Moving Weekend!

Friday, March 23rd. Closing scheduled for 12 noon. Both trucks packed.

Before we went to the closing, we drove one of the trucks to the house, dropped it off and drove back to Jana and Steve's to pick up the other one and drive that one to the closing.  That way, after we closed we could go right over to the new house!! :D

I followed behind Ryan as he drove the trucks, just to make sure he got everywhere safely. :)

As we were on our way to the closing, our agent called and said there was a problem with the seller's side and they had just emailed her and told her that they wouldn't be able to close until April 6!  Oh Boy!!  She said, not to worry (too much) and that she was doing everything she could to make sure the closing went through.  So, we ending up having time to drive both trucks out to Woodbury, stop and get the boys lunch to eat during the closing and luckily, Sue called us back and said, "Get over here! I have the paperwork, let's get this signed before they changed their minds!"  She was kidding of course, but we for sure hustled over there!



Ryan, the one man moving service!  He rocks at moving.
 So excited to be at our new house!!!!

I really wish I had gotten a picture of us at closing, but I didn't. :(  I twas very uneventful.  Our Agent had everything ready and waiting for us.  She played with John and Stephen while Ryan and I excitedly signed pages and pages of documents.  We finished up and pretty much ran out the doors! HAHA

When we got to the house it was a crazy day! The sellers were going to replace a window and do some other repair work to some of the other windows- so there was a window man here and a repair man here when we drove up.  Then ten minutes later, our "locksmith" pulled up to re-key our house.  (That is a whole separate blog for that mess.... stay tuned!)
We had 3 workers here, the kids, and a huge house that needed a ton of stuff moved into it! :)  Ryan unloaded the trucks for the most part - I'm telling you, he is a one man moving crew! I watched the boys, tried to get some cleaning done, assessed the childproofing that needed to be done, dealt with the guys working on our house, etc.  We realized at about 4pm that we had no water.  The city had shut it off since the house was vacant so long. No water does not go well with cleaning, kids and moving.  I tried calling everyone and anyone that I thought could help, no takers!  Then, Ryan made one simple 2 minute call and he had a man from the city over at our house in 20 minutes! We had water then, but still no hot water and only one of out toilets worked.  That's when we started to realize we had a plumbing mess on our hands.



John was on his VERY best behavior while we were moving!! He was just as or maybe even a little smidgen more excited to move then us!  He set up a station so play at.  He did stickers, crayons and opened what ever he could get his hands on to play with. 

 

This is where SJ played most of the time.
Right on the garage floor- he found a bunch of old toys we had packed away.

The boys had a lot of fun playing in the truck.  Yes, I know- dangerous! But, it was the safest place for them to be... And, don't you like the cushion at the bottom of the ramp? haha



Here is Ryan Turtling the King size mattress into the house. 
Why I wasn't helping?  Every time I would help, the boys would both run in different directions.  They are fast and then we would be chasing them and getting no moving done.  As long as I was "watching" the kids, they were both really good.  : /

 The window men finished up pretty quickly however, the "locksmith" was at our house until after 6pm... I paid him and then took the boys to get dinner.  We went to Chipolte and got food for them and lots of food for Ryan! :)  My parents met us at the house after they got off work.  Yay! Help!! They helped get things put into places, start cleaning out the kitchen and got our beds set up.  While my parents and I did that, Ryan met his buddy, Luke at his parents house to get the last load.  There were a few things he needed help moving- dressers, elliptical and some odds and ends.  They got back here late, maybe around 9ish.  (Poor Luke had just helped his sister move the 2 days before and then came to help us move... or, should I say poor Kristin?!  She was home alone 3 nights in a row with the kids!  Thanks to you both!!!)
Around 10pm, we were all filthy, tired and the house was no where near "safe" for then kids, we had no hot water for them to take a bath, no appliances to make food on/store in and they were tired!  My parents offered to take them to their house for a bath, food and to sleep there.  Before my mom could finish her sentence, John was running to their car- At least he yelled, "Bye mom!!" as he ran? The boys slept over there with no problems.  Ryan and I worked on stuff here until about 1am and then ran over to Lifetime for a hot shower. 

