September was a Blur

September was not a picture-taking month as I'm looking back. Probably because we were packing up our house, starting school, working, organizing our move....just a few things going on! We traveled to the UP multiple times - for the home inspection on our new house (all good, wahoo!) and starting to move some of our garage and outdoor items that weren't going to go on our U-Haul or to the apartment. Packing is never fun, but I am so thankful that we have the most wonderful friends. They helped us tremendously...packing, watching kids, moving things to the apt, and everything in between - we seriously have the best friends. We could not have done it without them. Friday, Sept. 19th was the last night in our house. We packed our final things up, got the kids to bed, and then had a few drinks with our soon-to-be former neighbors. It was a sad night...we loved that house, it was the house our kids were babies in, it was the only house they'd ever known. We also loved our neighbors. We would have picked the house up (and everyone around it) and moved it if we could. We have wonderful memories in our Greenville house, but it was time to start making new memories in Marquette...errr, not quite.

Next was apartment living - yahoo! It wasn't a small apartment, and it was much, much nicer than any apartment we'd lived in before, but we were spoiled...we were used to space! We didn't have TV or internet (didn't hook up with short time duration) and the kids were sharing a room. We were going to have to find LOTS of activities over the next month and half, and that we did. Thankfully our Wisconsin Fall weather was great so we spent a lot of it OUTSIDE!

Playing at the park - unless it was raining, we usually hit a park after dinner every week night.

Hiking at Mosquito Hill on a Sunday afternoon.

Starting School & Saying Good-Bye

The week after Emmit's birthday was a bit crazy to say the least. We had accepted an offer on our house the week before and made the decision to stay in Greenville for the start of school. We hadn't found a house in Marquette yet, and not knowing where we'd be living when we did find one, we didn't want to just pick an elementary school with the possibility of having to change. We checked into a few rental options and quickly found that we were going to have be flexible if we didn't want to lock into a year-long lease. The week went down something like this...

Monday - Apartment hunting. We found one that would let us do a 6 month lease. We provided all the necessary info so they could ensure we were 'rent worthy' and planned to come back Friday to sign all the paperwork and make it official.

Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday - Stacey traveling for work. Colin working. Kids enjoying their last week of summer with Kimmy.

Thursday night - I was back home, and Colin and I were checking out the listings in Marquette. What's this...a new listing?? I called our realtor, and she thought it'd move fast given the location (a neighborhood we absolutely loved) and price. Colin was already going to Chicago for his annual fantasy football weekend so I decided to head north with the kids and check it out myself.

Friday - We signed our rental agreement and were officially the proud owners of a 2 bedroom apartment, for the first time in 13 years! Bleh! Apartment living was the pits...more on that later! Colin went to Chicago and the kids and I made the drive to Marquette. Friday night, the kids and I (and my Mom and Dad) went to Marquette to check out the new listing along with another house we were on the fence about. The new listing was definitely hitting a lot of our wish list as far as a house goes with a few compromises I thought we could accept. I really liked it!

Saturday - I went back to see the new listing again (by myself so I could focus w/o the kids running around!) in the afternoon and with Colin on Facetime. We walked through 'together' =) This was the house. The things we were compromising on we could change (and the price would allow us to afford to make the changes too!) We wanted to make an offer on this house, but found out 2 other people already had as well. The other offers had come in that morning so we had to get it in. I went back to our realtor's office, and we wrote it up with Colin on the phone. Scanning home buying paperwork back and forth to get all signatures in place, fun! =)

Sunday - The kids and I hung out at my parents for the day. We were waiting to hear whether our offer was accepted. At 5:30 pm I got the text...

Woohoo!! We got it. Our offer won out...we still had closing contingency but since we were well on our way with our home sale we felt really great about this. We were closing on our home sale in WI the second week of Sept, and closing on our new home in Marquette at the end of Sept. We had our apartment lined up. Now onto packing and where all our stuff was going between closings cuz it was NOT fitting in the apartment!

