You give me FEVER...

Seriously. I am pretty sure there have been 3 days in the past two and a half weeks where my kids have been fever-free. I'm praying that tomorrow morning brings normal-temp kids with bright eyes, because we are all very over this most recent bout of being under the weather!

Here's what the past few weeks have consisted of:

*Motrin & Tylenol...lots and lots of Motrin and Tylenol.

*Hailey's very first school pictures! (one of the fever-free days)

*I've done a little bit more sewing. I made a table runner. It's green and cream zebra print. I love it. :)

*After the house closed (FINALLY!) I wasted no time and hung up some pictures around here.

*Owen learned how to blow his nose. Awesome, except that now he does it without a kleenex. :/

*Todd turned 32! Sadly, his birthday was spent feeling absolutely miserable with a stomach bug. We celebrated on Thursday night with a quick trip to Portland for a Blazer game.

*Hailey's first school program! She's really shy in front of a crowd (she must get that from Todd??) but did such a good job! No tears or anything. ;)

*Is preparing for my baby girl to turn 4...gulp...I'm still in shock.

*Became an Auntie again to Micah James Fry today. Can't wait to meet him in about 2 and a half weeks!!

That's about it. I'll post some pics soon.

Denied...just kidding APPROVED!!

In all seriousness, this is how we feel today! After the longest wait ever, the buyers of our Federal Way house have received final approval and the deal will close today or tomorrow! PTL!!!

You might be asking yourself, "Wait...didn't they move Thanksgiving weekend?? Why is the house closing now??"

Well, I'll tell ya...it's been a long almost 2 months for us. Let me explain.

When we got the offer on the house the buyer had "ants in her pants" to be in and settled by Christmas, so her lender said they'd be on the fast track to close ASAP with a closing date of "December 16 or sooner". We were told it would probably be closing December 1st. So, we moved since the buyer gets keys the day of closing. However, we didn't account for the bad weather around Thanksgiving that pushed the appraisal back. After the appraiser's walk through, he called our agent and was having trouble coming up with the right value for our house. In fact, his preliminary number was $65k lower than the sale price of the house!?! :/ He ran some different comps, added value for all of the upgrades we added, and we got the call that the appraisal was in at full value!! All that was left to do was get final approval and close. Or so we thought...

On the 16th of December (the contracted closing date) while on our way to the Young Life Leader Christmas party, we got the call saying the buyer's loan was denied by underwriting. *Insert pukey feeling here* We were blocks away from the FW house, so we stopped, went inside, and prayed. We asked that above all else, we would be where God wanted us. While we thought we knew the plan before, maybe He had a different one...and either way we'd be ok. We had two great housing options on the table, but one would require quite the task of moving for the second time in less than a month. :/

The next day our agent called and said not to get our hopes up, but that she was going to hand the file over to her own mortgage broker at the buyer's same bank to look things over. If there was any way to get this thing funded, her friend would find it. She gave it a 1% chance. We signed an extention that gave them another month to work out financing.

We buckled up to wait...and wait...and wait...

Long story short, we've been in a holding pattern for over a month...with a few hopeless moments in between...

BUT...

...the wait is over.

So...I sewed today...

I made 3 things out of a large piece of leftover fabric I've had since Hails was a baby. I made a pillow & blankie for Sweet Pea and a matching pillow for Hails. She loves them! My new sewing machine is really cool...it even made these flower stitches on the edge of the blanket. It's hard to see in the picture, but it's really cute in person. Especially if you pretend you can't tell that my lines are crooked... ;)
Here's Sweet Pea all tucked in...Hails is loving it. :)


Stay tuned for an apron, table runner, and whatever else I can find!! :)

Our Crazy Boy...

First off, the boy has a new haircut...and it's the cutest thing ever...he looks so much older! :)Secondly, he can NOT get enough of all of his books.

Current fave: When I grow Up.

(Pretty sure I got this one at the dollar section of Target.)

Lastly, he finally will wear a hat. Here's one I got for $6 at H&M. Love it.


He kills me with his cuteness.

"Is Jesus in my heart?"

Hails asked me the other night, "Mom...is Jesus in my heart?"

I replied, "I don't know, Hails...did you invite Him in?"

"No. But I want to."

Needless to say, I was overwhelmed with excitement that all of the "training in righteousness" that Todd and I have been doing has resulted in her wanting Jesus herself.

We've always said that we didn't want to push, but just present the gospel to our kids. After explaining things at a 3-year old level, she insisted that she wanted to pray with Todd and I right then!

Last night Todd and I took Hailey to the bookstore to pick out a Bible. It was no surprise that she chose the pink one with rhinestones on it. ;)

She's been "reading" it ever since...

So sweet. :)