Do you know what I am most grateful for about Thanksgiving? I had to take a break from the whole moving/renovating thing... I needed it. I wish Dylan would have slept better. He decided to stop sleeping through the night. He thought waking up every 30 minutes was better... Silly boy.
Yes, we are in the house. Yes, we have a gazillion boxes that we don't know what to do with, but certainly can't live without. Yes, the basement is finally dry and sanitized, so we may start putting boxes down there. We have been staying up super late trying to get tons accomplished, and I feel like we have suceeded. Of course, there is always more to do.
I have been trying to take pictures along the way, and have a few, but they aren't uploaded yet, so these will have to do. While we were doing things at the house until the wee hours of the night, we brought over the pack'n'play and sleeping bags. To this point, the children have slept through sanders, hammers, saws, and all manner of dropping things and construction noise. But, they have definately been up waaaay past bedtime several nights in a row, and it was starting to show. I think we still have some catching up to do as far as sleep is concerned, but we are getting better. I am thankful Thanksgiving is coming up because, then I will be forced to take a break. So sad... :) So, until I can post pictures of the house, here are pictures of my kids. Falling asleep, exhausted as they were, in the exact position we laid them down in. Poor widdle things :)
... Do the locomotion with me....
I shouldn't be doing this. I should be packing. But, at the moment, I am feeling a bit like a rebel, and I just really don't wanna. Besides, I have had that Gloria Estefan song stuck in my head since yesterday when he first started. I feel a bit overzealous to call it "crawling", but it is definitely forward locomotion :)
While hubby was coating the floor, we were hanging out in the kitchen. That way, we could exit the house without leaving little poly footprints. Poly footprints=bad. I have to get a bit inventive with my entertaining skills. With half our stuff in one place, half our stuff in another, and the inability to leave one room, we do what we can. So, here the girls are drawing faces on paper plates... Hey, gimme a break ok?!?! I thought it was pretty creative :)
She has decided hamming it up for the camera is an ok thing to do. Cheesy smile...
Then there is this face. I love this face. 
And how do we know when we have spent too long in the house? Well, I have an alarm clock, of sorts. Seems it is built in. I can't place my finger on it exactly, but something about this face lets me know, it is time to be done....
I know Dylan. Me too. Just a few more minutes :)
I have been busy as of late. First of all, purchasing a house that we know needs work, means alot of time spent working on the house to start with. Plus, trying to move stuff, packing, paying enough attention to my children to keep them from thinking they don't exist anymore, and then, to top it all off, this....
(Remember, we closed on Friday) We went over to sand, yet again, after work on Tuesday. As part of moving in, I figured if I took over a load of stuff everyday, moving day would be alot better. We would store it down in the basement, so we could move in slowly to the upstairs. So, we opened the door to take down the first box, and low and behold this is what we find: 
Water, about 2-3 inches deep, in the basement. Soooooooooooooooooo not fun. We had no idea what to do. We had owned the home for a total of 4 days. 96 hours. 5760 seconds. And, the basement appears to be flooded. It was 10:30 at night, so we decided to take picture of everything (luckily I had the camera) and start calling in the morning. After thinking about it (and smelling it), we think it was a septic tank back up into the house. Luckily, that particular tank (apparently our house has 2) has not been used for probably about a year. We think the water came in through here:
And, of course, we walked around in the water for quite a while before we knew what it was. I even asked the hubby to pose for this picture, for perspectives sake: 
Since then, we are working on solving the problem. I have had 2 plumbers out, and gotten different answers as to the solution to our problem. I am thinking of having a 3rd come out, and just going with the majority. We also have called an emergency water removal company, who has come out with all kinds of cool machines to dry the air, extract the remaining standing water, clean the air of the smell, and test the drywall and baseboards to see if they are still wet. They will also spray everything down with a solution to kill any bacteria/mold/etc. That is going to be a several day process, so... I will continue to report on anything really cool and impressive as it happens.
As of today, we have ordered the carpet (to be installed sometime next week) and stained the hardwood. On the docket for tomorrow, a trip to Lowe's and hopefully 1, maybe 2, coats of polyurethane. We have until the end of the month to get things moving. Wish us luck!
*Tip of the Day: If you are refinishing hardwood floors, buy lots of sandpaper, and change often. It makes the work go faster, and time is money people!*
Who needs a bath seat for little brother when I have a big sister? 
They are so funny!
Kaitlyn is picking back up on the potty training. I love this video. I love that she has no idea I am taking it until the end. Funny little girl, in her own little world :)
*Forgive the picture, we almost forgot to take one until it was too late... *
He is a cutie!
This is where he usually spends dinner prep time.
Holding on for dear life... I think he thinks he will jump himself away if he doesn't hold on.
Pay no mind to his cowlick. This is his waking up hair :)
Love that face!
And now, for your viewing pleasure, some chubby thighs!For reasons that will become obvious in a minute, I have no accompanying pictures for this post. Dylan is still an avid nurser, despite the fact that he has finally taken to solid food. It took forever, it seems, but he finally acts excited when I put him in the high chair. His cute little feet start flipping and flopping all over the place. Nursing, is a whole 'nother ball game. I usually try to nurse in the other room, so the girls won't distract him. His 5 am feeding is my favorite because he is so tired and cuddly and sleepy and lovey and delirious and sweet and cute and alone and quiet and... oops. Moving on. It seems to be a relatively recent thing he has started, what I call, the "Roving Reporter". Whichever hand is on top when he is nursing a side, kinda roams around, without his consent, to gather information, and pass it back to his brain. Things like "Oh, that's squishy." "If I do this, Mommy squeaks." "If I pull my hair, it kinda hurts." You know, important things like that. So when he is not poking himself in the eye, or digging around in his ear, sometime he will play with my chin, or pull on my hair. I love when he holds his hand behind his back like "Uh Uh... Don't touch it." But, my all time favorite would probably be the time when he held his hand perpendicular to his body (bent at the elbow) for an entire side. Like it was some kind of antenna gathering information from the airwaves. Tune in Tokyo...
I told you, for posterity's sake, I needed to get the kids to sit down and give me a few good costume pictures. So, for your viewing pleasure, here is the resultant photo dump. Cute kids. Enjoy!
