Crazy, but good, last month

Eating Breakfast

The thing is, I give Holland surgar cereal and still have to fight her to eat it.  I think she is about to have a more healthy cereal come her way so I feel like my efforts are worth it!

Speaking of healthy cereal....this was mine this morning.  Watered down oatmeal.  It was disgusting!  The whole bowl was pretty much full up to the brim but the more I ate it the more I hated it.  I couldn't finish it. It needed a lot less water and a lot more sugar.  Yuck!  I was totally gagging.
  

Selling the House

After looking at all of our options we came to quickly find out that we would not be allowed to keep our new home under the conditions of our current loan.  We would have to sell it.  It felt like everything was happening so quickly when we jumped in with full force to selling our house.  We tried selling it on own our but realized after a week or two that we didn't have the time or energy to attack this on our own.  Within a few days of placing our home on the market with our friend Crystal we were negotiating the sell of our beautiful new home.  It hasn't been without road bumps.  We were given fair warning that there would be some hoops to jump through.  Just keeping a house clean with two little toddlers has been the most stressful and challenging part of the whole process!

I started by purging the house and packing most of our junk into the garage.  It became the perfect place to "entertain" the kids while polishing the house for showings.  There was even a huge box in there for the kids to play in.

Our siding came loose where quite a few of the nails were supposed to be fastening it down.  As Jaret and I attempted to take the whole south side down and reuse pieces we quickly found out that we were wasting our energy. It was nearly impossible to get any pieces down without breaking them in the process.  We ended up just tearing it all down and replacing the whole side.  It only took us about five minutes to rip it off.  That's what an amazing product it is.  Let's just say we are not fans of Certainteed ;)

Looks good again though!

Soon after starting the negotiating process I started feeling sorry for myself in having to give up my new home that I was enjoying and had put so much work into.   I couldn't see the moon very well from my bed so I suggested to Jaret that we sleep outside.  He is all about spontaneity and we grabbed our blankets and lovesac and threw it on the lawn. The moon was beautiful that night.  The picture is an attempt to catch it through the trees.

Things seemed to be going pretty smoothly until we got news about a week ago concerning our buyers financing.  The lenders needed more information so they could decide whether or not our house would be considered a flip.  We bought our house less than a year ago and the lenders decided to treat it as a flip.  We were told that another appraisal would have to be ordered and that our closing date would be pushed back about a week.  

Looking for a place to rent in Ennis has been an adventure.  A couple of weeks ago I called every contact I could find and was told that their place(s) had all been rented out.  We couldn't find one available place.  I started to feel a little panicked.  We finally found a condo to rent and got to walk through it a week ago last Wednesday.  The owner has been very relaxing to work with in spite of our lack of answers with our house. We were supposed to move in on Tuesday but with our closing date being pushed back he welcomed the delay so he could have more time to clean the condo up after the last tenants left it a mess.  

After the appraisal and a week of waiting, yesterday we received great news.  We have a closing date!  Instead of closing today, we are closing a week from today, September  21.  We still don't know when we are moving into the condo, but I'm sure it will be within a week.

With all of the fires going on we have had a lot of very pretty sunsets from our front porch.  At least we can take the sun and the moon with us ;)

Speaking of houses...One of the West Side Houses that we lived in has been leveled.  There's just dirt there now.

Camping and Riding the Hiawatha Trail

In spite of being in the middle of selling and siding our house we decided not to let it get in the way of our planned vacation.  We went with our Stewart friends and their family on a big camping and biking trip!

The campground we stayed at in St. Regis was immaculate! They had these adorable wood statues carved in logs all around the campground.  The campground was not only very clean but the bathroom floors were so clean you could eat off of them!  I couldn't find a spec of dust in any corner.  No wonder they closed the restrooms for THREE HOURS a day for cleaning.

Amanda had some family stop by on their bikes.  The kind with the motors.  Brooklyn confiscated their gloves and went parading around with them.  Most of the Stewart/McCready family recruited the bikers to either take them for a ride or let them go for a spin.  The camp director didn't like that very much and the visitors were told that the roads are for coming and going.  They were also told that if they wanted to use the "facilities" they would have to pay.  They really take their bathroom business seriously.  Lol.  

Holland loved the purple bike and got to go for a ride.  She absolutely loved it!  When she returned she had the biggest smile on her face.