Late night, but we got everything put away that and our cars in the garage! YAY!!

We woke up sore, tired (it was maybe 5:30am) and hungry- but so excited to have a house! :)  My mom was pretty sick, so we quickly dropped the Uhaul truck off on University and got the boys. 
On Saturday, we mostly child proofed, we only got a little of the unpacking done.... 
Oh wait!! AND We got our appliances!!!!!

Good-Bye OLD appliances!



The Men from Sears got to our house at about 9am.  I was so excited to see them pull up! :D

The boys ate doughnuts and oranges as I dealt with the appliances and while Ryan replaced some of the boards on the deck.  That way the boys would then be able to play outside and it would be safe.

Maybe the washer and the hood for over the stove?

New Fridge! :D  I <3 it! 

It was too big to fit through the doorways, so they had to take it apart!



Back together and ready to go!

Afternoon snacks on the deck! :)



We returned the Penske truck at about 4pm on Saturday.
The boys napped in our truck while we drove the moving truck to Eagan to return it and then we went back to J&S's house to pack more stuff up and bring another load to the house.

The plumber was at our house all day!! We needed a new kitchen faucet, the hose hook-ups to the exterior of the house needed work because when you turned on the water in the house, they would shoot water about 30 feet out of them! LOL, He ran gas lines for the stove and dryer, fixed 2 of the bathroom faucets on the second floor, and the master bath shower faucet.  He started on the main floor bath, but we had gone waaayy over our plumbing budget, so he left at about 7:15pm ...7.5 hours later.... woof!

We needed to get a new kitchen faucet, so I ran over to Home Depot for the 12th time that day and I looked at all of the demo models and I picked the only one that wasn't broken! HA  It made for an easy choice!! Right away, I thought, Hmmm, how often do things at our house break? Often! So I picked the one that stood up to being a demo. ;D

The first load of wash finishing!!! <3

John helping!!!  He had so much fun helping us put things away! :)

More help from the self-proclaimed "Big-boy"

While we were all working on un-packing, SJ was working on being a goof! He was so silly, mostly he was so excited to play in the empty boxes.

Ryan was so good about letting the kids help with every project. 
And, yes everything took 4 times as long... ;)

Can we say 2 happy boys?! 
They were fresh out of the tub, lotioned, and ready to jump in their beds on there first night at HOME!

We had a bonfire Saturday and Sunday night! It was fun to burn the old deck boards.

On Sunday, my mom came over in the late afternoon and helped us get the bedrooms all put together.  She folded about 20 loads of laundry (not kidding!) and we got everything put away and my mom went home then to do her own laundry and ironing.  :(

This was Ryan after our long weekend..... He was "watching" the boys while I ran to Target to get some groceries...
: / Poor guy, he was WIPED OUT!

One last picture... this one is my favorite!  It is John vaccuming out the cabintes in the kitchen on Friday night....

Moving, Day 1

Ryan and I started off our days on the right feet! We were both thrilled with everything, nothing could get in our ways! :)
Raining outside? We don't care!
Had my toe smashed in terribly? Don't care!

Yep, that's from the washer/dryer stand... I am telling  you, it is cursed!

Our mortgage broker called and said he had a mess? We don't care!  (That's his job- we told him to figure it out- our truck was rented, we ARE closing tomorrow!)
We went to Budget to pick up our truck... not there... OK, now we care!  We drove to this hoopty place in a back alley.  Went inside to get our truck we had reserved almost 2 weeks ago.  The man inside said go talk to her and pointed.  (real professional!) We went to talk to her and she said, "oh, you want a 26 footer?"
Us, in unison "Yes!" (we were a bit excited! HA)
Her "Yea, we don't have one. It is in Colorado. We can offer you a 16 footer- they are quite big."
"Umm.... NO."
That's when she started to click around on her computer and be annoying.  She was not being helpful so we left and decided to try U Haul.  We had a lot to get done and we were wasting time... our spirits were starting to fall.  (1 hour wasted!)
We went to U Haul, they got us all set up with their 26 footer, more expensive, but at least they had the truck!
As we left there, our spirits were all back to full! :)
Then our mortgage guy called again- he is a mess.  We needed to go figure out a bunch of stuff for him that  he should have done WEEKS ago- not 20 hours before closing!!  (2 more hours wasted)

