New Baby & Another Ear Infection!!

We have a new addition to the family!! Jackson Carl Voss, 10lbs 7oz, 22 inches long. Anissa, Chris, Christa and Cassidy have a big boy on their hands. I told Anissa that if she had a boy she could borrow Elton's clothes he has outgrown. I don't think they will fit Jackson too long at this rate.

I took Elton up to see the Dr today because he didn't seem right and I didn't feel right. I wish I was wrong, but the poor little guy has another ear infection. I am worried if this continues that he will end up needing tubes. I hope I am wrong.

Midweek Update

Elton had his six month check up and shots yesterday. He weighed 16lbs 14 oz and was 27 inches. His second tooth on the bottom has officially broken through as of this morning.

I picked my mom up at the airport and Caleb was quite excited this morning that Nana is here.

The people that we are buying the house from came back and said the would pay a portion towards replacing the roof. Here is the thing - they admitted they knew the roof needed replacing and they had already gotten 2 bids in June. I had a feeling they knew and it bugs me that they were just trying to see if they could get away with it. It is unfortunate that you can't trust people.

Mamamamama!!

Caleb just graduated from speech therapy a couple of weeks ago because when he was 18 months old he was only saying 3 words. Now, here is Elton who just turned 6 months old, and he is saying mamamamama in a string. When he started doing it at the beginning of the weekend I wasn't convinced, but after the last few days and tonight I know he is. He is doing things so much sooner and more decisively than Caleb did that I can hardly believe it. I always had a hard time deciding when Caleb was starting to do things and now it is so clear when Elton does something new. I think is it just because it's my second time and I know more? I don't think completely. Elton is turning himself and sleeping on his tummy in the crib. I can't get him to stay on his back to sleep. Caleb just stayed on his back like he was supposed to.

Both have been such good babies that I feel blessed, yet at the same time they are so different!! I am in no hurry for Elton to do all these things because it means he is growing up and I just want to enjoy him being my baby.

New Tooth, New Roof

We went to the home inspection this morning and the inspector let Dan go around with him. I loaded the boys into the stroller and walked to the park a few blocks away and let Caleb play. He never gets tired on playsets and is never ready to leave. While watching him play I was holding Elton. Elton grabbed my finger and put it in his mouth. I've been thinking for a while that he is teething, but haven't seen or felt anything as of yesterday. Today when he put my finger in there I felt it - his first tooth is through!! I can even see it now all the way through. How do they do that from one day to the next?

Anyways, the bad news is that the roof is shot on the house we are trying to buy and needs to be replaced. This news makes the home inspection well worth the money. I would never buy a house without one. So now we wait the report and draw up a letter and say we want the old owners to pay to replace it and wait to see if they will do it. We are still in house limbo. Once again we are heading into a weekend and it will be next week before we can do anything and find out anything more.

Hanging Out With Elton

I got up this morning when I heard Elton talking in his crib. Then I thought I heard Caleb's voice as well. When I went into Elton's room this is what I found - Caleb had climbed into the crib with Elton. At first I wasn't happy (I have had trouble in the last week with Caleb trying to play with Elton and being too rought), but when I said to Caleb "What are you doing?" he said "I hanging out with Elton". You can tell that Elton looks at Caleb with great admiration and Caleb just loves his little brother. I think they are going to get into some situations together in the years to come.

However, what made me stop and not get mad at Caleb for climbing into the crib, was that it made me remember when I was about the same age and used to climb into my brother's crib. The only thing is that I wasn't climbing in to "hang out". I was climbing in to steal his bottle from him as that was back in the day when it was acceptable to have a bottle in bed with your baby.

Home Sweet Home?

Here is the house we are buying provided everything goes through in the next few weeks. The home inspection is set for tomorrow morning at 10am. The inspector is going to let Dan go through everything with him. Dan is working tonight, so this means he will only get about 3 hours sleep tomorrow morning.

