Whoa, can you say STRESS...!!!

First off, good stuff is Owen is so much fun! He is babbling so much and on the verge of saying "dada"....He is crawling backwards, and around in circles, but just can't seem to get the forward motion yet!!! haha, it is quite funny to watch though. He has been teething since 3 months but still no teeth have actually come in! Just lots of drool!

Well, lots of things have happened since I last blogged, so I will try to some this up fast. We got an offer for our house in March, it wasn't the best offer, but we took it anyways. Then we had our home inspection done up there, and the buyers wanted almost everything done on the home inspection list...our house was built in 1954...really??!! So we battled back and forth with that...all the while, we found a house we loved in Greenwood, and we made our offer on that, and the sellers accepted that. So we had to deal with that as well as the house in Chicago. On top of that, Owen got another really bad double ear infection, and his left ear drum ruptured!!! Poor baby. Then we went up the week before we were set to close on our house in Chicago all ready to move out with a moving truck, movers, and storage units ready....and we get the news that our buyers were not financed and the whole contract for the sale is voided......WOW! So our house went back on the market, and we lost the house in Greenwood as well.....

So, it has been a stressful 7 months....BUT the good news is......

We got another offer just 6 days after our house went back onto the market...It is a great offer, much better than the other two before....the only exception is, he wants our living room furniture to stay...so we are fine with that too, so we will just have to purchase some more furniture. So we except the offer, and we are set to close on our house in Chi at the beginning of June....then we made the same offer to that house in Greenwood, and they accepted, so we are back on board with that house, as long as this all goes through with Chicago's sale.

whoa, did you get all that??!!! Sooooooo prayers are still greatly appreciated until all of this mess is HOPEFULLY DONE WITH in June before we head out on vacation with my family!!!!!! Enjoy the video of Owen bouncing around!

Owen's 6 month photo shoot

My favorite picture Lydia took of Owen

Swinging with cousins

picture i took of owen playing at ryan's parents....such a happy guy!

pouty face

the rest of these photos lydia took for us! they all came out so well but here are some of my favorites!!!!

Could this be IT????!!!

Owen (6 mo) loves bath time now, especially b/c he can sit up on his own now and splash around!

Owen and I cuddling at our house in Chicago!

FARMER OWEN sitting all by himself.

His new favorite toy!

sleeping beauty.

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Always good to start a blog with pictures of Owen, my love :)

well.....

Not to JINX us, but things are starting to look better....

We got our home inspection report back from our buyers in Chicago, and they had these crazy things they wanted us to fix...like almost everything on the list!...but we THINK we have it all figured out now...so we should have things worked out to close on 4/20!!! Prayers are still very much needed b/c I am still terrified they are going to pull out and that would be devastating b/c we actually found a house in Greenwood WE love....

and....

We made an offer under the contingency we sell in Chicago sooooo this ALL better work out!

We had the home inspection in the house in Greenwood, and we had a few concerns, like the basement had really high levels of radon, so we asked the sellers to fix that, and there was a few plumbing issues as well as some of the limited siding (it is mostly brick) needed replaced...so we are just waiting to hear back to our requests on that......

sooooooo some more waiting....the story of my LIFE, but hopefully things will finally get back to normal...if all goes as planned, we will be in our new house by the middle of May!!!!!!!

LOTS of updates!!!!!!!!

Look at my big boy sitting up all by himself!!!! Cannot believe he is 6 months!

Really funny picture....captured Owen in the middle of doing his business...He makes a big production of it and it is HILARIOUS!!!! hahahaha, cannot help but laugh everytime!

Started solids with O on his 6 month birthday this past Saturday! Loves those green beans!

Owen's first ER visit...I am sure not his last!

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HELLLO everyone! We have lots of updates and SO many things going on....here's a little breakdown in case any of you care:)...

