We bought a house!

Welcome back to "Our Life in California!" It is time to start blogging again! We bought our first house! Yeah! I'll give the kids credit too, because they sacrificed a lot so we could make this purchase! They didn't argue when we told them we were going to have to stop ballet lessons so we can save every single penny, they heard lots of "no's" when they asked for special treats. But once we bought the house and started shopping and BUYING (the kids were beginning to wonder how many trips to Lowe's and Home Depot we would have to make before we would actually buy something!) Gordie says "I get it mom, you didn't let us buy a lot of little things so that we could buy more BIG things." And I just thought it was so adorable when Adelee said, as I was checking out at Best Buy buying a stove and a dishwasher: "What? you are actually going to buy something...and without Daddy?" Yup! New dishwasher, new stove, new hood, new cabinets, new countertops, new vanities, new faucets, new sinks, new tile...WOW! We are designing our own house! We signed on Thursday, April 2nd, 2015, we closed on the 3rd and the demolition started on the 4th. We spent a few hours at the house building cabinets on Easter Sunday. The kids and I returned to the house on Monday to wait the arrival of the dumpster (oops, that is one thing I forgot to schedule...it would have been nice to have had that for the weekend.) And Chuck and his buddy Jeff returned on Tuesday to finish up demo and to start rebuilding. So just to set the scene for you. Chuck works at least 10 hours a day and his typical drive to and from work is well over an hour. I am 7 months pregnant, juggling 3 kid's schedules (I had to break the "no extra curricular activities rule" to sign them up for baseball) and I'm working a bit. We are paying double mortgage and rent for one month...that's all...no more...that means we have to be moved in by May 1st. We are flipping this house ourselves- we even built our own cabinets (yes, that saved us A LOT of money!), with Chuck's buddy/contractor we are the team! This is going to be one fast flip! But it is going to be AWESOME and it's going to have all of our blood (well hopefully not blood), sweat and tears in it! And we are going to have a house to call our own! I'd love to post some photos tonight...but instead I'm going to lay out on the sofa and relax. Maybe count some baby kicks :-) But tomorrow I'll post the before pictures. The demo pictures. And the Day 1 of rebuild photos.

First Day of School 2013

It has been a little over a week since school started and Adelee and Gordie walked up to the MLC gate together for the first time! After dropping the kids off, Chuck and I spent some quality time with Chessa...who loved every minute of it but often asked "DadaDordie?" (Adelee and Gordie?) and was overjoyed to see her brother and sister come 3:00. While Adelee got to go straight into her classroom, Gordie had a welcome ceremony to start his day! He was so excited! (I couldn't resist the close up shot of Gordie...at least he's smiling in all the other pictures...he is just so darn cute with that scrunched up face!!)

Last Day Of Summer Vacation~ Park Hopping (in 100 degree temps!!)

We made it to 4 parks...not great but it was so stinkin' hot it is the best we could do! Parks really aren't that fun when everything is scorching hot! But the kids found the equipment that was cool enough to play on, spent time digging in the sand, playing tag and a few other games together. It was a great last day to end an amazing summer!

Photo Book

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Shutterfly baby photo books are the perfect way to preserve your baby's precious moments.

Yes, it has been awhile since I have updated. Sorry. Here our some highlights and some cute shots from the past few months. We have been having lots of fun! A trip to Tucson with Nana and Papa and a visit from Gramma. Adelee and Gordie are growing like beans and are so much fun. Chessa can keep up with them too! She is a riot and amazes us all everyday!

Here are some our favorites from Christmas! It was a beautiful season. Full of joy, laughter and love! What a great time in our lives!

San Francisco trip!