Here is our U Haul. Finally. Parked at my parents while we tried to get the paper work stuff all smoothed out.  Which we did! :)  We rock!

Ok, game on, again! :) We went to the storage unit first- it was a pretty quick unload.  Ryan stayed by the truck most of the time unloading the carts I packed.  He was much better at packing the truck then I was. :)

Unloading the storage unit!! 

These are the "sticks" I bought for our last house- right after I bought this bunch of sticks, it sold!!  These sticks were very expensive sticks, but well worth our money!! ;) haha

Just about the last load! Wahoo!!

EMPTY!!!!!!!!!!

U haul, fully packed.  (Only storage)  

This is when we realized we had a bit of a problem! : / The one truck we rented was full.  It was only 4pm.  We wanted to have everything except for beds and our one suitcase with our clothes and toiletries in it left. 

We decided it was time to rent another truck.  We had everything at Ryan's parents left to move - couches, 3 beds, dressers, a desk, an elliptical, toys, and randoms... We did an online order for a Uhaul in Eagan.  We drove right over- and the man handed us the keys and said, have it back by tomorrow at 8am.  WHAT the heck?! We are paying for 24hours, it was 5pm.  He said, sorry, that's all the time I can offer.  (well that wouldn't work because we weren't even closing until 12noon!) Left there.  Drove to Penske in Eagan.  We had all of our fingers crossed.  I would like to start by saying: Their store, clean. Their service, professional. Their deals, awesome! Their trucks, New and lovely! I was very impressed! ***** stars for Penske! :)

The man there didn't have a 26 footer... he only had a 16 footer left.  We had to settle.  Anything was better then nothing.  He gave us a great deal and was a good sales man. :) We left happy. 

We got to J &S's house.  We were quite tired by now- but we had adrenaline still! :)  Ryan loaded up the truck with all of the stuff we had packed in the garage.  I went inside to "finish" packing up the rest of our stuff with the plan to pack it all in the garage once Ryan had emptied it.  I got a lot of packing done... but we are down to the ods'n'ends here. Yuck.  So, I started the dishwasher, did laundry and then things started to catch. up. with. us. We. were. tired. 

I went to pick up the boys and Ryan stayed home to finish the washer/dryer stand.  I won't get into it... but this stand is one that has not been kind to Ryan.  Poor guy, he has tried very hard, but it has proved to be stubborn and annoying.  At one point, I said, "if I come out here in 5 minutes and there is an ax through the middle, I will understand. Love you!" (Clearly there was no ax, but he laughed and kind of agreed! hahaa) 

Still Smiling!! 

And, it is done, level, sturdy and will be wonderful!!! 

I Love it Ryan! Thanks you so much!!

 

Off to bed... tomorrow will be a crazy day!
Game plan?
Ryan work from home (conference call) 8-9am
I will go get our cashier's check for closing with the boys at bank open- be home by 9am.
9-11am.  Move the beds into the garage.  Get the boys outside to play before closing.
Noon: CLOSING!!
After closing, we need to bust our buns unloading the trucks, and filling them again.  The Penske truck needs to be back to Eagan by 5pm.  Woof.
While Ryan in unloading the trucks and re loading them, I will be at the house cleaning it, de-winterizing it, re-keying it and playing with the boys.

Saturday: All of our appliances come between 8-12.   The plumber is coming at noon to run our gas lines and get us up and running!  We will have a ton of unpacking and organizing to do ... it will be a great day!!!!

