Trip to Peoria and then Snow!

So I'm not sure what's up with Blogger lately.  It is not putting my pictures in the order I download them and I apologize for the randomness of these pictures! 

Anyway, we went to Peoria to meet the kids' first cousin, Casen, a week or two ago.  (I meant to download pics earlier, but my camera cord went MIA.  I will probably find it when we pack. :)
We had a good visit and Casen seemed to like the extra commotion of all the visitors.  While we were there, we visited the new Caterpillar Visitor Center.  The kids all had a blast.  They make you sit through a video at the beginning, but it's in the bed of a quarry truck!  After the video you can wander around the rest of the building and look at various machines, computers to design your own machine, simulators to try operating a few different machines, and the boys favorite--sit in the driver's seat of the big machines!  There was a backhoe loader, a grader, a roller, an excavator, a wheel loader, and a bulldozer.  All of them had nice wide stairs to climb up into the cab and you could sit and push buttons to your hearts content!  The kids could have spent all day there, if we'd let them!  Needless to say we will be making a return trip there in the future.

After our visit with Pete and Kelli, we made it home in time before the snow hit.  We had 5.5 in of snow overnight.  It was perfect snow for sledding and making snowmen!  During nap time I took the boys out and we built a snowman and shoveled the driveway.   Then Andy got home early and he took the boys out again.  Of course he had to outdo my snowman with one of his own.  :)    That night poor Adam could barely keep his head up to eat dinner!  The boys were exhausted with all the playing in snow, but it was lots of fun.

Casen

Alex and Jeremy attempting to drive a bulldozer.

Erin's enjoying her chocolate cookie so much she's lounging!

New house!

So we had the inspection for the new house this evening.  I took the opportunity to take some pictures of the house and yard.  We took the kids with us too, so they got their first look at their new home.  They all agreed it was a good house and couldn't wait to live there! 

So here's a bit more info about it...  4618 sq ft, Insulated concrete form (which means the walls are concrete), 5 bedrooms, 3 1/2 bath, 2.75 acres of which half is wooded, walk out basement, deck, sunroom, and huge kitchen with vaulted ceiling.    Now, the only thing that I'm not in love with is the colors in the house, which are very dark.  The kitchen has cherry cabinets (which are beautiful!) and all the trim in the house is cherry finish as well.  The owner is not a "white wall" person, so the walls are mostly browns and reds.  I like natural colors, but these are pretty dark for my taste even if they do give a warm homey feeling.  That being said, it's still a lovely home and I'm not going to rush in and paint every room.  (Besides, I also have no idea what colors would go with cherry finish!) 

So here's some pictures of the house, in no particular order....

Sunroom with sliding doors to deck

Double sided fireplace---looking from kitchen into living room

Kitchen--sunroom off to right, bottom corner is stairs to basement

Bedroom 3 in basement

Sunroom

Kitchen; desk area; door to garage,washer/dryer & half bath thru door behind Andy

front door and dining room---taken from living room

from kitchen looking into living room, dining room and hallway to bedrooms

half bath

first bedroom---will be the boys room--it will need a color change!

Jack&Jill bathroom connecting boys room and bedroom below

Technically a Den (no closet) but this will be Erin's room

Master bathroom---sink

Master bath---walk-in closet to right

Master bedroom---sliding doors to deck

Bedroom 1 in basement---very PINK!

Stairs from kitchen to basement

Bedroom 2 in basement

Hallway and bathroom in basement

Vanity in basement bathroom

Walkout part of basement (under sunroom)

Living area of basement

Andy in door to bedroom/bathroom area in basement

Front of house---van's in the way a bit...

side yard to north

Side yard to south

South side yard looking toward house

back of house

concrete walkway from driveway to walkout patio

woods straight out from patio

we think there's storage under the deck---lawn mower and tools?

Busy winter

Been a while since I made a post.  We've just been hanging out at home, trying to stay healthy, and busy with preschool and church on Wednesday nights.  The boys go to the Awana program, Alex in Cubbies and Adam in Puggles, while Erin is in the nursery and I go to the women's bible study.  Andy is the game leader for Awana and directs the games for the older classes.   He's a bit of a celebrity in church sometimes.... I can hear whispers of the kids say "Look Mom!  That's the game guy!"  They dont know his name, but his part of Awana is for sure their favorite.  :)

Erin finally has two teeth on the bottom!  And she's running to keep up with the boys---not to be left behind. :)  The boys have gone from calling her "Baby Erin" to "Miss Erin" or more commonly in their playing, "Tornado Erin!" 

Quite recently, we're in for some change.  We've been wanting to add on to the house and recently figured out it would cost an arm and a leg.  So we thought for the same price we could buy a newer existing house.  I prayed alot since Christmas, trying to discern if a move was really God's will for us.  There are so many reasons not to move, yet circumstances were kinda pointed that way.  This past weekend we actually found one that met our list of things we wanted in a house.  So we put an offer on it and it was accepted.  Today, our house is on the market.   Not sure how I'm going to keep this place neat and tidy for random showings, but I hope the buyers understand what a house can look like with 3 kids 5yr and under!   Interestingly, when we went to see the house we are purchasing, the owners were not aware of a showing and pulling in just after we did.  Our realtor was late, but we knew the owners!  Turns out Alex's preschool teacher and her husband built and own the house we hope to close on.   It was kinda nice to have them point out things that a realtor might not know (like neighbors).   Anyway, the new house was built in 2005 and is about 5 miles from our current home.  It's absolutely beautiful and huge!  I'll post more about it later, but we are excited. The boys are not against moving even though they havent seen it yet.   We told them it still has woods and a cool basement to play in. :)  We dont close til the end of May, so we're praying for patience....and a buyer!

sleeping in our "tent"

"Look at all the pull-ups I stacked by myself!"

Noodle necklaces!

Checkin' out the ice and snow

Erin sick----but having fun with Mommy!