Memorial Day

On Memorial Day we had two barbecues to go to: one with our college friends and one with Zach's family.  The first one was at Patrick and Emily's house.  Our good friends, Danny and Nicole, who moved to Minnesota three years ago, were back visiting, so we all got together to see them.  

 Bubbles in the backyard

 Water table

Danny, Nicole, and Brandon

Ready to eat

Yummy cupcake

All twelve of us went to Hastings College.  Two couples were dating in high school and came to college together.  Three met and dated at Hastings.  The last couple didn't know each other until after she graduated.  

Now, twelve has become nineteen with one on the way.  It's amazing the difference a few years makes.  It was SO good to see Danny and Nicole and everyone else.

That afternoon, we went over to Zach's cousin's to have a barbecue with his family.

Monroe and Josiah loved the pool

We had a great time there as well!  It was the perfect day to spend with friends and family.

We bought a new house!

We have had a lot of people surprised when we tell them we bought a new house.  They say, "I didn't even know you were looking."  Well, we weren't looking exactly, but we did know that we wanted to upsize eventually.  We made a wish list of everything we wanted.  Then, we agreed to move for nothing less than everything on the list.  We found a house a couple weeks later on Zillow that we were immediately interested in, so we called our realtors and made an appointment to see it.
We loved the house, but our realtor was convinced we would be happier having a house with a basement.  We took Zach's parents to see it the next night, and then we sat with the idea for a day.  The house has every single thing on our wish list, so we didn't want to lose it.  We made an offer Friday night before leaving town for Easter.

We made the offer contingent on the sale of our own house.  The sellers liked our offer but didn't want a contingency because they had a contingency on the house they were buying.  So, instead, we came home Sunday night and put our house on the market.  Thankfully, we had Monday off from school.  We took Monroe to daycare and got to work cleaning and organizing.  Our sign went in the front yard Tuesday.  We had our first showing Wednesday at 5:20.  They made an offer a couple hours later.  We countered and had an accepted offer the next night.  Then, we put our own offer on the other house.  They accepted the next day, one week after our original offer.  It all happened so quickly it didn't feel real.

 The sign in our yard

Inspections were done on both houses, and both turned up big ticket items to fix.  The inspector of our house said our roof had very little life left.  Our buyers asked for it to be replaced.  Also, they did a radon test and it came back at 4.1.  Anything over 4.0 should be mitigated.  This means a hole is drilled in the basement floor and a pipe is taken out through the roof.  It costs a little over $1,000.  We decided to fix the roof but not mitigate for Radon.  We called our insurance agent to get help with the roof.  We had had adjusters on our roof three times in the last six years, and they told us every time that there was no hail damage.  The inspector said there was hail damage.  Our insurance agent came over with the adjustor and got up on the roof with Zach.  They all decided the roof was totaled.  Because of the age of the roof, they did not pay us for the total cost, but they did write us a check for $4,000.  We were very happy with that.  We also asked the buyers for $1,000 more on the purchase price, since they were getting a house with a brand new roof.
At the inspection for our new house, we found out the siding was way worse than we had thought.  We had intended to replace the siding in the next five years.  He told us it needed to be done immediately.  We asked the sellers for $6,000 to help us pay for the new siding.  After three weeks of waiting for their reply, they agreed to give us $5,000.  All negotiations are complete, finally!  We are closing on July 1st, which is a Tuesday.

Mother's Day

I slept in on Sunday morning, and then woke up to breakfast.  Monroe and Zach got me calla lilies (my favorite), peanut butter M&Ms (my favorite), and a gift card to Victoria's Secret.

After breakfast we got ready and drove to Hastings for church.  Zach's mom was directing a children's musical.  Monroe likes to see the kids perform.  We did lunch with his family afterward.

After lunch we drove home and took a nap.  It was the longest nap I've had in years.  

Zach had planned a picnic for supper, but the weather did not cooperate.  Instead, we ordered pizza and had a picnic in the basement.  Then, we went and bought flowers for my pots.  Monroe and Zach helped me plant them.

I had a wonderful day with my family!  Thank you, Zach!  I love being a mommy!

Monroe can read!

Zach was reading books with Monroe tonight, and Monroe insisted on reading it herself.  We didn't realize that she had the book memorized until she started reciting it word-for-word.  She continued reading the rest of the book.  There were some pages that she would start and recite exactly.  Other pages, Zach started and then she picked up and finished.  We were shocked.  She's only had the book a month, and there are so many words per page.  This isn't an easy board book.  Now, we're going to have to see what other books she can "read" to us.

April Phone Dump

Shirtless supper with Knox

Cale-man

Mommy doesn't have heals to put on

Picnic in the park

Newell day at the races

Our first bike ride of the season

Monroe dipping oreos in milk for the very first time

Monroe is going to be a flower girl this summer.

She was done wearing the dress

Easter morning

We put our house on the market.  It sold two days later.

Then, we bought a new house.

(Details in another post)

Daddy and Monroe fell asleep holding hands.  My new favorite picture!

Meeting Baby Breckyn and playing with big sister Jadyn