We are still all smiles tonight! We are loving this move! :)

VIP (very important preschooler)

This week John is the VIP!
He had to answer some questions about himself, bring in a picture of himself and a "show and share" item.

The Questions:
1. Who is in your family?
John: My mom, my dad, and my bro-der, Beef!  
Me: John, we can't call him Beef... what's his real name?  
John: OK. My bro-der Stevie!


2. What is your Favorite food?
John: Mangos! Like Papa!! Eggs, no yellow ball though. Chicky, balk-balk! Smashed potatoes! What's for dinner?!


3. What do you want to be when you grow up?
John: Be like daddy! Have big muscles (as he shows me his) just like daddy!  I will work at 3M with daddy!  I love my daddy!!


4. What is your favorite thing to do?
John: At school??  I like the muscle room!  
Me: What do you like to do at home? 
John: Make cookie bars with Nana!!  Eat them too! 


And the icing on the cake....
5. What is one thing you wish for?
John: TO DRIVE A MONSTER TRUCK!  and have lots of bro-ders and just oonnneeeee sister.  Just one! (as he shows me the number one with his finger)
Me: (I was competely surprised by this answer.... I didn't even know where to start...) John, do you know what a monster truck is? 
John: No, last week one of the kids said that and everyone clapped and cheered.  It sounds like a good thing.  
Me: (scratching my head...) Umm, ok John.  And what about all these brothers you want? And one sister? Why only one? 
John:  Mom, dad worked at 3M and bought YOU a house.  Your job is MOM. You need more kids for YOUR JOB!! 


I stopped asking questions... clearly John has it all figured out! OY!

He took his hockey stick Nana and Papa gave him for his birthday along with a hockey puck.  He was super excited to show the kids that he now "wishes" to play hockey! (Yes, I edited the answer I sent to school with him this morning!) LOL

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Pictures....

These are all out of order... and randoms... I don't have my computer right now, so I am just using ones I snapped on my phone.  I just thought I needed some pictures! ;)

I am not sure what SJ's deal was... BUT, This is 3M - where daddy works! :) 

Shaving cream anyone?!
John wanted to get in on the shaving cream action... clearly he was a bit confused as to where it should go.... LOL

SJ was hanging out with daddy... so, of course they had an Oreo snack! :)

Papa Steve's "Old Timer" glasses!

John is so cute in these glasses! :)

The biggest Cheesy Ham I know. Biggest. 

Stephen's fine art skills... EEEK. 

I took SJ to the library one morning while JR was at school.
SJ LOVES books, it was a hit! 

SJ "needed" to do the kid computers.
He was nearing a big fit about the computers because I told him he was not going to use them.  After I broke down and told him he could, all he wanted to do was try on the head phones.  (Notice the computer screen is on the "sleep screen" and there was nothing coming out the of head phones...)  One fight I was glad I avoided. 

The potty training obsession begins!!!  He is obsessed with going potty.  
I would say that we are still pretty far from being trained. I have to remind him all the time, and he needs full assistance.  If I don't get there quick enough, it is a mess.  He is a strait shooter...  : /

SJ and his un-ties.   Yes, if you are trying to count them... he has on 3 pairs.
If only you could see the back view-- it is cheeks, and all cheeks! :) 

More of the triple unties situation! Maybe he has 4 pairs on in this picture??

This is a pretty "old" picture... from a month ago?
The boys wanted to have toasted mallows - so Ryan made a bonfire with I got the boys dressed.
It was super fun, for all of the 3 minutes they lasted! :) 

SJ and his mallow.  He did not want his toasted!   As soon as he though his mallow could possibly be compromised by the flames it was nearing he started screaming in fear it wasn't going to come back.  He has his raw. 

Too bad this is blurry... It would have been such a cute one! 

<3  Brothers <3
They both wanted theirs cold.  No one even roasted a mallow after all that! 

John and Stephen standing by their snowman! 

We all got together for my mom's birthday this year.   It was fun to surprise her!  We all had pizza, tres leches  cake and chipped in on a charm for her bracelet.  

