He's Baaaack!

Our Elf on the Shelf is back!  Last year Santa sent us an elf to watch over Kayla to make sure she is being good.  We named him Jasper.  Jasper returned to our house this year shortly after Thanksgiving.  He has been hiding all over this year and causing quite the mess at times.  Kayla loves him and can't wait to get up in the mornings to see where he is hiding.  Jasper's time is almost done. After Christmas he returns to the North Pole.  I must say we are going to miss him.  He kind of becomes a part of the family in a way.  He also is the best discipline tool ever!  If Kayla is being naughty I just say, "Kayla I'm going to tell Jasper you are being bad" and she instantly says SORRY! DON'T TELL HIM, I WILL BE GOOD.  I may have to leave him out all year if saying those few words gets her to behave real fast! :-) 

 

 

 

 

 

Our New House

We have been looking for a house for about 2 years now.  It's been a very long, stressful and disappointing journey.  We put our house on the market last year towards the end of my pregnancy and had tons of people come and look at it.  Being pregnant, sick, and having the worst cold I've ever had in my entire life for 2 months straight I was beyond exhausted.  All I wanted to do after work was come home and just lay on the couch.  Instead Scott would do some quick cleaning, and we would pack up my big belly, 2 year old, and cat, along with other stuff and go drive around and eat our dinner in the car in hopes that the person looking at our house would soon put in an offer.  I think we had over 12 people come in less than 4 weeks.  Consider all of the foreclosers on our street, no one seemed to be interested when they could get basically the same house for half the price.  We took it off the market right before I had Rylan.  I wasn't about to try to keep a spotless house and pack up a newborn at the drop of a hat for showings.  We made the decision to keep our house we are living in and are going to rent it out.  Our next move was now to just find a house to buy and raise our family in.  We knew we wanted to move to Norwalk and wanted a ranch house.  Simple right? No!  There has been NOTHING in Norwalk to buy, and we weren't going to settle for a house we kind of liked.  So, as hard as it has been waiting and looking at listings everyday...we waited...and waited.  Then we found one and called our realtor instantly to go look at it.  It was perfect! We loved it and since houses are few and far between in Norwalk we decided to put in an offer right away!  To our disappointment we found out someone had beat us to it literally hours before.  I felt like someone just ripped my dreams right out of me.  About 6 more months of still looking for that next house to pop up for sale we finally found one.  A local builder had listed a house for sale with "similar to photo" pictures and we loved it even better than the first one.  They had the exact house built in Clive so we went and looked at that one to see what it would look like when it's built.  It will have 5 bedrooms, 3 baths, 3 car garage and wet bar in the basement.  What more could you ask for?!?  We put an offer on the house end of Oct and they accepted!  The best part is since they hadn't started building yet they held off and let us pick out all the "cosmetic" stuff.  They have started building now and are moving fast.  We are so anxious to move and finally have more room for the kids to play and live in a better neighborhood.  It's been quite the rollercoaster ride, and I don't think I will really relax until we are actually in the house. Here are some pics of what they have done in just a week. We will keep you updated :)  Wish us luck!

 





Sure to make you smile :)



It's been so long since I posted many pics, so here are some that I hope make up for it:-)

 

 

 

 

 

 

School of Fish

Grandma Smith purchased a fish in support of the Blank Park Zoo.  Anyone that buys one can have their name put on a fish plaque and is put on a wall that leads to underwater viewing of the sea lions.  So if you are ever at the zoo in Des Moines, see if you can find our plaque in the school of fish!

 

Thanks Grandma!

 

 

 

 

Thanksgiving

 

We had a great Thanksgiving.  It was so nice out that day and the kids had so much fun riding 4 wheelers and playing together.  We met Aunt Karen's new kitty Minnie,  she is sooo adorable! 

 



Ally and Kayla helped me make turkey cookies.

 

Rylan didn't want his baby food, he liked Andy's potatoes and gravy much better.  (I can't say I blame him)