The Schulte Family: June 2012

Upates

There has been so much going on lately that I have added lots of new blogs and 4 new albums! Scroll down to see all of the blogs.

Since we really don’t have a house to maintain this summer we are planning on having lots of fun with the kids. The last few months (really since the house went on the market in Feb), were not so fun for them. We started off memorial day weekend by staying down at crown center and going to a kids music festival. We then hit the new LEGOLAND and aquarium. As you can imagine, LEGOLAND was a huge hit for our family! I have learned that I think I like Legos as much as the kids and I cant wait to do them either!! Then on Sunday night we headed across the street for Celebration on the Station which is fireworks and music by the KC Symphony. All in all a great weekend.

Payton also just got done with Invention Camp this summer. This was his second year and I think he loved it as much as last year! They got to take apart things and see how they worked, make inventions with recycled items and make a town called Magnetropolis that was powered by magnets and electricity!

Easton just moved up to the 3 year old room at day care so he feels like a big boy now and he likes having Payton at his school over the summer. Payton has gone on a ton of field trips already! They went to the zoo, swimming twice a week, movies, TBones baseball game and all kinds of fun stuff!

MOVING!!!

We moved! Well, sort of. We are kind of in between moves right now!

As I am sure everyone knows(and is probably way sick of hearing about!), we have been wanting to move for years and pretty much actively looking to move for 2 years now. Even last spring we got preapproved for a home loan and thought we were ready to go. But when it came down to it, we just were not ready to make the leap. (We dearly loved our old house, but our family needed more space, and the open layout was great when the kids are little, but as they get older, probably not so much!) But in the meantime we had gone though tons of model homes to figure out exactly what we want. (Since we have been doing this for 2 years, you can bet we are pretty specific about what we want now!!) So, this past fall/winter we decided it was time to pull the trigger and finally do it. Well, then it was close to the holidays and having the house show ready over the holidays didn’t sound that much fun!

Right after the first of the year we got a storage unit and decluttered a bit and put a bunch of stuff in storage. One of the main reasons we were moving is that we were busting at the seams of our house…and it showed! So, we got it looking spiffy and got it on the market. It looked so good then I would have bought it! Apparently I did a good of getting it ready because the the stagers showed up they said we didn't need to change anything!

If you have ever had the house on the market with kids, you know how much not fun it is! I literally vacuumed almost nightly and shampooed carpets weekly! (I still work full time as well). The main inconvenience though was over half of our 4-6 showings a week were anywhere from 15-30 minutes notice! We spent a lot of time eating out or at my moms house! Luckily the house sold in 43 days and closed 40 days later, which I guess is relatively quick these days, but it got old, quick! During this time we were going through the process of finding a new home. We already knew we were going to build, so we had to find a subdivision and a house we wanted! We were really having internal struggles on deciding what we wanted (that also fit in the budget). We really thought we had one picked out, but the more we looked at it closely, we realized that parts of it didn’t really work for our family. Our goal of this house is so that our family can grow into it. We didn’t want to be in the same position in a few years where we were running out of space. The other house looked great, but we started looking closer, we realized that there really wasn’t that much storage, and the pantry wasn’t that great. And while the master closet was amazing and had more room then we could probably ever need (and that is alot!), the kids rooms were really small. We kept looking and decided that we need to find one that not just wowed us, but first prioriy was that it ‘worked’ for our family and how we lived. I think what we found does both! Then, we found a subdivision that is almost right across from the school and has awesome ammenities! It is only a few blocks from our old house. We are SO VERY EXCITED! The fun part is starting now and getting ready to pick everything out. Do you know we get to decide which way every single door swings?! How crazy is that! I never dreamed we would be that involved!

So, since the house sold and closed in May, and the new house not done until late summer, we were homeless! We had started looking into apartments when my mom kept offering for us to stay with her. I called her up one night and said, I know you are being nice, but are you 100% sure you want us there. Really think about what that means. It means giving up your quiet house and having a little chaos for a few months! Then I talked to Justin and basically left it up to him. He was all for it and thought it was a good idea! So, we all moved in with mom! And it has gone great! We have plenty of room and the kids love it! (And I think mom enjoys having us (who am I kidding, having the boys, there!) It has given us a chance to relax a bit from all of the stress of moving and such and just enjoy the summer. Easton has been a bit confused since the move. He isn’t sad, but sometimes he will ask why we are not going to his house. The move didn’t seem to faze Payton at all. He was a huge help on moving day and is really excited for his new room and yard. They love to run around the dirt piles at the new lot.

The packing and the move itself were pretty stressful. I think I literally lost it a few times. Justin was working, a LOT. So I literally packed every single box we had, except 1! It was a lot of very late nights of packing!! I also had to decide with everything, was it going in storage, or did we need it the next few months. At the end we were sleeping on an air mattress, eatting on the floor with paper plates! Looking back now though, it was kind of fun!

We also had the dilemma of what to do with all of our stuff! We got portable storage units (3 total) that are filled with our belongings and they will be delivered to the new house. They are currently in a warehouse. We hired movers to move all of the furniture into them and will have movers help unload them on the back end when we move into the new house.

I will add new pictures as the build goes along to see the stages of the new house!

Easton turns 3!!

My feisty little red head is now 3!! It seems like now that he is 3, overnight he just became a big boy!

Interesting 3 facts about Easton:

1. He now has 3 freckles on his nose (which he calls pretzels!)

2. The numbers from when he was born are all divisible by 3. 6-9-9, and the numbers of his 3rd birthday all increase by 3. 6-9-12

3. He has had 3 surgeries in 3 years!

4. He is 33 pounds!

He also still adores his big brother (but now fights with him a lot as well!). He has started actually calling him Payton. But he will usually start out still calling him P-P. It usually goes like this when trying to get his attention, P….P.…P-P, Payton!

Easton pretty much chatters non-stop. He can and will do anything that the bigger kids are doing. Right now he is really into coloring and building blocks. He still has the funniest personality and tells people that he is silly.

This year for his birthday, we decided that instead of doing a big party, we were just going to go to a park and play. There has been so much going on with the move that we thought simple was better. Justin thought we could just skip a party, which I told him he was just crazy! Birthdays are special and need to be treated so! So we had sort of a mini party at a local park and it worked out great. Easton is really into Little Einsteins right now, so we did a Little Einsteins themed cake, etc. Then on Sunday, the 4 of us went to Schiltterbaun waterpark for a day of fun! I think he had a good time and he has told me numerous times that he really likes birthday cake! I think that boy has a sweet tooth! So the opposite of his health nut brother!!

Spring 2012 and end of school year fun!

Payton is now a second grader! The end of the school year is always busy with fun end of year activities. This year we had a huge fundraiser that I volunteered on, for the school and it was a family walk a thon and silent auction. It was a huge success and I think the families ha d a good time. The end of the year also brought Grandparents day and the book fair. So grandma got to go and have lunch with Payton and then he talked her into getting him some more books. He is a pretty good negotiator like that! The last week of school is filled with awards ceremonies, field days and last day of school parties! Not sure much learning gets done that week! (Or work for that matter as parents go to a lot of these activites!!)

Spring also brought on another season of soccer. Paytons team went undefeated this year! He played the same league that he did for football and really enjoyed it. He has improved a lot the last year or so. As soon as soccer was over, he started tennis, which runs pretty much up until football season. So, there go all of our weekends until about November! He is still doing swimming weekly and loves it. It is the one sport that he would do all day, everyday if you let him. I probably need to start looking into swim teams, but there is a much larger time commitment and I am just not sure if we (meaning me) is ready for all of that yet!