2340 Oak Street

Tonight is our last night here at 2340 Oak Street.

We will load a moving truck in the morning and move a few miles north to our new home! As much as I have wanted to move, (and am so excited for the new house) I know, I will miss this little house. This house was the 5th place we've lived in our almost 7 years of marriage and will definitely be the hardest to leave (we have lived in a lot of places!). I think it's hard to leave because we owned it. It was our "first house" and we put a lot of "blood sweat and tears" into it.  We brought our babies home to it. We've made this little 2 bedroom 1 bathroom place work for us. And it's been great! 

Here are some of the things I will miss and won't miss so much...

-I will miss the fact that you can stand pretty much anywhere in the house and see the whole house (that's actually a perk when you have small children;)

-I (think I) will miss the huge back yard and deck. (I won't however miss the 2+ hours it takes Russ to mow the lawn every Saturday in the summer)

-I'm sure I will miss only cleaning one bathroom, ha!

-We will miss the "loop". Blake will no longer be able to run circles around the house hahaha. 

-I've always wanted carpet in a house, but now that we are moving to a house with mostly all carpet I'm sure I will miss hardwood. 

Somethings I won't miss...

-Only having one bathroom... we are gaining 1.5 bathrooms... that's 2 whole toilets more (can you hear the excitement in my voice?!)! Like I said, not too excited to clean all those toilets but it will be so nice to have more then 1 toilet!

-Doing the laundry in the garage... I cannot wait to actually have a laundry room and to do full size loads of laundry!! (our washer drained into a basin sink and could only hold so much water)

-One car garage... it'll be great to be able to get both cars in the garage!

-The neighborhood... this could be a whole post on it's own... but just to give you an idea.. Within the first few months of living here, someone late at night knock on the door asked if we had "a smoke" he could have... Um no. This should have been our first clue, ha! We have had things stollen of the car twice. The whole neighborhood was tagged, including our car (thankfully it washed off). We've witnessed police pulling a guy over with guns drawn yelling for the man to get out of his car with his hands up, which then ended in the man being arrested (this took place literally in our front yard). And Russ has had to call the police on a domestic dispute. It's been quite an experience living here. We like to refer to it as "The Hood".  I can not wait to be in a better more family friendly neighborhood and actually getting to know our neighbors!

We will miss this little house, it's been great and we've made many great memories here. But we are so excited to be moving and feel beyond blessed to be moving into a brand new house! 

Blake's 3rd Birthday!

Back in March the Little Gym in Corvallis was having a special on their Birthday Party package. I hesitated to book it, but not knowing what life was going to look like come June with the house for sale, I decided to book it. And soooo glad I did since I am currently sitting with boxes stacked everywhere and plans to move this weekend (the weekend after Blake's birthday)!

Little Gym did an awesome job, it was great! And so easy! All I had to do was make some cupcakes and show up 10 minutes early. They took care of everything, from the table cloth to the gift list! It was the easiest birthday party ever and Blake loved it!

 Blake and is best bud Luke!

 The cupcakes

Blake insisted on a Fire Truck Birthday

 Singing a fire fighter song!

Blake and his buddy Siah

 Michael, Eli, Siah, Luke, Blake and Tristan

 Not so sure about all the attention

 Blowing out his candles!

 Opening presents

Happy Birthday Buba! 

We had so much fun celebrating you!

Blake is 3!!!

Blake is 3 today!! I can hardly believe I have a 3 year-old!! (I know, I know, I say that every time, but seriously, the time just flies by!) 

  I'm changing up the yearly posts a bit. I've seen this idea floating around Pinterest where you ask the same set of questions every year on their birthday and record the answers to see how they change. So, starting with the 3rd Birthday, instead of me telling you things about Blake, Blake will get to tell you things about himself! 

Yearly Birthday Questionnaire:

Name: He wrote his name using his right hand

Age: 3

1. My favorite color is: Beaber Orange and Blue (aka beaver, because that's the only kind of orange out there, duh :)

2. My favorite toy is: Fast cars

3. My favorite food is: Heart sandwich (pb&j cut in the shape of a heart) and hot dogs

4. A food I don’t like is: Broccoli ("pee-u-ee!")

5. My favorite show to watch on TV is: Mickey Mouse

6. My favorite thing to wear is: Clothes 

7. My favorite game to play is: Fast cars and movies

8. My favorite sport is: Baseball game, football and soccer 

9. My favorite animal is: Cow and Raven

10. My favorite song is: "woop woop style way a woop woop" (Gangnam Style)(Yes my just-turned-3-year-old knows Gangnam Style... don't judge:)

11. I love the book: "Bibles"

12. My best friend is: Tristan, Logan and Luke

13. When I’m outside, I love to: Play football with Nike football

14. My favorite holiday is: "I like movies" (I don't think he quite understood what holiday means)

15. What do you like to take to bed with you at night? "My Blankies; grey blankie, blue blankie, bear blankie, ni night, Giraffie, Elmo and George pillow."

16. What do you want for dinner on your birthday? "Pizza!"

17. When I grow up I want to be: "A fire fighter guy!"

Now on to the pictures!

(oh the cheesiness, how I love that smile!)

 (it was nearly impossible to get a good smile-looking-at-the-camera picture)

 (but I think these pictures do a good job showing his spunk and crazy personality!)

Happy 3rd Birthday Buba!!!

We LOVE you!!!

Our First House

Yesterday the sale of our first home closed! We are now technically renters until we move to the new house. It feels weird that we don't own this house anymore. It's kind of a bittersweet. I didn't realize how emotionally draining selling a house could be! Yes, we are moving onto better things, (a bigger house, a way better neighborhood) but still this was our first house, the house we brought Blake and Lily home to, the house we spent hours upon hours in the yard getting it to what we wanted, the house that we put a new roof on (on our own), the house we painted every single wall in and out, we've have put a lot into this 890 sq. ft. and I'm a little sad to leave it.

So, since I've never done a "here is a tour of our house post", I thought I better do that now, since we won't be here much longer!

 Front Door Entry/Little "office" area in the corner

 Living Room

(I think I will miss these hardwood floors!)

Dining and Kitchen 

(door to the garage/laundry room aka washer/dryer in the garage)

Kitchen

Bathroom

Hallway (loved that closet!)

Master Bedroom 

Master

 Kid's bedroom

And that's pretty much it! Before we move I'll have to get a good picture of the front because I realized I don't have one since we painted the outside. 

Can't believe we have been here 3 1/2 years and in a week and a half we will be moving into a new place! Hopefully I'll do a "tour" of our new home a lot sooner then I did of this one! We will miss this place!