OWEN: My sweet, sweet baby boy! He is just WONDERFUL!!! He has began sitting up on his own, which is so fun for him and us....haha, until he gets tired and flops over all of a sudden to the side, but he is learning now to brace himself and slowly go down! haha! I think he may skip crawling and go straight to walking (j/k) He loves to stand and he sometimes can hold onto the couch or ottoman and we can let go for a few seconds and he stands there without us! He is just getting too big too fast!!! He can put his paci in and out on his own, but doesn't need it as much which is good. He babbles ALL the time, we are trying to teach him "mama and dada". Ryan and I have a little friendly competition going to see which one he says first!! He got weighed today and he is over 17 lbs and almost 28 inches long (50% percentile weight; 90% height). my big boy!!

O gave us a big scare this week though. He started not feeling well Saturday, and got progressively worst throughout the day Sunday. Monday night we brought him to a med check b/c he definitely seemed to have rapid breathing and wheezing. They checked him out and took a RSV test. That came back negative, but the doctor was very concerned with his breathing still, as well as his oxygen levels being low and recommended we go to the ER for a chest X-ray. Long story short, 5 hours later at the ER we found out Owen had bronchiolitis and a double ear infection. Poor guy. We have to give him breathing treatments every 4 hours for the next couple days, then we can stretch it out more. He had a rough day today, but started to perk up after his last breathing treatment. The doctor said he could go back to daycare by Friday as long as he starts feeling better and his temperature is stable. So it is cuddle time for the next two days with mommy and O :) :)

SELLING THE HOUSE: We got another offer on our house, a little better than the last one. Contracts are signed, and They are doing a home inspection tomorrow, so hopefully everything checks out okay. We are nervous since the last buyers pulled out, but we are set for an April 20th closing, so we have to get everything going and in order too. Our plan is to go up most of the weekends leading up to our closing and packing up everything that can fit in boxes. Then the weekend before closing we are going to have some family/friends help us move the furniture into a moving truck. We are going to rent for the next few months so we can just get our savings back up because unfortunately we will be losing some money with the selling of this house. But we are excited to get back out on our own again! So hopefully everything works out....

JOBS: Ryan's job is going well. He is establishing some good relationships with his clients and doing well with his sales. He works so hard, and I am very proud of him. With us moving to Greenwood, he will take a hour off his drive time each way so I know that will be really nice for him and US:) Next week, Owen will be starting a new daycare 10 minutes away from my work in Greenwood, so it makes me feel better to know he is close. I also will start working M-F but just for 6 hours each day. Once we move down there, it will be nice to just have a short drive again to work.

That about sums up our updates. Very stressful time for us, but all these challenges make us realize the important things in our lives...and I feel very grateful for my loving family and most importantly my amazing son :) :) Hope everything is going well with all of you, and if you have some time, email me back with UPDATES in your life, I want to know!!!!!!!

New Orleans and a much needed vacation!

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Ryan, Owen, and I just got back from a much needed vacation to New Orleans. Our friend, Todd, got married to a wonderful girl, Kim, and they asked Ryan to be apart of their special day as a groomsman. Ryan's parents got our flight for a Christmas present, and we used our Marriot reward points for the hotels, so it was fairly cheap vacation as well :) always nice. Since we had Owen, we did not do anything TOO crazy, but we did get to enjoy Bourbon Street (during the day!), walked around the city and went on a cemetery tour (appropriate given what my husband does for a living:) ) Todd's wedding was in Baton Rouge, so we rented a car and went up there for a couple days. The most amazing thing we did was JUST BE TOGETHER. We all take for granted the small things like this like just have a place to ourselves, but now that we are living with family, you miss that alone time you once had to just kinda do your own thing. Don't get me wrong, I love our family, and feel so grateful they are letting us stay with them... but I just miss our home together and our own things....

