taking time out

from packing & prepping-


for PLAYING!

photo Friday & an update to my week

Sorry, I've been MIA all week. This buying a house thing comes with a lot of "to-do's"!

See...

This week we had the inspection and since there wasn't much to ask of the sellers we are finally starting to pack. Although, I ran out of diaper boxes yesterday. Which gave me more time to scribble out my lists {i love lists} and virtually paint our new place. 

But I still need boxes. I mentioned it on Facebook and after this weekend we are going to be overflowing with boxes. Friends who work at grocery stores, a cousin who is unpacking, and other helpful connections came to the rescue. Oh Facebook, what would I do without you?

Take more of these probably-

I've also had the car this week. My in-laws lent us their extra car because my FIL is subbing at a school down the street that he can walk to. So Ben has their car and I've had ours. I did such exciting things as meet Ben at the house for the inspection, grocery shop {it's so much more efficient midweek at 2pm!}, and take Malakai in for some immunizations {and walk 3 city blocks with him on my hip because there was no parking}. Actually on Monday I did meet up with a SAHM friend at her house. We sat in her backyard in the grass with our boys, soaked up vitamin D, drank lattes, and ate artichoke spinach dip. It was lovely.

about me...

There are a lot of new readers/followers around this space so I thought I'd have a little fun and do some "about" posts. I did Malakai's for his 7th month post last week. So here's a little bit about me-

My first name doesn't have a significant meaning. My dad wouldn't let my mom name me Tiffany or Porscha so I didn't have a name at first. My mom's sister babysat a little girl named Shandell and suggested it, they both liked it and ta-da!


My middle name "LeAnn" however, is my Dad's middle name, Lee, and my mom's middle name, Ann. All the women on my mom's side of the family have Ann in their middle name. This started because we are relatives of Shakespeare's  wife (not the Princess Diary's) Anne Hathaway.

Last night I had a dream about going skydiving. It was a lot of fun and I kept going and teaching all my friends and family. In real life, I wanted to go for my 18th birthday but couldn't afford it and so I've never been. I'm not sure if I'd still do it now that I'm a mom.

follow Friday

Since I just posted all my photos for the week when I wrote about Malakai, I'm sharing the  "Friday Follow"  Blog Hop instead of my usual photo Friday post.

Here's how YOU can join the celebration:

• * Link up your blog name and URL using the MckLinky below. Only need to add to one blog linky.
• * Follow the Friday Follow hostesses listed in the first 3 slots.
• * Follow as many blogs as you like
• * Comment on the blogs telling them you're from Friday Follow
• * Follow back when you get a new follower through Friday Follow

The Blog Hop is the same at each of our three hosts blogs so you do not have to add your blog at each site. Just one - but you can follow each host blog.  

bitten

I'm just so frustrated. The last two times I tried nursing Malakai he has decided to try out that new tooth on me. The pain is indescribable. Even though it shocks him when I yell out in pain, he does it again. I just tried four times, twice on each side, before giving up and heating up some breast milk from the freezer.

I hope this doesn't last, it's too soon for him to wean and I don't think I can stand anymore bites like that!

about Malakai

He just turned 7 months on Tuesday.

He thinks it's hilarious to arch his back and look at people upside down.

He has MANY nicknames, the newest of which is "snaggle tooth" because of his one sharp bottom tooth. I finally got this picture of it, can you see it?

pending!

SALE IS PENDING!

I can hardly believe that we are buying a house. It all happened relatively fast. Today overall was a rough day, but I'm feeling good about the decisions we made. 

Our initial offer was countered and was higher than we were expecting. We crunched numbers and made phone calls to our loan consultant and realtor. When all was said and done we decided it was safer to accept than to counter again and possibly lose the home. After doing so, I felt a little uneasy. I kept wondering if we should have gone lower. However, what solidified it for me was Katie's email. She sent us a link to the MLS site to show us it is now marked pending (it's the little things that make me smile) and also mentioned that the original asking price was nearly $20,000 higher than what we agreed to and that the selling realtor told her she had several more calls on it today. I feel like we made this choice quickly, but now that I know we could have lost the one house we love out of the dozens we've seen...I'm at peace.

So...here's some new pictures and some from the previous post with descriptions. 

weekend wrap up

So I've already put it out there as to the biggest part of our weekend, but I'll back up and share how we got to that point.

Thursday night we narrowed down our list of houses to look at over the weekend and emailed our Realtor, Katie. She emailed back Friday morning and let us know that 3 out of the 4 either weren't available or weren't a good idea. One was pending, one was a short-sale with an offer and back up offers, and the other was in bad shape. So we went through the MLS again and came up with 3 more, 2 of them were available to see. The one house that stayed on our list was the only one that Katie emailed us about directly as it's in great condition, located in a beautiful neighborhood, and in our price range.

On Saturday we celebrated my Father in Laws birthday by getting together and having lunch at their home. The plan after that was to leave Malakai to play with Grandma and Grandpa while we looked at the three houses. We started with THE house and were pretty excited about it. When we got in the car to follow Katie to the next house she drove us by a nearby park and I couldn't stop smiling.

an offer

We made an offer and now all we can do is wait. We should know something by 5pm Monday night.

