Monday, December 19, 2011

Happy birthday Daisy and James

Hi everyone! Well better late than never. I am now giving you the pictures from Daisy and James' birthday party....from two weeks ago. Oops. Well, I've been busy so back off lol. Their birthday was the 10th and they had a great day. Daisy turned 4 and James turned 27. Here are some pictures from the day.


.
James opening a present, harassing my mom.



Another present.



The gift i got him, a dash adapter for his stereo.



Daisy and friends opening presents.



Daisy getting in there to open her present from meme.



Its a color wonder light brush with metallic paper!



Opening her gift from Grandma Donna

Daisy with her Minnie Mouse. She was looking way older than 4 here.

Sunday, December 4, 2011

Say Cheese!

BEST. SMILE. EVER!!!!!



PS. Please note the missing lower front tooth!!!!! Yay! She's getting so big!

Friday, November 18, 2011

well now this is a surprise!

Hi-dy ho everyone! We got a BIG surprise about 4 weeks ago. And now I am ready to share with you! Scroll down!!!

















































Keep Going!





























































Almost there!










































Just a little more!!













AAAANNNNDDD.....



SURPRISE!

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Smooth as Tennessee Whiskey

The Soesbe family has grown by one more memeber!


The adorable little scamp in the picture below is Whisky. He's a 12 week old 3/4 chocolate lab 1/4 poodle. James picked him out and Baylie named him. And wait, before you're all "OMG! How does your 5 year old know what Whiskey is!?!?!?" Let me explain. Baylie doesn't name anything...ever. Not toys, not dolls, not fish. Its part of the autism, she has a hard time developing attachments to non human things. SO, imagine our surprise when on our way home from picking him up, she pipes up from the back seat and says "I love Whiskers."


The problem was niether James or I loved "Whiskers". So, we comprimised with a name that sounded like it. And so, we have ourselves a Whiskey dog now.


Friday, September 23, 2011

Pickups and Princesses

September has been a fun and busy month! We have finally got the routine for our mornings. Got the temporary fence put in for the kids and dog.


On the 10th Pepper competed in her first beauty pageant! I have done 2 with each girl, so PJ has one more she will do probably around Christmas time. She took 3rd overall in her class out of 3. But that's okay she also won the most side awards of the other girls. She won Best Hair and Most Photogenic. We only participate in natural pageants that give every girls a sash and crown.

Pepper's awards!


Her crown. The crowns were beautiful!
This on really isn't sideways, she was laying in the chair lol. This is her party dress.



This was her everyday wear. The theme was back to school, she's wearing a UW cheerleader's outfit!


And finally last weekend, we traded in James' old red Ford for an '03 Dodge pickup! He was very excited about it. I love it a lot too. LOVE the pearl white color!


Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Its coming!!

Dear Gena How I <3 thee!!!! The next book in my favorite series is coming out on the 27th!!!!

Wednesday, August 31, 2011

SCHOOL!!!

My my my, time sure has gone by fast in a slow kind of way. It feels like just the other day we were bringing Baylie home from the hospital. And yesterday she started real kindergarten in a real mainstream school. And her first day of school was a success- she loved it and it went great!






(Baylie's first day of school)


And Daisy had her first day back to pre-school yesterday- also successful.







(Daisy at the park earlier this summer photo by DC Photography)


And today, PJ had her 15 month check-up. She's a big girl. Still way above the curve in height and she went down in the weight curve to the 70%. But that was to be expected as she's running all over constantly now.





(PJ at a friend's birthday party riding Watermelon)


I guess my little babies aren't so little or babies anymore. They are little girls and toddlers. It makes me sad in a happy way. We are so blessed to have them in our lives.






(taken August 2011)

Monday, August 1, 2011

A new Book!

Its coming out soon, and as Gena is one of my 3 favorite authors, I have to promote the new book she's about to release!!!

Her books are omg HOTTTTTT~~~~***sigh***


And on a side note, I will be writing a new blog later today to update everyone on last month and give you our plans for this month!

