We sit up now...

Well, it's official. The girls are both sitting up and getting pretty good at it. Rachel accomplished this feat before Sarah but I am sure it is because of the extra luggage around Sarah's waist that continued to pull her over forward. She has strengthened those back muscles and now can fight for toys and take them from Rachel without falling over face first. Yes, you heard it right. The girls are already fighting over toys, especially their pacifiers. They like to swap them and then try to get both of them so that the other sissy doesn't have one at all. They are pretty cute together and I hope it is a sign of good things to come....entertaining each other.

Noah, on the other hand, has been having a little bit of a hard time with the girls lately. He is quite jealous and sometimes even quite naughty. I think he is finally realizing that they are not going to go anywhere and as they get older they are going to get into his toys more and more. Most days are good but some days are not so good.

We are at mom and dad's for a few days and I have got to run and play with Noah. Enjoy the pictures and I will post more later.

Love, Lori

Sitting up

Little Miss Sober Sarah and Little Miss Smiley Rachel

Don't they look like they are talking?

Big Brother Noah too.

We're building a new home!

Our new home….

We have finally decided to take the big step into being home owners. After much discussion and looking at real estate in the Omaha area, we decided to build a new house with Hearthstone homes. They are a local builder who has many communities in the Omaha metro area and their prices range from very affordable to very unaffordable. They build about 1,000 homes per year. Yes, you read that right 1,000. They are a production builder. You pick the floor plan and upgrades inside and they build the home for you along with all the other homes on your street at the same time.

I won’t go into great detail but will just give you the short version of what has happened over the last two and a half weeks. James and I went out to look at the available lots in Summer Glen (in Elkhorn, NE) and found a lot that backed to trees. It was perfect, a bit of a slope, but we love the trees to our back. Went in the next week with our real estate agent and basically told the CRM that we want that lot and to save it for us pending our approval of a home loan. We got the approval and reserved our lot on Friday, May 9. Picked out our upgrades: cabinets, colors, flooring, fixtures, hardware, trim, etc. in a few trips to the choice studios. Signed our purchase agreement last Friday, May 16 and now we wait for our new home to be completed.

We will be in the first of next year. Just in time for a huge snowfall the weekend we will be moving probably. We are very excited and can’t wait to be in our own home and have a yard for the kids to run and play in. Of course that means mowing and upkeep but I also look forward to that, believe it or not.

I will post pictures of the model home. Now our home will not look like the interior of the model because we picked different things but it is just an idea for you all to see what it will look like. (We had to sign a bunch of papers saying that we understood that our home would not look like the model. DUH! Isn’t that a given?)

Here is a link to the floor plan: http://omahanewhomes.com/redmond/120

Front view

Living room and dining room

Front door and living room

Great room view while standing in the kitchen/breakfast nook

Kitchen view while standing in the breakfast nook, Laundry through door in the hallway

Kitchen view of the desk, pantry and refrigerator

Great room fireplace and stairs going up to the bedrooms

View of master bedroom from top of the stairs

Master bath

Master bath tub and shower

Noah's "Room". Won't he be surprised when he sees that his room does not look like this in our home.

Girls room. On front of the house. The double windows on the front of the house.

Another picture of the front of the house. Ours will be a lighter color (like the one next door in the picture) with Midnight blue shutter and front door.

There you have it our new home. We are very excited and I will keep you posted as to the progress of the building. We are patiently waiting for July 2 and the ground breaking. Just a short 8 months from now we will be moving.

Love,
Lori