We're Doing It

Selling our house. That is what we are doing. Or at least we're trying to. And we're hoping it goes quickly! We won't start showing until later next week. Bring it on!
I never realized how much work it is to get a house ready to sell. I mean, seriously. We've had people come and go through our house the past couple of weeks. Carpet cleaners. Deep cleaners for the house. A handy man (that didn't do a good job by the way!). Window cleaners. A stager. A realitor. A photographer. Many appts and money spent. But hopefully it will be in our favor with a quick sell!
We're staying in the same area. We've just grown out of our house. Not another thing can fit in here. Not one! I love our house and it has been our home for almost 8 years! But, we're ready for a new house to call home.

This will be our first home to sell. It's so strange to see the 'for sale' sign in our yard. Lots of mixed feelings!



This is our beautiful fence that we just built a couple of months ago.



Our house



The kitchen/family room. It looks so different than what it used to look like. We took down many pictures and other things on the walls. And took away things on the mantle, the shelves and counters. Less clutter. Less personalization. Makes it look bigger and cleaner. At least that's what the stager claims. I do think it looks bigger. And it will definitely be easier to keep clean. Thank goodness.



The office.

Should be living/dining room. But we didn't have a playroom, so we turned the living room into a make-shift playroom. Although most of the toys are put away in storage for now. Don't worry. The kids have plenty of other things to play with!

Our bedroom.

So, if you know of anyone looking for a house in our area, send them our way! It's a great starter home that is great for entertaining with an open floor plan. :)

Mother's Day

Warning: Lots and lots of pictures. Posed pictures. Hardly any candids. And long post.

For Mother's Day we met up with my mom and dad, my sister and her family and Bryan's mom and dad. We went to lunch and then to the World Aquarium. We were going to go to the Arboretum, but we weren't sure what the weather was going to do. It did end up being a beautiful day though.


The princess with her sweet cousin Ella. They were ready to see all of the animals that the aquarium holds.



The kids reading about some bird they were looking at.



Such beautiful scenery



Had to get one of the sisters.



These little monkey things were so cute. The one closest to us was digging for bugs in the tail of the other one. When he'd find one, he'd eat it. The girls thought that was super gross. Funny stuff!

Looking at the bats. Yuck!

A zillion animals around them and Rhea and the princess were more interested in the tiny little spider they found by this tree. Interesting . . .

Gracie with her other sweet cousin, Rhea.

Bryan with his momma

My sister and I with our momma

And one with all the moms!

My sister and I with our dad.

The Townsends

The Rands

My sister and her fam, minus Andrew and Sarah

MeMe and PaPa with the girls

Us

Pop and Nana with the girls

Ok. Told you there were lots of posed pics! We had a great day and I am so thankful for my mom! She's not only my mom but she's one of my best friends. Who would have thought? If you asked her when I was in high school if she ever thought we'd have the relationship we do today, she would most likely say no. I was terrible to her. And the minute I had Haylee, I apologized for the way I was to her. I can not imagine Haylee treating me the way I did my mom. Talk about a hurt heart! Anyway, I love you, Mom! And thanks for being you!

I'm also thankful for my MIL, Pam. She's so wonderful to me, and I'm so blessed to have her in my life! Love you, Pam!

The End.

Splash Day

Splish! Splash! The princess had Splash Day at her preschool last week. Swimsuit. Water. Sun. Fun times. Went by to take a few pics.

At the water table. I've always wanted one of these for our backyard. Maybe this summer.

Ella, a buddy of the princess. Love her!

Playing with a squirt bottle and a sponge. She could have stayed in that spot for hours if her teachers would have let her!

The princess and Ella. Ella shared her towel with the princess because being the good mommy that I am, I may have forgotten the princess' very own towel.

My precious princess. Only one more year of preschool and my little princess will be in kinder! That makes me so sad! She is my baby! But, I'm not going to think about that now. I'll take one day at a time and treasure each moment! And, oh how I treasure the moments with my sweet girls. Thanks be to God!

Field Day

The ever-so-popular field day was a couple of weeks ago at H's school. So different than what mine was like. We used to compete against everyone. They gave ribbons out for 1st, 2nd, 3rd place and then the not-so-wanted blue participant ribbon for each event we participated in. Now they compete together as a class against other classes in the same grade level. No real competition going on or maybe just not as much as it used to be. Still fun though.


The angel waiting for field day to start.



Run!!!!!



Waiting for a sponge filled with water to be poured on her head. She wanted more water to go in the bottle than on her head!



