friends make life sweeter

hendrix is really starting to invest himself in his relationships with his little friends.  while i have always initiated and encouraged playdates (primarily because i enjoy hanging out with other mommies.....but also because i know it is good for his social skills), recently he has been the one that suggests we go and play with a specific friend.  

he will start out the conversation with something like.....

"mommy, i'm thinking we should go to my friend's house today".

"oh, yeah?"

"yeah, i'm thinking we should play with karin and flora!"

and these two really do play pretty well together.  though they do have such a high comfort level with each other, that they aren't always on their best behaviour together. 

(pretty sure that flora doesn't like it when hendrix tries to be the boss.....which is, well, ummm.....kind of often these days.....)

karin and i have been friends since before either of these two were born, and since they are so close in age, it has been so fun to watch them grow up together.  just for fun i poked my head through some old photos of the two of them......

here we are introducing hendrix to flora when she was still in the hospital.

even though hendrix is just a little over a month older, he got much bigger faster.....i loved those early playdates where we laid them on the floor together and they were oblivious to each other!  lol

hendrix's first and second birthday parties......so fun to share special milestones with friends!

and then picking pumpkins together!

i am so glad that he is learning the value of friendship! 

i feel so blessed to have my friend karin in my life, and look forward to many more years of watching these two kiddos grow up and play together ;)

wordless wednesday {baby flapper}

linking up with:

project alicia, jenni from the blog, in the moment with...., 

mama to 5 blessings & tots and me

introducing our new home!

this is going to be my new home here in just a few short weeks!

(excuse the quality of these photos, i just took them off the realtor's website and they are really small files) 

we managed to find an adorable, charming home that is actually even older than the one that we currently live in!  Built in 1900, this sort of victorian, farmhouse has original oak woodwork throughout and is full of character!

it is on a large corner lot in a well established older neighborhood in town. 

want to go on a quick tour through some of the rooms?!

these photos are all taken with the previous owner's belongings in them, and while i think they have really great taste, i am sure it will look quite different with all our own stuff ;)

love the nice big dining room, and the cool built-ins.  the door frames and windows are all old and i love them!

there are multiple living rooms on the main floor, along with a nice sunroom/office, and a full bathroom (yeah, no more running upstairs when hendrix needs to use the potty!) 

there are three bedrooms all on the upstairs level along with another full bathroom. 

  

i am so excited for hendrix and blaire to get their own rooms, and i have already been plotting what their big kid rooms will look like!  

i am so pleased that these current homeowners have done so many things to the house to make it move-in ready.  it is an old home so there will be some maintenance (primarily repair and repainting of the exterior stucco), but we can wait until we get in and settled to start that project.

you may remember that when we bought our current home, it was NOT move-in ready.  we put some serious blood, sweat, and imagination into every single room of the house; including gutting and fully remodeling the one and only bathroom in the house.

i am so pleased that we were able to find a home that contains the same kind of charm we desire, yet won't require as much work and projects from us at the very beginning.  now that we have two little kids, our energy level for that kind of work is much smaller!

here is a final tour of the home that we are saying good bye to........

as i look through these photos side by side, i am kind of amused by the similarities i see.  the woodwork is very similar,

this space is similar, except i love the built in shelves in our new house better!

and i am even going to get another white kitchen!

the big difference is that we don't have a finished basement in our new house, and really it isn't a "finishable" basement.  we are willing to give that up since we are gaining so much square footage of living space in other rooms....and of course going from a two to three bedroom house was something we really desired with our different gendered kiddos.

we will still have room for a playroom, it will just be right next door to the family room on the main floor.  i am sure that i will miss being able to shut the basement door and walk away from the toys; but i guess maybe this will help me keep the toys more organized!  lol

as for the sale story if you are interested......

our house. sold. quickly.

so quickly.

we put it on the market on a monday morning.....and since we were getting new flooring installed in the kitchen on thursday, we decided to have a delayed showing of the house for friday.  our realtor thought it would work well that way as it gave people time to hear about it and get interested in it; and the hope was to line up lots of showings for the weekend!  

i knew that it was going to be really difficult to keep the house spotless for showings so i had really been praying that it would go quickly.....i didn't want to be too optimistic, but as our realtor was keeping us posted about the number of showings he was lining up, my hope was that we would get an offer by the end of the weekend.

little did we know, that we would get an offer before noon that first day.  

and it was for more than we were asking for the house.  

and then we got three more in the next few hours.  

our realtor encouraged us to let everyone who had scheduled an appointment to view the house for that day look at it before we decided (this seemed a fair way to even the playing field because of the delayed showing); and then that night we got to pick who we wanted to sell our house to.

it was unbelievable.

and then we turned around and made negotiations for the house we wanted; and we literally sold and bought a house in less than 24 hours.

what an affirmation to us that this was the right move for our family right now.

then everything moved in a whirlwind with inspections and appraisals, and our closing date is june 14th.  we don't have much time left here to say goodbye, and really i should start packing things up.......

but instead i am savoring these deliciously warm days with my kiddos in the yard.....smelling all the sweet flowers that i have tended and love, and enjoying the neighborhood kids before we move on and have to start fresh in a new place.

it is bittersweet, but i am very, very excited!

catching up

both my kiddos are really growing up.

i turned my back for just a minute while my hubby and i got our house cleaned up and ready to sell (more to come on our house update soon....we sold our house and will be moving to our new home mid-june), and my sweet baby girl started sitting up and playing with toys like a big girl.

yeap, she is now seven months old!  

and her brother is still enamoured with her.  he has started to say things like "stop it blaire", "no, that is MY iPad", and "blaire, what are you talking about?!".....but for the most part, i see snuggles, soft face touches, smooches, and giggles shared between the two.  ;)

he loves to console her when she fusses, and still proudly introduces her to people as if she just joined the family yesterday.

i love seeing the sibling moments.   i can tell already that he is going to enjoy bossing her around.  but honestly, i think i prefer that to completely ignoring her. ;)

and she. adores. him.

no joke. 

her little pudgy arms and legs just appear even more endearing to me when i see her in little summer tanks and skirts.....

she is so sweet! 

this little gal is throwing me for a loop with her lack of interest in baby food.  she doesn't like cereal, or purees at all.  she likes fruit in a teether, and she loves chewing on the "mum-mums" (which we fondly refer to as surfboards around here!), but otherwise she is just the heartiest breastfeeder ever.  it seems to be working for her.....though i do wish we could get away from the midnight feedings......

happiest. baby. ever.

  

and this little dude is still so energetic!  he loves to help with everything, and initiates projects and crazy imaginary play. he is starting to get old enough to reason with and is learning delayed gratification.

he would spend every. single. waking moment outside if i let him.  this is cool with me, but proving to be a little more difficult with his super-easily-sunburnt-even-in-the-shade baby sister.  i think i should own stock in baby sunscreen.  at least sunhats are super adorable ;)

everyday i wake up thankful for these two little slices of sunshine in my life.  

they make life super interesting, terribly busy, and sweet beyond belief. ;)

mother's day

i know.

i'm a little behind on blogging.

i will do some catch-up posts here very soon.  

i promise.

but in the meantime......

i had a fabulous mother's day with my sweet kiddos!

did you know that i am on instagram?  

come on and  follow me over there......

and happy mother's day to all my fellow mama's out there.  being a mom really, truly rocks!  wouldn't trade it for all the sleep in the world!  lol