We've Moved

I finally had time to get caught up on blogging and then discovered that my blog is too full of pictures and it won't let me I upload anymore.  So after much research and contemplation, we decided to move to a new blog site, rather than pay $2.50/mon. for extra picture storage space.  So, catch up with us at www.nwschnellfamily.blogspot.com and bookmark the new page, because that's where will be for the next 3-5 years ;)

A Few House Observations

• Our new dishwasher can't hold as many dishes as the old one at our old house.  Is that a trend or did Ken just choose a quiet, but small dishwasher?
• I love our new gas stove/oven, but it definitely takes some getting used to.
• Central vac sounds cool, but so far, I've only used it on the stairs.  It's just easier to pull out my small, lightweight vacuum than all the hoses.  The previous owners said they only used it to vacuum out their cars.
• The previous owner (who built the house) was an electrician.  There are light switches everywhere, and not necessarily where I think they should be.  But on the plus side, there is no shortage of outlets either.
• In the week we've lived here, Sophia has learned to come down stairs by herself.  It worries me that she'll fall, but I love her independence.
• I love, love, love having a garage door opener.  When we asked the previous owners for a key for the garage door that doesn't have an opener, they said they didn't have one; turns out they never parked their vehicle(s) in the garage.  Really?  It's a 3-car garage . . . and they lived here for 20 years!  Wow!
• I'm not sure if it's normal or not, but we've had a lot of contact with the previous owners. So far it's proved to be a good thing.
• Yesterday we had horizontal rain and strong wind most of the day.  We discovered that the garden window in the kitchen window leaks!  I collected 1 1/2 quarts of water in 4 hours from water coming in through the leak!  The previous owners said they had just had that window replaced, so they're sending out the glass company to fix it.  I'm not assuming they're going to pay for it, but I'm hoping the glass company doesn't charge to fix something they didn't do right in the first place.

Another Random Update

• We moved into our new house last Monday.  I kept thinking of the phrase "while you were sleeping", because we did so much of the move while Amelia and Sophia were napping.  Amelia seemed a bit upset that much of her house was missing, but she adjusted just fine when she found them all at the new house.
• I am no good at, nor do I enjoy painting . . . Sophia's bedroom may never get finished, at least not in the next few weeks.
• Amelia has hit the stage of wanting to change her clothes multiple times a day and/or wear the same thing for 2-3 days.
• The girls are adjusting nicely to our new home; bedtime and nighttime is no worse than at our old house - yeah!
• Everything is put away . . . in the kitchen, but I'm not convinced I put things in the best spots.
• And speaking of the kitchen - Ken decided it needed to be painted and somehow managed to get it painted this week, in the middle of doing everything else.
• There are 2 deer (a mother and a baby) that we have seen in our backyard a few times.   I have no idea what kind of plants we have in our backyard, so as of right now, I don't mind if they graze a bit.

• Amelia also calls every dress a "princess" dress and wants to wear one all the time when we're at home.  Thankfully, I have been able to convince her to wear other clothes when we need to go out.
• Sophia mimics a lot of what Amelia does; I think it's cute - it drives Amelia crazy ;)
• I love that we have so much extra space in our house, which means we have plenty of room for visitors, hint, hint.

Before & After

Just a few before & after pictures of the master bathroom and kitchen

Before

After

Before

After

Before

After

House and other Random Updates

• Amelia loves her Halloween candy and she's really good at sharing it with Sophia and I.   But I got tired of her always asking for a treat, so we finished it all off today!
• The granite countertops got installed last week, with only minor issues - the installers couldn't get our water turned off all the way, and just left buckets under the leaking faucets, which overflowed, which Ken caught before it did any serious damage, and was properly fixed by a handyman the next day.
• Ken doesn't have time or tools to do the few handyman jobs we needed done at our house, but hiring a handyman is a racket.
• On Friday, we were told that our wood floors weren't getting installed in our house before we moved in.  When I called to complain on Saturday, they told us they might be installed on time.  And this morning, I got a phone call saying that the wood was on its way to our house and would be installed on Wed - Fri.  Phew!
• I've taken a lot of stuff over to the new house, but I haven't even begun to pack/take over kitchen stuff . . . and there's a lot of kitchen stuff.  But I didn't want to take stuff over there while they were ripping apart our kitchen, so now it's a rush to get it done.
• I find it ironic that when both of my girls sleep through the night on the same night, that I am awake in the middle of the night with insomnia.
• We're just now choosing paint colors and prepping the few rooms we want to paint.  I have a feeling we're going to be painting in the middle of the night either before and/or after we move.

So Tired

Amelia took a shorter than normal nap today, and when she came out to sit with me, she told me she was "so tired".  Within 20 min, she had fallen asleep in the chair next to me. 