The main reason for our camping trip was to ride the Hiawatha Trail.  This trail was originality a railway.  All of the ties and metal had been stripped and turned into a thirteen mile trail filled with beautiful views, bridges and tunnels.  Jaret and I took the girls in the bike trailer.

This is after the first and longest tunnel.  It is 1.7 miles long.  We rode with bike lights and sweaters through dripping water and cold.  It was a cool experience but kind of creepy.  

The kids did great!  By the time we were half way down the trail our whole group decided we wanted to book it to the end.  So, I zoomed down the trail with kiddos bouncing along behind me.  Once we reached the bottom we hopped onto a bus that shuttled us back to the top of the mountain where we had to ride back through the long tunnel to our cars.  It was worth the trip and a lot of fun!

Hollands Birthday

Holland got to eat out at Target on her birthday.  It wasn't planned but become part of the plan since we were there (No, my kids do not sit in booths).

Holland had a little last minute birthday party with a few friends from the neighborhood.

The theme was a cooking party.  In this picture the kids are making squid (poking raw spaghetti through hot dogs).  Pretty much all of my ideas came from Pintrest.

Most adults wouldn't eat it, but for some reason kids love it!  Here are the boiled squid that the kids scarfed down.

The next concoction for these little chefs to create was their beverage.  Sprite with colored/cool-aid ice cubes.  Pure sugar, yum.

They also made some fruit kabobs.

The big piece of plastic is supposed to be a big water bed to jump on.  I didn't do a very good job of reinforcing it and it had tons of holes in it.  The kids had fun while it lasted though! 

The kiddos took a break from their work and Jaret headed up the cardboard box creating and decorating.

You can't tell but the kids got to draw all over the box and make it into the clubhouse.  It ended up entertaining my kids in the garage, then.....the dump.  :)

Finally, our little chefs showed us their cake decorating skills by sprinkling all kinds of goodies on cupcakes.  They triumphantly decorated and ate their yummy food.

Holland's friends brought her the cutest and most fun gifts.  She has loved playing with them!

She says thanks to all of her super good friends for coming to her party and for the fun gifts!

Play Dough

I have loved having play dough stuff to entertain kids with. I exile them to the island in the kitchen and let them have at it with their creations.

This is one of Hollands creations.  Looks like the enemy got past the barbed wire barricade.  I hope that's not gonna be the case with all of the current unrest in the world.  It's not looking good, especially for the tan soldier on the right.  He's surrounded by the enemy and his own men.

New Truck

I was so excited to have my sister from Texas come visit us in Montana.  During that time I managed to stop fast enough to catch my brother-in-law off guard and he did Jaret a favor and totaled our Jeep. 

Things couldn't have worked out better.  Geico let us drive our Jeep down to the salvage yard in Ogden, Utah to drop our Jeep off.  It was only a short drive for my brother, Nathan, to pick us up and take us to pick up the new truck in the Salt Lake area.

Farewell Jeep.  I enjoyed you while I had you.  You're trashed so I don't want you any more.  

Here is Jaret's new love.  He's been wanting a truck for years!  From how it was looking it would have still been many years before it got it.  Thanks to the Jeep being expedited to the junk yard Jaret's wishes came true sooner rather then later.   The only wish left he's wishing he could expedite is the (not very realistic) possibility of living in Alaska.  

After picking the truck up we enjoyed the weekend with Grandma and Grandpa and Uncle Nathan.  

Mischief

"Don't worry mom.  We're helping make the house smell good for the showings by taking all of your smelly oils out of the packages and spreading them around."

Pretty sure this happened within two minutes while a friend was dropping their kid off.  Holland grabbed a stool and used it to grab a dry erase market and draw on the wall.  She must have been planning this attack because it happened to fast not to be preorganized.  

I can't remember what else happened that day but when I saw the art show on the wall I couldn't get mad.  I was already way beyond that.  All I could say was, "Ok, clean it up."  Then I helped her. Once again, I love you magic eraser.  

Whatever

Brooklyn relaxing in her turtle shell.

The kids took turn laying in this whole at a park.

Kind of cute.

Pretty Holla.

Holland in my wedding dress.  It fits her better then it fits me right now.

Brooklyn in the dryer.  She likes sitting in the dishwasher even more.

Brooklyn was playing with the sprayer and totally ended up spraying herself.  We both thought it was pretty funny.

Tad-ah!

Holland went to a mach pre-school yesterday and loved it!  This is a picture of the spider cracker she made.

Sleeping Again

Gotta love 'em.