. The picture frame on the wall was filled later, with pictures of, who else? Chelsea!

 By January of 2008 we added a rocking chair. The bouncer moved around the house, but usually it was in the living room. (Look at little Chelsea! She always was a cutie pie!)

 Before Sept of 2009, when this photo was taken, we moved Chelsea from the crib into a toddler bed. Why didn't we remove the crib? Well, I think that is obvious. Baby number 2, Brienna, would arrive in early October of that year. She occupied the couch for the first seven months of her life instead of the crib, but oh well. She HAD a crib and a bedroom, even if she didn't sleep there for the longest time.

And here we are in March of 2011. Chelsea has outgrown the toddler bed. She's been asking for a bigger bed for a few months already. Now we have finally gotten it for her! The crib has finally been removed, as well as the other furniture. It is distributed around the house. (You'll notice I don't have picture of the rest of the house here, hehe.) We bought two twin beds, a night stand, a dresser and mirror, and a chest of drawers. Here is Chelsea's bed. 

Notice the extreme height of this setup. We didn't realize that if you get the footboard (which we did) there is only one setting--high. With both the mattress AND box spring, this is how high it was. Chelsea had no problems with it whatsoever, except it took a little effort for her to get up there. She loved it. LOVED it!

We took the box spring off and put just the mattress in and this is the new height. Chelsea liked it better this way, as do the rest of us. It is so much easier to get on the bed and I'm not afraid of her injuring herself if she should fall off. 

But anyway, here is the fancy shmancy night stand. We bought and painted the lamp, since there were no lamps even close to a matching color.

Here is the other side of the room where the old chest of drawers and changing table were. The toddler bed is now Brie's. But. She doesn't stay in it. At. All. So we might end up putting the crib BACK in the room for awhile till she gets a little better at 1) staying in the bed and 2) sleeping all night again. But for now, we are giving it a shot. (As I speak, she is asleep in the crib that is now set up downstairs because she cried and cried and came out and came out and wouldn't sleep in the bed. Sigh.)

I'm also a little sad that the mirror is cracked in the bottom right corner, but they are replacing it with no problems. There is also a paint scratch right in the middle on the top of the dresser. Darn. I'm not having it replaced just for that though. Mom filled it in with some white paint as best she could. It looks better. I'm not really worried about it.  I think it bothers her more than it bothers me, hehe.

White sheers to go along with the white furniture and white walls. I just painted the walls of this room in prep for this new furniture (and hopefully a MOVE soon). I would have gone with a light blue, but like I said, we are hoping to sell this place and buy a new house soon. So I went with white walls, despite all the other white in the room. I think it looks ok though. :)

Here is the cute valance that goes with the bedding set.

There is absolutely nowhere else to put this chest of drawers except for in the closet. The room is just not big enough to accommodate everything. But, we were aware of this when ordering the furniture. We got everything anyway, in anticipation of moving into a place with a bigger room, room enough for both beds to be set up as well as for the dresser, night stand, and chest of drawers.

Here is the step stool we got for Chelsea to get up on her big high bed. We painted it the same color as the lamp. Then we took out the box spring and she no longer needs it. But. Brie will still need to use it when she eventually gets hers set up. And who can't use a step stool when there are shorties in the house? hee hee!

Brie loves the big bed. Not to sleep on, or even to sit on for long periods of time, bu hey. She'll get there. Someday. She loves the stool, too.

Do you think she likes it? The camera caught Brie at a funny time. She was in the midst of copying Chelsea in putting her arms up/out. She is quite the copycat. Luckily she's starting to copy more word-type sounds as well. She says bubbo for bubble, which is pretty cute. She says it whenever she gets a bath now.

Check it out, Brie got AIR! I had to actually hide the stool after this because she kept trying to jump onto the bed from it. (copying Chelsea who was jumping onto the bed from the floor) She's not quite so graceful yet, as if I would describe Chelsea as "graceful" at this point. 

Here is just this evening. Chelsea invited me into her bed to read her bedtime story. I gladly obliged. Brie was happy to join us, though she didn't sit very still and wanted to hold the book and flip through the pages. 

Eventually she stopped wiggling so much and let others turn the pages, at the appropriate times. Ah, what a wonderful life. Really, does it get better than this? I know I get frazzled by my kids sometimes, especially when they are creepy (like Brie is when she's teething-now-again-STILL). But I can't imagine living without them. It seems like I have so much to do and so little time to do it. But without these little girls (and not forgetting my wonderful husband), I would have so much time and so little to do. 

I LOVE MY FAMILY!!!

Fun Times in February

I guess this is a good spot for a baby to sit...

...and for her Mommy, too!

Three-year-old and a ring pop. Need I say more?

Rick got this idea from the preschool at MSU. Instead of sidewalk chalk, colored water to spray the snow! Chelsea thought it was a GREAT idea and loved it!

Phantom sideways photo again. The Heits will recognize this fellow.

 I realize that if you don't know what you are looking at, it is....yeah. But I assure you, it is innocent. It's harder to draw with a squirt bottle than you may think. =)

The rose was my creation. Chelsea did great at filling in footprints with colors. It was interesting that it didn't take long for our colors to completely disappear. Granted, it was a bit melty this day.

We had considered using this photo as a "Future Heit Family Photo" complete with three children and a dog, as an announcement of a third baby. It is a cute idea, but not clear enough I thought. So we went with the Valentine card bit. Plus, we don't have a dog, and a dog is not in the plans anytime in the near future.

Snow angel time. Funnily enough, sometimes Chelsea makes "water angels" in the bathtub. She lays down and splashes around in the limited tub space and announces that she made a water angel. Can I see it? Nope. But she tells me where the head and wings are anyway. =)

Chels asked me to take her photo and then made THIS face for whatever reason. I love her.

Daddy was pretty tired after pushing around these two in their diaper box boats. When Chelsea was little they were planes, and he would fly her around. Nowadays, they're just boats and stay on the floor. hee hee!