Happy 3rd Birthday Avery!

Grandpa and Grandma Davis came for a visit to help us celebrate Avery's birthday. Here are a few of the highlights:


When I asked him what he wanted this year for his birthday, he said a lion. We compromised with him and made him a lion cake since I don't think a lion would get along very well with Venus.


He asked to have a piece of the eye.


Meet Peacock, the newest member of our family. Aunt Laura and Tony gave Avery a fish for his birthday. Peacock is a Beta.



Here is Avery on his new balance bike. It teaches children how to ride a bike without needing training wheels.






Grandma and Grandpa wanted to explore our new city so we rented golf carts for a day.


We enjoyed a visit to the Georgia aquarium, the world's largest.




Cooling off in our pool.

Grandma and Grandpa, thanks for visiting us during Avery's birthday and making it a special one! Orla and Tony, thank you for Peacock, what a great gift for a 3 year old!

And last but not least...


1 week


1 year


2 years


3 years

Alia and Banana 5 months

Alia


Avery

Fun 4th

We were eager to experience a holiday in a different part of the country. Things here definitely feel different. Our first stop was the annual parade. Like most parades it was filled with music and candy and all the old cars anyone would care to see. The difference here was that it was almost 90 degrees at 10 am. Here are the highlights


Avery showing his American spirit



Alia enjoying her frisbee


People warned us about the golf carts but this is out of control


Not to be outdone, Alia showing her spirit


Next, we decided to visit a neighboring town.


Since this town is known for "having homes" we had high expectations for their annual "home made ice cream festival. We tried all 4 flavors and liked them all.

After a morning of candy and ice cream we decided a nap was in store. Then after being well rested we went to a BBQ and sat and watched the fireworks. Both Avery and Alia loved them. Brandee and I did too.

Come on, laugh with us!

Someone thinks her brother is grand.....

Like Mother Like Daughter

While unpacking I found a dress that once belonged to me. I wore this dress when I was Alia's age. Mom says the day wasn't so picture perfect because I wouldn't cooperate for the cameraman. Everyone tried and tried to get me to smile. I finally did after I threw up all over myself. The stain is still on the dress and visible in my baby picture. Now fast forward to this week. I was excited when I found the dress and decided to try it on Alia. I tried in vain to get her to smile and had similar results. Alia also threw up on the dress, adding to my stain. I hope she will get to pass the tradition down to her daughter someday....

Happy Father's Day!

We enjoyed a great weekend exploring more of our new city. Friday and Saturday were spent cruising around in a golf-cart we rented. The trails are wooded and beautiful and Avery really enjoyed riding in the cart. Since the paths are wooded and there are no signs anywhere, we got lost quite a bit. I wish I had a picture of us on our cart, but we forgot to take one. We also enjoyed a picnic and finally used the awesome basket we were given for our wedding. (Thanks Kelly!) On Sunday we went to the local lake and played in the water. I would say it was refreshing, but I think the water was at least 80 degrees, nothing like the 40 degree Lake Superior waters!

Bodily Functions and other gross stories

Twice now Alia has tried to embarrass me with her bodily functions. The first time happened in my home town, at my church. Church was about to begin and I noticed Alia needed a diaper change. I left Scott and Avery in the sanctuary, grabbed a diaper and wipes out of the diaper bag and headed for the bathroom. When I was changing her, she began to pee. I tried to catch the pee with her new diaper only to realize that the new diaper was upside down and inside out. Realizing this, I pulled it out from under her while she continued to empty her bladder. Now what to do? There I stood, with no new diaper and a little girl with pee-soaked clothes. I had to strip her down to nothing and walk back to the sanctuary to retrieve another diaper and new clothes. Too bad we were seated half way to the altar and I had to pass by several curious onlookers with a naked baby in tow.

