Hoppy Easter 2011

Note to self: Remember next year that you like to do holidays and you should prepare for them a couple weeks in advance, not a couple days in advance. 

Man oh man!  Easter came and went quick!  But we did all things Easter this year, except, you know, go to church.  Oops.  Maybe next year. 

We kicked things off with a trip to the Easter Bunny at the local mall.  But Kayla wasn't having any of it.  We waited in line, she saw him, waved to him, when we got up to him she gave him a high five, said hi to him, took a piece of candy from him but when I asked her to sit on his lap she wouldn't disengage from my arm.  Tyler was up in the bunny's lap and he was happy as can be but Kayla just wasn't going to do it.  So we left.  Oops.  I realized later that, duh, this is Tyler's 1st Easter!  We need a picture!  So, after naps we went back with Dad and Kayla did a little better.  Tyler was wondering why in the world we were doing this again but we did get Kayla to stand next to the bunny so we got the picture in the end.

Later in the week we had a Easter Egg hunt at Luna Club.  Kayla and Savannah had so much fun running around finding eggs.  There were several kids there and a whole field of eggs it wasn't hard to have fun.  (Tyler slept through the whole thing in the Ergo carrier, so there are no pictures of him.)

I wasn't originally going to dye eggs with Kayla, thinking that she was too young, but a friend of mine posted pictures on how she put the eggs inside a whisk which I thought that was an awesome idea!  So, I boiled up 5 eggs during nap time and away we went.  But she wasn't very patient waiting for the colors to darken so we went with pastels.  Then she wanted to play with them so we had to distract her. 

Then, finally, Easter arrived and Kayla followed the bunny's footprints down to the living room to find her Easter basket!  How much fun is that?  She slowly made her way through everything in the basket.  It was the first basket I made for her and I was glad I did.  I got to pick out a few things I knew she'd like and really enjoyed watching her look all the little goodies!

Tyler woke up later and Kayla shared some candy with him and showed him everything that was in his basket.  (Shhh... don't tell him but I wasn't going to make him a basket, because I didn't do one for Kayla until she was old enough, but I felt bad that she had one and he didn't so I put together some new clothes I had bought him and some toys that were fairly new.  ha ha ha.)  He wasn't really interested (which is why I wasn't going to do one!). 

They then opened up all the presents mom, G.G. and Great Aunt Amy sent and played with those for a while.

Eric was sick so he ended up going to Urgent Care (finding out he had tonsillitis!) and we had lunch at John's Incredible Pizza (think Chuck E Cheese on steroids).  Kayla even won us 250 tickets on one of the games!  How cool is that?!?!  She didn't care but I thought it was funny. 

During nap time the Easter Bunny came and hid the eggs.  Tyler was so excited he got himself stuck in the chair!  Ha ha ha. 

Then Kayla had a ton of fun finding all the eggs on the porch.  There were a lot and she kept wanting to run in and show dad (who went to rest on the couch after the first few eggs were found) so it took a little while to try and find them all while Tyler tried to escape. 

All in all, it was a pretty cool Easter.  I want to start some traditions, thus the bunny footprints, and now that she's old enough to start understanding some of the fun of holidays I wanted to do it right.  But at the same time, she's still pretty young, so I didn't want to overdo it.  So, I think I found a happy medium.  Kids make everything better!  It was so much better than previous Easters... I can't wait for Halloween and Christmas!!!!

Christmas Activities #2: Decorating

I don't know about you but there was no way we were really decorating for Christmas this year, what with a toddler, an infant, and our little trip to TX.  But, I couldn't NOT put anything up.  Surely there was something.  Her stocking.  Pictures.  The dancing Santa.  Staples of Christmas, right?  So, the weekend after Thanksgiving (as usual) I made Eric drag it all out.  Considering we didn't put up much it sure was messy!




And you can hardly notice the Christmas stuff amongst all the toys!



But we could have pulled out nothing else as long as we had these...