Meanwhile I'm like a kid before the first day of school...I can't sleep. I just lay there imagining what colors we'd choose and where everything will go.

The anticipation is killing me!

photo Friday

I haven't taken a lot of pictures this week. 

I've been busy playing with my boy and organizing our house hunting efforts

and sometimes both at the same time.

roller-coaster ride

Do you ever set off to write about something, or tell someone a story and as you begin you think to yourself "have I told them this already"? I do this ALL.THE.TIME! I'm pretty sure my mother hears me tell the same stories and updates about Malakai or our house hunt the most, sorry mom.

I also do this a lot when blogging. I find that my blog jumps around a lot from baby stuff, day to day, house hunt, etc and I'd have to go back through and read my posts on a topic to remember what I've already posted about. It gets more convoluted when I do a post that has a little bit of everything in it. I think I'll start keeping things separate. Partly for you, dear readers, but mostly for my own sanity.

gag

A friend of mine just posted that she's back to her pre-pregnancy jeans.

She's 10 day's post-partem...TEN DAYS.

I'm so grossed out right now.

first tooth!

I felt Malakai's first tooth just a few moments ago. I can't get a picture of it, but it's broken through the skin and coming in!

I'm going to miss his adorable toothless grin and I'm praying hard that I won't have to fight off that tooth while breastfeeding.

weekend wrap up

I don't like wrapping up the weekend. Sunday nights are my least favorite time of the week. We're exhausted from trying to fit in as much as we can (even if some of it is napping) into the weekend and we try to get to bed at a decent hour so Ben can get up for work early in the morning. Malakai never really cooperates with that and somehow I always forget to make Ben a lunch.

This past weekend was pretty full, but also pretty great. On Friday night we celebrated Kai's great-grandpa's birthday at a local pizza place. My grandparents have been in Hawaii for the past 7 weeks (I know, poor them) so it was great to see them again and we got showered with gifts. Meanwhile, Kai got passed around from great- aunt, to 2nd cousin, to great- uncle, to great-grand.

Saturday was generally lazy. We got up early with Malakai and played, then during his nap Ben played his video game and I looked at houses online and spent maybe 5 minutes trying to figure out our tax mess before giving up (again). I took a TON of photos of Malakai...

wearing one of Ben's baby shirts

 and holding the balloons that he sent to work for dada's birthday

          

... we took a nap, drove by some houses (3 of which out of the 4 were c.r.a.p.) and went to Red Robin to use Ben's birthday burger coupon (did you know they send you a coupon for a free burger every year if you join their bday club?...awesome), and came home full and sleepy to watch The Beatles, Help! which was a favorite of mine during my Beatles obsession in middle school.

Sunday we went to 1st service at 9am and were only a few minutes late. Malakai played with the other babes in the nursery for the second time. Had a break to socialize with some people in between services and then at 10:45am Malakai and I played in the nursery as it was my Sunday to volunteer. Ben came in to feed him a bottle about halfway through and we chatted about having him volunteer with me on a regular basis when he's not playing with the worship band.

Afterwards we headed out to my parents' house for the Super Bowl and a family birthday get together for Ben. His siblings couldn't make it, but his parents came and we ate way too much food (chips, 7 layer dip, carrots & ranch, pasta salad, birthday cake, ice cream, pizza....), watched the game (I only watched the commercials, and wasn't impressed), and stuck around for a little while afterwards. Malakai had another two person (a third would have been even better) blow out. Ben and I are so childish and end up giggling uncontrollably while trying to clean him up. He's so wiggly now that he ended up sticking his foot in his diaper and thus getting poo on every piece of clothing had been wearing. Luckily, I've learned my lesson and now pack two entire extra outfits wherever we go.

Ben & his birthday balloons 

G'Pa and Malakai

Once we got home we checked our email and finalized plans with our realtor to go see some houses this week (tonight!) and chatted til we fell asleep...and then an hour later woke up to feed Malakai again and get him to sleep....and so on and so forth...

joininng the mama blog, bloghop

photo Friday- less than usual

Today Malakai rolled himself up in his quilt that we have for him to play on in the living room

He fussed at first, but then began to play. I sent Ben these pics and he said "he built his first fort!"

boys...

we have a winner

The winner of the  Kalorik Sunny Morning Hand Blender/Mixer in Lime Green is commenter 92 (picked via random.org)   nfmgirl! 


Thank you all for participating in my first ever giveaway. I hope to do more in the future (any insider tips on this would be great ladies!) and sincerely hope that my new followers will stick around and become a part of my blog community.

Happy Birthday to my LOVE

My husband turned 25 yesterday (yes he's younger, but a 3 year difference hardly qualifies me as a "cougar" thankyouverymuch!) and for the first time in the 4 years we've been a couple, we got to celebrate together all day.

My birthday (12.29) has always been during Christmas break, and once I started working it was easy to wrap it up into my vacation week. I've NEVER worked on my birthday. Ben has also always been off on my birthday until this year. His new job comes with only 5 vacation days a year, and those also happen to be your only paid sick leave as well. Being the holidays we couldn't afford for him to take unpaid leave. He did work a short day and we had a fantastic evening together...but oh yeah, this post is about his birthday not mine!

Giveaway ending tonight!

Just a friendly reminder- It's the last day to enter my giveaway!