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Cousins visit!

March 29, 2015, 5:41 am
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My cousin Danielle and her kids, Zoe and deacon, stayed at our house last night as a half way stop on their way to visit family in Minnesota. It was so fun to see them and the kids had a great time playing together!
Danielle went downstairs while we were cleaning up after breakfast and found these 3 all "sleeping" in bed together :)
And then they started ring a round the rosy and were on repeat over and over :)
So fun!
They were spinning so fast and all got pretty dizzy- thankfully there were no injuries!! Just lots of giggling :)
Thanks for stopping over Danielle! 

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March Madness!

April 2, 2015, 7:18 pm
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I'm 2 days late for this post since its not March anymore... but we continued our tradition of Buffalo Wild Wings and watching basketball together during March Madness. Kate got to join in this year and was just as excited as her sister! She kept looking around and seemed confused as to why she was in the highchair in the living room but ate her wings really well. Her appetite right now is HUGE! Erin's has diminished lately so Kate will eat her meal and then will often eat part of Erin's too!!
 Shane is willing to do anything to get to watch more basketball- including cleaning up the mess that both girls make by eating in the living room :)


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mama/baby look alike

April 4, 2015, 6:56 pm
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Kate and I last week. Love her blue eyes!
Erin and I when she was right around the same age as Kate now. Erin had a lot more hair! 
These girls continue to be very different from each other and it really is a humbling experience. So many things that we had "figured out" while parenting Erin now don't work at all for Kate. We are always learning and I guess thats good right?! :) 


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Red robin date :)

April 5, 2015, 11:35 am
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How cute are they?!! Getting so big!
Jack tried to go in for a kiss :)
Lots of giggling!!!
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Our "big" Easter celebration

April 6, 2015, 10:48 am
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We had a super duper low key Easter celebration this year. I was working, Shane was in the church nursery, Kate was cuddly with the nursery workers (not normal!!) and then threw up all in her crib after her nap, and Easter lunch for Shane and the girls consisted of spaghetti o's :)
 We did manage to throw together a little Easter egg hunt for the girls after supper. It was really cold but Erin still had a great time!
 She kept yelling "Found another one!!" over and over.
 Kate perked up after her puking episode and spotted a few eggs outside as well
 but quickly lost interest 
and really just wanted to play with the little car. 
Unfortunately Kate woke up with a 101 temp this morning and is going on a 3 hr nap so she's got some sort of bug. Poor baby. 



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Big news!

April 7, 2015, 7:28 pm
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So..... We are moving to Sioux Falls, South Dakota!! Shane was offered a job within US Bank (his employer now) but located in Sioux Falls and we decided to make the move!
To say we have mixed emotions would be a severe understatement. We hate the thought of moving away from our family and friends here. We are so sad when we think about that aspect. But we have a lot to look forward to there and are really excited for this next step. We have thought and prayed about this a lot and feel as ready as we can be for how God is leading us as a family.
We really don't have a set timeline for the move- a lot depends on selling our house here and buying a house there but Shane's first day there will be June 29. We met with our realtor here and plan to get our house on the market in the next few days. And we've been in contact with a realtor there and are looking at houses online and plan to make a trip out there to house hunt in early May.
Shane is excited about his new job and his new co-workers and we are thankful that everything about this job seems like a good fit for him. He will be doing a lot of what he does now (credit analysis) but then also meeting with existing bank clients and maintaining the bank relationship with them.
My last work day will be April 30 and I'm planning to take a few months off to pack up here and then to help the girls adjust once we move there. I will have to change my nursing license to a South Dakota one once we move but I'm pretty much a pro at that now as I've had Iowa, Illinois, and Wisconsin nursing licenses already :) So then once Erin starts preschool I'm guessing I will look for childcare and job search. We'll see what happens!
The timing of this move is turning out to be really great as far as my work goes. It is actually unbelievable. I found out at work last week Wednesday that my unit at the hospital is going to be completely changing in June. Its been a GI/Medical unit since I started almost 7 years ago but will be changing to an "outpatient unit". And by outpatient it doesnt mean less sick or fewer medical problems. What it means is that these patients are actually probably quite sick but don't qualify for inpatient status based on insurance qualifications for whatever reason... blah. We don't have a ton of details about what it will be like but basically my co-workers will be admitting people only to have to find placement (nursing home vs rehab) for them or send them home within the next day even if they haven't recovered from their illness. I am not really interested in all that paperwork or that quick of turn-over of patients AT. ALL. So yea I'm feeling really good about not having to try to figure out what I'm going to do with work here. I will definitely miss my co-workers though. I'm hopeful that I can find such supportive co-workers in whatever I do next. And I will definitely enjoy my time home with my girls for the next few months. How great that it will be over summer! Yay!
We are trying to take 1 step at a time and right now thats getting our house clean for hopefully a lot of showings next week! My girls are not so good at keeping things clean though so this has been a challenge :)
And a pic of our girls at bedtime just because there should always be a photo right?! :)

