Things have been nuts this week! Ben has spent all of his free time over at our new house getting it ready for yesterday's inspection (which we passed!). It was the inspection from the City of Brooklyn Park that determined whether we could get a certificate of occupancy and actually live in the place. We had to get rid of the mold on all the windows, the kitchen, the bathroom, add a handrail to the deck stairs, replace light fixtures, some minor plumbing work, add a new shower door, etc. A lot of little projects! We had a plumber come in, an electrician and a house cleaning crew. Everything looks 100x better than it did before and we're still not done. Our painter is going to start painting the entire house today and the carpet is being installed tomorrow and Thursday. That's what I'm really excited for because it means that I can go to the house with the babies and let them crawl around on the floor finally. Right now I have to carry them or leave them in their seats since the existing carpets are so filthy.
We're also getting our existing house ready to put on the market. Our realtor hired a stager to come in and give her thoughts on layout and colors and it was eye opening. When you live in your house you end up overlooking things you might care about as a potential buyer when trying to get ready to show. When we bought this house we had to touch every single surface of the place and admittedly, our tastes got better near the end. One thing she noticed was that our kitchen looked like it was two separate kitchens because we have two sets of different cabinets, two colors on the wall and the existing cabinets (which we had painted) don't look like they're supposed to go with the new cabinetry we got. Anyway, we repainted the living room/kitchen all one color, we will be painting the cabinets and we also painted our mudroom which never had been. We will be rearranging some furniture, adding window treatments, a dining room chandelier, new front porch light and numbers, removing our front porch astroturf (aww) and decluttering. We already powerwashed the house and deck and got a new garage door which made a HUGE difference! We will be renting some furniture that we don't want to buy. It's a lot of work but I hope that it really makes a difference in getting close to our asking price. (Which is only a few thousand more than what we paid for it 7 years ago, unfortunately!)
I've been mostly on baby/toddler duty while all of this is going on and it's wiping me out. I've also been packing boxes when I can and we have already moved a ton of stuff over to the house. Both girls are teething (they are both getting their upper left incisors) and Maia is being extra whiny right now. I think she senses something big is happening and has regressed in her potty abilities and her attitude. She's also started to get extremely possessive of her things and has been pushing Lily and Juliette away so we've had a lot of time outs lately. The girls are sleeping a bit better this week though (thankfully) and Lily is back mostly in her bed instead of the swing so those are positive steps.
Well, Maia is whining in her bed and Lily is crying about something at my feet and for once Juliette is just playing so I better go tend to these kids!
Oh, and I talked to my friend Amanda today (who moved to FL a couple of weeks ago) and I'm missing them a lot! Not that we see them every day anyway but still, I can't just call her up and come over or vice versa. I hope the two years go by quickly and they can get their butts back to Minnesota.
And one more thing, my little brother just graduated from Chiropractic school on Friday! I'm so proud of him. I was always the one who liked school growing up and here I am with an AAS degree and here he is a doctor. Funny how life works out. They're moving to Texas in the next couple of months so we're really sad that we won't be able to see them very often anymore. Maia LOVES her cousin Annabelle.
It's weird to think that it's Lily and Juliette's second Easter! Last year they were in the hospital at this time and it was the first time I didn't get the opportunity to visit them all day. I'm thankful to be where we are now.
We had a nice weekend. Yesterday we went to my niece Annabelle's 3rd birthday party and had a great time. The twins had a blast people watching and Maia, Annabelle and Kanah (sorry if this is spelled wrong!) had such a good time playing together. Kathryn had the girls plant little flowers in their own pots so Maia is looking forward to watering that every day. Afterward we went and showed my parents the new house for the first time. "Big" is the consensus!
Today we went back to the house to show our friends Matt and Meghan, then we went home and did Easter eggs/baskets. Maia loved searching for the eggs in our living room! She's also all about the chocolate, but everything in moderation, right? We went to my aunt and uncle Nancy and Jan's house this afternoon to celebrate Easter with family. Some of them had never met the twins so it was great to introduce them and see how far they've come.
Nothing like a play-by-play but I'm out of energy to be creative with writing. I'm not sure if I mentioned it but Lily is clapping now! She fully understands the word and will clap on demand. Juliette gets it, sort of. She wipes her hands together rather than clapping but it will come. She's become such a smiley baby and is so much fun to play with.
Happy Easter to everybody! I'll try to post some photos of the girls soon.
As of Wednesday, we are now the proud owners of TWO houses! We closed and everything went as expected and I'm so thankful for that. When we bought our current house we had so many problems and had a bait and switch loan situation at closing. Everything this time went so great.
We've been working like crazy on our current house trying to get it ready for showing. We had a pallet full of boxes show up yesterday so I've started packing a few things! We have also had a painter at the house all week painting our dark windows white. What a difference! Yesterday we got a new garage door installed and the only thing we keep thinking is that we really wish we had done this sooner. We would like to not make the same mistake in the new house and though money is a big constraint, we can certainly do the little things right away.
The girls have been napping in their carseats a lot these days because I've been trying to get them out of the house while painting is going on. We went over to my brother and sister-in-law's place on Monday and Maia had a great time playing with Annabelle. We went to our friend Stacy's on Tuesday and my parents house on Wednesday. I had to stop by Sherwin Williams to get some painter's tape on our way back from Ron and Kathryn's on Monday and Maia fell asleep in the car when I got there. Rather than wake her up and get her out along with all three girls I called the store and said, "I'm sitting in the parking lot with sleeping children but I need tape. Can you ring it up and bring it to me?" The best part is, he did! I wonder where else I can try that?
Nighttime sleep has been pretty awful lately. Juliette won't sleep for more than a couple of hours unless she's on me. She won't fall asleep without nursing. Lily will, but when she wakes up, she often wakes up and it's difficult to get her to fall back asleep without putting her in the swing. I can't WAIT for them to be in their own rooms!
