Weekend Update

Another week has gone by. Laura's now full term! (37 weeks) We don't have a whole lot else to report from the week other than yesterday's activities. We went back to Willmar to look at some homes. We took second looks at 2 homes. The first we really like. It is a nice home on a great lot/nice lake just outside of town. Unfortunately, though, it looks like the home may have a moisture problem. All the windows show evidence of moisture damage/rot. We were thinking we were going to make an offer until we saw this and a few other issues with the house. It's not out of the running, but we're a lot less excited about it now. The second one we looked at is a very nice house, very large and elegant. We were able to see the previous owner's disclosures, though, and again were scared off. Apparently there was a pipe that burst in the home 2 winters ago, and caused a huge amount of damage... ceilings/walls caved in and the like. We noticed there was a mold spot on the basement floor cleverly covered up by a couch. No thanks! So we're still looking. Now we're toying with the idea of building our own place, but not sure if we're up for the challenges that entails.

Azalea of course had a great time out at the farm again. She really loves the open space, and the ability to just roam around in the grass. She came to both houses for a while too, and had lots of fun exploring the new spaces. Lately Azalea has been really loving to Kiki... giving her hugs all the time, petting her (instead of hitting her), and taking her for walks. It's pretty cute. Of course she still really loves Elmo as well. Here's a few pics from earlier this week.

Giving Elmo a bottle.

Brushing Elmo's teeth.

Where's Azalea? This is one of her versions of hiding.

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers checking out our blog. Unfortunately Laura had to work today, so it wasn't much of a Mother's Day for her. Azalea and Kiki did get her some flowers though, and we had a picnic lunch for her at work, so hopefully it was still OK for her.

I decided to put in some pictures from the last year of Laura and the babies. She does a great job as a mommy, and we often don't give her the thanks she truly deserves. We're proud of you Laura! Thanks for all you do for our family!

Real Estate Week

Well it has been another busy week. Laura and I both worked a lot during the week, and then this weekend we headed out to Willmar to look at some homes. My dad is actually helping us out, working as our buyer's agent. We looked at 5 very nice, big homes in the area... 2 of which were lake homes. It actually was a bit exhausting, but obviously helpful. One house is leading the candidates right now, but it's pricey so we are hesitant to leap into anything.

Azalea had lots of fun hanging out at the farm while we were house hunting. She was really excited because both sets of grandparents were there... a rare treat! Needless to say she got a bit spoiled this weekend.

Nothing is happening with our house-selling adventure. We had no showings this week. Right now there's 336 townhomes for sale under 200K in our city and the neighboring 2 cities. It's pretty saturated. We are probably going to have to lower our listing price to keep people coming through. It's not a lot of fun to be on the selling side right now.

One nicer day this week Laura took Azalea outside to play in the yard, and she was rather fond of the Azalea plant laura recently bought (that's one of the flowers in her hand). Isn't she growing up fast? She's 18 months old now.

Pointing at airplanes (one of her favorite things right now). Kiki looks a bit sad to be trapped inside.

Boy Azalea's got it nice at the farm. Her own flat screen TV (so she thinks) with a built-in DVD player. Her own kid-sized rocking chair, and her own bed (handy Manny toddler bed that grandma just got). In this picture she waving bye, bye to the Backyardigans (her new favorite DVD).

Grandma Karen got to put some bands in Azalea's hair, and she kept wanting more, so grandma kept going.

This week

She's quite into hats right now, and pretty much always wants to have one on.

Hanging out by the fish at the zoo (one of her favorites).

The grizzlies were wrestling and having fun (they're her other favorites at the zoo).

We don't have too much to report from this week. Laura is finally over her cold, and feeling much better. She hit the 34 week mark today in her pregnancy.... only 6 or so weeks to go (June 7th is the actual due date). Azalea had a good week. Laura took her to the zoo one of the days this week, and as always Azalea had a blast. She also has been letting us know when she needs to go potty now, so we bought a potty chair and she's actually been using it! She's growing up so fast. I had the joy of cleaning out a big nasty dump from the bucket a couple days ago... which was kind of nasty, but hey daddy was proud of his girl.

