We're Homeowners!!

The last couple of months have gone by in a whirlwind.  We sold our townhouse in July and were living with my parents for a few months while we searched for a house to make home, which we found at the beginning of August.  We closed on September 7, and took a little more than a week to paint and get it ready to be lived in.  Now, slowly but surely we are getting settled in our new house.  :)  

It isn't huge by any means, but it does have 3 bedrooms, and a full finished basement with 2 additional rooms that could be used as bedrooms (though one has already been designated as the kids' playroom).  There is a lot of storage (which I'm sure we'll fill up quickly!), a 2 car garage, and a shed out back with a little fort on top that the kids have already had fun playing in.  My favorite part of the new house - the yard!! I LOVE having a nice, big yard that the kids can run around and play in!  The backyard is fenced in too, so I don't have to worry as much if they're outside alone for a minute or two.  :)  (though we'll probably have to get some sort of extra security on the gates because my boys are little Houdinis!)  We've met several of the neighbors, and everyone is really nice.  There are a lot of kids in the neighborhood too, all within a few months (even days!) of our kids, so we have even more to be thankful for with this new place. 

Obviously we've done a lot of work on the house already, but I haven't been able to locate the cord that connects our camera to the computer yet so I'll have to post the more updated pictures at a later date.  :)  For now, you can get an idea of what the house looks like from the pictures I took while we were having the inspection done in August.  

Front yard ~

Standing at the front door, looking straight ahead into the dining room.  Coat closet is on the left ~

Standing at the front door, looking left into the living room ~

Hallway to the bathroom (1st opening on the left) and bedrooms (one on the right, one straight ahead, and the master is the last door on the left) ~

Dining room, kitchen through the door on the left ~

Standing in the dining room, looking into the living room ~

Another view of the living room ~

Galley kitchen, taken from the door to the dining room.  The room in back is what we're now calling the "green room" - family room/all-purpose room ~

The people we bought the house from used this room as an eat-in part of their kitchen... we only have one table, so we've made this room into a family room/playroom/all-purpose room.  The doors to the right are sliders out to the backyard.  Hi, mom! ~

Sliding doors out to the 2-3 season room, deck and backyard ~

Another view of the enclosed part of the deck ~

 

Deck, with enclosed area to the right ~

One of the kids' favorite places at the house - the fort over the shed ~

STEEP steps down to the basement ~

Standing at the bottom of the basement stairs, looking straight ahead into the basement.  Room to the left is my sewing/craft room  :)

This is the "bedroom" to the left of the bottom of the basement stairs ~

My sewing/craft room ~

The main part of the basement ~

I have a few more pictures, but for some reason Blogger isn't letting me upload them.  :(  I'll try again in another post, but for now...that's our house!  Can't get a good idea of the house from the pictures?  Then come see it for yourself.  We've got a lot of extra space for visitors, so just say the word and you're more than welcome!  :)

Adventures in Babysitting ~

We had the amazing responsibility of taking care of my then 5-week old nephew, Asher, a few weeks ago.  Tracy and Eric had a meeting to go to at their church and couldn't bring him with so Aaron, Micah, Caleb and I got up and headed to Kenosha to watch Asher for the morning.  What a joy!  Asher is such a sweet baby and was very easy to care for.  He pretty much slept most of the time we were there, but 5-week old babies do a lot of sleeping, so that wasn't unexpected.  :)  I did manage to get a couple of pictures of the boys being cute, so I'll let those do the "talking".  Enjoy!
 

 Snug as a bug in his swing ~

 Micah was "helping" to swing Asher...

...then he started fussing and the look on Micah's face was priceless!  You can see in this picture that his hands are off of the swing, but what you can't see is the look on his face which says, "I promise it wasn't my fault!"  :)

Snuggle time with Uncle Aaron ~

 

We tried to get a few pictures of the boys together, but Cars was on the TV...

At least Asher is looking at the camera!  :)

Cousins ~

 

Love this sweet little boy!

Kisses from Micah ~

As you can see, we had a wonderful morning with Asher.  Emma was there too, but she tends to run for the hills whenever our boys are around.  :)  Thanks, Tracy and Eric, for trusting us with your sweet little boy!  We hope we can watch him again sometime!  :)

Transitions

We are in the throes of a transitional phase in life right now.  We recently sold our townhouse in Mundelein and have been living with my parents since July 7.  All of our stuff is in storage, with the exception of our clothes and a few shoes, pillows, and a few of the boys' toys, and while this has definitely been an experience I'm very thankful for how smoothly everything has gone so far.  We are eternally grateful to my mom and dad for putting us up (probably more like putting up with us  ;)  ) while we're between homes, and we're thankful that we have a place to stay that is familiar for our kids.  

The boys did seem a bit confused when we started packing and taking everything out of our townhouse.  Caleb made packing particularly difficult because he would not let me put him down.  I'm not sure if he's just in the "all I want is mommy" stage of being 1, or if he was actually nervous that we'd forget to "pack" him.  :)  And Micah kept asking where his things were going.  Aaron and his dad brought Micah with them on one trip to the storage unit, and I think that helped put his mind at ease.  Once he was able to see all of our stuff there, and realized we'd see it again eventually things went much smoother.  Now he talks about how his things are in the storage unit and we'll get them out when we move into our new house.  :)  

I did my best to pack things in as organized a way as possible, but with 2 kids under 3 you can imagine how well that went.  It started out alright... I'd pack a few boxes while the kids napped, or give them a box and tell them to "pack" their toys (which they had a blast doing!  Thanks for the tip, Steph!).  I wrote down the things I was putting in each box so that if for some reason the sale didn't go through we wouldn't have to unpack everything to find something we needed.  I think I packed up most of the kitchen and a few other boxes that way before we got the call that our closing was finalized and we had a week to get everything out and the place cleaned.  Then, I went into semi-panic mode!  :) Not that things just got thrown into boxes at that point, but I wasn't writing everything down anymore.  And at that point, I had more help so I wasn't packing everything myself either.  (turns out, we ended up packing the cards I'd written everything on anyways, so we'll still have to go through pretty much every box after we move.  Oh well.)  

