Ben & Carter visit Poppa & Nana

After our wonderful visit with our precious new niece...the boys headed to the lake!

There were sea doo rides...





Lots of sliding...



Quiet moments of reflection...



(only kidding...I can't imagine Ben sitting still long enough for Adam to take this picture or the 15+ others of Ben from all angles in this spot!)

Tractor rides...





Dam building with cousins...



and Poppa chasing after lots of grandsons...



And while all of the boys were busy splashing in the water and playing in the dirt...I was "busy" relaxing at the (chilly) beach with two of my dear friends from college!

30 Day Countdown: Update

-We have arrived in Chapel Hill.

-Our belongings were loaded onto a truck on Saturday, April 28th (and are still there...somewhere...)

-We are staying in a hotel until we secure temporary housing.

-As far as we know…closing on our Richmond house took place this afternoon as scheduled.

-Closing on our house in Chapel Hill was scheduled to take place tomorrow...but that is not likely at this point.

-The moving company is scheduled to deliver our belongings by Wednesday, May 2nd. If we are unable to secure temporary housing by this time, the moving company must deliver our belongings to storage.

-Both our closing attorney and Realtor have reached out to the Seller’s agent today. He indicated that the Seller is not returning any of his messages.

-We are holding off on signing a lease until the last possible minute to give the Seller a chance to reconsider and go forward with the contract and closing.

-We took the boys by their new preschool this morning. They got to see their new rooms, play on the playground, and meet their teachers.

-Our hotel provided fried chicken and mashed potatoes for dinner tonight.
-I have cancelled all of the utility requests for the new house. If she won’t let us move in I definitely don’t want to pay any of her utilities!

Thanks for your continued prayers and support!

Stay tuned for a lighter post with pictures from Poppa & Nana's house soon...

30 Day Countdown: change of plans

I am sitting in Ben's nursery glider...but I am in our living room. It is moving day and there are random boxes and pieces of furniture all over the house. Ben is napping. Adam and Carter have just left to deliver a final load to Goodwill and to deliver the key to our house to the closing attorneys. The movers are busy carrying up box after box from the basement. And I am enjoying a quiet moment during our last afternoon in this house.

This week has flown by. I had high hopes for packing and enjoying lots of final Richmond activities...Children's Museum, Gardens, Squirrels Baseball game, several restaurants. But the past week has not allowed any of the above.
On Tuesday we received a call from our realtor and I could tell as soon as she said "hello" that she had bad news to share. The seller of our house in Chapel Hill had become unresponsive and uncooperative.

On Wednesday we learned that she did not intend on going forward with closing.

On Thursday we hired a litigating attorney and he sent a letter to the seller threatening legal action if she does not go forward with closing.

And, today, Friday, our home and all of our belongings are being boxed up and put on a truck...yet we have no idea where to tell the truck to go.

There is no update on the seller other than she is not talking to anyone. There is so much more to this story...but that is all I can share for now. The basic facts are that we have a signed contract. She is in breach of contract. We have spent lots of money to pursue this house. And now we have to find somewhere to live in Chapel Hill by next Wednesday so our movers can deliver all of our belongings.

Ben waking from nap...

Would really appreciate some prayers for this situation!

30 Day Countdown: boxes, boxes, boxes

cousins

The highlight of our trip south last week was to meet our new niece!

Camille was born on March 8th and she is just beautiful.



I say this every time I hold a newborn...but I just can't believe they are so tiny. And I can't remember my boys being that tiny. It is the sweetest thing in the world to have a newborn fall asleep in your arms and sweet Camille did that for me several times. (despite Mommy's instructions to keep her awake...) She is the cuddliest little thing. She is still very much a newborn but it was fun to walk around with her and watch her look up at the ceiling fans (a favorite for both of my boys!)...or turn her head to listen to her brothers voices...or feed her a bottle and listen to her sweet gurgles.



Check out the sweet pink surrounded by all of her boy cousins!!!



This was the first pink for the family. Seriously...no matter which direction you look...boy, boy, boy!

Susan and Warren...2 boys (before Camille, of course)
Adam and Tracy...2 boys
Gwynne's sister has two children. Both of those children have 2 boys each...so 4 more boys. (If you are keeping a tally...that would be 8 great grandsons for the Sowells! (and now one precious great-granddaughter)
Warren's brother has one boy.
Milton's wife (Nana) has two children and they both recently had their first babies...you guessed it...2 boys!
So, now the grand total is 11 boys and 1 sweet Camille! Susan jokes that in this family it is a requirement that you have 2 boys before you can have a girl. Ha!

