It's time!

The time has finally come. We are almost completely packed up and ready to make the great trip west to Richardton. We've experienced a few more bumps in the road, especially with trying to get Tyler's beat up 1970 Impala (that he hasn't touched since we've been together) along with my car and his work car plus the Uhaul truck to Richardton with only two drivers. But thanks to having a big family, we worked something out.

This will more than likely be the last time I post for a few weeks, as we will not have Internet right away. So here is the big update for everyone. First off. ANGELA ROLLED OVER FROM HER FRONT TO BACK BY HERSELF ON SATURDAY! We got it on camera but now I need to figure out how to get the video onto my computer so I can show all of you. It was such a great site.

Okay and the schedule for the move. Tonight Tyler's cousin is coming over (HOPEFULLY) to watch Angela while we do some more packing and cleaning. Today and tomorrow during the day, consists of me packing and cleaning and taking care of Angela. Wednesday all of our stuff, and I mean all of it, has to be out of the apartment and the apartment has to be cleaned. So if it works out our friends may be coming over to watch Angela for a few hours that night as well. Thursday morning Tyler will work for a few hours (to get his 40 hours in) then pick up the UHAUL and then he and Eddie will load it. The carpet cleaners come on Thursday, but they don't have a set time so it could be anytime between 8-5. Which means I really can't do anything on Thursday but hang out. Thursday night will be the night we say good-bye to all our friends at a dinner. Friday morning at 8:15 we have our checkout which should only take about 20-30 minutes and then we are off to Richardton. We close on the house at 3:00 and start moving in! Wow what a busy weekend, and Tyler doesn't really get time off because he starts his new job on Monday morning. Wow. I am so excited to be out of the apartment living stage of my life and to raise my daughter in her own home.

I will post more pictures of Angela as soon as I find which box the camera is in, and of course when we get hooked up to the Internet. Wish us luck!

Untraditional

Today is our two year anniversary! I can't believe that it's supposed to be 80 degrees today compared to two years ago when it was raining and COLD! The traditional gift for a two year anniversary is cotton, the modern gift is supposed to be china. Well Tyler is so picky about what he wears that I'm not buying him clothes, we don't need more sheets at all, and we don't need more towels at the moment. So cotton is OUT. And now that we are buying a house, China is out as well. So Tyler and I decided that we are going in on a gift to give each other. Tiger Woods PGA Golf 08 for the Wii. Haha We have greatly enjoyed playing golf lately and this game is very fun for what you get. We are also going to join Grandma Jean and Grandpa Ron at Granite City for dinner. They are in town this week for a managers convention and it's been so great seeing them.

It's official that we will be moving into our home on September 26!! Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers as we have been going through this process. When we get moved in I'll post more pictures of what our home looks like in our style.

Complications

with buying a home have arose again. The offer we put on the home was accepted by the sellers we just had to get an incredible amount of stuff done in order to get approved by the bank. That took up most of our stress, thought processes, fight conversations and everything else we could possibly pour into the situation. Well now we hit another bump in the process. We needed to have all of our contingencies removed by today in order for the offer to still be acceptable. At noon today we were still waiting to hear from the appraisal guy to tell us how much the house is worth. He was a little worried because the past three or four houses he has appraised in the area have only been worth less than 45K. Well we were supposed to buy the house for 60,ooo. Here about an hour ago we found out that the house is only worth AT MOST 50,000. We don't really know how much the couple selling the house bought it for, but we are worried they won't sell it for that amount...which means that even though we went through all this work to try to get the house, we still may not get it. Please pray that everything works out and that the couple trying to sell the house really wants to sell the house and is willing to sell it for that amount.

Other than house complications, Angela has been getting HUGE!! She is only twelve weeks old but she is growing faster than I can keep her in clothes. She is now wearing 3-6 month clothes, standing on my lap while holding onto my hands and eating like crazy. Can't wait to see how big she gets while I'm trying to pack up her clothes...I hope I don't have to open boxes to pull out bigger clothes for her in the next two weeks.

Photos

Well it's finally here, we received our website for the professional photo session last night. Tyler and I have greatly enjoyed looking at them and already seeing how much she has grown. Here is the link to the slideshow so that you can all see the photos. http://www.shawnanoel.net/angelaslideshow/ love to all. Hope you enjoy as much as we do.

Grandparent's Day

Today is a holiday that is overlooked far too often. It's a day that was created to honor those in our lives that mean a great deal to us. It's a day to pay thanks for all the cards, hugs, kisses and love that is given unconditionally to us, even we do wrong. It's a day to honor the Grandparent's in our lives and it's the first time my parent's are being called "Grandparent's." Tyler's mom Brenda has been a Grandmother twice before, but today we hope she knows that we appreciate her being a Grandmother to our daughter.

