Charlie turns 4

Last week we celebrated Charlie's 4th birthday.  It was another low key birthday.  Friends were unable to come so it was just us.  A dinner of hot dogs (Charlie's favorite) and chocolate cake with strawberries on top.  Charlie got a new scooter and Lighting McQueen helmet.  A few weeks ago he got a pop gun from Grandma Foster and some read along books from Grandma Elton.  Charlie is full of mischief and energy.  He's an independent dependent, meaning he wants things done his way but he wants you to do it for him and right now!  He loves rough housing, playing with cars, trains, and Legos.  He's excited that now he's 4 he can go to preschool (which we're still working on).  We love our little monkey and can hardly believe how quickly our kids are growing up!

Charlie with his birthday presents.  Sorry about the quality of the pictures, but we having trouble with our good camera right now.

Big 4 year old

Charlie's cake and trying out his new scooter.

Let's Try This Again

So after walking away from a house we put an offer on back in May, Tony and I were feeling pretty discouraged about the whole house buying thing.  We were beginning to think that maybe we weren't supposed to buy a house right now.  We had looked at everything on the market and nothing new was really coming available.  For about two weeks straight I was checking all the listings everyday, sometimes multiple times a day.  Then this house that we had looked at previously and liked but someone else put an offer on it before we could showed up on the listings again.  I immediately called our realtor to be sure that it really was available again.  Then called Tony to see if he was in agreement with me that we needed to put an offer on it NOW before anyone else could.  He agreed with me and we put an offer on it that evening.  The next day we walked through the house again, just to be sure.  The house is a bank owned foreclosure and has been sitting empty for over a year.  It needs some work, but nothing we can't handle, and the price is right.  The house is in our ward and school boundaries which is a plus.  Our offer was excepted, the inspection is done and looks good, and now we're waiting for the appraisal.  Then we'll be ready to close and move it!  Our closing date is set for the 5th of September right now, but we're hoping to close the end of August.  Tony and I both feel so much better and at peace about this house.  This house just seems to fit our family so much better than the other house would have.  I'm pretty excited and have been virtually doing work on the house for weeks now.  Gotta love Pinterest!  So August and September are going to be pretty crazy with 2 family reunions, scout camp for Tony, school starting for Carson and Alaina, Alaina's Birthday and baptism, and moving but we'll manage and it'll be wonderful!

 

Camping and Silverwood

This last weekend we met my parents at Farragut State Park in Northern Idaho.  The weather was wonderful.  Not too hot or cold and no rain!  There was a fire ban in effect which meant no campfires, bummer.  We all got there on Thursday afternoon and stayed until Sunday morning.  We spent all of Friday at Silverwood theme park (sorry no pictures. Too busy having fun).  The highlights of the day at Silverwood were Alaina trying out the big rollercoaster and not wanting to have anything to do with any of the others for the rest of the day.  All of us getting soaked on the rafting ride.  Riding on a train pulled with a real steam engine, and Tony, Carson, Dad, and I riding Aftershock which is more intense than the Wicked ride at Lagoon.  On Saturday we went to breakfast at Jimmy's Down the Street, went to the beach on Lake Pend Oreille and swam in a natural lagoon, and visited a museum about the navel base that was once where the state park is now.  We didn't take a ton of pictures of the weekend, but made many wonderful memories.    

 

 Lincoln was a real trooper the whole weekend and actually slept the entire night both nights we were camping!

 Grandpa taking a cat nap.

 Grandma teaching the kids Crazy 8's.

Lincoln taking a nap on the trailer while we waited for my parents to arrive.

Grand Coulee Dam

About a month ago we took the kids up to see the Grand Coulee Dam.  We just went up for the day.  Brought a picnic dinner and stayed for the laser light show.  We went through the visitor's center and watched a video on the construction of the dam.  When it started to get dark we watched all the spill ways open on the dam and marveled at the amount of water coming over the dam.  Then we watched the laser light show, which ended up being repeat of everything we had seen in the visitor's center and we learned that compared to shows done in the past it wasn't that impressive, but the kids thought it was cool.

 Charlie, Alaina, and Carson.  The dam looks white because of the water spilling over the dam.

 Carson, Lincoln, and I.  (each of the kids had to get a picture with me and Lincoln)

 Alaina, Lincoln, and I.

 Charlie, Lincoln, and I.

The beginning of the laser light show.

Trying to buy a house

So we've been here in Moses Lake for a year now.  Part of me can hardly believe that it's already been a year and then again part of me can certainly believe it and thinks, "It's only been a year?".  The kids just completed another year of school.  I will soon have a 5th grader, a 2nd grader, and a preschooler!  Lincoln is 3 months old and such a joy!  Work is going well for Tony, now that he has a new supervisor.  I'm feeling great not being pregnant anymore.  I've lost all my pregnancy weight plus some and don't mind being so tired all the time because I feel so "light".

