We interrupt the Easter series for an important announcement...

Mike and I were talking today about how incredibly tired we are. Over the weekend, it seemed like we were going 90 miles an hour from the moment we woke up until our heads hit our pillows. It's all good stuff, but of course, our bodies can't tell the difference between good stress and bad stress, hahaha. It's strange, we close on our new house next Friday! Isn't that crazy? Our current home hasn't sold yet, unfortunately. We do know what the hold up is, though, and it's good news and bad news. It sounds like everyone loves the house itself, but they don't like the backyard because of the hill. So, there's nothing we can do about it which is good because...well, we've done what we can. And bad because...there's nothing we can do except wait for the person who doesn't care.

The worst part about it? It looks like things aren't going to slow down because next we have a new house that's going to need some work. And then when this house sells, we'll be moving...so there's no end in sight.

HOWEVER! None of this compares to some life changes (and most likely exhaustion) going on as we speak! Because my sister had her baby on Thursday! I'd like all of you to meet our niece Roxie Kay!


Mike picked out the above photo. He was totally into Miss Roxie and spent the entire visit on Friday poking her, hoping she'd wake up. Haha, not really. He was actually enjoying the way she'd startle herself every once in a while, like babies tend to do.


Valerie and Justin looked good when we saw them. I talked to my mom today and she says things are settling down a little, that Roxie is getting used to her new locale. Justin has been trying out music on Roxie and so far she's into Elvis and George Strait. Autumn was a Keane and Stereophonics girl there for a while. Then she was into opera, which was random. Now she makes up her own songs...time flies, for real. Seeing Roxie brings back memories! Roxie is 6 pounds and we all talked about how weird it is that Autumn was a little over 4.5 when we brought her home. Roxie's soooooo teeny that it's hard to imagine a smaller baby!


Autumn hasn't met Roxie but I'm hoping they'll be able to meet soon! Autumn's been practicing.


Haha, don't worry Valerie and Justin, I'm just kidding. Autumn will be happy giggling over the "beebee" and touching her teeny beebee toes.

More Easter

I know, this is crazy late! But here we are...some more easter photos. Saturday after Autumn's visit with her friends, we went over to Mike's parents' place for some Easter fun. Autumn and Tyler got to do some Easter egg hunting.


This is probably the most accurate photo of how egg hunting went! Haha. Autumn was like a search and destroy missile with those eggs but Tyler wasn't quite so into it during the first round. He had P'd drive him around in the wagon and lead him to the eggs. Second round, he got a little more into it, though!


Of course, we had to do some posing. Here's Autumn with her aunt "winnsey."


And with her mama and papa. I wasn't going to post this photo. I made the mistake of getting a haircut the Friday before Easter so my bangs were a little short. Well, the whole thing was a little short. It actually looks really good right now (I need to get a photo) but anyway, the reason I did post this was Autumn's face. It is hilarious! That's a Calvin and Hobbes expression if I ever saw one!


After hunting eggs, there were some bubble festivities. In case you didn't notice...look in the bottom right hand corner. That's the leaf blower. P'd is using it to blow the bubbles for the kids. :D


Seriously, Autumn loves bubble so much that I'm thinking about getting her a bubble machine for her birthday. Does anyone have a brand that they really like?


Another fun thing we got to do is dye eggs. I think Tyler has dyed eggs before but this was Autumn's first time. Mike and I had a nice little assembly line going. They took turns putting an egg in one dye cup at a time.


By the time they put the last egg in, the first eggs were ready so we helped them put the eggs in the drying trays.


Then both of them got to put stickers on their eggs...Autumn got Hello Kitty and Tyler got Jungle Animals!


I was pretty impressed. They didn't crack a single egg! And they were so great about following directions and going slowly. Nice job, 2 year olds!


Once they finished with their eggs, our LittleColleys went for the hourly swing with P'd.


And to top off the night, P'd got a thank you back massage from Miss Autumn!

Easter Weekend, Part 1: A Treasure Hunt

Hello, all! I hope everyone had a great Easter weekend. Ours was busy but fun. We had our first disappointment with the house selling process on Friday. A potential buyer came for a second viewing of our house because he was trying to decide between our house and another. He ended up offering for the other house because it had a more level backyard so at least it wasn't anything that we can help, right? Overall, last week was slow as far as house showing but it was spring break and Easter week so I have optimism for week 3 of selling our house!

