Week 244 – October 5 – October 11

Week 245 – October 12 – October 18

We celebrated your mom’s birthday this week! I always ask you how you want to decorate and then it’s fun to watch you try to keep a secret for a few weeks. We had to go to the store to get some stuff, and you keep telling mom that we “Don’t have to get decorations” when we really do. I like taking you to the dollar store to let you pick out whatever you want for decorations. I know mom doesn’t like the dollar store, but I think it’s something special that we do together. I also let you know pick anything in the whole store for yourself. I hope we always continue that tradition. But I wonder at what age you stop getting excited about the item from the dollar store.

Your mom’s birthday was on a Thursday, so I took off Thursday and Friday so we could hang out. On her birthday, we had Dunkin Donuts coffee in the morning and Chuy’s for dinner. It wasn’t anything spectacular, but I think it was the perfect day for your mom.

Week 246 – October 19 – October 25

We had family photos this weekend. It went about as well as you would expect with Houston. You did amazing and are so cute! Houston on the other hand, lost it as soon as he saw the photographer – I mean, hysterical crying!

Week 247 – October 26 – November 1

Halloween was a little different this year because of Covid-19, but we made the best of it. It was a nice day on Halloween, so we decided to take a stroller ride to the New Albany neighborhood and see how busy it was for Trick-or-Treating. You were Princess Tianna and Houston was your frog – you two were adorable! And Houston actually took a good picture with you. It wasn’t too crowded and we made sure to stay away from crowds. Most houses did a great job of putting out buckets or handing out candy with tongs. You did a great job staying away from others and wearing your mask. You also made sure you got me some AlmondJoys. Thank you!

Week 248 – November 2 – November 8

Week 249 – November 9 – November 15

I think we might be closer to buying a home than we originally thought. Our goal was to be able to put down 10% for a house, but that is going to take too long. We found a local lender that will work with us having a zero credit score and allow us to put down only 5%. Now we need to interview real estate agents.

Week 250 – November 16 – November 22

We started our home search process this week! It’s a crazy housing market right now, so it might take a while, but at least we have started. I don’t want to get too excited, but I get really happy thinking about the possibilities of what’s ahead for us. I know how happy it will make your mom (and all of us) to find a house that we can call ours. We picked our real estate agent and looked at our first house on Sunday. We knew it wasn’t going to be our home, but it was nice to meet our agent face-to-face and learn about the process. It was also good to see different neighborhoods and whether or not we like them.

Week 251 – November 23 – November 29

You’re in this phase were you like being an animal, particularly a cat or dog. It’s really cute, but also pretty annoying. You won’t talk or stop barking or stop walking around on all fours or stop asking us to tell you to do tricks.

Week 252 – November 30 – December 6

Your elf on the shelf, Shimmer, returned from the North Pole. You are so excited and can’t wait to see where she hides each night. You did decide to change her name to Elise, the name of one of the girls from a YouTube Kids family. St. Nick also came on Sunday. You were so excited on Saturday night that you asked to go to bed and then had so much energy you could barely sleep. You have been a good girl, so he brought you quite a few cool toys and a stocking.

Week 253 – December 7 – December 13

Week 254 – December 14 – December 20

Week 255 – December 21 – December 27

We put in an offer on the house….and it got accepted!! This all happened so quick I can’t believe it’s actually happening. We saw the house listed on Sunday, and went to see it Monday evening at 6:30 p.m. We put the offer in Tuesday morning and they accepted at 9:54 p.m.! We literally walked around the house, at night, for about 30 minutes and then had to decide if we wanted to make an offer. What a crazy housing market! Your mom and I really liked the house. Is it perfect and our dream home? Of course not, but it’s a great first home for our family to grow for the next 5-7years. It has more space, a basement, and a really good size backyard for you and Houston! I’m most excited about the backyard for you and Houston to play in while i’m grilling on the deck or just hanging out in our patio furniture. It’s also in a nice neighborhood and in a better school district. We ended up offering $250k (asking was $234,900), but still felt like we were getting a good deal and this was the best property we would find in our budget.

Now we wait for the inspection to see if anything major is wrong with the house!

Week 256 – December 28 – January 3

We had our inspection on Tuesday and everything went great! There was nothing that surprised us as we already knew about a few things that needed work (furnace, air ducts, kitchen cabinets, A/C, crawl space). Overall, I was relieved that nothing was wrong with the structure or foundation of the house. I had been losing a little sleep over this the past few nights, especially because I didn’t know what to expect from an inspection. The team that did the inspection was great and took the time to carefully explain everything they were doing and what we should pay attention to. It was way more thorough than I could have ever imagined. In the end, we received a 90-page report!

Now we wait for the appraisal!