It's Official!

It's so weird to actually say out loud that our house is for sale. But it is!

2004 Custom built home.

3 bed, 2 bath, 1300 sq. ft.

Great open floor plan... I love it because I can see the kids wherever they are.

Hard floors throughout.

Fresh paint throughout, new light fixtures, new ceiling fans, new window treatments.

New dishwasher, fridge and garbage disposal.

Lots of natural light.

2 car garage, garden area, privacy fencing, fenced dog yard.

Great, HUGE deck with watered flower boxes, timed UGS, and USDA Rural Development Loan approved area.

Our house is in a great part of town, in a quiet neighborhood.

One of the great things about our house, is that it's close to Hanford. I know for some, the commute can be brutal. Ours is only about 20-30 minutes from the site. It's also close to Horn Rapids Park, McBee Grade, and all local wineries. Not to mention only 20 minutes from TC's.
(I had more pictures, but we accidentally deleted them off of our camera and we're waiting for Joe's mom to send them to us).

The truth is, it's bittersweet to be selling our house. We love it. I love my deck. I really wanted to have this baby here in our first home. BUT, in reality, it would be better to have something a little bigger. We're a little squished as it is, and with Joe's new career plan, we just don't know where we're going to be.

SO the plan is, rent for a while until he gets a job offer. Hopefully that job offer will be in Kennewick, and then we can stay in the area. However, he did apply for a job in Arizona, so (if we were to move there) that is where the renting would come in handy.

We would really appreciate any help from any or all of my blogging buddies in spreading the word.... If you know anyone who is looking to buy in this amazing economy ;) tell them about our house!! Everyone cross your fingers and say a little prayer for us. Selling this house could make us debt free!

So Sweet...

I just had to post this little story real quick, before I forget it forever! A few weeks ago, my mom took Haylie to see "The Princess and the Frog," had some lunch at McIndonald's (as my kids call it), and then they went grocery shopping. It was the first time they had gone on a girl date, and Haylie was SO SO excited to be able to go (luckily for her, she was a good girl ;).

While they were at the grocery store, my mom said they ran into one of her good friends from PHS, Brenda, who had recently lost her dad. Mom said Brenda was a little weepy (I think the funeral was that day or the day before) and you could tell she had been crying. Brenda hadn't seen Haylie since she was a tiny baby, and so when my mom said, "Haylie, this is my friend Brenda. Can you say hi?" she assumed Haylie would hide behind her leg and become shy. Instead, Haylie walked over and wrapped her arms around Brenda's neck, giving her the biggest hug.

When I heard this story, it just brought tears to my eyes. It just touched my heart so much... the things little kids pick up on. I really believe Haylie was inspired, or touched or whatever you want to call it, by our Heavenly Father at that moment. What a huge thing for a little girl to do for someone who obviously just needed a hug!

I don't know if she has or will ever read my blog, but if you do, Brenda, we love you very much!

**BE GOOD CHART**

This pregnancy has done wonders, so far, for my energy level. I'm 22.2 weeks and already I have been nesting like CRAZY!! Today, I got out the materials (which I bought about a year ago) for our "Be Good Chart." Go ahead and laugh if you want... my artistic skills are not the best. In fact, when I asked Haylie about the "Be Polite" sticker and what she thought it meant, she said he was sneezing. SO, because he's a MUCH better artist than I am, I had Joe do the pictures for "Be Polite," "Share," the beds and then he thought we needed a circle with a line through it on "No Yell(ing)."

Haylie gets the magazine 'Highlight' every month, so we looked through it for some little pictures that would fit on the velcro strips. I pasted the pictures on a piece of cardboard, and then stuck the cardboard on the velcro. The extra velcro I had left over, I stuck at the bottom for the extra stickers.

As of 10 minutes ago, Haylie had three stickers. However, I told her that she needed to go to bed, so that she could get her nap time sticker and when she threw a big fit, including screaming at me and running away from me, she lost the opportunity to get that sticker, and she also lost her "Be Polite" sticker.

Connor also threw a big fit when we told him it was nap time, so he will also not be getting his. :( Hopefully this is not how it will be every day... I'd really like for this to work. We decided that the only way they would get their stickers, is if they do what we ask the first time, or if they do one of the things on the chart all by themselves. If we have to ask them more than once, they lose the chance to get that sticker.

I would LOVE any comments. If anyone has tried this before and has any suggestions, they would be greatly appreciated. Especially on the "No Yell(ing)" one. My kids are SO loud it seems, and I'd like to sort of get that under control a little bit before the new baby gets here.

Only 1 Week Late...

We were all hoping for a white Christmas this year, and instead ended up with a white New Years! Oh well, right? Beggars can't be choosers! We had planned on going to town the day it started snowing (and boy was it snowing hard!), so I just told Joe that we needed to hurry and get back because it was supposed to start freezing that evening. As soon as we got back, Haylie was BEGGING us to get out the snow gear! She got dressed and headed out! She and Joe made this little snowman... quite the skinny little thing... Haylie decorated her with bark and sticks and then made Joe take a picture of them holding hands. She called it her "Haylie snowman." Unfortunately, the "Haylie snowman" went to a better place a couple days later... a really warm front moved in and melted our entire yard in a matter of hours! Oh well. It was good while it lasted.