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Pepper!

April 12, 2015, 4:40 am
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We've been dog sitting Pepper this past week and the girls have been loving it!!
Erin is very interested in taking care of pepper, feeding her, putting her out, and giving her the daily medicine she takes.
Kate continues to LOVE following her around and gets so excited to see her every day!
She even thought she was a dog for a while :)
We got some walks in with pepper too!


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BIG weekend!

April 13, 2015, 11:02 am
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We had quite the weekend over here! So many good things! Friday morning we put our house on the market and had showing requests start almost immediately... It was a bit overwhelming trying to get Erin, Kate, and Pepper out of the house and have everything spotless and put away within the 1 hr notice I got. But we made it! The showings continued all weekend long.
Saturday morning we went to visit shanes grandpa kuiper and Pauline in Racine.
The girls loved his barn and tractor
Climbing on everything 
And just walking around the farm
We were able to spend Friday, Saturday, and Sunday at shanes parents house which worked out extremely well!! The girls did really well with being away from home so much but Kate got pretty overtired from not napping as well and needed a lot of rocking to stay asleep one afternoon. I don't get to hold her for naps hardly ever anymore so I definitely enjoyed it too :)
Saturday night we went to the brewer game with some friends and had a hectic, fun time :) 
Everyone smiled except the little stinker who just had to chew on the pop lid :)
The girls all LOVED the play place at the game!
Shoulder rides, silly faces, and a brewer win make for a happy daddy and daughter!
My little buddy. Thank goodness she still loves this carrier. Otherwise she wants to walk everywhere and I mean everywhere!!  She continues to be very active with no fear!
Sunday after church and lunch we walked around on the golf course behind shanes parents house. Shane was loving Erin's interest :)
Kate was not quite as interested and picked a great spot to sit and play- right in shanes way so he had to take a little break :)
So in between all these fun things we got 2 offers on our house and then accepted a great offer on Sunday! We are so very thankful that selling our home went so smoothly! We plan to close on this house on Thursday June 25. Now it's time to start seriously looking in Sioux Falls!




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Monkey joes and haircuts!

April 20, 2015, 4:45 pm
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Grandma Dooyema took Erin to monkey joes and lunch last week and Erin had a great time! She was so excited and asked me like 100 times that morning when grandma was coming!
Then on Saturday Shane took both girls to get haircuts while I worked. This was kates first haircut and she did well! She just got a little trim in the back because it was getting pretty long compared to her front hair and was starting to look funny!
Both girls with grandma dooyema showing off their new haircuts! Erin likes her hair shorter because then she doesn't get as many tangles :)

