Today, we had a dinner at Fisher’s house with Angela’s “girl group.” They have been doing monthly lunches and get together activities (including the trip to Vegas) for years, and this will be the last one before we leave for Colorado.
It was bitter-sweet for Angela. It was great to see the families of all the girls as well. We had some great conversation and good time. We’ll miss them but we know we’re doing the right thing.
Today, Ben had a big number 5 birthday party. Brittany and Kirstyn put everything together for it. They decorated the entire house and Ben had about 10 of his friends over! They played a bunch of games and had a bunch of food and fun.
Instead of having cake, Brittany had them decorate their own cupcakes which the kids really loved! They all got goodie bags when they left which made the kids even more excited! 🙂 By the time everyone left, Ben was totally high on sugar and the girls were totally exhausted! 🙂 I think they now have a better appreciation for what Angela goes through when she plans and throws parties for them. 🙂
Happy big number 5 Ben! Ben’s birthday was today and he is SO excited to be 5! We’re not quite sure why, other than the fact that 5 is older than 4. 🙂 What a crazy little boy!
He has a big party coming up that his sisters will be decorating for so he can’t wait for that!
Happy Birthday big guy!
After only 10 days and about 15 showings, our house sold! We are SO excited we can barely see straight! It was crazy… We had competing offers, one even at list! The one at list was not a very strong financial situation and the agent had pulled out on our agent twice in the past. That said, Chris negotiated wonderfully! Initially the offer came in at $40,000 under list which was offensive! 🙁 Chris went to work and with the competing offer at list, drove the buyers up to just $3000 under list and a closing date of the 10th of April! We are SO happy and can’t wait to get the moving process started. WAHOO!!!
It is a bittersweet moment however. To see a sold sign in our front yard after living 18 years in Illinois is sad, but we know that this is the right thing to do. Thanks to our agent, Chris Macak, for all his hard work on our behalf!
Zach played well in his game today. He got a couple of rebounds and got the Board Beast award! He was SO excited!
As usual, his team won again! They really do have a great team and it’s amazing how little guys this age can play so well.
Our house went on the Market today! We have been working hard and getting everything fixed up (wallboard, etc.), re-carpeted, dusted, vacuumed and ready to go! Our agent came over and took all the pictures and we listed!
We have a great brochure to help sell the home and we are praying that we get a lot of showings and the home sells quickly. We just have to figure out now when we want to go to the Denver area to look at homes. It will probably happen over Spring Break (depending on how fast we get a contract on our house here).
We’re so excited! This has been a hard decision and it’s taken us almost 5 years to really make up our minds. Now is the time and we know it. 🙂
Today Zach played a pretty good basketball game. His Ohio State Buckeye team is very good and they haven’t lost a game yet (they have tied one however). He’s getting better by the week, but most importantly, he is having fun. He likes the friends he’s playing with. I think he likes practices better than games because he gets to touch the ball more. 🙂
He’s getting pretty good at defense. Offense still needs some work, but when it comes to guarding the guy he’s put on, he never lets him more than a foot away. 🙂
Today was Kirstyn’s big 14th birthday which now means she can go to church dances! 🙂 I think she was excited about that today more than anything else! Brittany made her a VERY fattening but wonderful pie-type cake which tasted awesome! She opened her presents and as usual, her brothers were just as excited to have her open them as she was. 🙂
Happy Big 14, Princess Bubbajo!
SARAH GOT HER MISSION CALL TODAY!!!! We were SO excited! She set up a time tonight where she had all of her friends over to her apartment (it was packed), and we got on Skype to watch her open her call. She was very emotional as she opened it… California Ventura Spanish-Speaking! She couldn’t have been more excited! She really wanted to speak Spanish and now she has the opportunity! Since we couldn’t be there in person, we had to take a picture of her with her call on the computer! 🙂
We are so proud of her! Everyone there in her apartment was jumping and screaming! Lisa was there with Tommy and the noise scared him so bad he started crying. How cute! 🙂 After all this excitement and wait, she finally knows where she’s going! She’ll go into the MTC in Provo on May 8th! That’s going to be a crazy time between when she comes home from school and when she goes into the MTC! We will only have about 10 days or so! Yikes!
Congratulations, Sarah! You’ll do GREAT!
Today we had two realtors come over Leslie (who sold our old house and helped us get into the one we’re in now), and Chris (who helped us buy our first house). They both made great cases to be our agent for the sale of this house, and are both outstanding realtors. It was a very hard decision, but after much thought and discussion, we decided to go with Chris. As you can imagine, he’s really happy! We’re moving forward with getting the house on the market now! We have an agent and a BUNCH of stuff to do to get ready, including carpet replacement in the basement, fix the wallboard in the basement, lots of junking and cleaning, etc. We’re going to be consumed with this house stuff for the next “however long it takes to get the house sold!”
Wish us luck!
Today was absolutely crazy busy! Kirstyn played in one of her last basketball games (and did very well I might add). She has really enjoyed the opportunity to play recreation ball to keep up her skills for hopefully making the Still Middle School Team again this year. Kirstyn then went up to Metea and participated in the district Science Fair.
Her project dealt with how different kinds of sugar affected dough’s ability to rise. It was MUCH better than her project on how liquids affected metals (i.e. penny in rotting orange juice that smelled horrific!). 🙂 She did a GREAT job and she ended up being selected to go to the regional science fair next month! What a great accomplishment for our little scientist! She was very excited!
The whole time this was going on, Zach had a play date with his friend Diego and they had a blast!
Brittany got 4 tickets for the Bulls vs. Nuggets tonight and arranged a double date with 3 of her friends (Arielle, Logan, and DT). We wouldn’t let them drive down, so I arranged with a friend of mine to get 4 tickets as well! I got a double date with Angela and Arielle’s mom and dad! The 8 of us piled into the van and went out to dinner together and then to the game! They were happy that our tickets were not by theirs and we tried to stay away from their group and conversation (even at dinner). It was pretty funny.
The game was great and our tickets were even better than Brittany’s this time. We were pretty close to the floor and could see everything well!
What a great time we had! The kids weren’t too bad when it came to hanging out with parents. They only pretended they didn’t know us when we tried to take their pictures at the game.
Today, Ben had a play date that turned out pretty funny. He went over to his friend Lydia’s house to hang out and while there they pretending they were boyfriend and girlfriend. We heard from Lydia’s mom that Ben made the comment that maybe he’ll consider marrying her when he gets of his mission. 🙂 What a crazy little guy we have. There are two girls that he says he likes. One of them is his girlfriend and the other he says he’s going to marry. Oh how would it be if our teenage girls looked at things like that. 🙂
Today, Brittany had an awesome maybe once in a lifetime experience! Her Seminary Teacher is a VP for the Chicago Bulls (corporate relations or something like that), and Brittany got close-up tickets for the game. She took her friend Ian. Angela and I drove them to the game, went out to eat, and then picked them up. They had a GREAT time! Before the game, they got to go down on the floor and have their pictures taken, etc.
The whole way home, she couldn’t stop talking about how much fun they had. Their seats were pretty close to court and they could see the players really well.
