Anticipation

We've been waiting a long time for our first home. We've been very blessed to find great houses in Phoenix and LA to rent, and I cannot begin to articulate the miracle it's been to live in my in-laws house while our family's grown and the markets crashed over the past three years. That being said though, I AM SO READY TO GET OUR FIRST HOME! It's finally the right time for us to buy and we think we've found the right house for us, unfortunately, it's a short sale. We've had an offer on this house for over 6 weeks now and haven't heard much from the bank. Bud is so annoyed with how obsessed I am and keeps encouraging me to channel my anxiety into something more productive than talking about it 24/7 and watching every real-estate show on TLC and HGTV, but it's killing me not to know. The worst part is it could be late March/early April before we hear anything. I keep telling myself, I've waited 10 years for this, I can wait 2 more months, but there's something about being so close and yet so far that is just so frustrating. So, Mr. Bank - please find it in your heart to get back to us soon with good news.

I'd love to have this house, but I do know we'll end up where we're supposed to be and we'll be taken care of like we always have been. I just really like this one. : )

Happy Birthday Elle!

Yesterday was Elle's 3rd birthday. We had a great family dinner and party for her. The highlight was her cake. Let me preface this by mentioning the great cake disaster of 07'. See, I have this small desire to be a great cake decorator like the guys you see on Ace of Cakes, or even like my good friend, Courtney. For Elle's 1st birthday I got this bright idea to make an ABC block cake. Well, it didn't turn out so well and I ended up freaking out and sending Bud to Costco to buy something 5 minutes before her little party began. Here's a pic of the attempt, and no, we hadn't eaten the cake yet. I couldn't even get it frosted without it crumbling like this:

It's taken me a couple years to want to try again, but while looking at cakes on Family Fun, Elle and I came across this Princess Castle cake and she got really excited and so I tried again. Things turned out much better this year, thank goodness or Bud would've ended up breaking the sabbath to get me another cake.


We also had a great Valentine's Day on Saturday. We "heart-attacked" the kids again this year. Jake and Jo got red, green and white hearts for their Mario and Luigi obsession. They all looked so cute, but unfortunately, they didn't get to see much of it because all four kids woke up in the middle of the night and three of them ended up sleeping in our room! Ugh. Also, my camera battery died and I cannot find the charger, thus the crappy pictures from Bud's phone, sorry.
Bud and I agreed not to do anything this year except a card, but the jerk had a dozen roses delivered to me Saturday afternoon. I'm obviously joking about the jerk thing, but I did go to See's Candy last minute and get him his favorites so he couldn't one-up me. The flowers were the most beautiful I had ever seen though and I love em!

Misery Loves Company

It's been way too long since I last posted, although that last post is pretty tough to top. The last few weeks were great, and I'll post more about them when I get some pics. Quick recap though: Elle potty trained quickly and successfully (no pics of this - you're welcome)! I cannot tell you how wonderful it is to have only one child in diapers with no "possibilities" of another one right around the corner. If you think about it, I've only had a three month break with no one in diapers for the past 6.5 years! Sorry planet, we're definitely not doing our share to help in that sense.
We also got to go to Chicago for 6 days for Carol's 60th birthday. Almost the entire family was there and it was a terrific time with great food, on-time flights and cooperative weather! We are so happy that the next time we see Will and Carol, it will be here!

Now, to the reason for the post title. We've got four sick kids home today as well as two parents with head colds. Lots of fun. The twins have pink eye and the girls have nasty coughs and borderline ear infections. Let's just hope the boys and girls don't swap illnesses. Oh well, it is what it is, and it makes me all that more grateful for the 90% of the time we're all pretty healthy.