And we THOUGHT for a second that our prayers were answered b/c the last day of our trip, our realtor called and said we got an offer!! It was a low-ball offer, but at last, a true offer! So we countered back and forth that whole day, and finally came to an agreement, ALOT lower than we wanted, but we were just happy to be done with this!!! So we flew home and signed the paper, and faxed them back to our realtor. The next day....She called and said the buyers are having second thoughts....so long story short...THEY PULLED OUT of the offer and our house is still up for sale going on 5 1/2 months :( :(

So to be honest, I am just so stressed out with this whole situation. I never thought we would still be doing this all for this long....I really really do try and stay positive but it has been so hard, and I am so fearful we are going to lose so much our hard earned money that we saved or worst, lose ALL of it!

So I would really appreciate some extra prayers from you all for our house to sell soon at a decent price so we can just start over our life here in Indy.

Chicago Blizzard 2011

Our neighbor Patrick sent us these pictures of our house after the big winter blizzard in Chicago this past week. Looks like our house is still in one piece. Our other neighbor down the street has plowed our driveway and our realtor shoveled our walkway, so we are getting taken care of until we can make it back up there. It is nice to know people are taking care and looking out for our home while we are away. It is so wierd to be here in Indy knowing we have a house up there, but I am glad that Owen didn't have to be up there during all this.

Catch up especially for those East Coasters:)

hello hello...So, it has been quite a while since I blogged but life is just plain busy!!! I wanted to put up some pictures especially for my brother and sister-in-law since I KNOW they are just as busy as we are with thier little bundle of joy, CONNOR, and probably don't see them on facebook like the rest of my fam/friends.

Owen is doing AmAzIng. I don't think I could ask for a better baby through ALL of this craziness going on. He has began sleeping through the night from like 8 pm to 6 or 7 a.m. which is amazing (so why am I still so tired?! :) ) They past few days have been a little rough b/c he caught a cold and wakes himself up coughing, but for the most part, he falls back to sleep...Even though he is coughing and stuffed up, he is still smiley and happy for the most part :) He started day care last week, and is doing great there! He already has a girlfriend, according to Ms. Kate (my friend Katie is his teacher at the school :) :) ) Owen gets set up next to this beautiful baby girl in his class about his age, and they just coo and smile at each other :) He is a flirt already! I have stopped breastfeeding, and Owen transitioned to formula great, and loves his cereal...as you can see in the pictures, he is getting chunky finally! He is rolling from his stomach to back, and gets so close to rolling from his back to stomach, but just gets pissed off :) He wants to stand all the time, I have a feeling he is going to start crawling and walking early by the way he is acting right now! He talks ALLL the time, and screams happy squeals that just make you laugh out loud...and when you can make him belly laugh, it just melts your heart!!!!!! He is just awesome, I could go on and on and on...he is just my light in my life right now :)

Work is work for the both of us. Ryan is still working long hours, sometimes staying up until midnight...I try to go to bed early and get to work as early as I can, so I can get back to Owen as soon as I can. I am picking up some hours a couple Saturdays a month at the Noblesville nursing home that my grandmother lives in, so every morning I get there, I go get my grandma and she spend the day with me in the therapy gym:) :) She loves it, and it makes me happy to get to spend time with her. She motivates my patients, and even gets a little fiesty with them if they give me a hard time :) hahaha!!!

Unfortunately, nothing really to report on our house. We lowered the price dramatically after the first of the year, and we get consistent showings each week, BUT still no bites or offers...THIS is our biggest stressor. I drive myself crazy getting my hopes up with each call that we have a showing, then they get crushed b/c the buyer is not interested. Now that Owen is getting older, I am getting more worried how he is going to adapt to our current living situation. I try not to think about it, but my mind just races all the time with all these worries...And poor Guinness, he is basically just ignored and that makes me feel even more guilty. Sometimes I second guess myself, and ask myself if we made the right decision to move back home. I know in the long run, this is the best decision though, and all these challenges we are facing will make us appreciate it when we finally do sell and we finally do get to live in our own house again with a big backyard for Guinness :) :) (not that he even uses it...haha, lazy guy, but you know what I mean :) :) ) Keep in touch and email me or call and let me know how you all are doing too!