Monday - Back to Greenville to get ready for a big week - the start of school!!

Amongst the house craziness, we were also gearing up for the start of school. Ellie loves school so she was pumped to go back - she is a 1st grader this year. Emmit was starting 4K (Pre School, Pre-K, Developmental Kindergarten, many names for it). With a late summer birthday we were giving him another year to bloom =) The weeks leading up to school also included classroom open houses, school supply shopping, and just trying to get back into an earlier bedtime routine after a fun summer.

The elementary school in Greenville staggered the start for 4K, K, and 1st graders due to the size of the school, and of course Ellie and Emmit didn't have the same start days (which I was a little annoyed by). Emmit's first day was Tuesday - he was so excited!

I took the day off, and Ellie and I had a girls morning - getting her 1st grader hair ready!

On Wednesday, Ellie started school then so they both got to go together. Ellie's off to first grade and Emmit to his second day of 4K.

With the start of school, we also had a sad good-bye to say. For the first time in 6 years, we no longer needed full-time daycare. And after 3 wonderful years, we were saying good-bye to our nanny Kimmy. She needed full-time employment and had decided to make a career change out of nannying. We were in transition and getting ready to move. Many tears were shed with this departure...I'm tearing up writing about it! Kim is an extension of our family...she kept our household sane and provided more love for our kids than I could have ever asked for in 3 years. We miss seeing her everyday but know we'll keep in touch. I can't wait for the day when she and Nick have kids...they will be great parents!

The Rest of Summer & Happy 5th Birthday Emmit!

Colin and I have talked about moving to Marquette for years, but it wasn't until the winter of 2014 that we really started our serious pursuit. I can't say exactly what triggered us to move; it wasn't a single moment when we just knew. It was a number of things...the kids starting school, wanting to be closer to family, wanting our parents closer and able to come to the kids activities, aging grandparents, constantly driving on the weekends, a wonderful, stress-free family vacation, unexpectedly losing 2 friends, an unhappy job situation, our desire for a simpler, less hectic life. We started our house hunt in the winter, but quickly found the market was going to be challenging. Luckily we found an amazing realtor who worked wonders for us from afar. Before our trip to Europe, we had found THE house. Or so we thought. We made an offer in early July, but they didn't accept. After coming back from our trip, we decided to make another offer. This one stuck - we were thrilled! In the meantime we also accepted an offer on our house in Wisconsin. Things were good, but what we didn't expect was a homeowners nightmare inspection on our new home. Structural issues, water damage, electrical code violations...this was seriously not what we had signed up for. We made the decision to rescind our offer, and didn't know it at the time, but another great house was just around the corner. In the meantime though, we had to find a place to live because we had sold our house. We had a month to figure things out, so with all the chaos, life went on. We were moving, but that didn't stop us from having a fun end of summer with our wonderful friends in Greenville!

We had a garden...for those that know me this is a shocker! So I should more accurately say that Colin and the kids had a garden =) I was happy to cook the delicious veggies though =)

Visiting the fire station open house

Diva Ellie in the sun!

Getting some love from Kimmy

Silly kids

Buddies as Emmit would say

Tattoos

Mini golf

Playing in the rain

Emmit turned 5 on August 25th. We had a fun friend party at Chuck-E-Cheese and of course he was spoiled by family too. He was all about 'camo' for his birthday this year. He wants to be an 'army guy' when he grows up!

We have a tradition of visiting Build-A-Bear on the kids birthdays. They both still love it. Emmit's bear's name is 'Camo Bear'.

Emmit also got a new bike which he learned to ride without training wheels almost immediately! This is a 'trick bike' which he was pretty excited about too.

Another favorite gift - the minion fart gun. Thanks Grandma!

Fun with friends at Chuck-E-Cheese...the kids loved this and it was nice and easy for Mom! =)

Happy Birthday Emmit John! We love you!!