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3.5 year update

April 22, 2015, 7:43 pm
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Erin is officially 3.5 years old and continues to amaze us with her knowledge and how quickly she learns! Her favorite things to do right now include playing outside, making her sister laugh, having friends over, wearing her princess dresses all day long, going to swimming lessons, and being told stories (Shane and I are running out of story ideas... Theres only so many stories you can tell!) She loves to spend time with her daddy too and had a great time with him at a Brewer game last week with Ben and Conner Buteyn and all these pics are from that night.
Love these daddy-daughter nights!
Erin seems to have grown up so much in the last few months. She is very helpful around the house and cleaned off the entire table the other day after lunch all by herself! I didn't even have to ask her to do it!! She loves playing with Kate (usually) and is really helpful with her too. And Erin has been much better at sharing toys with Kate than the other way around :)
She was a blur on the slide! She is really brave with slides and playground equipment and loves to climb on things (as long as mom or dad are close by :)
Erin seems to be controlling her emotions better in the last few weeks too. Being 3 has been very up and down for her... so many emotions. But the other day I was washing her hair in the bath and she said "I'm not even crying at all mom! :)
Erin is talking non-stop now and Shane and I can barely get a sentence in at supper time without her starting to talk again. Some of the funniest things she says include her descriptions of time. She loves to say "every day" or "all day" and most of the time it doesn't really make sense. She also gets confused with yesterday, last week, and tomorrow. The other day we were playing doctor and she told me "you have to take this medicine all day mom for 10 weeks" :) Erin is very good at reading the clock though! She knows that a 7 means it's ok to get up and is adamant that we must all get up when it's a 7. And an 8 means it's getting late at night and bedtime. She probably averages 1 nap per week and it always seems to happen at Judy's house. At home she has rest time and will play in her room for like 20-30 minutes until it's a "3 on the clock" in her words :)

Erin and Conner having lots of fun after lots of sugar :)
Erin's favorite foods continue to be Mac and cheese, yogurt, string cheese, milk, and any dessert. Her appetite is definitely smaller than it used to be and she takes a while to eat her meals because she talks a lot and likes to stall. 
She has some cute nicknames for Kate and either called her "little", "little butter", "Kate-Kate", "Katers" or "Kate Rebecca". 
She also loves to read books, ride her tricycle and big girl bike outside, paint, play barbies, play with her little people toys, and jump on the bed. Her favorite tv show right now is Dora and she told me the other day "Dora teaches me Spanish mom!" Shane and Auntie Jana would both be pretty happy if that were really true :)
How cute are they?! Such a good dad!
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15 months!

April 30, 2015, 6:57 pm
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Kate is such a little lady all of a sudden! Definitely no more baby even though I still think of her as my baby :) She loves to give hugs and kisses thoughout the day but is really only cuddly at bedtime now. She's much to busy during the day to cuddle :)  Our nap time/bedtime routine is the biggest change in the last few weeks. We have been rocking her to sleep basically since birth and it was starting to take way too long. She wouldn't settle and just kept putting her fingers in my mouth and giggling or pulling my hair. It was time for her to put herself to sleep for sure. So I gave her a little bunny blanket lovie thing and she cuddles it by her cheek and lays right down with no crying at all (usually :)! The transition went super easy and we are very thankful! She sleeps from 7:30pm-7:30am and usually naps from 12:30-2:30ish. 
Kate has developed some strong opinions and LOVES to tease us lately. She will act like she's coming to give us a hug or to actually listen when we tell her its time to get dressed or have her diaper changed but then she will quickly turn around and run the other way! Stinker! She understands absolutely everything that we say to her and its so interesting that she is so little but understands so much!
Kate LOVES to wear hats and really anything on her head or neck lately! She continually wants to wear her coat or sweatshirt just on her head like a cape, multiple hats at a time, Shane's usher name tag as a necklace, dish towels over her head, and this animal string we have thing draped over her shoulder and arm. 
 She was adamant that she wanted both of these hats on too :)
 Kate-Kate is too cute! Her solid cheeks show that her appetite is quite good lately and she basically eats anything. There are sometimes when she decides she doesn't want something that she ate tons of the day before but thats pretty rare. She has FINALLY graduated from bottles (yikes that took a long time!) and now drinks from a special transition sippy cup that is supposed to help picky babies like her stop bottles. She drinks whole milk now (but it must be warmed) 4x/day. I weaned her morning nursing session a few weeks ago and stopped her bedtime nursing session this week. She didn't seem to care that much about it anymore and I was ready for a break. I'm a little bit disappointed that I didn't make it as long as I did with Erin because these times of nursing an older baby are so easy and relaxing and such a nice time with just my baby but I did a little math and figured out that I've either been pregnant or nursing for 51 of the last 53 months.... oh. my. 
 Trying to put it on herself :) Kate's favorite things to do are play baby dolls and carry them around, read books with flaps that she can flip open, jump on the bed, pretend to sleep on pillows, pet dogs and see bunnies in our backyard, and be up on the couch or chair. She has a large dislike for getting in the car seat, being told she has to come inside, and sharing with her sister....
So smiley and so drool-y :) Kate got her 2 top molars this past month and the drooling was crazy. She still loves to put everything in her mouth but I've fished so many things out of her mouth that when I ask her now "Kate do you have something in your mouth?!" She usually will open up her mouth and sticks out her tongue with whatever she has in her mouth :) She only says a few words right now- "Dada", "up", and "Bob" :) with a rare "mama" but most definitely gets her point across with a lot of pointing and grunting. I read Erin's 15 month update and Erin knew a ton of body parts but I can't say that Kate really knows any or at least won't point to them when we ask her. But I also wrote that Erin had just stopped crawling and now was walking everywhere at 15 months and Kate has been doing that for months already so clearly we have very different girls :) Kate definitely loves her sister though. If I forget to have her give Erin a kiss before her nap or bedtime she will grunt and point at the door until I do and as soon as she gives Erin a kiss she is happy :) And if Erin is upset and crying Kate will try to pat her back and give her a kiss too. I'm so glad they have each other!!
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Last day of work!

