our new house {a great weekend & pigtales}

i'm still working to write back to each of the sweet comments and emails i received after my "whew" post. it is truly an honor to hear the stories and heartache of so many...but more importantly, to be able to stand together, pray for each other and know the road is lighter when tread with the steps of other women.

i love knowing God's a professional fix-it man - He doesn't mess around with a wimpy hammer and little kid tool set. He's a full-on contractor. site manager. supervisor. working to build a community, not just one house. it's a pleasure to live on this block :)

i'm stoked to say we finally closed on our new little house.

i'll save the before and after photos for another day, but it was fun to let the kids run through, knowing the wait was finally over.

i'm pretty sleeved at the condition, though. granted it is a foreclosure property and hasn't been occupied in over a year...but, well...there's a reason this sign was on the door:

i need some rubber gloves, a bottle of clorox and at least a week to scrub every nook and cranny. gross.

we zipped to pittsburgh last weekend for a family reunion, while clint stayed home and started demo on the house. other than several harrowing hours on the way home (emery's exhaustion tested our will to survive), we had a great trip. my favorite part, above all else, was a weekend with my brother, who bravely joined me and the kids for the drive.

(pics and edits by my brother)

i can't remember the last time we were together for an extended period of time, and nothing brings me such joy as the wonderfulness that is stephen. our friendship feels easy and splendid. growing up, he was clearly my favorite person of all time. even now, after husbands and wives and children...my heart feels completed with him in my life.

a dear friend watched the boys yesterday so i could spend the day packing.

and now, today, doing life again with three...i feel strongly of two things.

1. with only one child, i could possibly make an attempt to conquer the world.

2. with only one child, who takes a 3 hour nap, i could most definitely conquer the world.

(eek!! i LOVE this pic of her!!)

 i not only took down every photo and wall contraption in the house, packed 4 boxes of random items, organized a huge pile of messy paperwork, patched what felt like zillions of holes, steam cleaned the floors...i also made 15 phone calls...my eternal nemesis. i text, i email, but phone calls? uhg.

thanks to a dear friend, i feel a weight has been lifted. there is light.
and a whole lot of spackle :)

could anything be cuter than this girl in pig tales?
she's rocking some seriously cute hair as well as sweetness recently.

she's been charming us with her newly found verbalocity. it's truly one of my greatest honors to help her find her voice.

i've been looking back through a lot of pictures recently, as she approaches her 2nd birthday.
i posted these last week on instagram...
i'm in awe of the change over the past 10 months

more to come as her birthday approaches :)