Blowing out her candles!

(Her party was the same night we made an offer on our soon to be new house in Woodbury!!) Wahoo!!

SJ enjoying a popcorn snack! :)

JR and SJ were HUGE troopers one afternoon last week.  I had to run about 6 errands, yes 6!  I needed to get them done and they needed to come with... I totally bribed them saying IF we got them all done and they didn't cry at any of the stops, I would get them an ice cream treat.  It worked! ;) And, right after this we went to meet Sue and Ryan at the new house so the boys could run around and play a little bit.  It ended up being a fun day- even though I was a bit nervous as it started out. 

SJ and his cookie ice cream

John has taken a big interest in Papa Joe's "tree things"
Ever day as we drive on 494 to bring John to school, he always asks  what the "things out there are?"  And I never knew what he was talking about until it dawned on me! It was the tree tubes Papa invented!! :)  He has been asking all about what papa does at work, how he grows trees, how the trees get into that "thing," and so on.
One afternoon, as we were outside, John came running over to Ryan and I and said, "I made a tree thing like Papa Joe for Nana and Papa Steve!! They have a new tree!!!  SEEEEE!!!!!"

A few days later and John was checking if his tree "thing" was working.
He looked up and said, "How does that tree get in this THING?!!!" 

THE FOOT PHONE!
I wasn't here for the original "foot phone" but... here is Ryan's take on the situation:
SJ had fallen and got hurt, Papa Steve said something like, SJ is hurt and needs to go to the Dr.    Suddenly John dialed up the Dr. on his foot and had a whole conversation with the Doctor-- "Doctor! Doctor!!  You come here and help my bro-der?! He hurt! You Come?! OK, Good! Bye!"

John helping his brother get out of lot 11 safely.
We went walking up there with Ryan one night after work last week.   It is so beautiful up there and the weather sure helped!! :) 

Brothers! Cheese!!

Sunny March days!

This March will be one I will remember! :) It has been such great weather! I LOVE it!!
We have been playing outside just about all day, everyday.
Today, we were all playing outside by 8:15am.  John was catching bugs (warning to all bugs: do not come to Nana's house, you will not make it off this property with all your limbs, or even alive for that matter!)  and climbing the little tree in the sandbox. :)
SJ has perfected climbing up the ladder on the swing set and going feet first, tummy down on the slide.  The yard is littered in balls, bats and little plastic hockey sticks.  We did a nature hunt for all of papa's plants that are coming up, SJ even sung them a little song "ni-ni-P-ants" (as John chimed in, "NO! Morning PLANTS!") this went on for a while.
John and Stephen have had almost everyone of their meals this week outside on the deck, and our heat is off, the windows are open and I am thrilled! Spring it here! :D

We did take a little break from our outside fun to drive to St. Olaf to pick up Auntie Alana today- Let's just say, I drove way past Northfeild... and got us very lost. : / However, the boys were screaming with excitement the whole ride down.   When we finally got there, we picked her up and headed back to good old Mendota Heights.  Alana got the boys a couple new books (thanks Auntie!!) and she read them to the boys- one about starting school and one about little bears.  Very cute.
This morning, (early this morning, to the tune of 5:30am) John found some nail polish in the mud room, painted his finger and said, "look mom, Nolly Polly! Ya, Ya likes Nolly Polly!!"  : / Yes, John, she does... (luckily it was white polish, and he only got one finger done before I stepped in and stopped all the "fun" ;-)

E-O-N

Ryan and I have full conversations spelling every word out.  F.U.L.L. C.O.N.V.E.R.S.A.T.I.O.N.S.
John has tried to catch on.  A few weeks back, it was a Saturday morning and Ryan and I were trying to make our plan for the day.  We were deciding between taking the boys swimming or to the zoo.  As we spelled everything out, John piped up, "E.O.N.!!  Park!  Mom, we are going to the PARK! E.O.N!"  (All with one hand on his hip, in a very serious manner.)  We thought it was pretty funny and very clever at the same time.

