May Mayhem!

The month of May was full of events. It all started with Clayton and Chloe's birthday party, which as the previous post shows, was so much fun. Then, all of the new house craziness began. Why a "short sale" is called a short sale, is beyond my comprehension. Buying our dream house, a short sale, proved to be the longest, up and down, encouraging, discouraging and finally exciting process. We officially closed escrow on May 29th, just 2 days before the first on the property was going to foreclose on it (after 8 months of extensions, so our offer could go through). I am so grateful for Ryan who made this dream possible for us with his hard work and commitment to the process. I am so thankful for my dad who worked tireless hours dealing with all of the challenges this purchase had. I am so grateful for my in laws and grams in law who provided the extra support we needed to make it all happen. I am so thankful for my mom who helped out with the children while we dealt with the sometimes spur of the moment things that happened throughout the process and the research she's continually doing on renovations for our new house. Making our dream possible was definitely a group effort.

Our new house is just minutes from our old house. Clayton, Chloe, and Easton will go to three of the best schools in the district, including the new high school (can't imagine them being that big!). It sits on top of a hill in a quiet, established, "woodsy" looking neighborhood. Our new house is just shy of 3,000 square feet (nearly double the size of our old house), has 5 bedrooms, so each child has his or her own room, we have a downstairs playroom (every mommy's dream!), and it sits on a 10,000 square foot lot, so needless to say our backyard is huge! Our new house needs major updating, but thankfully it is clean because it will be several years before we are able to do everything we hope to do to our forever house. The big project we are undertaking right now is having the ceilings scraped, recessed lighting installed, and fans installed in every bedroom. Ryan will begin painting the bedrooms next week. It's important to both of us to have the children's rooms as finished as possible before we move in, so the transition isn't too overwhelming, especially since Clayton and Chloe will now have there own rooms. I'm so excited to decorate my new house, but a little stressed about it. I just need to remind myself that it's okay to go slow and take the necessary time to do it right. Pictures of progress will come!

On to the babes...Clayton and Chloe are just getting bigger and more mature every day. It's bittersweet watching them grow. Their big news this past month is that they started swimming lessons with a private instructor. They each take a 30 minute lesson twice a week. Their progress over the course of the last 4 weeks is incredible. Clayton's gone from hyperventilating tears to jumping in on his tummy from the side. He can totally get out of the pool unassisted, jumps in and continues to swim, goes to the bottom to get a toy, kicks on a kickboard, and is reluctantly learning to float. He is such a stud! Poor Chloe starts crying the second we pull up to Miss Cerra's house, but she is doing so wonderfully too. She has great kicks and literally fights her way to the side with her kicks to get out. She loves doing "spiderman" along the side and is working on jumping in on her tummy. She can almost get out without assistance, but isn't quite strong enough yet. They have a few more weeks of lessons and then we will continue with brush up lessons a couple of times a month until next summer. There is nothing more important to me than pool safety! Clayton continues to be a little parakeet. He is so smart and knows and retains more than I ever imagined a two year old could. Chloe's language took off this month too. She is speaking in phrases now and has such an interest in learning what things are ("what's fis") is her infamous catch phrase! We are taking a break from My Gym this summer and replacing it with soccer for Clayton and Mommy and Me dance for Chloe. So busy, but truly the most memorable time of my life! Easton will have his own post, but gosh, we are so eternally thankful for our sweet little E!