Monster Man

We took this one evening after the first snow! Unfortunately, Connor has a "thing" and HATES HATES HATES it when his hands get cold (see above). And yes, I am the mean mom who makes her kid cry so she can snag a picture first.
This is about where he stayed... the stinker won't wear gloves! I guess you can't stick your finger up your nose with a glove on... :)

Connor was "helping" Kelli make monkey bread on Christmas morning. I think he did a lot of eating, and not so much cooking. :)

This picture cracked me up! Both my kids sleep with their hands on their face, in some way, and they seem so little and innocent when I catch a picture. He looks like such a baby in this one! I can't believe he's going to be 3 in just a couple of months!

My mom calls Connor "Monster Man" and there couldn't be a better description of this boy, especially if you've ever been around him when he's in a bad mood. I know it's probably hard to picture this sweet little face throwing a huge tantrum, screaming, kicking, throwing things, spitting and his new favorite, punching. Trust me- it's happens daily. But what would we do without him? :) I think I am supposed to be learning patience... but it's a slow process.

Haylie and Connor decided to make their own little gymnastics course with some of the pillows in our house. I don't know why they do this... it must be super fun for little kids because they do at my mom's too.

Oh, Connor. How I love this boy. He sure makes me crazy, and sometimes makes me wonder why I thought I could do three kids, but the majority of the time he is such a sweet boy. I thought he was just "a boy," as far as eating goes, but as he gets older, I am more certain that he has some sort of blood sugar issue. I pretty much have to have something ready to eat, as soon as he wakes up, or we all pay for it. He can get downright MEAN! And I don't think he can help it. It's almost immediate the difference food makes in his attitude. It's a good thing he's so cute! ;)

Married???

Yes. You read that right. Yesterday, we had some things to return at Costco, and it was about lunch time, so we stopped at the little eating place and got some pizza. There was a little family with a boy about Haylie's age sitting next to us, and he and Haylie were making some big eyes at each other. We didn't think anything of it, until she looked at Joe and said, "Dad. That boy keeps looking at me. I think he wants to marry me." Ahh, the new leotard. As soon as she opened this, all of the clothes went off, and the new leo went on. I LOVED this one. Unfortunately, there really wasn't a whole lot of growing room in it, so we had to take it back and exchange it for a less cute one (in my opinion). She likes it though, so that's all that matters (or something). Boy does she LOVE gymnastics!!!

This picture is the morning after Christmas, and Haylie walked out of her room looking exactly like this. WHOA!! I guess that's what having curly hair will do to ya'. It's a good thing she is still young enough to laugh at this picture. :)

Here she is playing her new Dora computer game that she got for Christmas. I was tired of always telling her to stay away from the computer, not because she was messing things up, but because she's totally computer literate. So Joe and I decided to get her her own game so she'd leave everything else alone. It's AWESOME for us, because if let's say we have been asking her to clean up her toys, all we have to say is, "Haylie, if you want to play your Dora game, you have to clean your room." (Please ignore the messy counter tops in the background. Christmas did me no favors this year in staying organized.) This is Haylie, Christmas morning, at Grammy's in her new "jogging outfit," as she likes to call it. She LOVES this outfit and it really is cute on her. Connor got a navy blue one just like it, and they both would wear them every day if we'd let them. Thankfully (I think), both of my kids are a little OCD about being clean, so usually I can get them to take it off to be washed.

I just love this girl. I am so excited about having another girl for Haylie to love on. She loves her brother, but boy can they butt heads! I remember reading Sunny's post a while back about the joys of having a sister, and that's probably why I wanted another girl so badly! We are going to have so much fun! They will be almost 5 years apart, which will be perfect, I hope. Enough years that they won't be at each other's throats, but not too many that Haylie won't want to play with the new baby. Maybe having a new baby girl will help ease the anxiety of Haylie growing up...maybe. Kindergarten this fall??? Crap.

SHE DID IT!!!

My mom and her husband Larry and in Arizona for 6 weeks, and the other day she told me, "Why don't you update your blog every once in a while so I can see some pictures of the kids?" So... I guess I need to update my blog. I wanted to a few days ago, but somehow the language got changed on my entire blog and so I couldn't do anything because I didn't know what the heck I was reading! Luckily, Joe figure out how to change it back, so I can get back on track with my blog.

And, since I am talking about my mom, I better dedicate one post to her. She graduated from WSU on the 12th of December and we are all so excited for her! I cannot lie though... a big part of the reason we are so excited is because she won't have to go to class anymore, which means we can spend lots of time with her! :) I know she is so happy to be done too, and that has to be the best feeling in the world!

Of course, it wouldn't be a normal Rose entrance if we were on time, so we came late. :) jk We were right behind a really horrible wreck on the way there that morning. Luckily, they save all of the diplomas to the very end, so the first 45 minutes that we missed ended up being a blessing in disguise. Haylie and Connor had had just about enough when it was all over, so I can only imagine the level of "angelness" they would have been if we had been on time!!! We had a really great video of her walking up to get her diploma and then walking back to her seat, but it's the darndest thing.... it mysteriously disappeared! I'm sure it had nothing to do with either my 2 or 4 year old......listening to all of the speeches.

Above: On her way up to get her diploma!!!

Below: My nana, my mom, and her sister Jana.

What a fun day!