I took these pictures today while Caleb got to go to Wendy's for lunch and Madagascar (at the theatre) with Grandma and his cousins. He is now taking a late nap. I just packed 3 more boxes and guess I should get back to it.

Another House

So after a long weekend of waiting, we found out at 10:30 Monday morning that we did not get the house. We spent Monday afternoon looking at more houses. We then decided to put an offer in on Tuesday on a house we looked at last week and again on Monday. The house was built in 1980 (around the same time as the other house) and is in a really nice location. It is tucked in around all the schools we want, daycare and city pool. There is even a little playground just a few blocks away.

That being said, the house is nice, but needs some work. Things like carpet, getting rid of awful wallpaper and a not so big kitchen. I hate all wallpaper because of the work it entails. I have never taken wallpaper down before and am not looking forward to it. However, it definitely has to go. There is plaid wallpaper on the family room and watermelons in the kitchen.

On the bright side though, we have a signed offer and a house to move to. The next step in the home inspection to make sure there is nothing structurally wrong that needs to be fixed.

Packing & Waiting

It has been a busy week. We re-offered on the house we were previously wanting only to find out that they had accepted an offer from someone else contingent on the people who offered, selling our house. The owners countered our offer and said if we accepted they would give the other people 48 hours to decide if they could take the house now or let the house go. We are hoping to hear by Monday morning. The realtor seems pretty confident that the other people will let the house go, so please pray for us.

We have looked around at what else is on the market. The prices are going crazy and there isn't alot available that offers what we want. Everybody is coming up from California and snapping things up as Idaho is cheap in comparison. It's amazing how much in the last few months the prices in houses have gone up here.

I started packing last night and my goal is to have the majority done in the next two weeks. My mom was coming to visit from August 24 - September 12 anyway, so I called her and she got her plane ticket changed for an extra 10 days to help us. Thank you mom!!

Could It Really Happen?

So as most of you already know, we have had our house listed now for a little over a year. We had a showing on Saturday while we were gone to the movie for my birthday. We have learned not to get our hopes up as we have had many showings, but that day I said to Dan "Wouldn't it be something if we got an offer for my birthday?". We never really expected it though.

Yesterday morning I was on my way to work when Dan called to say our realtor had called and said an offer had come in for us to go over. We counter-offered yesterday afternoon and they accepted!! We might actually have our house sold if everything goes through. We are going to re-offer on a house in Twin that we already had a contract on that expired. Please pray for us that everything falls into place as it should.

Even though Dan does not believe in when I have a "feeling" about something, I have a good feeling about all of this. Last week was a stressful week and there has been over a year in prayers on my part, so maybe now is the right time and place for us.

My Birthday

So yesterday afternoon for my B-day, Dan and I went to a matinee and saw "Must Love Dogs". I was concerned it was going to be to close to a chick flick for Dan, but he really liked it. I loved it!! I thought it was going to be ok, but it far exceeded my expectations. After the movie we had some time to kill so we looked in a couple of stores downtown that we could not afford anything in, but really liked looking and dreaming.

Then we went for sushi. Anissa met us. For those of you who don't know a lot about sushi, there is a lot that is actually cooked fish, so even though Anissa is pregnant, she was still able to try quite a variety. The sushi was wonderful as always. The sushi chef made me a roll called "Tuscan Sun" for my birthday. I didn't ask what was in it, but it was great. Sorry Curt. I asked them about a Bakudan roll and they had never heard of it. I would say now that my two favorite are the Mountain roll and the Tuscan Sun. I was so full when I left last night that I thought I had my fix for a while, but already by this morning I was thinking about sushi again.

All in all I would say I had a great day.

Quiet Time

I would have to say that my favorite time of day now is just after I've put the boys to bed. I love the sounds of everything being quiet and calm. I've even started leaving the TV off some nights for at least half an hour (if not completely), just to savor the silence and wind down from the day. This is also probably why I don't get much done either. I really do not feel that motivated.

Only one more day until Saturday!! I am teaching a sibling class that morning, come home and get ready for a movie and sushi for my birthday. I have been looking forward to this all week!!