The plan was always to buy a house after we'd been here for a year.  We wanted to learn the town and decide where we wanted to be.  We also wanted to have a good grip on what our financial situation would be.  About 6 weeks ago we started our search.  We got pre-approved, and set our house budget.  I don't know how the bank thinks we could afford what they're willing to lend to us.  We don't want to be "house poor".  We found an excellent realtor and started our search.  After a couple weeks we felt like we had finally found the one.  It was really close to us.  The kids would go to the same school.  We'd be in another ward, but close enough to the friends we've made.  It was pretty much everything we wanted in a house.  It was on the higher end of our budget, but thought we could make it work.  So we put in an offer.  They countered and we accepted.  Then we had the inspection.  We found some things that we weren't thrilled about, but as long as the seller was willing to fix everything we'd be ok.  Well, the seller wasn't willing to fix what we asked and wouldn't make allowances for us to fix them.  So, we walked away.

We started searching again.  We found a house that was even closer to where we are now and it's in our ward.  It was an older home (it reminded me of the home I grew up in) and needed some updating and work, but it was a much more comfortable price for us.  Then we found out it had a wood foundation, and that the bank won't finance it because wood foundations aren't typical for Moses Lake.  The fact that the foundation was sound had nothing to do with it.  (So Stupid!)

Now we are in a situation where we've looked at all 4 bedroom, 2 car garage houses in our preferred locations and in our budget in Moses Lake.  We're trying to be patient and watching the real estate websites for anything new to come on the market.  Which there isn't.  I wanted to move during the kids summer break so in case they switch schools it's not during the school year.  But that's starting to look less likely to happen.

I keep asking myself, "Are we being too picky?"  Not really, and I don't want to buy a house I'm not happy with.  "Could we raise our house budget?"  Sure, but forget about that new family car, any new furniture for said house, any trips or fun activities with the kids, and anything extra at all!

Now what, you ask?  We keep looking praying that the right home for us is here somewhere.  We are fortunate that we aren't on any real time line because our lease is now on a month to month basis.  So we can be patient (as hard as it is) until the right one comes along, and when it does we'll be glad we waited.

Spring Break

Last week was Spring Break for our kids.  Tony still had to work and it was his turn to drive so the kids and I just sorta hung out at the house.  The kids were doing a pretty good job keeping themselves entertained until Thursday.  On Friday the kids hung out with our neighbors while I went to a doctor's appointment and to the store.  Once Tony got home from work he asked me what I thought about a weekend getaway.  I heartily agreed.  Within an hour we had a hotel booked in Post Falls, Idaho and were packed and ready to go on our impromptu mini-vacation!

Saturday morning we went to Breakfast at a diner featured on "Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives" called Jimmy's Down the Street.  It was just a little place but it was really yummy "real" food!    

 Alaina, me, Lincoln in his car seat, Charlie, and Carson.

 Tony showing off their "world-famous" pecan caramel roll.  It was huge and so yummy!  We shared 1 between the 5 of us.

After we rolled out of the cafe and a stop at Cabellas, we took the kids to a Science Discovery Center in Spokane.  It wasn't nearly as cool as the Discovery Center in Boise, but it was still neat to see the different displays.

 Alaina making a web.

 Charlie playing with magnets.

 The boys making circuits.

After the Science Center we checked out the 3 story mall across the street.  Each of the kids picked up a toy at the Toy store and we got some pretzels for lunch.

 Charlie thoroughly enjoying his cinnamon sugar pretzel.

Then we took the kids to a trampoline park.  The kids were so excited!

 The kids were a bit worn out after an hour of running and jumping.

After expelling lots of energy we went out for pizza for dinner.

Lincoln and I doing what we did most of the day.  I was amazed at the number of comment we got on our little baby and the number of kids we had.  We were fortunate enough that they were all good comments, and the kids were well behaved most of the day so I could accept them easily.

We finished off our fun filled day with swimming at the hotel pool.  Needless to say that it didn't take long for the kids to fall asleep and they slept in until 8:00!  Sunday morning we headed home.  We all really enjoyed our full and fun day away from home!  

Soccer Girl

At the beginning of February a flyer came home about spring soccer starting soon.  Carson was just finishing up Basketball and getting ready to start his robotics club.  Alaina was feeling a bit left out that she didn't have an activity for her to do.  She announced that she wanted to try soccer.  Tony and I were a bit hesitant at first because Alaina can be a bit dramatic and we were concerned about the rough and tumble aspect of sports.  But Alaina was adamant, so we agreed.  To our pleasant surprise Alaina showed a natural talent.  By the end of the season she was the only girl on her team to have scored any goals.  She really liked playing and I think that with some real coaching and some practice she could be a great soccer player.