The second time she tried was today. She definitely wasn't making it easy to make some new friends. It was a hot day, like every day has been so far in June. I decided to walk to the park with Avery and Alia to meet some moms from the neighborhood because they meet weekly at the park. I put Alia on the front pack and Avery wanted to "ride" his bike so I gave in and let him. I say ride in quotes because he refused to pedal and instead pushed with his feet. The park is a few blocks away so it took 15 minutes to get there. Once there, I was really sweating from carrying Alia and dragging Avery and his bike. I tried to look somewhat presentable even though I was sweating from every pore in my body. I walked up, took Alia out of the carrier and sat down on the bench. She was standing on my lap for about five minutes while I talked to the other mom's and while Avery played in the sand. I glanced down at one point to see how wet my shirt had become from all of the sweat only to discover that the whole front of my shirt is covered in poop! I look at Alia and notice that she is also covered in poop. Great, now what. Did the other mothers notice? I decide to nonchalantly stand up and pretend to get something out of my bag which was on another bench. I look for a diaper and wipes which I always carry only to realize that they were in another bag and not in the bag I had at the park. Fun times! I then quickly decide to put Alia back in the front carrier so no one could see the poop on the front of my shirt or all over her. Then I try to explain to Avery as quietly as I can that we need to leave the park and head back home. Of course, he wasn't pleased because we had just gotten there. The worst part of leaving was realizing that I was now covered in poop, as was Alia and we had to walk back the several blocks in the sweaty heat, dragging Avery on his bike. I wonder what those mom's thought of us on our first meeting, what a great first impression!

Growing up...

I've been working with Avery trying to teach him the ins and outs of dressing oneself. Here is our progress thus far. He managed this all by himself!


Playing in the bouncy house


This deserves some explanation. When we were unpacking our home, Venus noticed that there was a bed that wasn't currently being used. She begged and pleaded with us until we finally gave in. Look how happy she looks!

It seems that in the move we acquired one hampster and lost the boy

Alia and Banana 4 months

Alia


Avery

Sweet Surprises....

It's official, I can call this place home and feel good about it because.....


"Hey Mom, what is that coming down the road?"


THERE ARE ICE CREAM TRUCKS!!!!


We had just gotten back from a very sweaty walk and we heard music down the street. I jokingly told Avery it was an ice cream truck because that's what you see in the movies. I was really surprised and quite happy when it actually was an ice cream truck. How cool is that? Oh, and the neighbors just dropped off homemade cookies : ).

Georgia update

Since we have moved to Georgia Avery has been on a roll with crazy, funny sayings. We have forgotten most of them but we thought it was worth writing down a few.

While on a walk in an exasperated voice out of nowhere he says "mom, I really need a house!"
When driving by McDonald's Avery says "Mom, is there a farm in there?" (I guess he was remembering the song Old McDonald)
"I have my ninjas, now we can go to Georgia." (We have miniature ninjas that we put in our geocaches. He must have taken a few of them while we were packing up the house because I later found a few in the front pocket of our suitcase)
"I can't get in the tub, there are too many ninjas in there."
"I'm a piece of dirt." He wanted Brandee to pretend to push him around (she was the dozer)
"I'm too shy to say hi to her." (He was referring to the receptionist at the front desk of our hotel)

Things are going well in Georgia. We really enjoy it here so far and that says a lot considering we've been in a hotel for over a week and still have a few more days in one. The town is beautiful and we've enjoyed all of the golf cart paths. The people here are really friendly- Brandee has already met a few moms at local parks who have given her their numbers. She was even invited to Bunco by a woman in our hotel who just happens to live in our neighborhood but is staying here while her house is under construction. We both like the climate so far even though it is a bit sticky at times. Avery has enjoyed the newness of things and keeps asking to go "suplore" which is explore. Alia has been great as well. She especially loves watching Avery and belly laughing at him when he does silly things.

We had to post a classic picture that represents the number of golf carts in this town from the local Walmart. They actually have an entire parking lot for golf carts only.




Us having fun in the pool.

On our way....

We've begun the journey to GA. We have completed 2/3 of the trip and are scheduled to arrive tomorrow afternoon. The kids have been excellent in the car traveling so far. We were able to stop and visit Laura on the way which was a nice treat, especially since she made us brownies. We appreciated those several hours into the trip when we were in the middle of nowhere and starving! Our diets have been less than desirable. Avery's going to start thinking it's normal to have ice cream and brownies for dinner! Here are random pictures....