We hung out with Nick and Andrea on Saturday, as it was Nick's birthday. We had a lovely meal at the OG (Olive Garden). Nick and Andrea are doing great... expecting their little one in August. Andrea is 25 weeks now, so showing off her pregnancy well. Azalea did really well at the restaurant, despite the fact that they brought our food to the wrong table so we had to wait twice as long. Because of the mistake we got free dessert which was a nice trade off!

There's not too much to report on our quest to sell our townhouse. We only had one showing this week, and apparently the buyer really liked it... but she looked at over 20 others and put an offer in on one she looked at the next day. The market is really saturated around here, especially with other townhouses (and several foreclosures). We are excited though, to be going to look at a couple homes in Willmar this weekend.

Bummin' on the farm

Well it's been an interesting weekend. Mommy had to work all weekend, and we had a showing at our house on Saturday morning then an open house Saturday afternoon. These showings were going to cut right into Azalea's naptime, so we packed up the Santa Fe and heading to the farm in Hawick to see Grandma and Grandpa (and great-grandma/pa). I checked the weather on Saturday morning, and it was supposed to be sunny and lower 70s in the cities that day, so I didn't bring a jacket or much for warm clothes. Foolish me! We got here and it was cloudy, windy and in the low 60's. Of course Azalea wanted to be outside, but we wanted to make sure she stayed warm, so grandpa found a stocking cap and a small shirt for her to wear over her other clothes. It made her look rather homely. Then we she came back inside, she wanted to wear the hat for the rest of the night. Silly girl!

Finally some pictures to post!

Happy Easter everyone! We're sorry we didn't get around to see many family or friends this Easter, but it's been a busy time. There's been lots of work, both at the hospital and at home, to do lately. We did, however, have a fun weekend. Saturday we were able to pay a visit to the newest member of the May family, Jen and Lucas's baby Logan Benjamin May. He was born on Thursday. Things went well and baby and mommy are doing great. Congratulations guys! Foolish me, though, I didn't bring our camera.

We started out today (Sunday) with a fantastic breakfast put on by our church before the Easter service today, then a great worship service and message from our New Heights (church) crew, then out to the park in the afternoon for some playground fun. It was sunny out and pretty warm, but Azalea insisted on wearing her gloves and hat... silly girl. I did manage to take her hat off when we got to the park, but she insisted that the gloves stay on. She had lots of fun climbing up and going down the big kid slide. We got a few good photos to share from the playtime.

There's been no activity on the house this week (since Tuesday anyway), but I suspected that given the holiday weekend. Hopefully this coming week is better. I just got done thoroughly cleaning the main level (again), in case of an early week showing. We're thinking of looking at some houses out in the Willmar area pretty soon, which should be kind of fun and exciting. We'll keep you posted!

She loves her new care bear (Cheer Bear). Thanks Great Auntie Pam!
She keeps wanting to go down the slides head first... daredevil. I guess this one's OK since it's so small.

Finishing up the afternoon with a stroll.

Another week gone by

It's been another crazy week. Laura is still sick with a bad cold. It was bad enough that she couldn't go to work again this week. She was in need of some rest by the end of the week, so headed out to her parents so they could help out with Azalea. Since my family left me I decided to do a mini marathon session with work and did 2 night shifts in a row on Friday and Saturday.... good times.

We had our first house showing on Saturday. The feedback on the showing wasn't too great. It sounds like they thought our townhouse was simply on par with the others in the area on the market. We have another go at it tomorrow (Monday). Hopefully that showing goes better. We'll keep everyone posted. If you know anyone who may be in the market for a townhome in the southeast metro, or just want to check out our listing, it is MLS # 3665097. I kind of like this site, here's a direct link http://msp.themlsonline.com/search/3665097.html.

Buddies

Trying on mommy's shoes.

Another rough day.