May 3, 2015, 7:31 pm
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 I've been at WMH for almost 7 years and had my last day there this week! It feels very weird! I had my manager fill out a form for when I apply for a South Dakota nursing license and it asked for how many hours I had worked during the years at my current job. Over 9000 hours! That is a lot of taking care of people! So many stories and patients and families and very busy days.

 I was telling Erin the other day that I was not going to be going to work for a while and she said "but who will take care of the sick people mommy?!" Such a caring little girl! I love that she knows that I help sick people feel better. I told her that my nurse friends would be taking care of them and that I was just taking a little break but would probably help more sick people after we moved. That seemed to make her happy and she said "that's good you have a break mommy- you can rest now" :) Being a nurse is both emotionally and physically hard but can also be very rewarding. It's so hard to describe.

But I do think it will be really nice to be able to be home with the girls while we pack and transition to Sioux Falls. I'm so curious what kind of work I will find once we settle in! Hopefully less weekends and holidays for sure, but then that also means Shane won't have the girls by himself near as much as he does now and we both know that it has been such a special and positive thing. So many things to consider....
There are 3 nurses leaving our unit in the next month so we had a little dinner out to reminisce and say goodbye. It was such a fun night! You become quite close to your co-workers when you are dealing with life and death issues on a daily basis and spending weekends and holidays together. I will definitely miss them all!
We are so very thankful for Bob and Judy! We always knew our girls were very well taken care of while we were both working and can't thank them enough.
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The house hunt...

May 5, 2015, 12:52 pm
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Shane and I made a quick trip up to Sioux Falls to house hunt this past weekend. We looked through 8 houses in the morning, quick had lunch, saw 2 more houses, went through 2 of the morning houses again and then made an offer on our favorite house. Unfortunately we did not get the house so we are now trying to decide what to do... Hopefully we will see something come on the market soon and then will send our realtor through and make an offer based on her recommendations and pictures. Yikes!! The other option is to rent for a while but wow that sounds challenging so we will see.
We got to see lots of family while we were there but only Caleb made it into a picture :) 
So many girls and grandpa :)
Erin and Addison playing outside.
Grandpa and grandma Dooyema babysat our girls and they had a great time! They loved playing with their cousins too! So so glad we didn't have to take our girls along- it would have been very difficult! Thanks for watching them mom and dad d!
Grandma tried to have a photo shoot before church and the pictures were too funny! This happens to me every single time too! :)


Lol!!!

