SOLD!

Well we did it, we SOLD our house...  It was a very bittersweet thing knowing how much we love our neighbors and the fact that we had so many memories, kids (ha), and conveniences of living there for over 5 years.  But needing to separate ourselves from those feelings and plan for what might be best for our growing family, it was close in the timing coming down to the final months of the pregnancy to get an offer and decide what we were going to do from here. 
Throughout the process we looked a ton of houses, and fell in love with one in particular.  But as time went on and I decided to take some time off of work for a year or more left us evaluating our priorities and what we wanted to be able to afford and be comfortable in, while giving our kids the best we could with a big family of 6.   I know God's timing is perfect and probably why things happened when they did.  So now instead of moving straight into another house we are living in a condo taking a look at multiple options, one of which would be building again in our neighborhood, which would give us the best of both worlds, living where we love, same elementary school, and an affordable alternative.  So stay tuned.
Condo living as been great so far, it literally made me go through every single drawer, closet, and inch of stuff we owned to get organized.  By the way most would think that moving at 8.5 months pregnant would suck (it did) but in all reality it highly motivated me to get organized quickly and literally toss everything I didn't need.  It felt great!  We are storing extra stuff with our parents, but we are fully settled and are actually enjoying our new space.  We did some rearranging with the boys, and the baby will be with us in the master, so for the short term we will make do! 

It's real!

Inspection came back with some "gutter issues" seems that the boys hit one too many tennis balls and golf balls on the roof that never came down.  Oh the memories! I think there were over 20 balls jammed up there!

It felt weird cleaning out the house that final weekend.  Joelle helped me that very last day and it was a good way to get some closure.  The neighbors and best friends that we have there were what we all relied on, whether it was to borrow an egg, send the kids back and forth, hang out in alley to get our sanity from our ever busy kids, late summer nights taking the baby monitors across the street, and just there for over all support.  I just love those girls and their families, God definitely had a hand placing us all together. 
Of course I got in move mode and just worked hard getting everything packed and unpacked and didn't let myself get too emotional on the whole issue, but it finally hit me when doing the final walk through after spending all day cleaning. I came up to Crew and Brody's room and was getting ready to wash the walls and there was a dirt foot print that had been there since Crew was like 2 or 3.  I never washed it off because it was just something that made me smile time to time when I came across it.  So yeah call it pregnancy hormones or whatever you want, but that made me tear up and made it real, that we would be leaving our memories there and building more somewhere else.  Change is good, but also hard!

So life at the condo, we have train front property which has been fine because the kids are scared and can hear it coming miles away, and actually is safe with the bushes and dug out ditch between the tracks and our alley/driveway. 

By the time it actually gets to our place Brody has already ran in the house, scared to death, and Kys has his hands over his eyes. Funny.

All in all we are settled, and it feels good to simplify and get organized before we welcome #4.  We are definitely excited for the changes God has in store for this family.  I have no doubt that His plan is perfect and we will end up where we are suppose to!