PICTURES OF MY PRINCESS

The answer to you question is yes I know that some of these are the same picture just in b&w but I don't care. I love them all and couldn't choose which ones to put up and I realized that I didn't have to because this is my blog and I can post whatever my little heart desires...And guess what this is what my little heart desires.
When Monroe was a week old we took her to get her pictures taken by a fabulous photographer - Laurel Hogge, her website is http://laurelphotography.com/ I highly recommend her. We had a great time and I think the pictures speak for themselves. I am really exited for May because we are going to go back and get family pictures....

FRIDAY

Friday is always a day that I look forward to, it is the day before the weekend, so I know that I have made it another week and every other Friday, Scott is off and he lets me sleep in. Today, was no different. I was awake last night with Monroe, til sometime this morning, Scott got up and held her and fed Beckett breakfast. A little later I got up and ate some cereal too. Apparently, Beckett wasn't finished, so when I went to go feed Monroe and Scott went to the restroom, Beckett helped himself. We both heard the cereal cascading from the box onto the table and Scott says "You may want to get the camera, I am sure one day we will think this is funny." I was already on my way to capture my little angel. I love that he looks so innocent yet proud of his accomplishment. He made his own breakfast.

Unfortunately, this is a good indication of how the rest of today went. (I had just bought that box of cereal the last night so it was FULL)

I know I said that we were heading back down to STL to look at more houses, but Hemingway called us and let's face it.. We LOVE him, so we accepted the counter BUT as it turns out two more couples where coming to scope him out so we needed to sign the revised contract and get it back to our realtor ASAP to finalize the deal. I wish that it was short and sweet, but as I mentioned above the cereal was a good indication of what today had in store for us.
We left our house a little before 1 to go return some books to the library and tie up all the loose ends with the house.
Scott's computer got a virus, which has been resolved, but we can't hook up our printer to it anymore, so while Scott was at the library he printed off all of the pages that we had to sign and then we were off to the law school to use the scanner in the business office so that we could send it back to Mandy, as well as the information that we needed to send to Joe to get financed. I figured it would be pretty quick so I sat in the car while the kids napped. 20 minutes passed and I didn't really think anything of it, but 20 turned into 40 which then turned into more than an hour. In that hour Beckett woke up prematurely and was in a rotten mood, he wanted to whine but didn't want any sort of comfort from me. Everytime I did so much as look at him he screamed NO, and then cried while yelling "MY DAD". Scott came out about 10 minutes later and he was not happy. He had just sat in the library for more than an hour and NOBODY could figure out how to scan more than one page onto the scanner. The girl at the desk called all of the other libraries on campus, the IT guy and no one knew what they were doing. So we decided it would just be easier to go to FedEX-Kinkos and use their scanner. We had to make a quick stop by McD's because we were all starving.
We finally made it to Kinkos & Scott ran in & made it back to the car in record time. I was amazed...until I saw his face, apparently Kinko's only has 1 scanner and it was being used by some girl who had no intention of being done anywhere in the near future. So, we decided to drive down the road and go to the other FedEX-Kinkos. Well wouldn't you know a cop decided to pull someone over for speeding, right in the middle of the 2 lane road. So traffic was at a stand still. A trip that should have taken 3 minutes took almost 20...ARGH! So we get to Kinko's and Scott runs in and once again returns to the car in record time, the look on his face was the same but different. You could almost see the steam rushing from his ears. The scanner here was broken. He went to call Mandy to get her fax number but he couldn't find his phone. We JUST had it right before he went into the other Kinkos. Well, he used my phone ,that was almost completely dead, and got her number. He ran in and came right back out. It was going to cost almost $20 to fax the stupid contract because it was long distance. Tell me does it really cost that much to FAX something??? Ridiculous! He decided that since we already had to go back to the other Kinkos, to retrieve his phone, that we would just wait for the scanner. By the time we drove to the other Kinkos A LOT more time has passed, Monroe had a super dirty diaper and was crying, Beckett was sick and tired of being in the car, had thrown a vitamin water across the car, was wet & screaming and both Scott and myself were struggling to stay sane. He came back out and his phone was NOT in Kinkos, the girl was still using the scanner, he ended up faxing the contract for a ridiculous amount of money and to top it off, in the heat of the moment at the last Kinkos he had left his debit card in the machine. I ran into to the store to call the other store to see if they could grab our debit card so nobody would take it, while Scott called ATT to cancel service to his "stolen" phone. We went back to Kinkos, got his card and finally made it home. The trip ended up taking us about 4 hours! As I was getting out of the car I picked up our trash from McD's and there on the floor was Scott's phone. He was able to reconnect the service so no harm done, but it was a REALLY stressful 4 hours. I am happy to report that no one was hurt through out the course of the day, Beckett was happy to get out of the car, Monroe was taken care of and we are resolved to go buy our own fax machine/scanner/printer so that we NEVER have to go to Kinkos again.