She loved the dancing Santa and the riding snowman.  Played with both of them until the batteries died on the snowman and she broke an arm off Santa!  I'm working on getting the videos into Picasa!  Funny!

Of course, I did also try to make them wear their hats - Kayla wasn't a fan.

Instead of putting up our lights we go drive around and look at everyone elses.  It's super cute to hear her say "ohhhh.  wow.  pretty" over and over again.  But after 20 minutes she's done and starts saying "home?  eat?"  Guess I need to time it better.  :-)  Can't wait to get the grandparents houses to see their trees.  So far she's taken the ornaments off Chick Fil A's and our friends.  Watch out!  Kayla the destroyer!  I knew there was some logic to not putting one up.  Maybe next year...

Brother and Sister Bear

I am totally loving how the kids are starting to interact.  Kayla has been playing with Tyler for a while now but now Tyler can sort of respond, or at least be receptive. 

She hands him rings, he can generally take them (and if he doesn't she forces the issue). 

She loves to give him hugs (I hold him up, she stands up and hugs him, or gives him a bear hug if I lay him down on top of her)

At night she gives him a hug and says "nite nite.  I love you."  Which I totally love and eat up every night!

They sit in the chair together and I'll read to them, sometimes.  If we're downstairs they stare at me or the tv.

This morning when I walked into the living room, after I had set him down beside her, I saw this...



They don't look happy but they were - they were watching Dora!

She doesn't really like him playing with her toys but we're working on her sharing.  It's a long time coming, but we try. 
She tries to take care of him when he cries by giving him his pacifier or patting him on the head and saying "Okay.  Tyler.  Okay". 

If he's laying down or sitting and she comes over by him his little face lights up and he gets a big ole smile.  Such a change from the days when he would cry when she came around.  :-) 

I can tell they are going to love playing with each other.  It might take some time to get there since kids do not like to share but it'll happen.  She generally likes to have him around, understands (to the extent that a not yet 2 year old can understand) that sometimes he needs me.  Right now the names she calls him are the right ones - brother, baby, and Tyler - though I know it won't be that way forever. I know I've written about some of this before but they are getting better together and it's very cool to watch her become such a cute big sister.  I hope they become (and stay) close, protect one another, laugh with one another, share with one another.  We debated after she was born whether or not to have a second kid and I'm so glad we did.  They (I hope) are going to have so much fun!  I'm just glad I'm here to see it (instead of at work!)

Oh the Christmas Card Picture!

Every year we've been married I've made Eric take Christmas pictures with me.  Pre-kids this meant self timer pictures in front of the Christmas tree we put up on Thanksgiving.

Even if the camera wasn't straight and my husband was making a funny face...

 Or the dog wasn't really in the mood to take pictures

This one is my favorite, still.

And this marked the end to the self timer-in-front-of-the-tree picture for us, for the time being anyway, because as you can tell (or may remember) I was pregnant with Kayla at the time.

Since taking pictures with kids is hard enough we weren't about to try to do the self timer thing again... plus we wanted something slightly more professional.  So, we went to Picture People and came  home with a nice, albeit generic, Christmas picture.

We've been going to Picture People every month Kayla's first year and now every month of Tyler's first year.... along with Christmases and any time family is in town.  We go a lot!  So, you'd think Kayla would be used to this by now.  Maybe she is, maybe that's why when we went to take this years picture she was incredibly hyper, running around the store, playing with all the props, leaving the photography "room", etc.  No matter what we tried to do - entertain her, scold her, reason with her... none of it worked.  Until I finally said "fine, you go sit over there and we'll take pictures without you."  She sat for a minute, and then decided she could be in the pictures with us instead of running around.  But only by mommy.  That lasted for about 2 minutes then she was running around again.  She took another picture or two then decided she was in trouble again and put herself in timeout.  That's when we pretended to be having a ton of fun taking pictures and got this little gem of a picture. 

I know, a lot like his 4 month pic, but notice the addition of happy dad in the picture.  :-) 

Sure enough she came back a few minutes later and we convinced her to take one more picture. 

