Big news!

Well, in the world of babies, it's big news...lol. Today is a special day. Not only is it Matt's 32nd birthday, but Emily also got her first tooth today! Her bottom right tooth came in. I could feel it for a while (when she lets me), and the last couple of days she has been VERY fussy, so I knew it was soon. Today she was back to her good spirits again, so I checked and there it was broken through. Yay!

Also, yesterday my big girl used the jumparoo for the first time. She's still a little short for it, but she got it bouncing. She is going to love it even more when she grows into it.

She is also rolling all over the place, reaching for things, making adorable faces and sounds.

Also, after seeing her next to her baby cousin, Ben, I could see how big she has gotten already. He was 6 lbs, 5 oz...not much smaller than she was at birth, and he looked and felt sooo tiny in comparison. She also doesn't look quite as tiny next to Ashley anymore when they're playing together.

Speaking of Ashley, she has been cracking me up lately.

For the last couple of weeks she has been going around saying "too loud, too loud" to noisy objects. It's so funny. When Lisa was here, she was vacuuming (with a somewhat quiet vacuum), and Ashley kept saying "too loud grand mom". Haha.

She is also getting quite good at mastering my phone, and likes to take it and play games with numbers, shapes, matching, etc. She does quite well.

She also looks at pictures of our new house and says "Ashley's house"...so maybe she understands a little? But then on the flip side she talks about going over to Katie and Eli's house a lot which makes makes me a little sad.

She's also been funny about associating things. A few weeks back I taught her that mommy's name was Lisa, and daddy's name was Matt. Well lately since we've been staying here, she's heard a lot of people call daddy "Matt", so she started calling him Matt, or Matt daddy. Lol.

The other cute thing is that we try to teach her different things. For instance, we were having lunch one day a few weeks ago, and I explained to her that milk came from cows. So now she's always asking for "cows milk".

She also remembered that we had birthday cake for grandpop last week, so when I told her that today was daddy's birthday, she kept talking about birthday cake. She even drew a picture of "daddy's birthday cake" on the back of his card :)

All in all the girls are doing great. I am so glad Emily's tooth came through since it was a little rough for all of us. Ashley has also been slightly more mischievous being at grandmom and grandpops house. Lisa has been super accommodating to us--she emptied out closets so we could settle in a little, she set up a toy section and diaper changing station, baby proofed outlets, etc...but there are still plenty of new and exciting things that Ashley keeps trying to get into. But we're making do.

Well on that note, miss Emily is demanding my attention so I better run.

Here are a few pics of baby cousin Ben.

Another quick one...

So another quick update...

Well, it's been exactly a week since we moved (started this on Sat). Feels like a lifetime ago....

Moving day was definitely bittersweet. We had movers come in the morning. I first went over to Beth's for one last coffee chat while Ashley played with Eve and Ana....We said our goodbyes...was hard as I held Beth as she and I cried...then I took Ashley and Emily to Monkey Joes bounce house for one last fun get together with the Wagner's and the Heatley's while Matt and Scott helped load with the movers. When we got back, they still had a little loading to do (Matt ended up needing to get a trailer because we ran out of room). Our friends came back to the house, along with Scott and Leann Barnes, and Peter Pistolis. They kept an eye on the kids/helped pack up while Matt and I cleaned and packed everything up. The kids were having fun running around from room to room, hiding in closets and having so much fun. While loading up our cars, it was nice to see our dear friends there with us till the end...It was really hard saying goodbye to our neighbors and friends.

After everyone had left and everything was loaded to go, Matt and I took one last trip around our house. I cried just as I knew I would...

We ran by and dropped something off at Beth and Peter's, said our last goodbyes, and watched as the four of them waved goodbye to us...

The trip up went well actually. Since we were taking up both the car and truck (and trailer), we had to drive separately. Matt had Ashley with him, and Emily rode with me. It turned out nice. Emily was tired out from all the commotion, so she slept a majority of the trip. It gave me some real peaceful quiet time to reflect on everything I was feeling, listen to some music, and call some friends I hadn't chatted with in a while. I actually loved it, haven't had that much quiet time in 2 years. Haha.

We stopped overnight, then finished up the remaining long day on Sunday. I again had Emily, then I took Ashley for the last two hours as well while Matt went and dropped off the trailers belongings at the Pocono house. I got to Lisa and Bruce's at about 7...had dinner with Lisa and Lauren, then started getting girls ready for bed since it was late.

Matt returned home with Bruce and Andrew. Since it was Mother's Day, they brought home some yummy dessert. We were really broke with the major cost of the move, but I was impressed that Matt even had time to get me Mother's Day cards with everything going on.

Since then it's been pretty hectic. We immediately started more house shopping the day after we got here. We looked at another 10-15 homes, which makes the total number of homes we've seen somewhere between 60-65....Crazy! We actually found a house! Halleluliah!

We found the house. As we expected, it's somewhat of a fixer upper....needs new kitchen, new flooring, and some of the rooms are tight. But all in all it's a "clean" house without lots of projects needed, it has the most of what we are looking for, it's the location we want, etc. We first put in the offer and kept going back and forth with counter offers. We were $10,000 between prices and they didn't go down and we really couldn't go up any further. So we opted to keep looking.