Homeless with sweet shoes

We packed our suitcase for Georgia and later learned that we couldn't close on time so we decided to stay in WI. Our packed clothes were for 2 days of traveling only and for temps in the 80's. Also, due to the delays in our housing I will have to start work prior to moving in. Since we can't get our stuff until we find a place to put it, I didn't want to show up at work wearing shorts and flip flops so I visited the local Goodwill and got some dress clothes (I am particularly fond of my new plastic dress loafers)



For those of you that haven't been updated on our recent housing troubles here is a history of what has happened.

1. In preparation for possible house buying I decide to call a bank to get pre approved for a loan on March 1^st
2. NWA told me to use Wells Fargo since we get special rates and our closing costs will be covered
3. Find out they won’t cover my closing costs
4. Start looking at homes on the internet
5. Fly to Atlanta to look at homes
6. Looked at 25 homes over two days (rained the whole time)
7. Couldn’t fly home since the flights were full so we rented a car and drove 19 hrs through the night
8. Made our first offer
9. Spent 4 days negotiating ultimately ending at a stalemate
10. Made our 2^nd offer
11. Spent 2 days negotiating and then got outbid
12. Made our 3^rd offer, got outbid
13. Made our 4^th offer, got outbid
14. Made our 5^th, 6^th and 7^th offer all at the same time
15. On our 5^th offer, got no response (it was way overpriced and we lowballed them)
16. On our 6^th offer, which was actually on the first house again, got outbid
17. Our 7^th offer was accepted
18. Realized 3 days later that we both didn’t like the house or the location so we terminated the contract
19. Flew back down to look at some more homes
20. Looked at several more homes and made offers on two
21. One was on a basement and one was on a slab - we continued negotiating on the basement one.
22. Came to an agreement to purchase the house – YES!
23. Called my mortgage broker to finalize the deal and get the following message “I will be out of the office on a special project for the next 4 months with no email or cell phone service.”
24. Found a new mortgage broker not with Wells Fargo
25. Got the inspection
26. Inspection items were fixed
27. Closing set for May 5^th
28. Movers take our stuff to Georgia
29. Ordered appraisal and 2 days later it came back $40,000 under purchase price
30. Sellers said the appraisal wasn’t accurate and they wouldn’t sell for that price
31. Order a second appraisal this time with Wells Fargo
32. Moved into Brandee’s Parents house and all four of us packed into one room
33. Took a week to get appraiser to come out but only waited 20 min to get into the house. Left and drove 3 hrs home.
34. Appraiser came back (driving 3 hrs again) and finished appraisal.
35. 4 days later he finished the report and was $50k higher than first appraisal
36. Appraiser doubled the size of the basement and doubled the adjustment on the basement (no wonder it was high).
37. Many days passed fighting to get the errors corrected. Appraiser refused.
38. After many more days the appraiser was fired for preparing a fraudulent appraisal and we would have to file an appeal with Wells Fargo’s appraisal management company (estimated to take at least a month)
39. Contacted the sellers and had the purchase price lowered $20k
40. Rather than getting a third appraisal we decided to try to use the fraudulent appraisal to get our loan

At this point we felt like we were done (or at least very close) all we had left was underwriting and we sigh a little as we are almost done.

41. Underwriting gave us a 1-3 weeks estimate for closing (good to know we can plan)
42. Found out the bank changed the rules and our broker no longer can do our loan, we would have to go through a bank’s broker
43. Bank’s broker told us we would need another appraisal
44. Since our appraisal contingency was done we couldn’t use the bank
45. Decided to switch our loan to a FHA loan and start over and hopefully use the fraudulent appraisal

That was yesterday, we will keep you posted

Enjoying the Mississippi

For Mother's Day this year we enjoyed a Mother's Day Buffet on a cruise boat.

Alia and Banana 3 months

Alia continues to attack the banana. At two months she mearly fell into it. Now she is throwing herself at it. Oh and she rolled over for the first time yesterday (back to front)


Alia


Alia happy to have taken banana out.


And of course to compare, Avery at 3 months


Avery