Moving again!

This time the move is just across town and we are so thrilled about it.  For the second time in our marriage, we will be purchasing a home together.  We were only able to enjoy the first home we scrimped and saved for for a year before God had other (good!) plans.  It was all a blessing and we aren't upset with the path God chose for us, but we are thrilled that His plans for us in the present have led us to our second home buying experience.  

I am always, always reminded of the Bible verse from Ruth (1:16) that says, 

"Where you go, I will go, and where you stay, I will stay.  Your people will be my people, and your God my God."  

And this song, which has been one that has both crushed me at times and yet, has always been filled with such peace and promise.  

           

 We began to think about the possibility of buying when our lease-ending loomed in the not too distant future.  Our lease in our lovely rental home is up at the end of May and we thought, "Hey why not look around to buy?  Worst case scenario is that it doesn't work out and we stay here another year."

So we did some checking with our finances and talked to a loan guy and our realtor friend.  The market in our area is CrAzY.  Like not much inventory and tons of competition and lots of well above list offers, some of them cash.  So we figured it was a pretty long shot, but weren't worried because we were really just ok with whatever God wanted.  Either scenario would be fine.  

And then, I freaked.  I tried to take back control from God.  I worried.  I despaired.  We'll never have a place of our own again.  We'll never get in this market.  And if we don't get in now, we'll never, ever get in.  And if we never get in, we'll have to move again because we'll get priced out of the Denver area.  And tears.  Lots of them.  

I'm so tired of moving.  Especially big moves.  Moves where we uproot and have to find new friends, new community, new support for our growing family.  It's tough.  Really tough.  

So, lots of tears.  And after some hugs from my amazing husband, and some time spent in prayer, giving it all back to God, peace was restored in my soul.  

That was Wednesday night.  

The following day, Thursday, we looked at two houses.  From the online descriptions, we didn't think we'd like them, but though, "hey, let's just see."  We were right.  Not for us.  

The next day, Friday, we saw two houses that we liked the look of from the online descriptions and pictures. And we did like them.  So we put in offers on both of them that afternoon.  

Saturday we saw three more houses.  One that we liked the look of online.   One that we figured we probably wouldn't love.  And one that looked nice, but was further out than we really wanted to be.  We put in a third offer for the house we had liked the look of. 

And then we pretty much figured we would probably hear back negatives on all three and begin the search again the following weekend when more houses popped up on the market.  Did I mention that there were 6 houses in our price range on the market that weekend?  We saw 5 of them and put in offers on 3.  

And on Saturday night, while we were watching The Return of the King for a movie night, we got a text from our realtor, "Guys! An offer was accepted."  It was our favorite of the 3, the one we figured would be the longest of the already long shot houses.  And it was a miracle.  Truly.  To God be all the glory here.  

And it's been just over a week and we've been moving right along.  Signing stuff, the inspections are done, appraisals ordered, and yes, the packing has begun.  We don't know yet when we'll actually be moving.  We just know it'll be before the end of June, but we're packing and we're excited.  

Got out our boxes...

First box assembled and ready to pack....

One week into the house buying process and we've already got about 20 boxes packed.  I guess there is something rather nice about moving 9 times already....we know exactly what to do and how to do it.  Lots of work to be done, but we're started and moving slow and steady through, filled with the peace and joy of the Lord.  

Our first house key framed was a little gift I gave Chris for Christmas this year...and we talked about our hopes for buying our next home together, thinking at the time that it would still be a few years out.  But God opened all the doors, and moved all the mountains in the way, and now we're headed toward buying our second home together.  We couldn't be more excited and humbled by God's blessings.  

We are closer to all our friends here (except one wonderful family, but we are only 5 minutes further from them, which is still great).  We're closer to church.  Closer to Kayla's ballet.  Closer to the library.  And even a little closer to the mountains.  :)

2nd Annual Christmas Caroling at the Nursing Home

After the fun we had last year caroling at the nursing home,we simply HAD to make sure it officially became a tradition this year.  

We began the evening with a dinner potluck and some music practice at my godfather and his wife's house.  There's Chris there on the the left.  Love my talented hubby. 

We finally got to meet Agnes' niece, Andrea's boyfriend.  I loved how cute and coordinated they were for the party too.  awww. 

more practice

And then it was time to head to the nursing home to do some caroling!

 

Oh my goodness, could these two get any cuter?

Ave, Kayla, and Elise with their fancy friend who was part of our caroling crew

First we began by singing in the dining area to the folks who were eating dinner and relaxing there.  Kayla stood next to one lady holding the words to the music up for her to sing along the entire time.  Elise and Ava danced exuberantly around the room.  Sophie hung out in the carrier with me until the last few songs and then she wowed all the sweet folks with her walking abilities.  

Then we headed downstairs for another sing-along down there with the folks in that section of the building.  My favorite people that we met this year were a couple.  The woman couldn't talk and at first her husband was convinced that the music was upsetting her.  It soon became clear, though, that she was crying tears of joy and singing along.  He held her hand and I held her other hand for a time.  It was just a beautiful witness to love and I was so blessed to encounter such selfless, sacrificial, steadfast love.  

 

That is my sweet husband in the reindeer ears.  Love him.

The lovely couple is here on the left and the nursing home employee on the right was enamored with Sophie and loved holding her.  

Here they are again.  

Raw, real love and beauty right here, friends.  

What an honor it was to meet them and spend some time with them.  

My dear friend,Crystal, singing, and yes, the employee in the background was also singing with gusto.  It was really neat.  

I don't think I could ever tire of seeing the joy and love in the faces of these folks.  