It was hard to get her to "hand me an ornament" while not actually handing it to me (and thus tearing down the tree) and look at the camera at the same time.  Fun stuff!

We didn't get the best pictures because she was so uninterested, and their props and backgrounds aren't all that exciting, but we got a few.  I think we're going to have to try the on-location photographer next time because then we can run around and have fun rather than try to reign her in and take posed pictures.  These have their place, but while you have such young kids it's not the easiest.  So, until next year, we'll stick with these.  :-)

PS - There are 2 more pics but I didn't include them because they are on our Christmas Cards this year.  I'll post them after the cards are mailed out (and received).   

Ch Ch Ch Changes

Our kids are growing up!  Did you know that?  I might be forcing it a little though.  In preparation for our trip to TX, where Kayla will need  to sleep in her own bed, not a crib or a pack and play, I thought we'd start getting her used to a bed now.  Yes, I could rent a crib in TX but we're not staying in one place the whole time so that wouldn't really work.  And, we have to move her out of it so we can move Tyler into it in a couple months anyway.  So, now's the time.  Maybe the day Daylight Savings Time ends wasn't the best night but there's never a good time so whatever.  Unfortunately, I made this decision at around 6:45pm that night when bedtime's at 8 so it was kind of a crazy night.  I entertained the kids while Eric took the front railing off Kayla's crib... but I didn't entertain for long enough because we were in her room playing while dad was still trying to get the guard rail put up.  There are no "during" pictures - too much craziness!

So, the finished product...

And the happy child...

It turns out we put that guardrail up on the wrong kind of bed, it's supposed to be put on a regular adult bed, but we're going to try it anyway.  I'm a little worried that Kayla will lean on it too hard and meet the floor rather quickly but we'll see.  We both told her multiple times not to lean on the guard rail, no pushing on it, no kicking it, don't even touch it.  Of course she can't not do any of those things it but hopefully she won't break it.  I'm going to try this for a few weeks then we'll see about taking it off.  It's on there so that she doesn't fall out right?  But it's so big that it's almost like her actual crib.  So, I want to try it without it for a couple weeks before Christmas so that when we are there and she's sleeping on a blow up mattress by herself, she's used to it and we aren't dealing with repeatedly putting her back in bed every night we're there.  I'm sure it will still happen but to a lesser degree.  And, so far so good because even though there is a little opening on the side so she can get in and out by herself, she hasn't yet.  In the morning and after naps I go in there to find her quietly "reading" on the right side of the bed - that's always been her little spot (to sit and "read" not to sleep - she sleeps all over the bed, in all kinds of directions). 
In related news... we moved to Tyler to the pack and play about two weeks ago.  He was hitting his head a lot in his sleep and waking himself up.  We were using the padding that Christine made for it on 3 sides but if we used it on all 4 there wouldn't be much more room left for Tyler.  So, at 11pm one night after he had woken himself up 3 times since 8pm we made the switch.  And you know what, he generally only wakes up once a night now.  Well, 2 but I give him his pacifier the first time and then feed him the 2nd time.  But it's better than every couple of hours.  I don't love the pack and play - it's slanted so he only sleeps on one side of it - but it's temporary.  It depends on how this bedding situation goes with Kayla, and how long Tyler continues to need to eat in the middle of the night.  As soon as he's sleeping better (through the night), and we're comfortable with Kayla in her own bed, we'll move him to the crib and they'll be sharing a room.  And that, my friends, is a whole other blog post. 

GOODNIGHT!

We're In!

Well, we spent most of the week painting and moving over a few boxes here and there but today the movers came and moved all the big, heavy, awkward stuff. And we're glad they were the ones doing it - it was, officially, 108 today in sunny So Cal! So, now we have the master bedroom painted and put together, the guest bedroom painted, the guest bath put together, and we will have the office painted in the next couple of days. Everything else is a mess but we've got some time to sort through everything and put it together. No rush. I put some pics up here that go through basically everything in the last week or so in short form. Enjoy!