Trunk or Treating

Amelia was so excited to go Trick-or-Treating . . . even though she'd never been before.  

 Sophia wasn't so sure she liked Trunk or Treating.

 I managed to get a sort of smile . . . I think that was when Daddy showed up.

 The girls don't look too excited, but Ken and I were excited because it actually stopped raining long enough for our Trunk or Treating.

 Amelia was so excited by her stash of candy.  Now if I can just stash some of it somewhere . . . and figure out some way to make her forget about it by the morning. 

All in all, a successful evening . . . and this coming from someone who doesn't really enjoy Halloween.

Happy Birthday Sophia

Our baby turned one on Friday and we celebrated at Grandpa's house on Saturday.  Sophia knew just what to do with her cupcake.  First, take out the candle.

 Second, play with the frosting.

 And third, crumble it all up, eat it, then rub your hands together . . . all done . . . and not too messy either - way to go, Sophia!

Happy Birthday, Sophia!  We love you!

Pumpkins & Pie

Last night, Ken and the girls carved a few of our pumpkins.  Sophia seemed to enjoy it even though she didn't know what she was doing.

Amelia, as always, was a big helper - scooping out the seeds and taking the lid off and on.

While they were carving pumpkins, I made an apple pie, with a face of it's own.

Eating

Sophia loves to eat and gets mad if I don't feed her enough.  I finally got brave enough to let her feed herself (for most foods) and she LOVES it.  And if I take her clothes off, I don't mind it too much either (food mess is a big issue for me, which is why I've waited this long to let her try to eat on her own).

This video is kind of boring - only the kind of video that grandparents will enjoy ;)

 Such a happy girl . . . and not too dirty . . . relatively.

Things I Won't Miss

We got the keys to our new house yesterday, and in honor of that, here is a list of things I won't miss about our current house.

• the icky, supposedly cream colored apartment carpet
• the washer/drying being in the garage
• the individual heaters in each room that can't be programmed and make the room either too hot or let it get too cold
• the giant ant bed outside near the kitchen window that draws ants in by the car load any time there is even a trace of food left on the counter
• the cupboard door that interferes with the bathroom door
• the sharp, rusty metal posts inside the dishwasher 
• manually opening/closing the garage door
• electrical outlets that aren't tight enough to keep things plugged in
• screens that fall off the windows/doors and windows that don't lock
• the frequency of the trains, the noise of the trains, and the rumble of the trains

Pumpkin Patch

Ken had today off, so we headed to the pumpkin patch to pick out our pumpkins for Halloween.  It's been rainy and gloomy for a few days, but this morning was perfect weather for picking out pumpkins.  Amelia is excited for Halloween this year and loves pointing out pumpkins wherever we are, so she thought it was great fun to pick out her own pumpkin.  Sophia and I picked out ours pretty quickly . . . 

but it took longer for Amelia to find the pumpkin that was just right (all the ones Ken and I pointed out to her where "too big").  Amelia's pumpkin is the smallest one, and Ken's is the biggest.  Sophia and I think ours is "just right".

At the pumpkin patch, they also had pigs and chickens.  Amelia liked looking at the pigs.

Sophia wasn't so sure about the pigs.

And we all ended with smiles. 

Our Techno Kids

Don't mind the poor quality picture or the fact that Amelia is in the high chair instead of Sophia . . . but rather, notice that they're both playing with a phone and seem to know (or look like they know) what they're doing.  Some day I'm sure our girls are going to be teaching us how to use "those new fangled contraptions".

Irony

Today Amelia had a melt down in the store because I wanted her to try on a jacket.

Tonight when I asked her to show the jacket to Daddy, she was so excited about the jacket she wouldn't take it off and wore it to bed.

Overwhelmed & Under Energized

• We want to put wood floors and granite countertops in our new house, but we're overwhelmed with the choices:  real wood vs engineered wood, granite vs quartz, and then there all the color possibilities.  We're hoping to get it all installed before we move in, but at the rate we're going, I'm not so sure that's going to happen.
• Sophia started walking a week and a half ago.  She still prefers crawling to walking, but every day she gets a bit better at it.
• My goal was to pack at least one box every day, starting on Oct. 1.  So far, I'm 2 boxes behind.
• As most children, Amelia loves carbs - bread, pasta, crackers, etc.  But her quirk - she likes eating the bread and bagels frozen.
• Amelia and Sophia have both had sleeping issues in the last few weeks, which leaves me totally sleep deprived, with very little energy to do much of anything.  Hopefully at least one of the girls will get it together soon so that I can start getting things done.
• Amelia has finally been talking more in sentences . . . only her sentence structure isn't right.  Most often, the verb is at the end of the sentence, like she's talking in Spanish.
• I keep thinking this is going to be an easy move since we're only moving 1/2 mile away . . . but that may mean more procrastination and less de-cluttering.

