About a week before we found this house we were doing a lot of planning and organizing. We started to think about what more we could do to find a home. Decisions were made and changes occurred to help put things into motion in an entirely new way. On a late Friday night after all of these changes had been finalized I was looking online again for anything new. There were several new listings which was pretty typical for the weekend. The listing for this house was only available on Zillow at that point, but there were a couple of other options that could work. Saturday morning we spent time making calls to go and see the houses we were interested in. We were only able to get an appointment at one of them, and when we showed up for the time we scheduled, we found out from the realtor that we wouldn't be able to see it after all since it was a rental property and they wanted 24-hour notice. However, he took the initiative to find another listing to take us to. Then he tried to get appointments with another two listings and was able to get us into one more...the house we are now living in.
When we walked into the house we knew that we had to put our very best offer in and pray that this one would work out. We learned that the sellers would be making a decision on Monday evening which meant for a very long two days for us. That weekend we felt a peace we hadn't felt before with any other offer we had put in. We both knew we had done everything we could and our realtor had done all that he could and the rest was in the Lord's hands. Whether or not this house worked out we knew that it would be what the Lord wanted for us. However, we truly did want it to be right and were so grateful when the call came saying we were under contract!
Everything progressed without too many bumps in the road and we love our little home. It has everything we need it to have and it even has almost everything we wanted as well. We truly are so happy with how everything has worked out and know the Lord had His hand in it all. The house is a tri-level with three bedrooms, one bathroom, a family room, a lower family room which is the play room/sewing room with a laundry closet, an open kitchen with an eating area, a two-car garage, and a great backyard with a shed.
Arthur calls it his "blue house" because it is painted blue.
This is the front family room.
Our kitchen! I love the kitchen and am so glad it has a good amount of counter space!
This is the room Arthur and Camilla share. There is a good sized closet in there as well.
Eliza's bedroom.
The master bedroom. It has a walk-in closet with a good amount of space.
This is the sewing corner of the lower family room.
This is the play area and reading corner of the lower family room.
The backyard!
About a month after moving in we started potty training with Arthur, for what I believe was the fifth time, and with Camilla for the first official time. We've sat Camilla on the potty a few times before but have never actually done much more as we were more focused on Arthur. This time was so different with Arthur. He was definitely ready for it this time around and I let him lead more on when he needed to sit on the potty since he did know what to do and before it was always a matter of his own unwillingness to actually go. The first week wasn't too bad with Arthur but definitely rocky with Camilla. There were a lot of accidents and hardly any successes with Milla but the second week came and it is like it all just suddenly clicked. Both of them have been rock stars ever since. We have a few accidents here and there but I didn't expect anything less at this point. I'm just so thankful that for the first time in more than two and a half years I only have one child in diapers! It's awesome to not be changing diapers a dozen or more times a day.
This is one of the few pictures I have to document potty training. The biggest hurdle with Arthur was getting him to go stinky on the potty and this was one of his prizes for doing just that. It took just the right incentive to get him to go and to keep going on the potty. Arthur is a lot like his daddy and loves all things Disney...potty prizes for him work best when they are Disney. This prize was Mickey Mouse firetruck. ;)
I just wanted to throw in a couple of pictures to show the relationships developing between the children. I love watching them play with each other and be loving.
This picture is of Arthur and Camilla dancing as "Beast" and "Princess"! Arthur loves wearing his church jacket and pretending he is Beast and then he'll go around calling Camilla princess and she loves it!
Helping me make lunch.
Playing a game together on my phone.
Watching one of their favorite movies, Toy Story 3!
Playing in their car together!
Talking and laughing together...I love when they put their arms around each other!
Sharing the horse saddle at the mall!
Sharing with Eliza.
This is rare...Eliza doesn't usually like to be held by her brother or sister. I was so glad I could get a picture of a time she actually was happy with it!
Arthur loves pushing the stroller but Camilla likes to make sure she can help in some way so she holds onto the side.
At grandma's house helping make cupcakes.
Since moving into our house we have celebrated Eliza's first birthday and Arthur's fourth birthday. It has been fun to watch them grow up.
Arthur was able to pick out a present and this is what he chose...Buzz Lightyear! He loves Buzz! His shirt was also a present. We had watched Big Hero 6 the weekend before and he fell in love with Baymax!