Thursday, July 7, 2011

July

Hi everyone! Well it looks like we've rounded the corner into July! And now its time for an update!
June was a busy month for us. We spent the first 2 weeks of the month cleaning and fixing up the new house so that we could move in. And then we went on a very short vacation. And we came back and finished moving in. And we added a new member to our family! So the house. Its not finished by a LONG shot, but its done enough that we can be comfortable here and just go room by room until its all done. Next summer will begin the outside work. I love having a clothes line- it makes my job soo much easier :) and I know y'all want some pictures of this process we've been going through...



This is the dinning room there's no before/after of this one. Oh yeah! PJ is now walking 100% of the time now too!!



Baylie's bedroom before and after (ps it had nasty carpet before) and the curtains are a spring green not yellow like the picture shows.



Before and after of the kid's play room.



Before and after of the kitchen, the after is a little messy sorry we are still getting some things sorted out.



After and before of PJ's bedroom (again with the yucky carpet)




Daisy's room before and after...its not all done yet but close enough.



This is the spare bathroom/kids bath after and before...no more grayple!!!



The vacation. It was more of a mini vacation. We left Saturday the 18th and came home on Monday the 20th. We went to James' family's ranch in South Dakota for their annual family reunion. It was lovely to see everyone again. The last time we were there Daisy was 10 months old...its been a while. I realized when I got home that I didnt take any pictures...not one! I was so angry with myself, but maybe this fall or next spring we can go back and I can try for pictures again.

The moving. We spent our first night in the new house on the 16th. We only had basics here, but it was getting tiresome going back and forth at night from one house to the next and we were close enough that staying here made more sense. After we got back from SD I put a fire under the process and we got it done in about a week. So now all the stuff from inside the old house is inside and (mostly) put up in the new one. The stuff from the shed and the front yard of the old house will probably get moved this weekend or next. It takes time to move a fence and a swing set! But the kids are setteling in nicely and everyone is enjoying having their own room, and mom and dad are enjoying having a kids area and an adult area. :)



The new member. The day before we left for SD we added a new member to our famliy. We adopted Nix aka. Onyx. Nix is about a year old, female labradoodle cross. She is black and white and amazing with the kids. She has a few bad habits and manors that we are working to correct, but mostly we wonder how anyone gave up such a happy loving dog. Now that she is relaxing into her now forever home we see her playful caring personality emerge and we love her even more.
In other Soesbe news. We had a great 4th of July with our family(ies). My mom has moved back to the state of Wyoming permanently, and we are soooo happy to have her home. And, well we just keep on keepin' on! Hope y'all have had a good summer so far!

Thursday, June 9, 2011

House Update

Its been 2 weeks since we closed on our new place. We have had some delays in the cleaning/fixing-up process due to illness, but we seem to be back on track now.



The walls are cleaned, the carpets are cleaned, the bathrooms are cleaned and the kitchen is clean. The ceilings in the play room, dining room, living room and kitchen have a nice fresh coat of white paint on them. The play room has a coat of wall paint too that still needs some touch up, but as soon as I get that done I promise to post pictures.



The whole house is going to be the same color for now. Eventually we will be adding accents, but for now one color fits all!



PJ will be getting the swirly ceiling room, Daisy will be getting the blue ceiling room, and Baylie will be getting the blue wall room. The blue ceiling and the swirly ceiling will be staying. PJ's room will be done in primary color butterflies (thanks to some pictures I found and some peel and stick removable vinyl stickers). Daisy's room is going to get some peel and stick clouds for the ceiling and probably bubbles of some sort for the walls. Baylie's room will be done in horses again to help minimize the change factor for her.



We are doing the dining room in a barn/farm theme. And, since it opens into the kitchen, the kitchen will be too.



The dining and kids' rooms will be getting the carpet ripped out and laminate flooring put in. (Seriously, who puts carpet in a DINING room?!?!?!?!)Eventually (hopefully next spring) we will be doing the rest of the carpeted rooms (master, play, and living rooms) in laminate as well. Its much cleaner and healthier for us allergy sufferers.



