Decisions, decisions

The last couple of weeks have been stressful. As I mentioned before, we found a house we really liked and was move in ready. We went ahead and tried to negotiate for that house and the seller would not budge. The seller and her husband built it only 3 years ago as their dream home. They are now divorced and need to sell it. However, she was expecting us to pay new construction price for the house. The comps don't support that.

Our second choice home sold the day after we looked at it so we moved on to our third choice. That house was nice but we had a list of projects we would want to do to it. But overall we liked the neighborhood and potential of the house. That house was also on sale due to divorce and the seller was trying to get more money out of it than the comps supported, AGAIN!

We weren't willing to give up school district so that limited our options. So, after getting frustrated with both sellers we decided that if we were going to pay new construction price for a house we'll build it the way we want. As of last night was are now building our house. We are so excited and can't wait to work with our amazing builder, Jim O'Neal. Jim O'Neal actually built the house we originally wanted and our floor plan is very similar to it. The down side is that we will have to rent for a couple of months since it obviously won't be done by the time we need move. We know that the inconvenience of moving twice will be worth it. We feel good about our decision and can't wait to post pictures of the progress on our home!

Sasha's 7!

Sasha turned 7 this weekend. Carter was so excited for Sasha's birthday this year. He wanted us to celebrate with an ice cream cake and get her a special treat. Whenever he would talk about it he would whisper so Sasha wouldn't hear us planning it. :)

The birthday princess :) She always pouts when we try to put a hat or anything else on her.

Dairy Queen had a few Valentine's cakes left for 50% off so that's what we got her. Yummy and cheap :) Carter put 7 candles on the cake and Sasha sat next to the counter while the kids sang to her.

The kids favorite part-blowing out the candles

We took the kids to the pet store and they both got to pick out a treat for Sasha. Carter picked out a double meat stuffed dingo bone. Sasha's favorite :) Yes, even the dog is spoiled on her birthday in this house.

V-day happenings

Valentine's Day was a busy day. Here are some pics of our eventful day

After dropping Carter off at school Audrey and I headed to ballet. Her teacher had cute valentine cupcakes set out on the tables for all the girls after their class. It was so cute to see all of them come running out of the studio and seeing their special treat.

After ballet we went to Carter's class party. One of the kids gave everyone these mustaches and the moms thought it would be fun to get a picture of all of them wearing them. So funny!The kids got to decorate 2 cupcakes. One they got to eat. The other they boxed up to give to someone they love. Carter gave his to Chuck since I saw him make it.Showing me his master pieces.

After school the kids and I headed to the doctor. I had my first trimester screening with the maternal fetal medicine doctor. The kids enjoyed seeing the baby on the big screen (they have big flat screen tvs on the wall that the ultrasound is shown on). Audrey thought it was funny they put blue jelly on my belly. The baby passed the screening and we are on track for a healthy baby #3 :) Crazy how just a couple of weeks ago he/she looked like a gummy bear and this time you can see the arms, legs and hands. Love it!

Signed, sealed, delivered

The job search turned out to be a bigger more stressful process than anticipated. But we survived and are looking forward to the future. The end of last month we had our last and final interview and we knew where we were going since then. We were just waiting until the offer letter was signed to share it with everyone. As of Monday it's official. We are moving to Peoria, IL where Chuck will be the head of minimally invasive pediatric surgery!

We are so excited to put the training years past us and move onto bigger and better things. Yes, Peoria wasn't initially where we thought we would end up. All the other jobs weren't the right fit. We agreed from the beginning of the search we needed to find the right overall fit (job, city, school system , etc). Surprisingly, Peoria fit what we were looking for. Plus, we will only be 3.5 hours away from Milwaukee now! The group of surgeons that are there now are very excited to have Chuck join the group. Everyone we got to meet were so nice and welcoming.

We already found a house that we love and hope to put our initial offer on it by next week. It's in the Dunlap school system which is what we wanted for the kids. There are tons of soccer clubs for Carter and I already found a ballet studio for Audrey. Due to baby A3, the kids and I will probably go ahead and move beginning of June. That way we'll have more time to get settled into the new house and find a new doctor, etc. Chuck finishes the very end of June and will move after his graduation dinner. I will of course fly back down for his graduation.

We're excited and counting down our remaining time left here in Birmingham.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day!!

I

Love

You

Love, Carter, Audrey and Sasha

Exciting news!

It's been pointed out to me that I haven't been doing as good of a job keeping up with the blog lately. I know I've been slacking but it's been busy. Chuck and I were out of town on our last and final interview. Since then we've been busy getting the house ready to put on the market. We will be on the market possibly by tomorrow! When that sign goes up it'll feel so real that we are finally moving.

As if putting this house up for sale, finding a new house and moving to the Midwest isn't enough to keep us busy...we are expecting baby #3!!! We are thrilled to be having another baby and the kids are already excited as well. My technical due date is Sept. 1st but we are going to induce a week early again to control my crazy fast delivery.
Here's our little baby at 8 weeks (I'm 11 weeks now). I could hear and see the heart beating already! Carter wants a brother and Audrey continues to change her mind. When Carter gives me a good night kiss he then kisses my belly and says, "Good night cute little baby in there." Audrey keeps telling me she's not the baby anymore. She's a big girl now and the baby is in my tummy. Makes me so happy that this baby has a wonderful big sister and big brother.