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Tulip time

May 13, 2015, 1:02 pm
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We went to Pella's Tulip Time last weekend and it was SO. MUCH. FUN! We haven't been back for 5 years and it was definitely time. Erin and Kate were at prefect ages and loved everything!
Wednesday night was the Klompen Classic. A huge run/walk in downtown Pella to start off Tulip Time. We walked in the adult Klompen Classic and Erin ran in the kids race. We didn't have huge expectations since she had never done any kind of race and was in a new place and didn't know anyone but she did amazingly! 
She took off running and ran the 2 blocks and finished the race! She was so proud and so was I :) We zoomed this picture in so you can't see anyone else running but there were tons of little girls in her age group!! She started towards the back of the pack too because I didn't want her to get trampled in case she got scared and stopped but I definitely should have started her towards the front!!
Thursday was scrubbing streets  
Kate was very interested and was watching everything!
Erin was very serious about getting the streets clean and was so cute to watch!
The parades were huge hits with both girls! Erin was yelling "Thats a REAL horse mom!!" in this pic :) Kate was very very interested in all the horses in the parade too! They both loved the marching bands and all the floats too. The Tulip Time parades are pretty amazing (I might be a bit biased :)
Erin loved all the tulip time food too! The strawberry slushy and poffertjes were definitely her favorite things!
Wooden shoes!
 The Dooyema ladies in our dutch costumes. I wore both of these costumes when I was growing up!
On saturday we walked in the baby parade. The baby parade is just part of the regular parade but everyone dresses up their babies and pushes them in strollers. The saturday parade was super duper busy and everyone loves seeing babies dressed up in dutch costumes :)
Cousins!
How cute is this girl?! She was adamant about taking a picture in the tree :)
We all got to watch the rest of the parade after we were done with the baby parade. It was amazing weather all weekend which was great!


 Kate and Erin love cousin Caleb in case you couldn't tell :) 
 but he had had a little too much cousin love at this point :)
Grandkids with grandpa and grandma and everyone is even looking in the right direction!
Shane drove up for the weekend and loved seeing the girls watch the parades too! 
Baby Caleb did so good staying up late at the night parades! My grandma had the touch and he sat so calm on her lap for most of the Saturday night parade. Erin and Kate did really pretty well too for staying up late 2 nights in a row. 
But the late nights made for 1 tired baby! She slept straight through our Mothers Day lunch! It made for a great Mothers Day present for me though- cuddling my baby :)


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15 month stats and new words!!

May 13, 2015, 1:12 pm
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Kate had her 15 month appointment a few weeks late because of Tulip Time. I don't think of her as that tall but I guess she is...
Height- 32.5 inches (95th percentile)
Weight- 23lbs 12oz (80th percentile)
She also learned 2 new words last week. She can now say "nonono" and "baby" very clearly! Unfortunately the "nonono" is pretty cute even though its usually related to trying to get her to follow directions which she is not a fan of :)
She still loves to hang out in the fridge and "organize" all of the condiments and salad dressings.
Kate is also developing more of her own opinions and has no trouble getting her point across... Pretty sure she did not want to take this picture :) 


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Rummage sale

May 20, 2015, 6:07 am
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I had a rummage sale at our house last weekend (along with some friends) and we sold quite a bit of stuff. We didn't have as many buyers as I thought but we still all did well! 
Lots of stuff! Anything that I didn't sell I sent right to Goodwill so I'm feeling great about having much less to pack up for the big move.
Anna, Erin, and Ivy enjoying a picnic lunch during the rummage.
And Kate and mason during one of their many hugs :) They were sooo cute hugging each other!! Both very lovey toddlers! 
The moms all had a nice time chatting and relaxing in the nice weather too :)

