February/March 2019

Cozy family time!

I missed a month of blogging, but I have a good excuse... we moved! When Jordan and I moved into our first home about 5 years ago, we know it wasn't going to be the house we would be staying in for decades. It was a perfect first house for us, but in the back of our heads we always knew we'd end up moving again. With Noah starting kindergarten in the fall of 2020 (what?!) and the housing market being so competitive in Madison, we knew we needed to start looking early so we weren't scrambling to find something. We also decided that we wanted to move into the same school district where I work so that we'd be on the same school calendar -- and I could potentially have him in class someday!

At the beginning of February we found an awesome realtor to work with and a week later we went to a showing of a house that had just gone on the market. It ticked all the boxes of things we'd like in a house so we decided to make an offer... and holy cats, it was accepted! So now we needed to list our home within a week... yikes. Especially considering this is the typical state of our living room...

But the stars aligned and between a couple very convenient snow days used to clean and organize, and my wonderful mom helping us out, we got our house staged and ready to sell.

Yes, I'm naturally this organized.

That is a LOT of fries, Grandma!

Many boardgames while Jordan and I cleaned and packed the clutter away.

Hey, this kitchen looks good.

Hey, this living room looks good too. Some very clean people must live here.

Wow. I'm sold. I want to buy this house!

We were fortunate to sell our house the on same day it was listed! I guess the awesome staging paid off. It also helped that we live in a great neighborhood and we really do love this house. The rest of February was spent doing the regular house-buying stuff like inspections and negotiations. This time around was more complicated because we were buying and selling but we still found plenty of time to do fun things. Here's a whole bunch of pictures...

Getting to work on Groundhog day making...

...these creepy adorable cupcakes.

Noah is still loving his swimming class!

Robots TV603. Artwork by Noah.

Happiest of Valentines to this little dude!

ANOTHER snow day calls for a manicure...

And hot chocolate!

Oh, and lots of birthdays cake this month!

Loving on the birthday girl.

Love this sweet face.

Fun at preschool!

Another birthday party. Protect that cake, your school buddy is moving in!

Noah and Jake. These guys. They are the sweetest.

Cheese!

 Because I love comparisons like this- check out these two friends two years apart!

12/2017 (Noah is on the right)

2/2019 (Noah is on the left)

Annnnd.... he's out. Too much birthday fun.

Scavenger hunt for Jordan's birthday!

Happy birthday, Jordan! We love you!

It takes two to blow out all those candles. :)

These two. Still around. Still up in all the business.

Early in March there was a Winter Pajama party at Noah's school. They had all kinds of winter-themed activities for the kiddos and everyone wore their pajamas. It was such a cozy and fun way to spend a Saturday morning.

Working on a collaborative painting.

Fun in the "photo booth" with dad!

Snack time!

I think this is the most calm and still Noah was during the whole morning. Hand painting is serious business.

Dropping snowballs on the children...

...over an over, they loved it!

Time to do some reading in the comfy corner. 

March is Youth Art Month and that brings Fine Arts week to my school. We have a lot of fun with different activities including a 48-hour film fest, dress-up days, and lots of Art experiences for students and staff. I brought Noah to school with me on the weekend that students were filming and editing for the film festival, he had tons of fun running around with his friends!

Some sgraffito vases from my Ceramics 1 kids

Noah modeling the Bob Ross wig

Plotting to bust out of the school...

And they're off!

Dress-up day: Rainbow day!

Dress-up day: Character day! (I'm Deb from Napoleon Dynamite)

Dress-up day: Rockstars!

Dress-up day: Bob Ross day!

Best part of an art reception: the snacks and company, of course!

The littlest Bob Ross twins!

My awesome Bob Ross brush.

We enjoyed the last few days in our home before it was time to officially move out! We were lucky that the snow melted away and temps started to finally get warmer in the week of the move. It worked out that on moving day we planned to have the movers come in the morning to take everything out and into a truck, then our final cleaning of the house, then inspection of our new house, then closing on our old house, then closing on the new house, then getting our stuff to the new place, and the movers came the following morning with the truck to unload everything. Whew! I think we're done with moving for a very long time. We were fortunate to have my parents come and help out- and I will give them credit, they carried a ton of boxes for us! This past week has been my spring break and I've enjoyed the time to unpack and find spots for all our stuff. We love our new neighborhood and have enjoyed exploring and playing! I'm sure I'll share more pics when we have everything settled in completely but here's some for now...

Noah has been into taking photos lately...

... some are better than others. :P

Our last trek to the park...

Strike a pose, dude.

Loving the swings.

Some fun in a pool...

and more pool fun...

And swimming with Grandma and Grandpa! This is the life!

Can you believe my mom and dad moved all this? They are the best.

Ahhhh! Empty house!

Our last pic at our house. It's a bittersweet day. This was a special place.

Our new house!

At the closing... millions of papers.

First dinner in our new house!

First family photo. We're pretty much exhausted. But happy.

Family!

My favorite thing in our home- big bathtub!

Best part of a new home: organizing!

The cats have settled right in.

Spring break dinner with friends! We keep it fancy at the Olive Garden.

Bathtime! And yes- the water is pink. Noah loves those colored bath drops. And he's been getting into bath bombs lately too. I might have competition for using my big bathtub soon!