Hello there!

This blog post is brought to you by the wi-fi at Panera on Wendover! Here's to a cobblestone muffin, sweet tea, a sleepy baby and a toddler at pre-school! We're officially homeless! We closed on our sweet little house yesterday afternoon, this whole process has been somewhat bittersweet. We lived there for 7 years and learned to be husband and wife and then a family together. But as Matt said on Monday night as we toasted the good times on the front porch, we are ready to write the next chapter! So in the interim we are staying in the basement apt. of our friends house (house above) this was a plan change from earlier mentioned, same family, different house, they live upstairs in this one. But it is great, very comfortable and Ollie loves their back yard and their German Shepherd puppy, Macy!

These two pictures are from our "nature walk" yesterday! For real this place is like a hidden forest, with many secret gardens including a stream.

Quick shot from naptime yesterday...I was squeezed in the middle for a while as I had a hard time getting the 3yr old to go to bed an hour later than normal b/c of our house closing. They are so sweet together! Well, we're headed to Virginia for the weekend for some family time and Matt and I are headed away together for a night for some R and R! Happy Friday to you!

BIG boy bed!

Ollie got a big boy bed, well a twin bed with boy sheets yesterday, you know for his new coming soon big boy room! He invited his baby sister to join him for story time.

He's not much for photo sessions these days!

Ahh, that's better, aren't they cute in their matchy shirts!

more pink tutu!

So long, farewell...

I've been singing that song from my favorite movie a lot lately, adieu, adieu, to yu and yu and yuu (sp.) This has been the scene at our house the past week, the gigantic pod of all our stuff. Actually this pod is being picked up tomorrow and its cousin will be dropped off in its place. We have so much stuff. Seriously though, in the midst of all this moving and packing stuff I have had time to reflect a bit. I will miss this sweet house which we have called a home for the past 7 years. I'll miss Christmases by the wood stove, projects by Matty (well those have only just begun at the new house,) our fun deck, playing in the living room and bubble baths in the porcelain tub and oh so much more. We're moving on...

...to this new house! We bought (well are buying) this big house...it's a foreclosure, we got a great deal, has no appliances, it needs a lot of tlc and for those of you in GSO it's in the Lake Jeanette area. I'm going to post some pics in the next few weeks of rooms of this big ole house that I have no idea what to make of them, so get your HGTV ideas brewing! We close on Efland next week and then will close on the new house on May 17th, which is also the day I go back to work. LONG story short I have to be working for our new and improved loan to go through. This is two weeks earlier than I had planned but it's still short term and then I'll be off for the summer.

These two kiddos will be hanging with friends and family (Sarah Claire) and going back to school full time (Ollie) while I am back to being Mrs. Hannam. We have some very gracious friends in town who have a house that is vacant and for sale and that is where we will be hanging our back packs in the interim, whew, lots going on...but we are so thankful to be so blessed with all this fun excitement.

Mr. Science

Mr. Science found an inchworm, they are everywhere these days!

Mr. Science drew really close to his inchworm on the porch!

Mr. Science checked out his inchworm really good!

Mr. Science created a habitat for his inchworm, for real he got the bowl, asked me to help him dig dirt and put a rock in it and called the rock the inchworm's playground or prayglound as he calls it.

This morning Mr. Science woke up and had a dead inchworm in his hair...hmmm! The joys of boys!

sneak peek!!!!

Photo shoot in the yard yesterday... subject: Sarah Claire's birth announcement!!!!
These are some of the outtakes, can't post the final pic of course!

She was a sweetie pie for most of the event but by the end she was thinking, "ok Mommy I've had enough!"

Sorry for the lack of blog post about my Ollie, promise to let you in on his adventures this week!

the view from the bouncy seat...

Many facial expressions coming from our little five week old the past few days...cooing a bit.

Trying to smile.

And the yawn...look at those chins and cheeks.

We had Sarah Claire's one month appt. this week and she weighs 11 pounds and 4 oz, girlfriend does not miss a meal! She's done several 5 hour stretches then a 4 hour stretch at night in the past week. This is great, but I am wishing the 5 hour stretch didn't start at 8:30, but oh well, we'll take what we can! It's fun to see a bit more of a personality these days, a personality that continues to be very different than her brother. Our pediatrician even commented on it this week when she (SC) pushed her (Dr. Keiffer's) arm out of the way when she was looking in her ear...feisty was the word she used...sensitive is the word I choose! Nonetheless we love our baby girl and are enjoying these days no matter what they bring!

Easter!

Happy Easter...from the Hannam Four!

Oh the brotherly love...some days we just aren't feeling it!

We headed to VA for the weekend to spend it with Matt's parents, it was a great time for everybody!

Thinking about...

...selling your house?
(warning...long post)

Few minutes left in naptime around here, and I thought I would share some tips on selling your house since we've just lived/ are living this experience. I am by no means a pro at this...ha...and we did it all for sale by owner so most of my tips apply to that...here they are in no particular order.

1. Organize and clean
We put our house on the "market" Oct. 1...spent one long Saturday cleaning and organizing. I read online about how to "showcase" your house. I organized like crazy, everything in our house has a place OR a place to hide in the event of a showing. Matt shirts in his closet were (yes were) organized by short/long sleeve, striped, solid, plaid, buttons facing same direction. The hangers in closets all hanging same way, get rid of extra hangers...why we hang onto those, who knows?!

On hiding, like dirty clothes in baskets, don't have time to wash...throw them in the washing machine, dirty dishes, put in the dishwasher. I have a basket on my dresser of stuff like lotion (most recent item stretch mark removal lotion...post in itself), deodorant etc. well that basket always was hidden in our tv stand, behind a closed door. My kleenex box fit nicely in my jammy drawer. You get the point.

We de-cluttered our kitchen...got rid of baby birth announcements, old Christmas card pics off of fridge, sad I know. Got rid of basically anything everywhere that was sitting around and didn't have a purpose.

2. Create a website...we used fsbo.com...Matt designed/ created a more personalized url with our adress in it. Put it on craigslist, zillow.com and we went ahead and paid about $300 to get it put on MLS, which listed it on listingbook and realtor.com...so worth it!

3. Take good pictures for your flyer...we did this after we had that first major cleaning, and speaking of flyers print them in color, makes them more appealing. Keep flyers in your box, might sound simple but I can't tell you how many houses I've visited and no flyers, makes me check that one off my list!

4. Get a good sign...duh! Ours was pimp, looked like a real estate company, I really think that is why people stopped by so much. Honestly think people are scared of the fsbo process, we were!

5. Have a plan for cleaning for a showing...our plan start in one room, finish that room and move on, no helicopter cleaning. On cleaning, buy a good all purpose cleaner that does not smell like clorox! My current fave is Method Sea Mineral all purpose cleaner... takes me to Wilmington, NC every time I spray...or something like that, I enjoy the smell so I spray it often!

6. Have patience...we got a TON of showings in the beginning and then it slowed down, probably had something to do with Thanksgiving and Christmas but that's what people said would happen...well after the fact they said that! We were so close to getting a realtor after SC was born but the week after she was born was when we got our offer...really think it was Jesus of course, but just the right couple at the right time, not much more, well probably the tax credits.

So as I am typing this I am praying that our deal will still go through, we have not closed yet as mentioned earlier in the week, but we are pretty sure it will happen, trusting that it will. We did not need to move, we have a great house. We just wanted a bit more space, perhaps another bathroom, we only have one. The tax credits were tempting as are the interest rates.

Well think that pretty much sums it up...good luck...remember marathon not a sprint!