If you want to go to the web album to see the pics, click on the picture below.

Moving Week

Pink Paint, Primer, and Painted Outlets

Can you sue people for 1) painting outrageous colors in bedrooms and/or 2) painting over every single outlet, wall switch, and air vent in those outrageous colors? If you could we would do it. We knew, when we bought the condo, that one room was bright pink and the other a bright blue. What we didn't pay attention to was the outlets that were also painted and just how much primer you would need to cover the pink. It took us 3 coats of primer to cover this stuff up! And, we still have the trim and the shelf to cover! The primer better hold out - we definitely need it. And we spent way too much time with tiny flat head screwdrivers trying to peel the paint off the outlets (not the covers - the thing you actually stick the plug in) and light switches. After the pink room I pretty much gave up - we'll just replace them all - it can't be that hard!

What a strange feeling

So, last night around 9pm we walked into our very own condo. I, of course, made sure we got pictures of everything. (You can pause it if you need time to see or read - just move your mouse over the picture and a toolbar will pop up at the bottom.
After we looked around in all the empty rooms, which we would soon fill with our life, we sat down in the middle of the living room with a couple glasses of champagne and just took it all in. It feels so strange. I wasn't expecting it to feel different b/c it's a condo that, in all realities, is the same thing that we live in now - a 2 story, multi-bedroom, 1000+ sq foot place with a patio, 2 car attached garage, and washer dryer hook-ups. But this is so much more than that simply because it's ours. It does feel different - rewarding, exciting, new. Filled with promise. If we don't like something - we can change it. If we picked the wrong colors of paint (which we picked up before we went over to the house) we can't paint over it. If we want to tear down a wall (which is always a possibility in the small master bathroom) we can. That's just crazy. It really is an indescribable feeling - you may know what I'm talking about - many of our friends and family already own a home. But at that moment I was at a loss for words (I know, you're thinking "how can that be...and will it ever happen again?" Amazing right.)

So, now, instead of dreading actually packing and moving everything - we are looking forward to it - anxious to get into our new place and start anew. Wish us luck!

Now, if you couldn't see the pictures very well before you can click on the picture below and it'll take you to the online album.

Our first night in the new condo

WE'RE HOMEOWNERS!

It’s done! As of today at 2:15 we are the owners of a 3 bedroom, 1300 sq foot condo in Rancho Cucamonga!

Yes – our first place will be in Rancho Cucamonga. What a name! Anyway – we are excited. We hope to get the keys on Sunday so we have a few days to hang out in the place – start painting and generally get a feel for it before we move on the 31st! Exciting stuff I tell ya.

Big day today!

Well, let's see... what did I do today. I got up, took the train to work, went to lunch with friends (greek food - I love gyros!), left work early, and SIGNED OUR LIFE AWAY! Just kidding - well, sorta - we signed ESCROW PAPERS!
We signed a little early b/c we have a million other things to do to get ready for the move. It wasn't what I was expecting. I'm thinking - this third party is in charge of getting all the money, all the documents, all the signatures, etc so they should have a nice office, professional staff, free water, etc. Nope! The girl at the front, and I do mean girl, was wearing a t-shirt and jeans. The woman who walked us through all the paperwork was also wearing jeans, but less on top - a spagetti strap tank top that showed off her not exactly real, shall we say, assets. When I asked if I could go to the restroom she said "do you want to go to the potty?" Who calls it that? Maybe she has kids and that's what she's used to but it threw me off guard. And the restroom, while we're on that subject, smelled like powder. In the general scheme of things this is a good smell, but it clogged up my nose and made me feel like I was suffocating. You know that feelings? Well, I do and I hate it.

Anyway, all in all it went well. Our sellers paid for all the closing costs so all we had to pay was our down payment so that's always nice. Now, we just have to wait another 10 days till we can get the keys. We've got a lot of stuff to do. We've packed 2 large boxes and three small ones. We're on the way - but I'm not in a hurry. Things will get done.