OK...no more math. Back to fun pictures! Here is a shot of a very brave Adam taking all 4 boys out for a ride!







OK...and one more Camille picture. This is her 6 week shot. Can't get enough of all that pink!

30 Day Countdown: Little Things

There have been lots of little things lately that have made me realize how close our move is...

• buying things from the grocery store that expire after our move date
• saying the first final goodbyes
• the fact that Carter only has 3 days of school left...and Ben, 2
• we are days away from the last Monday in our house, the last Tuesday, and so on...
• only one more weekend left to attend our church
• the piles of empty boxes that will hold all of our belongings over the next few days
• goodbye parties this weekend
• confirming the movers!
• gathering all of our library books to return...but knowing there will not be a new set of library books to bring home
• eating at some of our favorite local restaurants for the last time (Sticks was delicious tonight!)
• canceling our utilities and signing up for new utility companies
• Adam is currently on his bike hanging signs for our "Moving Sale" this weekend! Yikes.  So much to do!

So why am I blogging right now??? It is such a great procrastination but I must get back to work.

30 Day Countdown: Dining Room Before & After

Well...my grand intentions of a post a day for 30 days have come and gone. Somehow when I made that promise I didn't take into account the fact that we would be traveling for 9 days! Oh well...I am going to get back on track. But, oh yeah, we move next weekend! So we will see how this goes. Just try not to hold your breath for the next post, deal?

Here are our Dining Room before and after shots...
Here is a picture from when we looked at the house. They took all of the window treatments with them. They were really nice window treatments ($$$$$$) but not my taste so I was glad to see them go. :)



I wasn't a big fan of the brown walls either. So this is where we were headed...



And this is what we got at the paint store...



Which turned into this...



You almost needed sunglasses it was so bright!

Here are paint swatches for attempt number 2...



We purchased unfinished wooden chairs and spray painted them and upholstered them.



It was this fabric that sent us down the neon green path! We still like the fabric...but I think it does better in smaller quantities.

And we filled the wall with frames of pictures I took at our Botanical Gardens.



Poppa also helped us update the light fixture! Hate to leave this one behind.



Here are my favorite after shots...







We knew neon green walls weren't for everyone so we got out the paint supplies one last time before we put it on the market and made the walls a nice neutral beige (Huntington Beige from Benjamin Moore if anyone is interested...it is the light color of the stripes in our foyer).



Next up...boys' rooms!

Grrrrrrrr...Eee Eee...Snap Snap...etc.

Tigers...Monkeys...Alligators...oh my! We had a GREAT time at the Birmingham Zoo last week!

We had really hoped to make it back to the National Zoo for one more trip before we moved (check out past trips here and here) but the days are flying by and I am so glad we made it to the Birmingham Zoo when we were down south last week. First...it always brings back so many memories. The train ride hasn't changed a bit! Although monkey island is no more...there are lots of new and improved exhibits. And I think the sea lions can still soak innocent bystanders so all is good. But enough with the trip down memory lane...it was great to see our boys enjoy the zoo. Each trip brings new discoveries for both of them. Ben actually stayed awake for this trip. Carter was still very much into the map and where we were headed next. And best of all...we got to enjoy it with Granddaddy and GG! Thanks for the special treat!

Now...on to the pictures.

At the entrance to the zoo:


Some of the animals we saw...


I am toying around with the idea of doing some big animal print pictures on a wall in one of the boys' rooms or in the playroom. Here are some possibilities for the pictures...any favorites?


Is this not the cutest lion and giraffe you have ever seen?


Watching the alligator. Now sure why we stayed here so long as the alligator showed absolutely no signs of moving an inch.


The train. Just imagine Ben saying "choo choo" over and over and over and over and over again. You get the picture?


Carter and his Granddaddy:


Granddaddy and Ben checking out the turtles:


Ben takes a ride way up high...


Merry go round time...

30 Day Countdown: the swing

Both boys have logged some serious time in this swing. 
We started both boys in the swing early...even adding a towel when they were really too small to be swinging!  And now we can't swing Carter high enough...and Ben lets out full belly squeals when we swing him high. 

30 Day Countdown: living room before & after

I thought it might be fun to show some before & after shots of several rooms in our house. I will try to post a picture from when we moved in...possibly some in progress shots...and then a picture from our MLS listing.
First up...Living Room! Here we are the weekend we moved in:


And here we are with a bold orange accent wall... This is the way it was most of the time we lived here.




We have done a lot of "living" in this room...fort building, middle of the night baby rocking, brother wrestling, tv watching (and snoozing), first crawls, first walks. Lots of good times and laughter and NOISE in this room. And finally the "for sale" shots... (bye bye fun orange wall!)