We looked at others...nothing great. We went back to a different house that we had seen last time. It was a very similar layout to ours, but bigger rooms/space. It also had hideous bathrooms and kitchens, and we would have absolutely no money to put into it other than painting. We thought maybe it was still worth it since you're buying the space, and can do the updates later on when we have more money. The buyers had the price listed too high, so it's been sitting a while. We put in a lower offer (which happened to be the highest we can go), and they just scoffed at us. Apparently they want to wait until they get full asking price and aren't in a rush to sell.

So, it meant back to the drawing board. We looked at a couple others that just opened up...they were even smaller than the first house we really wanted/liked, and needed more work. So by the time we finished getting it together, it'd cost the same as the house we wanted. Another one was slightly slightly bigger, but was asking almost $50,000 more and was pretty dumpy.

So we said we could keep waiting to see what else comes up in the market (although after seeing over 60 homes, it's safe to say it'd be the same types of stuff), or we could try to go back to the first house we liked and see if they'd meet us half way....so we went up another $5000, and they agreed to meet us there! Yay!

Soooo, we are now in attorney review--as long as no one comes along and outbids us, and as long as all goes well with inspection, we have a house! I am excited. It's definitely not Greenville, and it's hard to swallow the reality of how far your money goes down there in comparison to here....Like we're losing our nice eat in kitchen, our nice spacious bathrooms, etc. Heck, we could be living in somewhat of a mansion down there for the same amount that we're paying up here for less than a house than we had in Greenville. But all in all, I like the house. It's a cape cod style. It doesn't have an eat in kitchen, but it does have a dining area that allows you to expand out when we have guests like I wanted...It has a spacious living room which I really wanted after having a tight living room in Greenville. It has four bedrooms, so we will use the 4th bedroom (that is on main living floor) as a toy room. It also has a partially finished basement that will allow us to have a room for guest room and other pieces of furniture.

It looks pretty blah in the pictures right now, but I have an "eye" to envision it afterward and it'll look real nice once I use my decorating touches.

So that has been our week....lots of running around with house shopping...getting things taken care of like setting up new pediatrician, going to DMV, all that fun stuff....

We've also been enjoying our visit with Lisa and Bruce. It's been a little tight on space since they're in a 2 bedroom condo...at first we had all four of us in one bedroom, but that was a little rough since Emily still typically gets up at night. So we actually put her in the laundry room which is big enough for her pack and play with her baby monitor. (Sorry Emily, when you read this someday when you're older). We were originally going to stay here a couple weeks, then visit my mom for a week or two, then go to the Pocono house to stay until we found/moved into a house due to the limited space. But since we found something so quickly and get in by the beginning of July, we will just squat here for an extra couple of weeks after returning back from visiting my mom. I was actually joking with our realtor Barbara and told her that we'd just forget about finding a house and live with my in-laws since we've been enjoying our visit, and also Lisa has been spoiling me by getting up with Emily a few nights so I can sleep. Lol. Just kidding though :)

Andrew and Lauren have been over to visit a couple of times, for Bruce's birthday and also just to visit and hang out. Lauren was actually induced today, and should be having a little baby boy sometime in the next few hours. Exciting!

Matt and I also went to a church over the weekend, as we are hoping to get involved in one close to our new house. Lisa and Bruce are out of town this week....I got together with my friend Cortney today, plan to see my dad soon, and another friend get together on Thurs. I am trying to get out there and see the area and hang out with people so I don't feel isolated. I've been enjoying our visit a lot, but do miss my home and familiar surroundings...weird not knowing where anything is...so figured I'd better get out there and figure it out ;)

Well that's about it for now. I will keep you posted on things.

Here are some of the "before" pictures of our house....

The outside

Living room/dining room

Kitchen...will be gutted

Ashley's future room

 Bathrooms...little tight, but what can you do??

This will be toy room

Finished basement...will be painting and carpeting...

Just a quick note...

I have a moment of silence (the first in a few days). I should be packing, but I am taking one last opportunity to sit and reflect before the move...

Tomorrow is the big day. Hard to believe it's here already. Part of me still thinks I am coming back.

We've been mega mega mega busy finishing up the packing, along with trying to cram in visits with our friends before we have to leave them.
We had a nice last dinner at our very dear friends, Matt and Christi Wagners house. We will miss them so much. They really have changed us by knowing them. Ashley will miss them to, as Eli and Katie are her best friends and she's always talking about them.
We also did dinner with our friends Laura and Tim, and hope to see them and the boys one last time tomorrow before we go.

We also have such wonderful neighbors. Teresa and Sandy brought by lunch today, so that was a nice treat. We left with tears too--Sandy lost her only son a few years back, and at the time I wrote her a few notes and shared some poems I had read about losing a child with her. She broke down crying saying how I am such a kind wonderful person whose words left a lasting impression on her. That meant so much to me to hear, and needless to say we were all choked up.

It's amazing how God uses people to impact lives--I am happy to know I have touched some lives and made imprints in hearts, just as I have been touched and changed. I am so grateful for our time here.

Well...on to packing....and on to our next step in the journey.

I will miss you Greenville, and all the wonderful friends we've made along the way. Love you all!!!