We've started to pick out paint colors for the master bedroom. For now that's all we'll be painting and only b/c the furniture is really heavy so it'd be easier to paint before we get it all in there. We'll also probably be putting at least primer over the hot pink and hot blue walls in the 2 other bedrooms. Even I have a hard time staying in there for long.

So, so far so good. Not a whole lot else going on - this kinda takes up all your time and thought processes. I'm trying to convince Eric to have a housewarming. He's still not on board but in the next few months maybe I can work on him.

Time for bed - today was a big day and I need my beauty rest. Adios amigos.

It's been a while

Well, we are 2 weeks away from closing escrow. We have our walk through this coming Monday. Kinda crazy. It's definitely been a frustrating process but hopefully it'll all be worth it. Now we just have to start packing! Oh geez. 3 weeks to pack - the movers are coming on the 31st so we have some extra time. Maybe this time we will actually unpack correctly and put things exactly where we want them rather than just trying to get boxes unload. Course, we still have boxes packed from our move to this apartment over a year ago.

I can't wait to paint - that's one of my priorities. The other is getting rid of the mirrored closet doors. I'm sure they have their purpose but I'm sick of them so I want to replace them with wood sliding doors. Something must be done.

Anyway - the point is - it's ours and we can make it what we want. I'm so glad that we are finally taking this step. It's been on our minds for over 2 years and now we're finally taking the step -making the leap is more like it. I'm sure it'll be hard but it'll be a place we can call our own. I'm excited - and ready! Just let us in!!!!

Home Inspection

Well, folks, the inspection went okay. There are some safety issues - the garage door installation, piping in the vent above the stove, the fireplace, but these are all things the seller should pay for. If he won't fix them, or give us a credit to fix them, then we can still walk away from the house. The A/C is out - probably just needs freon but it is very old - about 25 years, as is the water heater. While we were there we were able to talk to the sellers and look around some more. I got to take these pictures too while we were there. Pictures. The sellers seem nice enough. The wife is 15 weeks pregnant and the husband has 3 kids from a previous marriage. There is definitely work to be done in the place - nothing major but redoing the sinks, re-tiling the kitchen counters (though Eric would really like granite), and getting rid of the mirrored closet doors! But, as long as we go slow we can manage all this stuff. It'll just take time.

Now, we're reviewing the CC&R's, or will when we get them, and we read through the disclosures today. Looks like the sellers will use the entire 60 days, which I'm fine with. That puts escrow on August 24th. That gives us plenty of time to get packed up, and time to get the new place cleaned before we have to be out of this apartment. I'll post the real escrow date as soon as I know it. It's kinda good to be done looking - it was a really intense period looking at everything and being disappointed - but we can see ourselves making this condo our own and enjoying it so hopefully everything works out! Check back soon...

Negotiations!

Well, we put in our offer last week and heard back from the listing agent yesterday afternoon. The sellers are not willing to pay any closing costs but they are willing to come down $2500 on the listing price. We can't really understand why they won't pay closing costs but I had a feeling they weren't going to want to negotiate too much b/c the house has only been on the market for 2 weeks - they probably think they can get more for it. Little does he know that houses and condos are sitting on the market for weeks. We didn't want to go back and forth with the sellers so we just told Anne we wouldn't accept their offer. At this point we had also discussed not buying a house just yet - you know how we go back and forth on things - that maybe we should pay off the private student loan and look again at the end of the year. We told Anne this as well and within minutes she had called the listing agent and we were working on a new deal.

On Monday, the 18th, I got notified of another condo in the same place that's for sale for 20k less b/c it's a foreclosure. We debated on this one for a couple days as well but for only 10k difference in the cost of the loan (b/c foreclosures won't pay any of your closing costs) we decided not to put an offer in on the foreclosure. It was going to cost much more than 10k to bring it up to the place the other one is at. Though, that kind of enticed us, but the more we learned about the foreclosure and the situation the seller was in, the less we wanted to get ourselves involved. Not as first time home buyers - maybe later in life. So, we put in a counteroffer for 360 and $7500 in closing costs.