The final project (besides actually moving of course) will be putting up the fenced yard for the kids and getting over their playground stuff. We are still hoping to get moved in by the middle or end of next week. If anyone wants to know how they can help I am taking volunteers to watch kids- do you know how hard it is to paint with kids around and no way to block them out of the room?



Next post I promise pictures!!!

Monday, June 6, 2011

Hello Summer

Hello everyone!


Well we have been busy the past few weeks! On May 31st we closed on our first home!! And ever since then we have been crazy trying to get it whipped into shape so we can move in. (Many thanks to everyone that's come by to help out!) The process has been slowed due to illness.


On Thursday I dropped B and D off at school and took P over to the new place to start scrubbing walls (hello 3 pack a day smokers). I got about 30 minutes into it when the school called me to tell me that D puked and I needed to come get her. (Seriously, I have a deep down deathly fear of up-chuck) So I put on my big girl panties and brought D back home, I call Grandma Fran when I got home and asked if she could watch D and P while I went to get B from school. (She did, thanks Gma F) And when I picked B up they told me she didn't eat breakfast or lunch (totally unlike B) and that she acted tired. Great, another sick kid.


Daisy continued to get sick for the rest of the afternoon/night/next morning. B didn't eat on Thursday at all, but bounced back on Friday. P puked Thursday night, but seemed ok on Friday. I got sick on Friday too, but thankfully I can't really bring things up. So, Saturday we did some errands and went to the new place to clean because everyone was feeling better. We made some serious head way that day. Then yesterday, B had some tummy problems (going down not up thankfully) and P puked again last night. So, I kept B home from school and we stayed home at the current house to let everyone rest and heal. Hopefully tomorrow we can get paint and supplies, finish cleaning (kitchen and master bed), and maybe get a little paint started! I may go back over tonight to finish the cleaning and get the paint so I can just start the paint tomorrow without the extra steps.


I still hope to be in the new place by the 17th (or sooner if I can swing it). And we will be having a house warming on the 3rd of July!

Thursday, May 19, 2011






Well, it's official we have a graduate....a preschool graduate that is. Baylie graduated preschool tonight. She did so good, I am so proud of her and how far she has come! Congratulations Baylie Renee!!!




Monday, May 16, 2011

Happy Birthday Peach!

Yesterday my littlest baby turned 1! She had a great birthday with all her family and especially her cousins. Here are some pictures from the day!



This is a picture of all of the England great-grandchildren



Stuffing in the strawberry shortcake



Such a happy girl!!



The shirt I made her, says "Birthday Girl" on the front and has a "1" on the back!



Wearing her custom made (by me) birthday hat!!

Monday, May 9, 2011

The house

Well, they company that owns that house in Foothills accepted our offer and we signed the first round of paperwork. Then at the beginning of last week we got the okay to do the inspection so, at the end of last week we had an inspection done- it passed with flying colors. So tomorrow we will sign the loan paper work, we have picked Metlife to carry our homeowners insurance, and we have a closing date of May 31st at 9 a.m.!! So at the end of this month we will finally be homeowners, and as soon as we do the cleaning and painting we can move in! I can't believe we are this close to having our own place! The house is nothing special, 4 beds and 2 baths. But, it has a yard and two storage sheds and its just what we were looking for to start out our lives with. Pictures to follow soon!


Oh and I have to give some MAD props to my step sister Delilah for taking such amazing pictures (like the one in the title) of PJ for her 1 year pictures!!!!!! Thanks Delilah you are amazing!!!!!

Monday, May 2, 2011

Updates...

Okay so first I know you are wondering about a house. We did put a new bid in on a different house. This will make the 3rd house we've put an offer on. The offer was accepted and the first round of paper work has been signed, sealed and sent. We are now awaiting the okay from them to start inspections. As soon as it passes inspection then we can finalize our loan and set a closing. We should hear back about when we can do inspections between Wednesday and Friday this week! This house is over in Foothillls. Its a double wide, with 4 bedrooms and two baths. We hope this is "the one".


As for us, we are chugging along. The girls and I have been sick for a couple months now. Starting with influenza B at the beginning of last month and (hopefully) ending with a nasty cold we are in the process of kicking.


