Getting settled...

We are completely moved into our new house and we love it. Absolutely love it! I still wake up and wonder why God chose to spoil us with such a great home!

We moved in the first weekend of May. Phillip's parents came down Friday and Saturday to help. I seriously don't know what we would have done with out them! They did anything and everything possible to give us a jump start on getting settled in. We also had lots of friends with muscles that loaded and unloaded us. They were so kind to spend some of their weekend to help us. I also had a couple friends who graciously took the girls for a couple hours the week before we moved out so I could unpack without "help". We seriously have the best friends!

Everything is right on schedule to close on our old house in a couple weeks. It feels great to be only one more step into completing our moving process!

Now, I said we were completely moved in. All of our possessions are in our new home. Although there are still some boxes to be unpacked and not a single thing is hung on the wall. All of our essentials are out of the box, organized, and put away. What's left is the stuff you can live without but had to pack up and bring along anyways. Like those boxes that are labeled "Phillip's Stuff". :) 

I will get to them all soon but I've wanted the moving in process to be fun for the girls too. I didn't want to park them in front of the TV for days on end, I wanted them to be able to enjoy their new space. 

So, many of hours these two weeks were spent leaving the boxes stacked up while we...

Rode our bikes

and went for walks

and licked every crumb of homemade strawberry pie off our plates

and blew bubbles on the back deck

and painted pictures in our undies (err, their undies rather)

and ate breakfast and/or lunch on the back deck.

The girls only have one more day of MDO next week then it's officially summer. Next week Ashlyn has a kindergarten assessment so they know where she is skill wise before she actually starts school. She will also get to play outside on the playground with the other new kindergarteners while the parents meet with the principal. She is so excited she can hardly stand it. Momma, on the other hand may need to wear her sunglasses inside so no one sees my crying eyes. I wouldn't want to embarrass myself and Ashlyn. ;)

The day that would never come...

I should be doing something productive like packing or wiping out cabinets but my girls are sleeping in a little late this morning and I'm just wanting to enjoy my coffee. :)

We made an offer on our new home the middle of February. We needed time to put our house on the market and the current owner of our new home needed time to find a new place and get things in line, so we set our closing date far out, April 30.

When we put our house on the market our realtor told us the average time a home sits on the market was 100+ days. We are in a hard market. We are in a starter home, and there are a lot of them up for sale. 17 homes like ours for sale in a two mile radius actually, and they haven't really been moving quickly. But, we trusted God and knew this was his plan for our family so we proceeded with the buying and selling process.

Over the last several months our specific prayer was "God, give us a contract on our home before we sign on our new home". We went the first month with one or two showings a week, which is average and a good sign. But no offers. So we lowered the price a little bit thinking that would get someone to bite. After doing so we went three weeks without a single showing. We had one more showing to break that little lull and then nothing for a week. So last Monday morning Phillip decided it was time to call our realtor and lower the price a bit more again, ouch. Phillip's work schedule has been almost unmanageable lately and time just got away from him and he wasn't able to call our realtor. Tuesday afternoon rolled around and we had a realtor come by to preview our house for a client. Then Wednesday afternoon our realtor called and said someone wanted to come by in 55 minutes to look at the house. So I threw the house into immaculate condition and we showed the house for the second time that week. Thursday morning our realtor called and said the buyers were very interested and were putting together an offer. Shortly after that message we were called for another showing that evening. To make a long story short, come Friday afternoon we had two offers on the table from the two different buyers! Two offers at one time and Phillip never got around to discussing a price drop with our realtor! We were able to sign on a contract by the end of the day. The last day of the work week at the end of the business day RIGHT before we signed for our new home that coming Monday. Coincidence? Absolutely not! God is so good and so faithful! In a 100+ day average God sold our home in 68 days.

We signed on our new home yesterday and take possession tomorrow. We are officially moving in this weekend and will close on our current home by the end of the month. Phillip and I are in such a daze. We prayed very specific requests and trusted God through this whole process not knowing what His will would be and what the outcome would be. God answered our prayers. It's such a surreal  feeling when God moves in a big way, you are just completely speechless and humbled!