15 months!!

We are long overdue for an update on our sweet, little girl! Pictures, update, etc.  As her parents, obviously we are biased, but she sure seems to be developing quickly! She's like a sponge absorbing everything she hears and sees. She understands her routine - asking for a bottle after dinner and saying ni-night when she's ready for bed and the other day when we were leaving my parents, she said for the first time "home?" ha :) I smiled in shock and said, "yes, my sweet girl, time to go home"

The most amazing thing to me right now is her budding personality. She has a little spunk to her! She knows just what she wants and she'll tell you, loud and clear.  She's started to throw her hands up and swing 'em, only at me though :) She loves to yank Brian and my glasses right off our faces, and I can't believe how quickly she can do it! And how can I forget.... Madelyn is the epitome of a Daddy's girl! "Daddy? Daddy? Daddy? all.day.long! If it weren't so darn cute, I might be a little jealous but its just the sweetest thing ever!

I count down the minutes until I can see her every day. We are having so much fun with our little munchkin, watching her grow and helping her learn! I certainly don't want to rush anything, but I look forward to what each day will bring!

Some of her favorite....
* words - hello, num-num, no!, buddy (Quigley), apple, ni-nigh, baby
* toys - monkey (of course), dancing valentines teddy bear, baby doll and her little people farm
* foods - pasta, cheese, spinach, bananas, chicken nuggets, applesauce

 

She's on!

Our first home, our labor of love, is on the market! It's kind of surreal actually, and it's been completely consuming this far.  The listing went up on Wednesday at about 11am and since then, we have had 7 showings with 2 more scheduled over the next few days.  Being new at this, we had no idea what to expect. I'm a little embarrassed to admit that I left the house on Wednesday morning and didn't make our bed and left dishes in the sink. Well, that was dumb. We got an email around 1pm asking if a realtor could preview the house for a client at 2:30 that afternoon!  Poor Brian raced home from work, quickly tidied and grabbed the dog from the house and brought him back to the office with him!  Being a working person, I sort of expected our evenings to be hectic with last minute showings, for other working people that only had a chance to view houses at night. But we had mid-day showings each day. This morning we had two showings, another at 3:30pm, one tomorrow morning and again on Monday at 1pm. Tuesday is the brokers open house, and next Sunday will be the public open house. Craziness. My family has been awesome and flexible with our tornado that keeps swooping in, dog, baby, etc, its been nutty for everyone, and it's just the beginning! Being 1st time sellers, we really have no idea what to expect and we certainly don't want to get too optimistic.  We are just so proud of our home, we truly love it... Hopefully, someone will appreciate it as we do :)

Our home sweet home

We're really doing it!

There is an echo in the living room as I type this. That's because we're down to one couch and a lot less stuff.  I didn't realize how many pictures and personal things we had out in our little 1200 square foot house. We brought 4 bags of clothes to goodwill and tossed about 4 bags of trash from our basement and garage. Then we packed up 4 large boxes of picture frames and personal items. I am loving how big and minimalistic our house looks right now! The echo, is weird, but now you really notice our nice big countertop, our big fireplace, our long bright hallway, all of it.

We're really doing it! Our house is going on the market on Wednesday. We already have a lockbox on our door and by Wednesday, we'll have a sign in our front yard and the listing will be online. Eeek! I have been looking forward to this for a while, and what moving will do for our family. Now that we're really doing it, I am already getting sad. We got married in this house, had some great parties, lots of lazy quiet nights, Quigley had lots of playdates, this is Madelyn's first house, etc, etc. We love this house, have always loved this house, from our first visit, this was home.

Now that we're living in here though, it's a little weird and it already feels like we've moved on. We're already slightly detached since we've taken every personal item down and it doesn't feel totally ours anymore. So, as we get ready to share our home with lots of strangers, brokers, open houses, etc., I'm terrified and excited for what's next. That's all to say someone loves our house too, and we sell it :) Wish us luck!

what I'm loving

Happy Monday! All I have for you is a random brain dump of what I'm loving these days :)

* my little girl's voice - I love every minute with Madelyn, but talking with her really is one of my favorites. Her words and the few times she puts together "hel-lo mommy" while pretending to talk on my cell, just melts my heart! The.best.