Baylie and Daisy are still in preschool and loving it. James is still with L&H and loving it. I'm still at home and trying to figure out if I want to go back to work this fall after Baylie starts Kindergarten. I am just about to start a business at home selling Passion Parties. So I am working at building some clientele before I beginning the selling part.


Other than that we are gearing up for PJ's first birthday in 13 days. I cannot believe that my baby is 13 days from being one year old :o( It makes me sad to think about how fast they grow up. She is trying to walk, and I know once she does we will never have a calm moment in our household again!


That's the news in the Soesbe House!

Saturday, April 9, 2011

We like it!

We went and saw the first house today. We REALLY like it! Its just right for us and so we made an offer. Same process as the first time. We made a low offer- and we will see if they come back with a counter offer or if they accept it. Fingers crossed, if we reach a price agreement we could get the ball rolling asap!

I forgot my camera, but I will be asking the agent if we can go back to look again so that I can take some pictures. But we are both very excited about it!

Happy Saturday!

Hi all! Today is going to be a very productive day for the Soesbe house. I have a load of dishes washing, a load of clothes washing and I am getting ready to hit the shower so I can hit the Cam-Plex garage sale! I have a box of clothes to drop off to a friend and then home to help feed kids lunch and then nap time. Then James and I are going to look at two houses! I am super excited for this. We have been waiting all week to look :o). Then the afternoon will be spent relaxing before we have some friends over for supper (spaghetti with Kielbasa sausage and garlic bread). I will post later about the houses we looked at. If we decide to make an offer you all will be the first to know! Ta ta!

Monday, April 4, 2011

Prospect

This is a house that the old man and I are very interested in seeing very soon.


***UPDATE: we have an appt to look at this house on Saturday at 1!

Saturday, April 2, 2011

On the road again- going slowly...

So there's another house we have asked for a showing on. I have no idea how this one will be- but the locale is SUPER! Its in the 4J subdivision and I have been eye-balling it for sometime now. James is calling to see if we can look today. So I guess that means we are back on the road again, but taking it slow. Our pre-qualification on the loan lasts until July. But if we don't find one that suits our needs before then thats okay too. The place we are trying to get into see is an actual house house. It has a swamp cooler for a/c but thats no big deal- we can make it work until we can afford to have central air installed. The square footage is smaller but it does have 4 bedrooms and a nice little back yard and a garage. And as I mentioned before- location location location! I expect that it will need some love but we aren't afraid of hard work so long as there are no health issues (ie MOLD!) There's another house over in Westover that I would LOVE to look at too- 3 beds but an unfinished basement! Soooo....one thing at a time! Happy weekend to all of you out there!

Friday, April 1, 2011

Probably not....

So it looks like our journey into owning this particular house is coming to a screeching halt. The agency informed me yesterday that the a/c unit is our responsibility to replace. So now we are talking about 1500 [*correction* the estimate from Powder River Heating was $3000 to $3500] to replace and install, then the mold issue that could cost a min of 3o0 or so but as much as 1000 or more depending on how bad it is inside. Soooooo......we just dont have that kind of cash laying around. And yes we could get it added to our loan, but we are not sure
we want to do that. It may be possible to buy a new double wide and a small lot for about the same price as the house and we wont have to worry about the health issue. See the thing is I am super super allergic to mold. Its one of the many reasons I didn't stay in FL with my family. The thing with mold is that you may think you got it all but you may not have and then it comes back. So we are taking one last look at the place tomorrow morning with my step dad. But I think we have already both made up our minds that this is not the place for us. And since it didn't really pass inspection we should be able to get out of this with our earnest money. It sucks though because we had so many hopes and dreams put into that house alreadly. And not to mention boxes packed. But it is what it is. Better to find out now then to find out later when my family gets sick. I hope everyone is having a good Friday and a good first day of April. ALSO April is Autism awareness month!! So the picture at the bottom is for my Baylie Renee.

