January 1 through March 5

So....2017...we're only 8 months in, so I'd say it's a perfect time to start documenting it. I honestly, and quite sadly can't remember what we've done this year, so I'm hoping that some pictures will jog my memory before it fades even more. I kept the pictures in chronological order, but that means some of pictures that go with a particular story jump around. Sorry, I'm keeping it simple today.

Michael is so tiny! This must have been when we were first learning how to make him laugh

Baby basketball

My mom got the kids this sand and water table and one day we tried it out with the water beads-INSIDE! Apartment living is all about survival

They have both been obsessed with Michael right from the beginning

I think Adaline has a future as a hair stylist

I finished Adaline's quilt and she loves it!

After Christmas, we brought the table and benches that I grew up with. It's been cool to see my kids eating at this same table that I have so many memories of. 

A temple trip and Cheesecake factory for our anniversary! I'm not the only one with food, we shared so that we would have plenty of room for cheesecake. Lydia was so sweet to watch our kids so that we could celebrate our 5 years together!

In January, I started holding preschool with Adaline, 4 of her friends, and their moms. We would each trade teaching for 2 days a week. By the end, Matthew even got to go with Adaline to a couple of friends' houses. They both LOVED it and learned a lot. I really enjoyed getting to know the kids and the other moms better.

He is just so scrumptious!

Michael at 3 months old wearing the same outfit he wore home from the hospital. 

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The other moms were awesome to send pictures of some of the activities they did during their preschool days

trying out some hair-dos

Pajamas and cookies at the library one night!

Picnics on the sidewalk were a regular activity for us at the apartment. We didn't get much natural light inside and it felt so good to get out and enjoy the sunshine. 

 I think the biggest reason my blog fell apart is because when 2017 came around, we were knee deep in house hunting. We had started looking when Michael was only a couple weeks old, back in November but the market was pretty depleted and houses were selling so fast. I think by the time we bought our house, we had put in 8 offers on various houses. In January, Andrew was browsing one night and came across a house in the neighborhood we wanted, within our price range, and with a good sized back yard. I was so excited and immediately felt like it was the house we were supposed to buy. He texted our realtor to ask for him to arrange an appointment and he responded that the house was actually for auction and so it was cash only. While I was crushed and ready to move on, Andrew asked why that didn't show up on the listing he was looking at. After some more back and forth and our realtor talking to the selling realtor, we learned that we actually could go look at it! An auction was scheduled but the owner was hoping to sell it before that. We went to look the very next day and, while it obviously needed a lot of work, we felt like it was the right house and we put in a generous offer right away. They weren't going to respond to offers until after the weekend (this came to be my least favorite strategy we encountered). We found out that they had accepted an all cash offer and I was so sad and confused.

A week or so later, we got a call from our realtor saying that somehow the all cash offer backed out! We think they were wanting to do a quick flip and something came up in the inspection that messed that up for them, but didn't bother us. The seller wanted to just go ahead and accept our previous offer! We were so excited!! After a little back and forth, it looked like this was really going to happen. We closed super fast and things went surprisingly smoothly considering the situation surrounding the sale that we all expected to cause some issues. It was definitely a blessing. 

We were ready to get in the house and get going on all the work that needed to be done, but the owner decided to use allllllllll of the optional rent-back time and it pushed back our timeline for reno quite a bit. Luckily we had already planned some overlap with our apartment lease, but it still didn't leave us enough time. So, we ended up moving all of our stuff into the garage and then staying with AMAZING friends for about a week or so. I am SO grateful for them, for all those who helped us paint and clean, for people who drove their trailers full the the previous owner's junk to the dump for us, for people who watched our kids, people who brought meals or invited us over to eat with them, people who lent their family members to come and help us, people who helped us move our stuff (which was a LOT of people because it was less than 2 hours from when we started loading the apartment to when the last thing was unloaded at our house!)...we had SO many people help us and I am seriously so grateful. There is no way we could have done it without them.

Preschool fieldtrip to the jelly belly factory! I think this is one of Adaline's favorite places to go

Stopping by Andrew's work for some reason-I think Matthew took this picture

Going swimming in February because at this point we knew our days with a pool were numbered

I can understand playing in the hot tub, but they jumped into the freezing pool too!

Trying on Michael's clothes LOL It fits her way too well

Starting to feel like the house buying thing was going to work out. I think we were off to do some paperwork

Birthday party for a preschool friend

We met Andrew's Aunt and Uncle at the mall where his Aunt works and then went to dinner with them. It was fun to catch up and chat with them

Sunday walks

One day we went bowling with some friends and their 1 year olds. It took us sooo long to bowl one game, but was super entertaining

Heart pancakes and quiet books for Valentine's Day

Preschool lunch picnic

Pretty flowers from my Mother-in-Law for Valentine's day. She's the sweetest!

Making carrot stew-basically an excuse to use their scissors because they all wanted to

Best friends

This is how the living room of our new house looked when we first saw it...

trying to put 3 kids down for naps with only 2 bedrooms got tricky sometimes, so we had to get creative

Sometimes you're holding the baby and standing in the kitchen when you hear a splatter. So you look down and of course it's poop. I still have no idea how this happened because we was wearing a onesie and pants!

Signing allll the paperwork for the house!!

Little 4 month old Michael!

Every Wednesday we go to storytime at the library. This particular Wednesday, an author was visiting and they had cookies

Buying ice cream to celebrate officially being homeowners!

They are awesome packing helpers

More hair-do experiments

Lots of packing underway. Our apartment was partically packed for months because of the way everything worked out. It was such a pain

First time curling her hair

 Oh man, with everything that we had going on, we completely dropped the ball with Michael's baby blessing. So one Saturday, March 4th, it came up and Andrew called the bishop and asked if we could do it the next day. I didn't want any family to feel pressure to come for it, and we didn't have anywhere for people to stay, so I didn't even mention it to them until the next day. I felt terrible about this, and of course I should have left it to them to make their own decision. I was sooo stressed during this time with a 4 month old, my house mostly packed up, our house purchase finalized but still no keys for us, so much pending work to do on it, ...it was an incredibly stressful time for me and I did not make the best decision.
BUT Andrew gave Michael a beautiful blessing and it was a happy day with friends and our little family. Andrew's Aunt and Uncle were able to come for sacrament and so that Uncle Reid could participate in the blessing. We didn't make any sort of hubbub out of it at all-seriously, taking a picture after church was the extent of it-and it was nice to just simplify and focus on our family.
I can't even imagine what our family would be like without Michael. We are all crazy about him and he adds so much joy to our home.