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We lost power for a few days. I've taken daily photos but I haven't appropriately uploaded them yet.

The kids are starting to outgrow the shared bath. Both in terms of this being a smaller sized tub, and in terms of the boy being seven and mixed gender bathing starting to be less appropriate. The thing is, they don't care or notice, but it's starting to get to the point where someone else might judge based upon. Maybe in the next house they will have their own baths or the big boy will take showers or whatever.

Yesterday we had the home inspection and it's looking more and more like we won't see April in this house. I can't let myself think about it or I will get weepy.

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The power's back on!

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Crazy surf at the beach. Shortly after this, when we realized that water was coming up on to the road, we cut back inland to safety. ;o)

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The house-hunting process begins with Barbie's cottage. This is the guest house of a property we looked at.

Okay, so I'm a little less freaked out even though I'm a little more certain we're going to move. I made a list. Lists make me feel better. This list was of properties that have potential, and there are more on this list than I thought. Today we signed the offer, and next up is a home inspection and a purchase and sale agreement. Lots of paperwork. I'm still pretty sure that they want this early-mid april which is dangerously soon. The kids will need to finish the year in their current schools so even if we have to fudge things to "live" at the in-laws, we will.

Of course, today we learn that one of the properties on the list is a capped landfill, one is already under agreement, and another is $4million but I'll stick my fingers in my ears and say a prayer to the house gods. Tomorrow morning we are checking two properties out. And as the realtor said, even if these don't work out, every one gets us closer to finding The One. I'll go with that story.

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Look at this smile. I just love this photo.

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Ohai baby!! Smiley boy.

I am FREAKING OUT. We just accepted an offer on our home. Not having really any idea where we will move to. Ack.

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My daughter is 100% convinced that we aren't done and next I will get pregnant with a girl baby. And she drew the illustration!

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Crazy ice sailboat racing at the beach. The ocean was at my back. It was amazing.

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For a while, I thought this boy looked exactly like his brother. I think it's mostly because when he was born, he looked entirely different, and then he started to look more like his brother. But now I see that he really is his own little man. Don't get me wrong, you would guess they were brothers any day of the week, but it's a variant. I'm also seeing how my daughter looks similar - this wee one has a resemblance to both kids.

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Today we went to Friendly's for lunch. We were running late and we were all pretty hungry. Daddy doesn't like Friendly's, and when we eat with him, we don't eat much cheese, so it was a big treat. We all had cheese - grilled cheese and tomato for me, grilled cheese for the girl, and mac n cheese for the boy. The baby boy slept all through so me taking three kids during vacation week was pretty good. They were really well behaved and totally earned their sundaes. ;o)

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My sous chef chopping garlic. She does really well with that little plastic knife. I love having her help me prepare things, not just cookies (but we do love that) but regular, healthy food too. She's a very adventurous eater, too, and I think having a hand in things helps.

en route

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Getting ready for a first client meeting this morning. I didn't even arrange this stuff but oh! how artsy I was, unwittingly.

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Mom, on that sign above the sink, why are they washing their toes?

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Dark to set the atmosphere. Because it's valentine's day. We went to a new restaurant (to us) and it was the first non-funereal event without any kids. It was lovely and we ate too much because it was so delicious.

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The valentine's balloons at the grocery store. I am thinking of getting some for the kiddos. Who doesn't love balloons?

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Matching heads on the littlest and biggest.

Believe it or not, I'm going to give a real blog post here because I can't really torture anyone else with this stuff. You're welcome!

Our house has been on the market, on and off for the better part of 4 years. Pretty well the girly's entire life. So we take it off when the leaves fall off the trees, for a variety of reasons. About a month ago, a realtor wanted to show it (again, no leaves on trees, not at all in mode of selling). So we scrambled and house cleaned and it was good but we don't hold out hope anymore since no one has bought it yet. But they really liked it. And are coming back again Sunday.

The house is a disaster. It really is, but it's all relative. We've been really good at purging, making sure the kids clean up their rooms every (other?) day, not having crap around, so it isn't as far off as it has been. I just have to put all of the valentine craft stuff away, both the girly and I had colds so much tissue tossing, and then that extra "put the toaster in cabinet make the whole house sparkle and smell like bleach" step. I'm always glad to have it done so I'll keep thinking of how wonderful Sunday night will be.

I, however, did tell my husband that I have a theory that he and the realtor are in cahoots, and that whenever the house hits a certain untidiness level, they "schedule" a "showing". That also would explain why no one has bought it yet.

ranch

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Someone was asking about dream houses recently. While this isn't my dream house per se, but this style is it, and this house is a good example of that. I really like it. They built another house basically in this one's backyard, so ignore that part.

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Snow day pillow fort. M was reading the valentine poem she memorized at school:

I love you more than applesauce,
and peaches and a plum
and chocolate hearts and candy tarts
and berry bubble gum.

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Took this because I was scrambling around last night and realized my hair looked just like I wanted it to (minus the bangs that are too long). I like when it's super smooth and a bit flippy. Of course, I can't reliably do it like that on purpose. Oh well.

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He was a friendly dragon.

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I have the intermediate pictures but I can't figure out how to get them to post in the right place.

Anyway, M drew a picture "of you momma!!" at Sunday school. What a riot. I love my smile.

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I went out to get the mail and the baby was laying on the blanket and the big boy was in another chair. 90 seconds later I returned to the cutest cuddle ever.

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Not the best picture, but this tree is almost as old as the house. There's a story about this tree and John Greenleaf Whitter, but I take that with about seventeen grains of salt. The blue sky was really pretty though. Very typical February weather here.

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The funniest part is that he's sitting on daddy, who is taking a nap. I mean, hard at work. It is a Wednesday after all.

Rockin' Moose.

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I can't wait until babyboy is big enough to use this. It's the cutest thing ever.

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The husband's grandmother had this prism at her house, and this last month it's been throwing wonderful rainbows all over the kitchen. We love to see it on all the various surfaces. I thought it was kind of funky on the colorful rug.