Flower Girl

Ken and I actually went somewhere without the kids last Saturday . . . and while we were gone our babysitter took these cute pictures of Amelia with the dahlias that she had grown in her garden.  Aren't they great?  Oh yeah, and Amelia looks great too ;)

Beach Weekend

We had our last getaway for the summer at Neskowin, OR.  The forecast was for sun all 3 days - what luck!  However, when we got there, it was anything but sunny.  It was cold and damp, but that didn't slow down Amelia.  She refused to wear a jacket - I'm surprised she didn't get sick.

Our friends, Liza and daughters (MJ & Lucy) came with us.  MJ didn't bring a jacket, so she just wrapped up in my jacket, a towel, and her umbrella (that went everywhere she did).

Grandma Diane came with us too.  Sophia loved having someone to hold her whenever she needed to be held.  We had to keep an eye on Sophia - twice we found her at the top of 3 flights of stairs, sitting there waiting for help to get back downstairs.  We obviously weren't the most alert parents that weekend.

The beach house had this cute little wagon, which made the short walk to the beach easy, even for little legs.

The sun came out in full force on Saturday and Sunday and we all enjoyed plenty of beach time.

 In between beach time, we played a little bocce ball.

Then it was back to the beach for more sand time.  Sophia and Amelia love playing in the sand.

Our friends, Janell and Tom came too, with their son Corbin.  It was a lot of fun to have 3 babies who were almost all the same age, and to see how different they each were.

When Sophia had enough digging, she just crawled off away from the noise and laid down in the sand for some quiet time.

The weather was perfect for s'mores on the beach at sunset.  Thanks to Tom for bringing enough roasting sticks for everyone.

House Hunters

Ken has been looking at houses online for almost 2 years.  When we were pre-approved, our house-hunting became more serious.  We looked at a lot of houses online, drove by a bunch of those, and went inside our favorites.

HOUSE #1

Pros:  3-Bedrooms, 1 acre lot; farther away from suburbia, but close enough to be practical for shopping; separate shop where Ken could play drums.  Cons: no indoor area for kids to play when it rains, 1 acre lot (it's both a pro and a con), and a formal living & dining room (who uses those anyway?)

HOUSE #2

Pros: Newer house w/wood floors, 4 bedrooms, 3-car garage, most inexpensive house of the 3, beautiful yard.  Cons: Close to neighbors on all 3 sides, the master bathroom has a door to the outside, located in a town South of our current location (so farther for Ken to drive for work and gigs), and even though the house is 2300 sq. ft, it feels smaller inside.

HOUSE #3

Pros: 2800 sq. ft, 4 bedrooms, large bonus room for the kids to play in (or guests to sleep in), 3-car garage, greenbelt behind house.  Cons: No bathtub on 2nd floor w/ kid's bedrooms, still within earshot of the train (but not close enough to "feel" it like we do at our current location), 20-year old home so we'd like to do upgrades (eventually), and higher utility costs.

And the house we chose?  You'll find out right after these commercial messages.






Nah, just kidding.  You don't have to wait that long.  We chose House #3.  Our offer was accepted yesterday.  And now the fun begins:  home inspection, appraisal, shopping for a new refrigerator (it doesn't come with one), waiting for closing, packing and cleaning our old house, painting (maybe), and perhaps remodeling the bathroom upstairs.  Ken hasn't slept good for 2 nights.  Me?  I'm so sleep deprived, I fall asleep whenever my head hits the pillow.  I don't think the reality of this has sunk in yet, but I'm excited and ready for the new adventure.

Sophia "walking"

Sophia is doing her best at trying to become more mobile.  She started by pushing the laundry basket around, and has progressed to the little car.  Soon she'll be off and running on her own.

Bus Ride

Amelia loves buses.  She thinks every big vehicle is a bus and points them out wherever we are.  So today, I took the girls on their first bus ride . . . and we went to the library, so that we could do two fun things in one day. 

Waiting for the bus.

 So excited to be riding the bus!

 Sophie didn't seem too excited, but at least she wasn't fussy . . . which was great since she didn't get her morning nap.

The driver said I could let Amelia sit in the driver seat (nice guy, huh?), but knowing how she loves to sit in our cars and "drive", and not wanting to create a scene, I chose to opt for just in front of the bus.

It was a great adventure, and the only mishap was Amelia's skinned knees - from falling on the sidewalk as we ran to the library.  But thanks to the librarian who gave us 2 band-aids, even that was just more to tell Daddy when he got home from work ;)