Our House, In the Middle of our Street, Our House

Wondering what the update is on our house?

1st- We still have not sold our house.

2nd- Our realtor quit us. What? Yes, you read that correctly our realtor dropped us. He got a job about an hour away and left Coldwell Banker and therefore let us go.

3rd- Our realtor tried to hook us up with other realtors at Coldwell Banker, but we decided to sell our house "By Owner" so that we can drop the price significantly without feeling the loss (since we will not be paying realtor fees to sell our house). We may end up going with a realtor again, but for now this is the plan.

4th- Ryan and friends (A huge THANK YOU to Brody, Cody, Kenny, Kris & Scott for doing this job with Ryan!!! Do you like the way I put their names in alphabetical order??) tore off our old roof and put a new roof on our house this weekend. We are hoping this will help us sell our house in the very near future since it was the main concern a majority of our potential buyers had when touring our house.

Here are Brody and Kris hard at work early this morning!! The morning didn't go quite as planned when Menards decided they couldn't put the shingles on the roof as planned due to the location of the rented dumpster in our driveway. Kris and Ryan spotted this Bobcat with a loader down the street and so Kris made his way down to see if he could borrow it. Don't worry Kris is trained on this type of machinery and Ryan said it was so funny when Kris came rolling up on this thing to save the day!!!

See, the shingles made it up there!

The finished product. Doesn't it look great?? Potential buyers out there???

I will update when there is something to update :-) Hopefully, a sale!!!

PS Since we are updating, I thought I would let you all know that we have been swing free since July 5th. (Yes, I had a minor relapse on the 4th...I NEEDED Layla to take a nap before her flowergirl debut). Layla's naps are shorter than they were during the good old swing days, but she is actually sleeping better at night. She even slept through the roofing process today...too funny!

Happy Birthday to you...

Dear Daddy,

Happy Birthday! I just wanted to tell you that you are just the best daddy. I have so much fun with you and you just make me laugh all the time. Mommy and I love it that you change my diapers, rock me to sleep at night, dress me in crazy outfits combinations that only a daddy would pick out and even wake up in the middle of the night with me when I just can't get comfortable in my crib (mommy spills a lot of stuff and is kind of silly in the middle of the night, so I LOVE when you come get me!!).

Love, Layla


P.S. Here are a bunch of pictures of you and me. Why does mom always just put pictures of me on here??

P.P.S. Mommy says happy birthday too!!

You know it is summer when...

you are sharing ice cream with your cousin

you take your child to the park in her pajamas and throw on some legwarmers so she doesn't scratch her knees :-)

you enjoy a Cubs' game on a rooftop and have lovely tan lines from your sunglasses on your face the next day!

you have grilled out so much that your child now knows how to dip meat into ketchup!!!

Don't you just love summer? Why does it go by SO fast???

13 Months

13 months old...and I am a VERY busy girl. If I am not sleeping or eating, I am scooting, cruising, hugging, climbing, pounding...you get the picture, busy!!

First, I have developed a new, cheesy smile. I am starting to like people besides my parents again (hee, hee) so if I see you, I will probably give you this smile with this wave.

I love my new chair from my cousin Shea and my Aunt Cassie and Uncle Jamie. I am still trying to figure out how to get it to recline....maybe it didn't come with this feature?!?

I have started using a spoon. My mom, always the teacher even though not currently teaching, might say that my spoon skills are emerging. I think I am doing pretty good and I like to eat soup and yogurt with my spoon.

I (actually Blue and I) like to spend a lot of our time by the back door looking out the window.

Speaking of Blue, I LOVE him. I love to hug him. Sometimes I miss his body with my hugs, but other times I give him nice big hugs on his tummy! What a good kitty, and he purrs the whole time!!!

Here I am riding in the bike trailer that my mommy pulls behind her bike. I love looking around as we ride. My helmet even has a pacifier sticker on it that says "I love Daddy."