It's funny but the day sort of ended the same way that it started. Scott heated up some Mac & Cheese for dinner, but apparently he didn't give Beckett enough, so he took it on himself to get more.

At least this time he got most of it in the bowl.

Remember how I said that we were never going to go to Kinkos again...I lied. We never sent the info to the lender for financing so while Scott went to go return the movie to the Redbox @ Meijer he went to the FedEX-Kinkos on the West side. And sure enough they did not disappoint. Apparently, he tried scanning our W-2s but the computer could not digitize them. It kept adding arrows and random characters to replace the letters. He ended up having to make copies of the w-2s and then faxing those too.

Beckett & Monroe

Monroe: Beckett whatchya doin?

Beckett: Monroe, this is no time to ask questions. I will teach you all that I know... in time. And when I say in time I just mean when mom isn't watching.

Beckett: For now can we just enjoy each others company? Mom, you may want to take a picture just to remind us how much we love each other.

Q: What has brown hair, blue eyes and is green?

A: Beckett once he realizes that Monroe gets to use some of his favorite things.

Since Monroe has started to hold her head up really well I decided that yesterday was a good day to break out the BUMBO. Beckett and I went down to the basement, got it out of the box, brought it upstairs and let Monroe try it out. Less than 3 seconds of her little bum settling into the nice rubber bottom Beckett was trying to throw her out. He kept saying "my bummo", while pushing her out. The moment I grabbed her (to prevent him from doing any harm) he sat in it as if to say, "that's right women, this is my throne". I can't believe he remembers that it once was his. It's a shame, I really wish he would have forgotten, I am afraid that this is going to be one of those memories that he is going to have to suppress, because the Bumbo is for the baby. Hopefully he will be willing to share and it won't have to be too extreme. But truthfully, Monroe wasn't too keen on the whole sitting thing so I am not going to pursue this battle until I have to.

Monroe is starting to smile when she sees us, not just when she has random gas bubbles.

Our realtor just called to let us know that "good" Tim just called and really wants to work with us on Hemingway. He said that he will drop the price and pay our closing costs and we will never have to deal with bad Tim ever again...

STL Pictures - Spring Break 2009

MMMMM...Milkshake

Signing away our life...well our first contract on the first house that we really wanted.

Our little family...

Daddy-Daughter twinkie day

Staring contest, gazing into each others eyes...I don't know.

Pop-pop & Monroe

Aunt MaryAnn, Me, Monroe & Shaniqua

Naptime

The 1st meeting between Monroe & Uncle Eric

Did I mention Uncle Eric is CRAZY!

