Purging...

I've wanted to move out of our subdivision for a while now, but we have a great house and Mark said it didn't make sense financially for us to move when I've brought it up in the past.  His other sentiment was that we should have rented if I wanted to keep moving every 4-5 years.  I'm guilty of that for sure.  It's been five years to the month so it would only seem right that we are actively trying to acquire a farm.  ;)

We put in an offer on the place with the magnificent barn I posted last month to be denied due to the fact that we wanted more land (which the sellers had plenty of to sell), but they didn't want to let the land go for what our research said was the going rate in our county.  On to Locust Grove Farm...

We looked at another property with a darling, but tiny federal style colonial farm house on 8 acres.  It was absolutely charming, and we made an offer, but it was also denied.  The property was only on the market one week and the flooring in the house needed to be refinished or completely ripped out. Think lots of cats.  The sellers were unwilling to budge in price and so were we.  On to plan C...

We walked a 10 acre lot this week and we have a meeting with a builder scheduled to see if the property and our home/farm plans can become a reality.  We all put our hiking boots on and plodded along thorn covered paths to walk the perimeter of this land.  It was quite the adventure with all five kids in tow!  Ellie rode on my back and Nash has a fear of thorns (which were plentiful), but once we got to the back of the lot where the land slopes to a beautiful creek, we were all sold.  Well, we have to see if the numbers jive, so we aren't counting our chickens yet.  

We aren't packing yet either, but we have been purging like crazy.  Mark has loaded up our minivan 3 times and taken huge loads to St. Vincent De Paul to donate.  I could have had a crazy profitable yard sale, but it's winter and Lent, and donating our goods is doing our part to help those in need...a corporal work of mercy.

We've also had my dad over painting the kids' bathrooms and touching up here and there in preparation of putting our house on the market.  We are still a week away from starting our master bath remodel which I can't wait to have under our belt. We still have to get our quartz counter top and sinks, but hopefully that should all be remedied this week.

As a Christmas gift from Mark's parents, we had two fun filled days at the Great Wolf Lodge to pass the dull days of February.  The GWL is five minutes from our house so Ellie and I hung out at the water park and had dinner with everyone, but then went home to sleep.  It was the best plan and I think Ellie and I had a much better sleep than Mark and the other kids.  It is a wonderful place for kids and you'd never know that the weather outside is frightful when you're hanging in the 87 degree indoor pool area.  The kids went non-stop and had a ball!

Ellie's still doing visits with her dad on Mondays and nothing new has happened.  According to one worker, much like the first visit, he still just follows her around during the visit and doesn't say much. I did hear that he currently lives in a one bedroom apartment with a new girlfriend (not any of his previous baby's mamas).   I got his last name from Ellie's attorney and looked him up on FB because I  knew he had an open page from the previous social worker.  There was nothing too offensive or too impressive on there and I can check that off my bucket list.  I really only looked at it once.  I'm staying out of this and letting the Lord work this out.  The clock it ticking for him though and if he's going to make his move, it's going to have to be soon.

Ellie is  so darling and so busy these days.  She loves cats, getting into the cabinets, playing outside, reading books and is taking one nap a day.  Sometimes I put her to bed by 6:30 and she'll sleep in until after 8 AM the next day.  She likes to pour her drink all over and then splash in it and speaking of splashing, she can be quite a handful in the bath. She says "get down" and plenty of other words too, but she doesn't say "yes" and instead, she nods her head and shakes her whole body while grunting.  It's hilarious. Also, hats off to my mom whom taught Ellie to go down the stairs "feet first".  This has been an awesome, helpful new development.  At 19 months, Ellie is beginning to figure out how to climb up on things which adds a whole new level of excitement.  :)

Speaking of my mom, she was inquiring about the emotional toll of still not knowing if Ellie's staying or going on us and another friend that fosters said it best when she described how she just shuts that part off and keeps on going.  That is so accurate.  It's my constant prayer that Ellie gets to stay, but multiple times a day I send up a silent, spontaneous prayer/plea that usually just goes "Lord, please let her stay."  The kids are doing well with the extended waiting, but Nash has said that he hates baby gates.  Who doesn't?  I don't like baby gates or winter, so there!

Most of the pictures I've taken this month came by way of my iPhone.  I was so busy getting rid of stuff, schooling and all that jazz to break out the camera.  I did dust it off this past weekend for Nash's 5th birthday party/lunch.  Our baby is 5!!  

Here are the pictures from the month...

 The land we may purchase has a few cows bordering the property.  This one was friendly and kept following us as we walked the fence line.  That's Stella being brave and petting it.

 It's a toddler...in a basket. Ellie climbs in bins, baskets and our media cabinet drawers whenever the mood strikes. She's "fun size" so she can do that.

 I was looking for something in Stella's room one day recently and I saw how she set up these little dogs Brooke handed on to her.  Kids do the cutest things.

 This was Farm #2 we tried to buy.  Did you know that the light fixture hanging over the table is valued at $350?  The essay the home owner put together for potential buyers was ridiculous.  She also "imported" the hitching post out front from some historic something somewhere in Ohio which by her estimation made her farm worth zillions.  Sense the sarcasm?  The farm went pending over the weekend so someone with money is going to tear that place apart, $350 light fixture and all.  ;)

The Great Wolf Lodge!  I planned on taking lots of pictures, but as it turns out I couldn't chase a toddler around and keep my camera dry.

Thankfully, Mark took these pictures with his phone or we wouldn't have many at all.




The room was really cool!

And very spacious!

 In Ellie's room at home there is a  twin bed in addition to her crib.  We like to lay on it and sometimes Ellie likes to pretend that she's a big girl and lay in it too.

 Ellie riding the American Girl Doll bike in the basement.

 Luke got Ellie out of bed one morning and put her in this little chair with her blanket.  Her hair is a hot mess when she gets out of bed, but then again, so is mine!

 I hate it when I forget to lock the cabinets!

Nash getting re-steri stripped after he bumped his head one Sunday night and it started bleeding again.  Thankfully, my nephew was over and he kept his cool, because I was not.  It was fine and now it's healing pretty well.  Everyday I put Immortelle essential oil on it and sunscreen to hopefully reduce the scarring.  

 A few Sundays in row it was nice weather so I invited my mom to go hiking with the kids and I at a local nature center where we are members.  It's been muddy, but the kids got new hiking boots from Mark's parents for Christmas so they were pumped to get to use them.

I want our bathroom to be a little "blingy" so I found these fancy mirrors at Home Goods to go with the chandelier that's going over the bath tub.  Oh, yeah.

Ellie strikes again!

 We got a little snow this month and I'm hoping it's the last.  I'm ready to move on to spring.

 One small pile of donations...

 Building furniture for the fort.

 Oh, how we love our Nashy Boy!  He is a fun kid.

 Mark's family sings multiple verse of Happy Birthday and Nash blew the candle out premature, so Mark just lit it again.

 Ellie was climbing all over Nash and his presents so Nash took matters into his own hands and moved her.

Mark's sister bought Nash a really cool bubble machine which Mark took upstairs to the catwalk to test out.  My nephew Jamie, who got a new really awesome job last week, must have taken this picture because I was upstairs showing the "before" of our master bathroom and Mark was busy blowing the bubbles.

Mark took Brooke, Stella and Nash to the circus with his dad and I stayed home with a puking Luke and Ellie.  Poor thing has been laid up all day and not only did he miss the circus, but he will likely not get to play lazer tag tomorrow with the FNE group or keep his orthodontist appointment.  Such is the start to another busy, busy week!

See you back here next time!

xoxo,
Katie