Tyler and I want to thank all of our Grandparents for the love, support and all the knowledge they have enstowed upon us since we have become parents, and them...Great-Grandparents. Our day is clouded over and chilly so the time we spend today will most likely be spent inside, enjoying our little girl. Yesterday Tyler took a well deserved and long overdue nap with Angela...
...how cute!! We started Grandparent's day off great by speaking with Grandma Brenda while she was on her way to Dickinson to enjoy breakfast with her dad and then on to Williston. It was so great to hear her happy again as it's been too long since we've heard tears of joy. She commented on how she has not seen many pictures of Angela smiling...'cause she does it all the time now. So I snapped a few photos while we were on the phone with her and this was my favorite....Dad always knows how to make my baby express her happiness.

Good and Bad

My mom always started with the bad news first so I'll start there as well. The house that we put our offer on earlier, we decided to revoke the offer because we found some paperwork on the house from this year that said it has asbestos. It says nothing about the location of the asbestos but that doesn't matter because I don't want to put my child anywhere near that. So that house is off our possible list now. We asked our realtor to put in the offer on our third option.

This house is a block from the Abby, small and square but it has potential....and it is 20k less than the 2nd choice. It's a two bedroom two bath, one of the bathrooms makes for a great "man" bath for when Tyler gets home from work. It has a small yard, but it's something we can work with. The main thing Tyler and I would have to do to it is give it a little "curb appeal." It looks extremely boring on the outside. SO anyways, if you haven't clued in on the bad news, it's that we are now on our third and final housing option 'cause anything after this is just junk.

And now for the good news. Angela is getting so extremely big. We weighed and measured her at the WIC appointment this morning and she is 13.5 pounds, 23 7/8" long and her head is 15 3/4" around. They said she is growing beautifully and that her weight is in the 98%, length 89% and head circumference is in the 92%. AND I finally captured her smile. It's so precious.

Seconds

This is now the second time our offer on the home in New England has fallen through. This time we offered the home owner more money to pay off her business contract so that she could move to Spearfish or Bismarck like she was planning. And if she wasn't wanting to move right away, we even found a place for her to rent that was located right next to the Correctional Facility where she works. It was a really nice place 'cause if it wasn't sharing a backyard with prisoners, Tyler and I would have looked into buying it ourselves. But apparently it wasn't good enough for her and she has asked for no more offers. She told our realtor that she would sell again next summer when she gets everything figured out a little more, and that we will be the first to know about it. Ha ha yeah right. There are parts of me that wish that she does put it on the market and her third attempt at selling it will be like her first, no offers or viewings for a year. That way she realizes how good of an offer we gave her, and how unwise it was for her to deny them.

Anyways, we are now playing the waiting game on our second choice. It's not the home of our dreams, but it's workable. It's located in Richardton just a few blocks away from the Abby. It's an art deco home and needs lots of work, but once it's completed we can see ourselves staying in it for a few years(10 at max I think). We have big plans for the house and we should know by later today or early tomorrow whether or not the owners have accepted our offer.

Angela and I have a WIC appointment today and I plan on asking for another weight and height measurement because she is already in 3-6 month clothes. She is HUGE!!!

Waiting game

We should hear today on whether or not our second offer on the New England home has been approved. We increased the amount that we offered and even found a rental place for the person that owns the home. We are praying that the offer goes through, but we were smart about it and if it does not go through we have to homes on the back burner. Both homes are in Richardton, one is an art deco style home that has a very large yard, lots of character and would need lots of work. The other home is close to the Abby (where my Grandpa Jim went to school), it's small and kinda boring, but with a little work we could turn it around in two years and make a decent profit on it while we keep searching for a better home to raise our little girl.

Needless to say this trip to Dickinson was somewhat of a success. We stayed with my cousins Scott and Katie Nasset and their two girls Anna Mae(3) and Ruby Jane(1) and what a blast that was. They can relate to the fact that not many of our friends have kids and are still able to go out and have a blast. We were able to hand Angela off to Nana Mimi(my mom) and her great-grandparents so we could enjoy some wonderful homemade wine of Scott and Katie's (Tyler enjoyed his Grain Belt). It was nice to have a few glasses of wine and enjoy some good conversation with adults our age and not have to worry about how Angela is doing.

The rest of the weekend was spent enjoying time with friends and family. Kyle and Heather came down on Saturday for a few hours, and it was so great to see them!! They made the trip just to hang out with us at lunch and then they waited patiently while we filled out paperwork for the houses, and they even came with us as we went grocery shopping. It was a disappointment that we didn't get to hang out with them more, but what time we did spend with them was greatly appreciated. Then on Sunday we traveled back into Dickinson to visit Tyler's Grandpa Ray and Grandma Margie. Angela smiled big for them so they could capture a couple of pictures and we had a short but lovely conversation.

Needless to say, the trip to Dickinson that was supposed to be just work turned into a little pleasure as well, and considering it was Labor Day weekend, it was much needed. We just pray that we don't have to travel again before we move because the toll is definitely showing on Angela's attitude.

You look familiar, have we met?

Angela trying to hold the bottle herself.

Snoozing with Aunt Cheryl.