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Today's word "Issues"

Sooooo... The house has some mold issues, some drainage issues, an air conditioning issue, and a sprinkler issue. 1. MOLD. It appears that in the laundry room the water damage we saw was actually caused by what appears at the moment to be a slow leak some where. There is mold all around the back side of the laundry, into the hall, the pantry and in the master bath by the shower. It will require tearing out the lower two foot of wall and plastic-ing that part of the house off while it gets sprayed down with bleach and dried out properly. Then the wall that's been torn out will have to be replaced and repainted. 2. DRAINAGE. The back yard kind of drains into the house- or rather the skirting in the house. Not a big deal it will just require some dirt/drainage work to be some this summer some time. 3. AIR CONDITIONING. The house is listed as having "central air" and it should- but it doesn't. At least it doesn't any more. The previous owner or some other person removed the a/c unit. Thanks a lot dickweed! I am calling to get estimates on how much it is to replace the unit- but my guess is some where between $1000 and $1800. Can we say OUCH! Well it does have the house listed as having it so we may not be responsible to replace it. 4. SPRINKLER. There is an automatic sprinkler system- yay! The system on the back side of the house is put WAY to close the house. I mean they point into the yard, but the sprinklers are seriously less than 3 inches from the house. That will cost about $200 to have fixed professionally. I took some pictures today to take you on a full photo tour of the house via facebook. We will have to decide now if we want to go ahead with the sale of the house or if its going to cost to much out of pocket to fix. Yet an other issue is money- its limited! So tonight when James gets home we will talk about if we want to move forward or scrap it and start over. I HATE ISSUES!!!!

Monday, March 28, 2011

Hurry up and Wait

That is the order of the house buying day. When you make a bid thats accepted on a HUD house you have 72 hours from the acceptance email to send in all these addendums and paper work things plus your earnest money. Its a very frantic process. Then once its in and they have it they send the agent a one line email "Information recieved on ________. Thank you." That's it! No word of if it was accepted if its in review or how long it will take to get the green light for all the other things. So I called them and was told that it take about 2 weeks after they get the paper work for them to process and review and then send on the (by fax) the one page document that lets us start the loan process and the inspection. Ugg!! Really?! Well then that means that at some point this week we should know if they accepted everything and it was properly filled out.

And now something to brighten you day a bit...



Tuesday, March 22, 2011

*Sigh* been waiting for this for like a year....

The Darkest Secret by Gena Showalter

My favorite series by my favorite author who is releasing the newest book next week. YAY!!

Sunday, March 20, 2011

House part 4: boxes

Spurred by the thought of being out of our house in 2 to 3 weeks, I went box hunting this afternoon. Now some people just go to u-haul or home depot or some other moving company to get 'moving boxes'. But not us, we are broke in redneck fashion! I went dumpster diving to find boxes today. Most people in the US are like us and find boxes in this particular method. I am going to tell you where, on a Sunday afternoon, I had the best luck finding boxes. I hit the mother load in two places:


1. My Obgyn's office- doctors offices are good because most restock on Friday night or Saturday.


2. The Dollar Store- They put out the majority of their inventory on Sunday when its slower than the rest of the week. I found an entire city dumpster filled to the top with nothing but collapsed boxes at the dollar store today.



Other good places to look are liquor store (good strong boxes- also makes your new neighbors wonder if you are alcoholics!), grocery stores and fast food or restaurants.



Happy hunting!

House Hunting Part 3: Paperwork

Oye-vey!! Lots and lots of paper work goes into buying a house. We went in on thursday evening to sign initial paperwork to get the ball rolling on buying the house a stack of paper about a 1/4 to a half inch of paper work! Then we gave them money- $1000 for ernest money in the form of a cashiers check which my bank so kindly charged me a $7 fee to print! Now that its been shipped I have been gathering all the paper work for the loan for the bank. Let me tell you what- more paper!! Two inches of paper at least for this part. 3 years worth of tax returns and full W-2's for the past 3 years, 2 months worth of bank statements for EVERY account you have, copies of driver's licenses and ss cards. The names addresses and phone numbers of evey employer for the past 3 years, the names phone and address of your landlords for the past 3 years and your address for the past 3 years. (Luckily for us we have lived in the same house under the same landlord for the past 6 years). Paycheck stubs and all other proof of income for the past 30 days.