HOUSE HUNTING HORRORS

I thought house hunting was supposed to be fun. I thought we would have options that we could choose from. I thought there would be something within our price range where we would like to live. I am not so gung-ho on finding a house after the past week of what can be summarized as a wasted week, full of super charged emotions. Last Sunday, Scott, Beckett, Monroe and myself jumped in the car and drove down to STL to look at houses. We had been reviewing listings and weeding ones that we were interested in out, needless to say we were optimistic when we had more than 20 perspective homes. Our realtor, Mandy Nickens (I mention her name because she is amazing and if anyone is in the STL market we highly recommend her), cleared her entire week so that she would be there for us. Monday we went and looked at 15 houses and 10 more on Tuesday. We decided that we had found 1 house that we would even be interested in...Hemingway. It was a beautiful brick/stone ranch on a cul-de-sac. The inside needed some updating but we were so excited about all of the possibilities.
So on Wednesday, we met with our lender and got everything started and pre-approved. Mandy called the agent on Hemingway and they had another couple who looked at the house that day and there was an appt for another showing on Thursday. Well, that was just enough pressure to make us act so we wrote up a contract (for what they were asking) and submitted it. WE WERE GIDDY. We had just taken a HUGE step and we were excited that we could be homeowners in a short amount of time. Around 10pm that night Mandy called and said that she had news (not good, not bad, just news) According to FHA policy the seller of the home has to have owned the home for at least 90 days before a contract is accepted. The home had been on the market for 45 days so we would have to wait another 45 days, the bad news is that if someone came thru with a conventional loan they could steal it from us...but that wasn't it, we could have lived with that, there was a twist...the people who were selling Hemingway hadn't closed on it yet, so they didn't technically own it. Yup that's right, they hadn't closed so we would have to wait 90 days after they closed before they could accept our offer. Mandy diligently talked to all parties involved and we worked out a deal that we would close with the original owner. Just so the next part is a little less confusing, there are 3 partners who play the part as "the middle man" Tim, Tim and Kim. The Tims are distinguished as good Tim and bad Tim. So the next day (Thursday) we get a call that there is another couple who had submitted a contract and bad Tim calls and is a HUGE jerk. The original owner is still living in the house and they want him out asap but they can't move him into the condo until we close on the property so they wanted to move the closing up from the end of May to April so we move it up a month, to April 21st. He calls back and says that he wants to know if we can do anything better. So he tells Mandy to have us resubmit our "best offer" on a new contract. Mandy called good Tim and he said that the price was not the problem and that it was really the closing date; so we agreed to close April 2nd (2.5 weeks from the day) and we kept the price where it was. Bad Tim called back and said "I thought we said that we were going to make our best offer" as if to say that that wasn't good enough and that we were just wasting his time. He then says that he doesn't want to pay closing costs and insists that if we want closing costs paid for then they would raise the price of the house 5K, so that we could essentially finance our closing costs. We didn't want to be bullied out of Hemingway so we agreed. It was so petty and it would only increase our monthly payment by 20 dollars. They accepted our offer, it was ours, contingent on our inspection, which occurred on Friday morning.
It was a good inspection considering that the house was 50+ years old, but there were a lot of little projects... and some bigger projects. Like grounding the electrical system, replacing the oven, fixing some of the plumbing, replacing all of the outlets throughout the entire house....Mandy was gracious enough to take us out on Monday to look at 7-8 more listings so that we could compare more houses to Hemingway. She also called in one of the electricians that she works with to get a bid on the house. After a lot of debating, analyzing, praying and asking for lots of advice we decided to withdraw from our contract in hopes of finding something a little newer, that would entail less maintenance.
After realizing that we may not come back down before we move there we decided to give in and look at apartments. We looked at some complexes but nobody wants to do short term leases...How frustrating. We left STL around 3:00 and headed home which got us home around 1:30 this morning.
At noon I got a call from Mandy and supposedly she talked to good Tim and Kim and they were really upset that bad Tim was such a jerk and they apologized and confronted bad Tim, which lead him to call Mandy and offer to drop the price to the original listing price...but in his jerky way insisted that we call him back within 30 minutes...We still passed.
You would think that this would be the end of the story, but really it is only the middle. Along with the counter offer on Hemingway Mandy sent us another listing. It is a house a little further out that is a brand new house, never lived in that is selling for less than Hemingway. SO we are heading out tomorrow, back to STL, to look yet again at several more houses that just came onto the market. ARE WE CRAZY? We just want a place to live!!!!!

TO BE CONTINUED...

Last Saturday we were all going crazy from being inside all day, everyday so when Scott got home we went to Meridian Mall so that Beckett could go and play in the little kids corner. While we were there we did a little shopping. Children's Place had jeans on sale for 7.99 so we picked up a few pairs, along with a new shirt and tie for B. He has outgrown all of his current button up shirts/suits. The next day we tried them on him to make sure that they fit. It is hard to believe but Beckett wears a 3T on top but, still can't fit into a most 2T pants. He looks like he has a little baby bump. I love it.
Beckett pretending to be DADDY, while talking to Daddy on the phone, even though he is the "photographer".

You have to see the full picture in order to full appreciate the situation. Phone, dress shirt (w/tags), tie, pajamas and don't forget the shoes. Now that is what I like to call dressed for any occasion.

Yesterday was one of the best days ever, not only did I get to sleep in (WE LOVE WHEN DADDY IS HOME) but I woke up to an absolutely GORGEOUS day. The sun was shining & it was in the 70s. It felt so good to open the windows and get some fresh air. I feel like we have been shoved in our apartment like a bunch of sardines. Here we are chillin' in bed.

-- ACTION SHOT --

Beckett has reached the stage of dressing (and undressing) himself. He LOVES to take off his shirt and you can't really tell but if you look closely at his waist band you can see his (white) diaper, (dark blue) pants and (light blue) shorts. He has decided that you're not cool unless you wear a pair of shorts over your pants.

Also you're only cool if you have the cajones to take of your clothes in "public". A few weeks ago we were over at Erika's and Beckett insisted on removing his shirt the entire time he was there. I was slightly embarrassed, fortunately she didn't judge, but I am afraid now that he is capable of removing his own clothes, that he will be donning the bare belly A LOT. I wonder if there is a way to attach a disclaimer to him, or duct tape his shirt down. I wish I could find onesies that are big enough for him. I wasn't the only one who needed some fresh air. Scott and Beckett both got their motorcycles out and went for a little ride.

I noticed today that Monroe has a really severe case of dandruff; well, she has dry skin on her scalp. I got out my Curel belly cream and lathered her up her little forehead. I couldn't pass up the photo-op

Beckett then decided that he couldn't pass up the photo-op either. He stood there and said cheese until I took a picture of him too.