It all worked out, b/c today around noon we were notified that the sellers accepted our counter offer and escrow is officially opened. We gave them a 60 day escrow or sooner b/c they were just starting to look for a house. And as month to month renters we have some flexibility.

So, now, the inspection is this weekend. Keep your fingers crossed!

House Hunting Summary

Okay, so I wanted to post to this regularly but I kinda forgot it was here. So, I'll catch you up briefly on the condo hunt. Throughout the end of may and June we saw about 30 condos and about 5 houses. The condos all start to look the same after a while so we were looking at the layout, the complex, and how much work we'd need to do. There were several that had potential. We really wrestled over a condo back in Pomona on Towne - close to where we lived when we first moved here. That was a 3 bedroom 1400 sq foot place but they wanted more than we wanted to spend at the time and they weren't willing to negotiate. But, it was completely redone, painted, new windows and doors - really very nice. But they weren't willing to negotiate and it was still early in the shopping process.

We saw condos and complexes we hated - ones that were all green, ones where the neighbors were fighting right next door, ones that backed up against the freeway. We also saw some that were 1/2 redone, dirty, and torn apart. We saw one house that had everything stripped, the floor, the toilet, the plumbing, the electrical - they even took the kitchen sink. Condos that had shared garages, houses that were redone but with very small bedrooms, etc.

Complexes too sometimes needed work - dead trees everywhere, shotty repair work on the roofs, loud teenagers running in the streets.

But, there were good ones too - or at least good parts to them. One had a really small kitchen but it made good use of the space with cabinets with lazy susans, or pull out shelves. We found a lot of things we liked in various condos we saw. Super soft carpeting. Hanging lights or recessed lights. Whole house fans. Colored trims. Granite counter tops in the kitchen. Wainscoting in the dining room. French doors to the patio. Balconies. Spa bathtubs. Large pantries. Fireplaces that face the living room and the dining room. Bay windows. There just wasn't one that had it all. There was one house that we loved but it was simply too expensive. It was roomy, was painted, new windows, doors, really nice neighborhood, lots of closet space - but it was over 50k out of our price range. Another one, earlier in the process, the one that was redone but had small bedrooms and a gigantic backyard - i wanted to bid low on that one but by the time we found out about it offers had already been put down on it and for more than the asking price.

But on June 8th, after looking for several days a week for a month, we found one that would work. It's a 3 bedroom, 1300 sq foot condo in Rancho Cucamonga. I was very excited when I walked in, and as I walked through it. Big kitchen, decent size rooms, large master bedroom, two patios, really nice complex. After debating the evening after we saw it we decided to put an offer in on it. So, tonight we're putting an offer in on it! We're asking for 5k off the asking price and closing costs not to exceed $7500. We'll see!

Searching for a home - day 1

Okay, yesterday we pulled up a ton of homes online, mapped them all out, and went to see the area. We must have ruled out 20 places just b/c of their distance or the area they were in. There were also two houses we saw, one close to where we live now and one on the other side of the 15 which we ruled out. Oh, there was another one but it was in pretty bad shape.

So, today, we met with our realtor. We were going there just to meet her and decide if we wanted to hire her but she had already started pulling places we could visit, made contacts with the selling agents, and planned to take us out. So, we went. We discussed with her what we needed, what we wanted, and our time limitations, but then we went to several condos. We liked one a lot - Bayberry - it was beautifully staged, big back patio, corner unit, really very cute. Oh, and it had a hot tub in the back. While we were in there a neighbor came by - she had just put her place on the market and wanted us to look at it. Hers was laid out differently and would have been fine if it didn't back up against the street. She had done some cute stuff - like use shutters between den turned bedroom and the staircase. But, there was only bathroom upstairs and it was hard to get to. Oh well, better luck next time.