Mother's Day Remix

Alright, everyone!  It's time for a NON-house post.  Finally, right?  Hahahaha.  Since I've hardly blogged about anything else for the last little bit, I figured it was time to go back and recap some of the other stuff that has been going on in our lives.  Unfortunately, I can't seem to upload any last-day-of-school pictures, so for now, all I've got is this:

Really, Sophie???  Really? Are you sure you don't want me coming to your Mother's Day Tea looking like this?

On the Friday before Mother's Day, Sophie's kindergarten class hosted a Mother's/Family Day Tea to celebrate everyone's loved ones and show off some of the hard work they've done this year.  Before she left for school that morning, she did her tactful best to let me know that my just-woken-up-and-still-wearing-my-pajamas-and-glasses-look wasn't going to work for her if I was coming to her class.  Hahahaha.  As if I would REALLY go out in public looking like this.  {Or would I?  Hahahahaha.  And yes -- I probably would.  Although NEVER to something as important as a Mother's Day Tea.  Hahaha.}

My favorite part of all -- other than Sophie looking at my inside out "Kiss Me I'm a Bulldog" T-shirt with judgment and disdain -- was when she tactfully tried to encourage me to straighten my hair.  And put on some make-up.  Hahahaha.  Well, it was Sophie's lucky day because I was already planning on dressing the part of a well-kempt,  put-together kind of mom, JUST for her.  I even planned my outfit to color-coordinate with hers.  :)

Not sure why she wasn't so happy about it.  Hahaha.

We painted handprints, decorated cookies, drank some punch and took some pictures.  It was pretty fun -- aside from Sophie's shrieking, general freaking out, and overall poor volume control.  Her teacher deserves a medal this year because the whole class is kind of like that.

She drew a family picture for me and when I asked her where Alex was, she said she forgot to put him in.  And that there wasn't enough room.  Hahaha.  Poor little lamb.

Our handprints.

Mother-Daughter Shot.

She loves me!  She really loves me!

My actual Mother's Day was made quite delightful when Amy assisted the girlie bugs in creating a picnic lunch for us to eat out on the back porch.  Unfortunately, it was REALLY chilly that day and we didn't last long before heading back inside to eat.  It's the thought that counts, though, right?  

We are the girlie bugs, the girlie, girlie, girlie bugs!

To finish off the day, the two cutest little non-helpers on the block assisted me in making our pizza dinner.  I am a blessed mother, indeed.  :)

And that's about all folks!  We thoroughly enjoyed Amy's company for the week and half she was here and REALLY wish she lived right by us.  To close on a totally unrelated note, I couldn't help but snap this picture one evening when all the kids were in engrossed in watching The Incredibles on the Disney channel.  It was the quietest and stillest I've seen them in a VERY long time.   Hahahaha.

Stay tuned for the rest of our end-of-the-school-year festivities and house-hunting trip particulars!

The Hiz-ouse

A final sweep through of House pictures.  Because I'm sure everyone is dying to see even more.  Hahahaha.  J/k.  This is strictly for family record keeping purposes.  Feel free to skip this post entirely if you are already burned out and annoyed.  I promise this will be the last one.  For those who care, I now give you a tour of our newly sold house.

The Front

And up close.  Our real estate agent was very insistent that we needed a "Welcome" mat and giant urns flanking the door, filled with hibiscus flowers.  The wild goose chase to hunt down said urns and hibiscus flowers is not worth the telling.  Suffice it to say that it was involved.  And a headache.  But apparently they helped to convey a welcoming message!  Hahaha.

The Entryway

Featuring a fresh coat of paint on the walls {Sherwin Williams "Khaki Shade"} and the trim.

The Kitchen

Please note that these cabinets have been magic eraser-ed to death.  As have the walls.  Amy helped me put fresh paint on the baseboards, window frames, and other trim throughout the room.

The Family Room

Where my painting finally found a home and the couches finally found a throw pillow combination that worked after an afternoon's worth of driving around to 3 different Marshall's stores, 2 different TJ Maxx's and a couple of Home Goods.  At one point I had 17 different pillows in here trying to find the right ones.  I'm very pleased with my final selection.

The Living Room

With the most noticeable addition being a new mirror on the wall and some sconces with accents that were put there and staged by our real estate agent.

Not exactly my personal style, but hey -- I could live with it.  

Not quite living with it?  That would be Ethan.  I knew he would have something to say about it once he came home from school.  What I didn't realize was how deeply he would be affected by ALL of the staging stuff she put up.  "She thinks that looks GOOD????" was the comment I heard repeated most often.  Followed up with "I don't understand!!!  What kind of person LIKES that????" And, "Our house will NEVER sell now!!!" {All exclaimed with much drama.  Especially after seeing the decor in Alex's room.}

The Dining Room

The table was pushed slightly off center and the hutch was moved to create the illusion of an even bigger dining room.  After asking if we had any china to stage the table with, we refrained from laughing in her face, and she came up with some simple plastic chargers from Hobby Lobby and napkins with rings to use in their place.  A simple vase of fresh white tulips was in the center of the table for the showings, but unfortunately I had to chuck them this morning.  You'll just have to imagine them there instead.

A tableau was staged for the hutch top by our realtor and thankfully this set-up didn't bother Ethan as much.

The Upstairs Hall

Feel free to admire how neat and tidy that bookcase is because I'm sure it won't last for very long.