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Pics from the last week

May 29, 2015, 8:15 pm
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Lots of random pics here from the last week and a half. Kate and I didn't do too much since she had a 101 and 102 fever for 8 out of the last 11 days... But we still fit in a few fun things when she was feeling ok.
Kate did decide that she doesn't really like her highchair and wants to sit in a big girl chair like her sister... She's getting so big!!
My sick baby... So sad! We went to the doctor 2 different times but they never found a cause- said it was likely a virus or 2 different ones back to back. We were starting to get really worried!! Thankfully her fever broke yesterday evening and now she has the same cold/runny nose/ cough that her sister has.
The Giants were in town so Shane and Erin went to the Brewers vs giants game with the Dooyemas on Memorial Day and had a great time! Can you find them on the TV screen?? :)
Having front row seats greatest increases the chance of getting a ball from a player!! :) excited girls!!
We squeezed in a monkey joes visit
(a bounce house/slide play place) on Sunday while Kate was fever-free and the girls both loved it!!
Kopps! :) yum!
Erin is in swimming lessons again and loves it! She has made such amazing progress from her first lesson where she screamed and cried the whole time... :)
We brought out the sand/water table yesterday and are getting lots of good use from it! The weather here is great!
And then tonight we went to a brewer game and tailgate with some friends. So fun to have some time out with friends!


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Gymnastics

June 4, 2015, 2:00 pm
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We went to a gymnastics place for a playdate with our friends last week and had such a fun time. Erin and Kate LOVED it! Erin has asked me every day since if we can go back.
The uneven bars- I think thats what they are called- I was never very good at gymnastics :)
The trampolines were so fun!
so many fun things to play on!
Erin loved the balance beam too and wasn't scared at all


 a couple videos of the fun :)






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A zoo trip

June 6, 2015, 12:54 pm
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Our zoo pass expired so we haven't gone to the zoo in a long time but our friends let us go with them on their zoo pass on Friday :) thanks guys!!
Erin was all about giving Bennett hugs! And stroller switching was a super fun game! Who knew it was way more fun to sit in someone else's stroller?! Bennett and Kate both loved each other's stroller more than their own! :)
The goats were really fun to see- all the kids loved them (well Eleanor was sleeping but she would have loved them I bet :)
Lots of petting them and trying to feed them. They weren't super hungry but the kids still has a good time!

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House update and going away party

June 10, 2015, 6:44 pm
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Well we officially (finally!) have a house to move into! We are so very thankful it worked out! We had been scouring the listings every day trying to find a house that we left comfortable buying without seeing it in person and we were not having any luck. Our realtor and my Aunt Vonda had gone through a few houses for us (thank you Vonda!!) but each house had big question marks and we just didn't feel like we could make an offer on any of them without seeing them first. And to make the 7 hour drive without being sure about a house didn't seem to make sense either. So anyway- we had basically resorted to finding a place to rent for a few months and then house hunting once we got there. I was not pleased about this at all though... the thought of moving twice seemed daunting with our girls! But we had called multiple apartment/condo places and our realtor was looking into rental options for us to when all of a sudden we found a house!
I remember it very clearly- I was in the basement playing with the girls and Shane came downstairs and said "I think I just found our house" :) I loved it as well. It had all our requirements- 3 bedrooms on 1 level, open concept, good location, and a finished basement. We put in an offer the next day and did a tiny bit of negotiating and were all set to go. We thought. Then the inspection raised some questions so after lots of debate and stress Shane decided to make the trip out there to actually see the house in person and meet with the realtor and tie up some loose ends that the inspection found. Shane and his dad (Thanks for riding along and keeping him company Dad D!!) left Friday evening at 4, stopped to golf on the drive (super crazy plan if you ask me!! :) and got to Sioux Falls around 2am. They saw the house Saturday morning and were back on the rode by 10:30. Quick trip!
Shane had a lot of good things to say about the house and I can't wait to see it too!
Shane got back at 5:15pm and came straight to our going away party. We had a great time with our friends reminiscing about all the fun times we've had together and made sure to tell them all that they are welcome to visit us anytime and that we will be back lots :)
The kids had soo much fun playing outside! The water table was a favorite!
And the sandbox too!
Such a fun night! But unfortunately I didn't get any pics of us adults... Why is it that I only take pics of my kids now?! I need to get better at that :) 

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