Well, since then, if John isn't feeling "heard" he will say yell, "E.O.N.! I want some milk! E.O.N!" (or, a snack, or outside or to go swimming...)  
Or, if he wants to feel like he is "part of the conversation" he will chime in as Ryan and I are spelling things out with, "E.O.N., yea, work was good today, yea, it was." 

Un-TEEs!! AKA: Unders

Stephen is obsessed!
He is constantly taking off his pants, pointing to his parts and then bee-lining it to the nearest toilet as if he is about to burst with urine.  I am not really sure where this sudden burst of potty training interest came from, especially because he is a bit young for boys to train...and he is terrible with his aim and timing for that matter!
Tonight, he went digging through the dirty clothes pile to find some un-tees.  He found a pair of John's Toy Story ones and proceeded to get them on.  He put both legs through the waist hole first (good,) but then put both legs through one leg hole and up they went... all the way up past his belly button.  Ryan and I got a good chuckle out of it especially because his meaty little buns were sticking out the bottom of his shirt as he ran trotted around proclaiming UN-TEES!! UN-TEES!! with pure satisfaction on his face, it was pretty much a strut around the kitchen, he was wearing John's unders, he put them on him self and he had just peed in the little green potty all over the floor (while sitting on the potty.  Like I said, the aim is terrible.)  Not five minutes later, he had put on three more pairs of unders he found of John's.  By this point, it was a safety hazard-- he was doing a mermaid walk around the basement.
Have a gotten this lucky as a mom?! Am I going to have 2 kids that are super easy to potty train?! If so, I have earned it! HA

Moving Update

Things are coming along!
Last week, on Tuesday SJ and I dropped JR off at school and headed to Sears to return the appliances we bought for the other house and picked out ones that are a little different for the new house.  We also got to return the disposal, and water heater.  :) We are now getting black appliances and I am SO excited to see them and use them! They are being delivered on the 24th. Yahoo!
I have been calling around to get prices on the cost of running a couple gas lines... so far I have nothing set in stone for this.
On Friday, our Realtor, Sue met us at the house so we could see it again, measure the laundry room, re-look at our "plan" for the kitchen appliance rotation, and let the boys "pick out" their bedrooms.  (they are identical rooms... it was mostly just for them to see the house)  I actually went about 45minutes early with the kids and let them run around the backyard playing and collecting pine cones.  They had a blast!!  Both of them didn't want to leave, John has been asking "can we go to our new blue house yet??"  That's a good thing...we were worried about the transition for him and SJ.  I hope that is a sign that it will be smooth...!
Over the weekend, Ryan and I got everything from the sub-basement moved into the garage, we got all of the outside toys and "stuff" by the back of the house moved into the garage. And, we went through all the boy's clothes, took out the ones that don't fit, re-organized them and packed their clothes for AZ.  And, we got started on our new washer/dryer stand. :) We cut the big pieces of wood, and measured the rest.  The boys woke up from the sound of the table saw, so the wood cutting party was over, but that's when we headed outside with the boys for some hockey, tee-ball, and volleyball practice! We grilled wings for dinner.  It was SO nice out, I <3 spring!
We have TONS to do still, but we are making progress!  
Moving while you are not pregnant (& on bed rest) or nursing/have terrible mastitis is a breeze! ;)  I love that I can help with everything -- it makes things so much easier!
This week, I need to get paperwork/address changes made, do more organizing and then next weekend we are moving everything we have into the garage here, except for what we need for the week- we will be "packing" suitcases for the week with clothes and essentials.  THEN, we close the 23rd and our truck is rented out for the morning of the 24th.  Ryan and I are going to start in Bloomington, put everything from storage into the moving truck, then go to Patrick's move everything from the garage into the truck and unload it ALL into our new house on the 24th.  THEN, the unpacking and organizing begins!!!  Words can not describe how badly I can't wait to have systems in order, places for everything, bins and labels on things and less of a cluttered/messy/disorganized life! haha