On the other end of the spectrum...as of April 30th, this will be our new home! In a previous post, I mentioned that we found our dream home. With some amazing answered prayers, God provided a way for us to go ahead and secure the new house. We still need to sell our house, but, again, God has provided and we aren't in quite the rush we were before.


So that was Friday. Saturday started out with a birthday party! Autumn's friend Allie from church and ballet turned five and her parents came up with this super cool treasure hunt that started with some things I didn't get photos of because I got to participate as a treasure hunt character and I loved doing it so thank you, Christy! Autumn was super excited because all the boys and girls got to dress as knights and maidens and princesses. Of course, I was very proud that my little miss was the only fighting princess. Of course, she and I are gonna have to work on fighting blind if she going to insist on wearing too-big tiaras while carrying her sword.


After the kids got dressed, they met the king (allie's dad) with a treasure (party favors!) who was kidnapped by the dragon and hidden away so the kids had to follow a clue that led them to...me! I was the fairy godmother and had the kids sing their ABC's in order to get the first gem (they collected gems to give to the dragon in exchange for the king) and the clue to the next gem holder...the tiger!


Next was the witch--a good witch, of course!


And, finally, the dragon. He was a pretty funny dragon who revealed the location of the king when the kids presented him with their gems.


While the dragon was doing his thing, Autumn spotted something. She traded her sword...


For a magic wand. :) She did actually get her sword back a little later which, of course, tickled me way more than it should. I promise I'm trying not to force her into martial arts...but if she happens to like playing with, say, foam swords, who am I not to encourage that? :D


After Allie blew out the candles on her super awesome treasure chest cake and the kids had their candy and cake and juice,


Autumn pretty much gradually wound down into a sugar coma so that by the time she got home to nap before her first egg hunt, she was asking for her sleeping panties (a pullup) and her Biscuit.


By the way, those shoes sticking out from her dress? So cute!

the best of the best

Well, things are still crazy but a little less crazy (buy my house!). I think things are getting a little back to normal, or as normal as things get when selling a house (buy my house!). :P We're back to normal enough to have a little fun...like making tents! Autumn and I draped a big blanket over the sofa, loveseat, and tv tray stand to make a little monkey-sized tent!


In this tent, we have everything a little miss needs! Pink boots? Check! A book? Check! A pillow? Check! A blanket? Check!


And best of all? A light!


Oh, wait. And best of all? A thumb!


But really...the bestest best thing of all? :)


(but the worst thing of all? the backache i had after crouching in there and laying on the hard floor after repeated repetitions of "come tent wi' me, mama!" Haha.)

Need a cute house that's great for entertaining?

Hello, all! We've been away from our blogging because there's some good stuff happening around here. We have been preparing to sell our house for a couple of months now. The plan was to put it on the market in April but we actually ended up putting a sign up on Sunday night. It's been a blur of activity--cleaning, staging, taking photos of the house--since then but it's all worth it.

Saturday when driving around, Mike and I noticed that a house I have loved for years had a for sale sign in front of it. The owner happened to be outside so I asked Mike if we could go in so I could see if the inside was as pretty as the outside. And it was. So pretty that I don't think we'd have to do anything to it to move in. On Sunday, we took Mike's parents to see it, did some number crunching and discussing, and made an offer. The owners of the house accepted the offer, much to our delight. As a matter of fact, I am so delighted that I don't even want to link the house, if that makes any sense. I guess I don't want to jinx it or something. Kind of like how when I first met Mike, I refused to let my friends make any marriage jokes.

All of this is, unfortunately, contingent on the sale of our house. Although we are preparing to sign a contract, they will still be taking offers until we are actually able to sign the real papers. I have a couple of requests:

1. Please pray for us. And although I do want this house to sell so that we can have our dream home, more than anything, I want us to make the right choices. I guess pray that our way is clear and our hearts open to whatever path God has for us. Also that we get through this selling ordeal with grace and integrity with each other, potential buyers, and the people we will eventually buy from. And, last, please pray for our safety as we have people in and our of our house.