Alex's Room

AKA the "Jungle Room" or "Zoo-themed Room" as Grace called it.  For the record, Alex LOVES it. As we all know, his stuffed elephant is basically another appendage on him, so to see his room decorated with MORE elephants and other safari animals is pretty much the coolest thing ever to him.  The shadow boxes over the crib contain a lion, giraffe, and elephant and they are a particular favorite of his.  This is most definitely not the way I personally would stage a baby's room, but after a while it kind of grew on me and didn't really bother me.  I wish I could say the same for Ethan.  Hahahaha. 

Grace-and-Jane's Room

The only touch Karie Lyn added to this room was the pink drapes.  I decided to gussy things up a bit myself and bought new bedding for Grace and Sophie to dress up their rooms.  Their old comforters were stained and dirty-looking and Grace had NEVER been a fan of the fairy print on them, so I decided to switch things up and found these at Home Goods for them instead.  Grace, thankfully, LOVED them.  And I love that they're reversible. 

{Grace opted for the side with the bigger flower blossoms.}

I also couldn't help but buy this print on Etsy.  I'm pretty sure Scott thinks it's super weird and an odd touch to the room, but I kind of love it.  The title of the print is "Rat's Nest" and it fits Jane to a "T."  For the record, she also loves it.

Ethan-and-Sophie's Room

The only room left untouched by the real estate agent.

{Sophie preferred the side with the smaller floral print.}

The Master Bedroom

Red accent pillows were a must, apparently, and we finally got around to hanging the picture of the Salt Lake Temple that Scott got for our anniversary LAST year.  Hahaha.  It's kind of sad that our house is finally all cleaned up and looking really nice just in time to move.

Our dresser-top tableau.

And another set of super clean and tidy bookcases.  {Although, I'll let you in on a little secret -- those baskets up there are stuffed to the brim with all the loose papers and other junk that were littering up the shelves prior to our showings.}

Back Porch

Newly cleaned and stained.

And The Basement

The carpets were cleaned in preparation for the sale and all the toys and junk were put in the storage area.

Oh, and the newly empty shelves were painted by Amy and me the night before we listed.  Not too shabby, eh?

And there you have it.  Not pictured?  Bathrooms -- because who really wants to see those, the Laundry Room, and our now overflowing storage room.  In the end, all I can say is that it's a good thing the house sold so quickly.  I really have no idea how we would have kept the whole house this clean for any extended period of time!  And that, my friends, is the end of the tour.  Thank you and goodnight!  Hahaha.

Like Whoa

It has been a WHILE!  The last time I checked in, things were close but not quite finished up for getting our house up for sale.  My super sister extraordinaire came out to help and over the last week and half we have cleaned, and mopped, and painted, and used Pandora Radio to flash back over and over again to the music of the late 90's.  Hahahaha.  It was epic.  And it all paid off!

We listed our house on Friday afternoon and by Saturday evening we had already gotten an offer.  Due to multiple parties being interested, we actually accepted an offer for above our listing price which was totally unexpected and obviously awesome.  To be honest, I'm still in shock and disbelief that this all happened so quickly.  Last time around, when we were moving HERE, our house took forever to sell.  It was actually still on the market when we moved.  So, to say we were completely surprised by the experience this time around is an understatement.


To wrap things up, I'll leave you with the Before and Afters of the landscaping work that was done.  I think it really helped to "up" our curb appeal.  Weeding and mulching were the main things done, but there was A LOT of that to do. 

Front of House -- Before...

...And After.

The tree branch in front of the house was trimmed up, the ivy was weeded and thinned out, a barberry bush was ripped out, and 3 knock-out rose bushes were planted near the ivy.

 Side of the House -- Befores...

 The view driving up to the house.

 There was a jungle growing over there, and an invasion of honeysuckle all around.

 Close-up of the side. {Still Before.}

...Side of the House -- After.

 A TON of weeding was done and the rose bush on the side was taken out due to its scraggly-ness.

Other Side of the House -- Befores...

 That dead pine tree on the front right was on the chopping block.

 As was a taming of the forsythia bush there.

...Other Side of the House -- Afters.

 The pine tree is now gone.

 The barberry that was on the other side of the tree was taken out.

 A Flowering Dogwood was planted in an empty spot on the side.

 And the Forsythia has never looked better.

Back of the House -- Befores...

It was just a mess back there.

 Weedville, USA.

 Majorly Weedville.

 I'm kind of embarrassed to post pictures of how completely we neglected the back yard over the last 3 years.

...Back of the House -- Afters.

 A whole lot of weeding and mulching happened.  And the rose bushes got trimmed.

 Nice and tidied up.

More weeding and mulching and all that honeysuckle was taken out and the trees were trimmed up.

And there you have it!  As a side-note, our back yard is not nearly as large as it looks -- it backs up to a "Common Ground" area which is truly the best of both worlds.  We get the space of a huge yard to play in, and we don't have to take care of most of it!  

Not having blogged in a couple of weeks is leaving me with a ton of catch-up to play.  Aside from all of the obvious house prep that has happened over the last couple of weeks, I also have Mother's Day memorabilia to recap and last-week-of-school-festivities to document.  Not to mention preparation is in full-swing for our upcoming house-hunting trip and visit to the cousins' house to see Sam graduate.  Life is never dull around these parts.  Apparently that's how we roll.  Hahaha.  {Stay tuned for one final House Post with pictures of how the inside of the house has shaped up for the selling.}