* my 30 minute commute to work - amazing, enough said.

* new Cole Haan Air Tali wedges - most comfortable shoes ever, super cute too!

* new Michael Kohrs bag - obsessed! I love cute bags, especially big ones however I don't carry a lot of stuff. I always end up with cute, large bags that I have to dig through to find things and it drives me nuts. My new bag, is a small-medium hobo in eggplant and I can't get enough.

* purging - dont worry, I'm referring to purging stuff! We had a stager come over the weekend to help us get ready to sell our house and the result, a lot less stuff. We cleaned our basement, our garage, our closets, and PACKED every single picture in the house. It's a bit barren, however the house looks clean and big. Note to self, keep it simple!

* chaos - it's official, I like when life is crazy. I've always enjoyed when my work days are crazy-busy and stress levels are high. I realized the other day, when everything was happening over a two day period and my adrenaline was through the roof, that I function well at times like this. A glass of wine at night and my awesome laid-back hubby help me stay sane, but crazy times keep me on my toes!

What are you loving? Have a great week!!

In case you were wondering

We are alive and well :) so much time has past since my last post, I'm slightly overwhelmed at where to even start.  Ill give a quick glimpse into our last 6 weeks:

* this was the first December in at least 3 years that I didn't have to work on the weekends. From start to finish, I felt more present and prepared this Christmas than I can ever remember

* we meet our friends new baby girl, Hannah, and Madelyn quickly made a new friend!

* I finally adjusted to my new job and the new routine it brought our family.

* at the very last minute, I decided to go to the vineyard vines holiday party and I had a blast catching up with friends and old co-workers

* we made our annual trip into NYC with my family and had a ball. The night before, my parents surprised us (Brian and I, Bren and Sara) with tickets to Jersey Boys! After a visit around Rockefeller  Center, some shopping and a great lunch, my parents took Madelyn home and we went to the show. So.much.fun

* We had the best Christmas ever this year, everything about it was great. Madelyn enjoyed opening presents, especially her baby dolls, and we savored every moment.

* Madelyn took her first steps a few days after her 1st bday.  However, for the most part, she continues to crawl everywhere! She's walking quite a bit more now but only if you bribe her too :)

* One of the neatest developments of the last 2 months is Madelyn's love to communicate. She quickly picked up sign language which she uses often, and now she says "all done", "thank you" "no, no doggie", "more", "yummy", "book" "morning". My mom and I were chatting the other day and she said to me "honestly though, ---" and M chirped "ah-nst-y", we burst out laughing :) she doesn't miss a beat!!

* we rang in the new year with friends and had so much fun! New Year's Day, was the most perfect day at home with my loves. We hung out in our pjs, had yummy food, a fire and lots of laughs and kisses!

These last few weeks with my family have been incredible. I'm feeling organized, into a routine and more or less, ready for 2013!  We have a few things on the horizon, one that I'm particularly excited (and nervous) about is, we're putting our house on the market this spring. Although its been something ive been thinking about for a while, we agree we need to move. We spend at least 11 hours away from the house daily with our 3 hour commutes. Quigley is going stir crazy during the day (can u blame him?!), I hate eating dinner at 8:30pm and spending such little time each day with Madelyn. It's time we focus on our quality of life and make some changes!

Im not big on resolutions. Maybe I don't do well under or pressure, I cant be hard enough on myself, or I feel pretty content..? That said, I do have some goals for us for and I hope we can look back at this year feeling accomplished.

Goals
* be healthier
* less social media
* sell our house
* buy a new house
* pay off some debt
* more time with family and friends

I'm writing this after a perfect day with my loves.  now, im sitting by a fire with Bri and a glass of my favorite wine. It's all good :) enjoy your weekend!