2. Please spread the word about our house. :) If you know anyone who is looking for a starter home, this house has been well loved by us for 6 years...in some ways, I hate to leave it. We have almost completely updated everything from cabinets to floors. This is a great neighborhood, perfect for couples, small families, and empty nesters. Here are some links:

3070ultragreenlane.com

realtor.com

Thanks so much for your thoughts and prayers! It's been fun sharing our lives with you for the last 3 years--I can't wait to see where we end up next!

In her own words-ish

Mama: Hey, Autumn, what did you do last Saturday?


Autumn: I go to Angelee's birthday party! I love parties.


Mama: Oh, yeah? What did you do there?

Autumn: I play mouse! Is little. Yes. And in a ball. And it ran. And I pet it.


Mama: What else did you do?

Autumn: I ride horse and hold on with my boots. I fall down and I get up. I love neigh. And I share.


I see beebee! I love beebees. It's cute. Yeah.


I give Angelee a brella. I love my brella. It's Tink.


I play b'loon with Stephan. I have a b'loon. It's a butterfly.


Mama: So what did you do when you left?

Autumn: I hug Angelee.


Mama: So was it so fun?

Autumn: Yes.

Mama: What do you say?

Autumn: Saaaaayyyy please!

Mama: No, silly. Say "thank you, Angelee, for inviting me to your party!"

Autumn: Thank you for party, Angelee!

A Plethora of Pets*

This is Biscuit.


Biscuit is named after a doggie in a book that Autumn reads on the potty at Mama Lainey and P'd's house. One morning a few weeks ago, Autumn woke up and showed me this little tiger and said, "what's name? Biscuit!" And so it's been Biscuit ever since. Before that, I had called Biscuit the "it's not a tiger it's a kitty cat" because for some reason, whenever I talked about her tiger Autumn would totally say that to me in a "duh, mom," kind of voice.


Yesterday, Mike was making our bed and he found Biscuit. Autumn had napped in there since a neighbor was mowing the grass really loudly near her room. Mike said, "hey, I think you need to look at Biscuit." Turns out Biscuit had a hole and was leaking the little round stuffing bits so I performed some major surgery and now Biscuit is good as new. It's funny...I still have the first doll I ever repaired on my own. I must have been about 7 or 8 and sewed together the neck of a mouse that my grandfather gave me not long before he passed away. It was an odd thing to remember that and to now be repairing my own little one's dolls. :) Anyway, Biscuit is all ready to be dragged and carried and snuggled.


Biscuit is the most recent in a series of dolls that Autumn has started naming on her own. First there was Beebee which was really just the way Autumn pronounced the word baby but it somehow morphed into the doll's name even after she started saying baby mostly correctly. I love watching Autumn feed Beebee and put her to bed. Before school Monday, Autumn tucked Beebee into her baby bed and said, "don't worry, I'll be back."


These guys have been around since before Autumn was born so it was pretty cool to watch her while she decided what she was going to call them. Here we have Baa, Two Baa (who used to be Baa Two but I have been soundly corrected as to the new name), and Bear. I'm not sure how she tells Baa and Two Baa apart but apparently she seems to. Right now Two Baa is in bed with her but Baa is in the car.


This is Mama Sheep. I have no idea why. There aren't any lambs and no papa sheep but apparently Mama Sheep is mama to all the dolls? Maybe Mama Sheep looks like me? I don't know but it cracked me up when she first started talking about needing Mama Sheep.


This is the last of the animals that Autumn has officially named. Mike's parents took Autumn to the store and let her pick out a Valentine stuffed animal. For whatever reason, out of everything she could have gotten, Autumn got a cow. When she came home, Mama Lainey told me to ask Autumn what the cow's name was. Autumn promptly responded, "it's Moo!" And so, Moo became part of the Colley family, too.


I guess names are starting to mean something to Autumn right now. I should get this on tape but she knows all of our names, too. As in, mine, Mike's, and her grandparents. It's pretty cool..."what's mama's name?" "Shawaze!" Haha. Our little miss is such a big girl!


(*a cookie to anyone who gets the warcraft reference, lol.)