I am so glad that we were able to officially make this a tradition this year (2 years strong!) and I am already looking forward to our next caroling experience, though this year, I hope to return to the nursing home with the girls a few times throughout the year to visit some of the folks we met and bring them cards and coloring pages.  

And at the end of the night, Crystal gave Sophie a sweet little present to celebrate her first birthday.  What a truly wonderful way to spend your first birthday--blessing the lives of others and in turn, being blessed by those lives as well.  

7 Quicktakes: November 15th edition

1.  Family Consecration- I finally wrote about writing our family consecration prayer.   I was really pleased with our end result.  I love prayers like the rosary and various novenas that are more form prayers that are used by many (and therefore very universal-like the Catholic church!), but I also like developing a family culture that is completely our own.  Plus I like writing, so prayers are just a wonderful way to use my love for the written word and apply it my life and that of our family.

Below is the last part (the only part that we took from someone else) of our family consecration and Kayla's picture of our family.

We say this part every night at dinner together and the girls and I do it at all the other meals and we usually add it to the end of the bedtime prayer routine too.  Kayla already has it memorized.  On Sundays we say our full family consecration together.


2. I am now 35 1/2 weeks along and feeling completely done with being pregnant.  In the last week especially I have had a fairly significant amount Braxton Hicks contractions and pelvic pressure.  I will be both surprised and a little annoyed if all the pressure I've been feeling hasn't resulted in a cm or 2 dilation at my 36 week amount.  But no, that doesn't mean I'm expecting to go early.  I was dilated 2cm at my 36 week appointment with Ava and was induced at 39 weeks, so clearly a few cm dilation means nothing in the grand scheme of "when" I will go into labor, but it would be nice to have all this pressure actually result in something, so that I feel like all the discomfort is at least moving me toward the finish line.

I love my little photo bomber.  And I love how this picture turned out because of her amazing skill at it. A rather fun effect, I thought. 

3. The other day Elise was seen with a pink plastic tea cup and a little dust cloth apparently trying to administer the Precious Blood to Ava as she put the cup to her mouth and said, "The Blood of Christ."  I rather wish I had captured a picture, but it would have ruined the beautiful moment we were witnessing, I think . 

4. One of Chris' co-workers brought Milka bars to share which, in turn, Chris brought home.  The Milka brought back memories of wonderful times in Austria and was delicious.  

5. A lovely friend gave me a bag of Cowboy Bark from Trader Joe's (the sweet/salty combo covered every pregnancy craving I might have).  Anyway it was delicious and devoured quickly, so I found a copycat recipe on Pinterest here and it's currently in the fridge hardening.  Mmmmmm!

photo credit from averiecooks.com

6.  This week Kayla has been learning in many new ways.  She started a prayer journal (more on that in a different post), now reads on her own (Dick and Jane books), and has been practicing both art and writing skills using several dry erase books she received from wonderful family members.

She wanted me to send this picture to Chris at work saying, "This is my best crab yet!"  

Additionally she got to go to ballet class 2 times this week because she missed a class last week because of a nasty cold.  The make-up class was this morning and was taught by a different teacher.  Our sometimes-shy daughter was not a bit shy this morning and had just as much fun as usual.  The teacher let them choose colors for their wings to pretend like they were butterflies.  She told me she chose pink and purple wings with gold and silver sparkles.  

7. Ava.... She is still up and down with potty training and her level of caring about it.  She is such a little goofball and wants to do EVERYTHING her sisters do.  On our family walks in the evenings, we let Elise and Ava jump out for the latter half of our route and walk.  Ava is always funny to watch, toddling along behind her big sisters.  And she talks and talks and talks.  I can't believe how much she is talking these days.  And singing.  She and the girls all recently learned "As I Kneel" and she sings the Latin part every bit as well as any of her sisters.  

                    

Vacation Bible School Performance 2014

I mentioned in my last post that Kayla went to her first ever VBS last week. She took a little while to warm up each day, but by the end of each day it was hard to convince her to come home with us for the remainder of the day. She loved the little crafts, and especially the dancing and singing.

On Friday evening after the last session (Friday morning) the little Protestant church where the VBS was held organized a little show for the parents so we could watch the kids perform the songs they had learned. Elise was too young to attend VBS, but the sweet ladies gave her an extra shirt, and when we arrived for the "concert" she wanted to sit up front with Kayla, and they even let her go on up on stage and perform with the rest of the group.

Both Kayla and Elise were completely adorable. Kayla was adorable because she was so into the songs. She had clearly worked hard (and loved every second of it) to learn the words and the motions that went with the songs and was excited to perform them for us. Elise, on the other hand, had NO idea what was going on. She jumped around happily, tried to do the motions that the ladies sitting on the floor in front were doing, and got lost in her own little world a lot. And at one point, she literally just pretty much goes nuts praising away in her own little Elise way.

I will share only a few clips from some of the songs, but they did about 6 songs total and I was literally crying because I was laughing so hard. The entire time.






Enjoy!

All the World's a Stage...

Ava has begun to chatter away non-stop and she loves to sing. Her favorites at the moment are songs from Frozen. She sings "Fuh fuh-eh-vuh" (For the first time in forever!) and "ah ah ah no-maaa" (Do you want to build a snowman?) and her very favorite of all, "Le go, Le go!" (Let it go!)

And what's the fun in singing if you aren't going to get into it? She raises her arms up and belts it out and sometimes dances around too. It's pretty funny.

Kayla's first songs

Below are a few videos we took of Kayla singing her favorite songs. These are exactly her first songs, but they are the first that are recognizable enough that you might be able to tell what she is singing.


Five little ducks


The Wheels on the Bus combined with 5 Little Ducks


Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star


Kayla dances to the Wheels on the Bus and gets very animated.