Let's see, what else? Oh! I am obsessed with brushing my TEN teeth. Yes, I have gotten eight out of my ten teeth this past month. My mom and dad (who for some reason aren't sleeping a lot during the night lately...come to think of it neither am I) even got me this "toy" toothbrush because it keeps me busy during diaper changes :-)

And don't worry, I am still taking time to smell (touch, play with) the flowers every once and awhile. These were one of my gifts for being a flower girl last weekend. Aren't they pretty???

Wedding Weekend

This weekend was a full wedding weekend and here is the recap!

Our first wedding of the weekend was Lisa and Todd's wedding. It was a beautiful wedding and I LOVE the venue where they got married and had the reception. It is called the Danada House and we have now been there for one winter wedding (Shannon!) and now one summer wedding. It is just so unique for weddings...and I am obviously a big fan :-)

Layla did well as the flowergirl. She was a busy, but happy girl for the day. Layla was happily carried down the aisle by Ryan and even gave the groom a high five when she got to the front. Here Ms. Layla is in her flowergirl outfit.

And here is Ryan and the groom Todd

And now introducing Mr. and Mrs. Weimer :-)

And Mr. and Mrs. Janisch!

Todd and Lisa's wedding was gorgeous and their first dance was fun (slow and then a fast routine at the end), the programs were ADORABLE (Lisa's first grade students wrote love quotes and drew pictures of the wedding party), but I think my favorite part had to be the table numbers. The table numbers were pictures of Lisa and Todd holding the table numbers...so cute!

And now for wedding number...

One of my college friends/roommates, Rachel, got married on Sunday to her now husband Josh. The reception was at the alumni center on our college campus which was just the perfect location for their wedding because she was super involved with the university. Rachel is now an art teacher in the same district where Ryan and I worked. Small world, isn't it?

Rachel wore her grandmother's wedding gown and she looked beautiful.

And now for Mr. and Mrs. Goeden :-)

And now for my favorite part of Rachel's wedding! Rachel and Josh decided not to have a wedding cake and instead did favorite cookies which were served in the library of the alumni center and Rachel had cute red, white and blue bags to take cookies home in. Loved it and the cookies were very tasty.

Hope you all had a great 4th of July weekend!

Red, White & Blue

Happy 4th of July everyone!

Layla will enjoy her 4th with these boys....

Who are they? Well, Ryan you know but included in the rest of the pack is the groom (Todd) and the groomsmen for Todd and Lisa's wedding.

Yes, Layla is making her debut as a flower girl today :-) Ryan is the best man in the wedding and he will be carrying Layla down the aisle. Aiden, the 2 year old ring bearer (see Layla watching him below), will be sure to keep her entertained. Layla was laughing out loud at him last night during the rehearsal.

Layla enjoyed dinner and REALLY enjoyed dessert. We heard a lot of "MA" which means more in Layla speak.



Dessert was a delicious carrot cake cheesecake which is modeled here by the bride and groom-to-be!

Have a great 4th of July everyone!!!

Doctor's Orders...

Today was Layla's one year well visit with her doctor. She has made great strides since arriving in the very low percentiles a year ago. Today Layla was 20lbs 11oz (50th percentile), 29 inches long (50th percentile!!!) and her head was 18 and 1/4 inches around (95th...yes, 95th percentile). So the appointment went fine (although Layla didn't want the doctor to touch her at all which made for an interesting appointment!!) until we came to the topic of....

THE SWING!!!!

The doctor told me it was time to put the swing away because Layla is now strong enough to jump right out of it if she chose to. So Layla's doctor told me to put the swing away out of sight so Layla couldn't see it and neither could I (I think possibly this is more so I don't "swing relapse"). So upon doctor's orders, the swing is gone and I am getting ready for a LONG 3-4 days of transitioning Ms. Layla into the crib.

So long Mr. Swing....I don't know if we will use you again if/when we have another baby :-)

If we do use you again, we definitely need to invest in rechargeable D batteries next time!!!

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On a non-swing note, enjoy a video of Layla and her daddy playing tonight!!

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