There is ALWAYS more to do than you think there is when it comes to packing and moving!  After all of the big furniture was moved out (HUGE thanks to Aaron's parents for their help with that, and with packing!  And HUGE thanks to Beckie for her help with the kids!), Aaron and I spent almost every night of that last week before our closing finishing the packing and moving, and getting the house clean.  We would put the kids to bed at mom and dad's and head over, and be there until midnight or later.  It was a lot of work, but it felt really good to be done and to know that the new owners had a clean place to move their things into.  

It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be to say goodbye to 1209 Orleans.  Maybe that's because everything got moved out so fast, or maybe it's because I'm ready to move on and begin the next chapter of our lives...in a house with a yard!  We have lots of great memories from 1209 Orleans ~ it was Aaron's and my first home together after we were married, both of our kids were brought home to that house, and while it certainly wasn't huge by any means, we filled it with family, friends, and lots of fun...often times all at the same time!  :)  We are thankful for the wonderful memories God allowed us to make there, but now we're looking forward to making more memories at our new house!

 We kind of hit the ground running since we sold our townhouse, and spent several days (and evenings) looking at houses with our realtor.  (who is amazing!)  We already have a contract on a ranch house in Crystal Lake, and as long as our financing comes through we should be moved in by the middle of September.  I'm hesitant to post any pictures at this point, because it's still not a done deal, but as soon as I know we're moving in, I'll get some pictures on our blog!  :)  For now, here are a few pictures of the packing process...

Micah had fun making a fort with the boxes we'd packed and stacked ~ 

And the boys had fun climbing the boxes too ~

As we were packing, I set up our computer on the floor of the kitchen and made a "bed" for Micah out of a blanket and some pillows.  He was more than content to lay there and watch Toy Story 3 while we packed.  :)

Aaron even took a break to watch a few minutes with Micah ~

 

So now we wait for God to open (or close) doors as He sees fit for our family. Our prayer is that He would continue to guide us to the house that is right for our family.  We hope we've already found it!  :)  but are trusting Him as this process continues.  We appreciate your prayers for us as well, as we close on a house and complete this transitional phase.  Please pray for our boys, as I can't even imagine what their young minds actually comprehend of all of this, and for all of us as we look forward to all that God has in store for our family! 

Jeremiah 29:11 ~ For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

Another addition...

We have a new nephew!!  Asher Robert Migrin was born on June 30 at around 9:30 p.m.  He weighed 8 lbs., 4 oz., and was 22 inches long!  Asher means, "blessed by God", and I have to say I absolutely LOVE the name!  He is a blessing from God to Tracy and Eric, and to all of the extended family as well.  Our whole family had the privilege of meeting him on July 1 and he is adorable!  As we arrived at the hospital, Eric was walking Asher back to their room after having his hearing tested... poor little guy had no idea he was in for another hearing test as Caleb and Micah ran around the room (and later the maternity floor) screaming like little banshees!  I am SO sorry, Tracy and Eric and Asher, and the other new mommies and babies on the floor!  :)  Keeping toddlers quiet is not an easy task!
In spite of the extra noise, we had a nice time visiting with the new parents and meeting our new nephew.  I got a few pictures, but most came out very blurry due to not using the flash.  Thankfully most of the blurs in the pictures are the adults, and if you've been following this blog for a while you most likely know what they look like.  Asher was completely zonked out while we were there, so photographing him was pretty easy (unless the adults in the picture were moving while holding him).  :)   

Asher and Mommy ~

The happy family ~

3 generations of Migrin men ~

Sweet Asher ~

Asher with Uncle Aaron ~

Asher with Daddy and Grandma and Grandpa Migrin ~

Welcome to the world, Asher Robert!  You truly are a blessing in many ways!

Family fun!

We've had a great start to our summer this year. Lots of fun birthday celebrations (and we're not done with those yet!), beautiful weather to enjoy (though lately it's been ridiculously HOT!), and a wonderful visit with the California extension of the Thomson family! Doesn't get much better than that! :) The DeBoer's got into town on June 18, and we had a week and a half of catching up, outdoor fun, and lots of memories made. I'll let the pictures do most of the talking for this post... there are a few! ...they're a little out of order, but I don't have the patience to try and cut and paste them into an exact chronological order. Believe me when I say we had a great time together and can't wait until the next time! :)

Nee Nee with Caleb and Elin ~

the water slide that Auntie Lisa put up ~

Elin, sporting a sassy mohawk ~

Lamb's Farm ~

Here's Caleb and me from this summer's trip to Lamb's Farm...

...and here's Micah and me from our trip there in 2010 :)


Pops and Micah ~

Luke and Micah had a blast with the hose! (see video later in this post for more laughs)

Such buds ~

What's summertime without watermelon? :)

...and frozen piña colada! :)

We met Katy at the park by her house for dinner and fun outside ~

Lincoln Park Zoo ~

Watching a movie at Pops' and Nee Nee's ~

(can you tell which ones were actually interested in the movie?)

More outdoor fun ~

The boys all went to a train show one afternoon... Luke and Micah got to ride a train ~

Fun with Uncle Jim ~

Story time with Auntie Lisa ~

Our attempts at a cousins picture ~
Started out pretty well...

Then one by one, we lost them :)

Oh well :)

Watching out for their littlest cousin ~

All in all, it was a wonderful time with the family. Thanks for coming to visit, DeBoer family! We love and miss you tons!