The princess can't wait until she has her very own field day! She's been watching her big sister for three years now.

My Precious Dancers

These 2 pictures are my favs of the girls' dance pics. Probably because I didn't take them and had to pay money for them. Too much $ if you ask me. But, I had to have them. Had to!


My sweet little ballerina. Just absolutely precious!




And my adorable little jazz star. She looks so old to me in this picture. She was so sick this day but you can't even tell. She's so pretty!

The Pond

I'm way behind in posting pictures. I have 2 posts from Easter to still do. Huh?! How did I get behind?!?!
Well, I'll try to catch up and not bore you while doing it!


A few weeks ago, we went to go fill the ducks tummies up with some unused bread, maybe even stale. Who knows. Either way, the ducks ate it. So did the turtles. And the fish. Yes, I said fish. I think the fish enjoyed it the most actually. I have never seen such a thing. These fish would jump out of the water and eat large pieces of bread whole. It was crazy! Couldn't snap my camera fast enough to catch a pic of it. But I so wish I could have!

The princess



The princess with her buddy, Ella.



I'm not sure why this one is posted. But too lazy to take it off.



And this is what happens when a 4 year old doesn't get her way. This is Ella and she is precious! The very same stance happens at my house probably a thousand times a day. 4 is awesome. And, yes, there is sarcasm in my voice. Just a little.

Anyone Else . . .

Counting down the days until summer? Or I guess I should be more specific and say counting down the days until school is out! I can't wait! 13 more days and we don't have to get up, eat breakfast, make lunches, get ready and head out by 7:45 am. Not to say I still won't be up by 7 am, but there's a difference in being up and having to be some where and getting up and not having to rush out.
I can't wait to lounge around on the couch with the girls watching tv. I can't wait to go to the pool or the lake almost everyday and watch my girls play in the water with huge smiles on their faces. I can't wait to have a tan. I can't wait to let my girls stay up later than normal on some nights and hope they will sleep in the next morning. (Not likely but a woman can hope, right?!?) I can't wait for no homework. I can't wait for the crazy schedules to calm down. I can't wait to just hang out with my girls. Enjoy them. No rushing (Who am I kidding?! We'll still be rushing around. Just maybe less than normal. We are always on the go. But I prefer it that way.). Just happy times. Oh, I can't wait!

Same Sound, Different Meaning

Hope you all had a Happy Mother's Day! I sure did! Met up with my mom, dad, sister and her fam and my MIL and FIL for lunch, then we all went to the World Aquarium. Fun times and will post pics later.



So, in the Rand casa, the girls are not allowed to say butt. I know it's not a bad word or anything, I just don't like how it sounds coming out of my sweet girls' mouths! Now if we had boys, it might be a different story. Who knows?!



Anyway, the princess and I were at the grocery store the other day and I had just ordered some deli meat. I'm in the mommy trance--you know, the trance where your child says mommy (or whatever else they're saying) a zillion times before you hear it--and all of a sudden I snap out of it. And this is what I hear--The princess is walking back and forth with her hand swiping the deli meat glass saying, "BUTT! BUTT! BUTT! BUTT! BUTT! BUTT!" You get the idea. So, naturally I tell her that we don't use that word. We say bottom. And then the princess proceeds to tell me that she is not saying that butt (pointing to her bottom), she is saying the other but. She said she's saying the one that doesn't get her in trouble.



Sure. I don't buy it. But, it was clever and pretty funny to me!

I always say God made her cute for a reason!

Softball and Baby Talk

Got H's softball pics today. So cute. I can't get over how 'grown-up' she looks! Why do they have to grow so fast?!?!? I just want to freeze time. Soak up every minute with my sweet precious girls!

On a side note--Most of you know that I would LOVE to have another baby. LOVE TO! But the hubby doesn't feel the same way :(. Well, the girls are always asking for a baby sister or brother--Gracie especially. I always just say--talk to God about it--that's what I do! So, here's a little convo that went on while picking up pizza to go to a friend's house today.

G: "Mom, I want to have a baby sister."

M: "Oh, really."

G: "Yes. And I talked to God about it."

M: "You did?!?"

G: "And, God said yes. So, you need to eat lots of food to feed the baby and your tummy is going to grow really, really big."

M: "We'll see, Gracie."

HHMMMMM . . .

School Hunt

Not quite done with the Easter pics just yet. You can never have enough Easter egg hunts, right?!?! This hunt took place at G's school.

Hunting eggs is very exciting!

Look at what I got!

Sweet Maddi

The Princess

The Princess and Me

Ms. Sherri and Ella