And now the fun really begins. We will get word Monday morning that everything arrived safely to TX and when we do hear from them that starts our clock. We will have 15 days to get a home inspection, get the approval for the loan, and set a closing date. Which equals more money. $150 to HUD for the re-winterization (rediculous!) the water has to be turned back on for the inspection, and then in less then 2 weeks we will be moved in, but HUD is going to come back in after the inspection and re-winterize the piping. The inspectors will be about $200. All these fees add up in a hurry! But as soon as closing is done (with in 2-3 weeks from now) we will pick the first weekend and send our kids off with thier grandpa and start cleaning!! All of this means that technically we could be out of here by the first weekend in April!

Thursday, March 17, 2011

The House


Front of house

Front livingroom
Master bathroom

kids' bathroom

Kitchen

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

House Hunting part 2- Acceptance

Well they did not accept our bid of $85K, but rather came back with a counter offer of $91K and they will pay up to 3% at closing for closing costs. After some discussion we decided to accept their counter offer.
SOO...tomorrow I will be speaking with our loan person to have a letter of pre-approval sent over to the Realtor and I will be going to the bank and getting a cashiers check for $1000 for the earnest money payment.
I am freaking terrified. That's a lot of money and a BIG commitment! But a 5 bedroom 2 bath 2006 house on a 1/4 acre lot that's got the back yard completely fence with 6 foot privacy fence for $91K and only minor blemishes- how can we pass it up?! It will be an amazing adventure for us.
Luckily for you- I will be chronicling the adventure on here so everyone can join in!

House hunting part 1

Well by now its no secret that we are looking for a house in a casually serious sort of way. We are mostly interested in HUD houses. We are not opposed to private owner sales either, but HUD is mostly whats in our price range. We need a big yard with at least 4 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms.
HUD houses tend to have things wrong with them that are fixable. And the pictures below are actually the second house we've been interested in buying. To go through WCDA for financing the house must be FHA insured, and the first one wasn't. So unless they change that we kept looking. The house below we made a very low offer on. We made the offer for 85K the asking price is 138K. But below are the things wrong with it besides being filthy! Also what you can't see is that it needs to be leveled badly. I will caption the pictures so you know what you are looking at...


This is the front 'porch' its leaning and the dirt work wasn't done correctly under it so its sort of sitting in a hole on the one side lol.

a piece of crown molding missing from the cupboard in the kitchen, an easy fix but still something we will have to pay for

Three cupboard doors torn off in the kitchen, and the fridge was taken out.

a piece of famica torn off one of the counters

torn/worn carpet in the master bedroom

small almost hole in the wall

cracked mirror in the master bathroom

piece of molding in the laundry room thats been warped and coming off

sorry this one is side ways. its the door way to the master bedroom missing the door

the access pannel in the laundry room wasn't quite right and will have to be fixed

missing molding in the laundry room, the washer must have leaked or overflowed at some point ruining the molding and doing some small damage to the sheet rock- an inspector will have to determine if its mold or just yucky.

crack in the ceiling from the house shifting and settling- fixable but a pain in the ass!

crack in the wall on the doorway to the kitchen- again fixable but kind of a pain

discoloration in the ceiling where that crack is. we think someone tried badly to patch it or paint over it, it doesnt look like water damage from a leaky roof- which was deemed ok by the first inspector

broken living room fan

broken hing in the second bathroom

carpet issue in one of the smaller bedrooms

broken window in one of the smaller rooms, luckily they are double pained, but it will still have to be replaced.
These are all relatively small issues but they will end up costing quite a bit. Just releveling the house will cost around $500. But it has 5 bedrooms, 2 baths and a large yard with tons of potential- we really liked this one and are hoping are first bid is accepted. We should find out within the next 4 hours or so. If not we will go a little higher, but not much considering all that needs done on it. Address is 2305 Wrangler Rd. which is out by the Cam-Plex.