Home Sweet Home, Almost

There is one big thing missing! This guy right here!

It's just not the same without him but we're trying to get by without him.
This pretty face keeps me busy most of the day. I do get three hours to clean, cook, blog, and me time during her afternoon nap.

So here's what I've added to her room. I'm only working on her room because we're waiting for daddy to get back from Japan to work on the rest of the house.
I'm still not sure what I'm going to add above her crib. I was thinking of adding a quote but I can't seem to find the right quote. Any ideas? I'm looking for something to go with the bird theme.

I've added a bird house that I was thinking of repainted but I think I'm going to leave it.

I do have more birds to really bring in the bird theme but I need shelves hung before I can put them out.
I think I'm getting a mirror and putting it and the shelves above the dresser and probably move the pictures on the shelves

Now back down to the other room we spend most of our time in... the kitchen

Notice the new 5 burner stainless steal stove, pretty huh?
Closeup

We will be getting a stainless steal overhead microwave.

And the sink... nothing exciting there

Finally the kitchen and dinning room

That's it for now.

Internet

We got internet in the house yesterday, Friday, so I'm finally able to post.
We moved in a week ago Thursday, August 6. This is Cali watching Beethoven while we unpack

I had already told Ashley that I would go wedding venue shopping with her that weekend so we didn't get to sleep in our house that weekend. We drove up to Smartville on Friday and spend the weekend there.
We colored a little

She swam a little

Hung out on the hammack a little

Cali went to Maddie and Cameron's Birthday party on Saturday while I went with Ashley and her mom to look a venues.
Later that night Ashley brought her future sister in law over to play with Cali.
Millie and Cali had a blast hanging out in the cool red Mustang

And Sunday morning Grandpa Roy came home with a new puppy
Meet Pearl, named after the Black Pearl.

She is the cutest Black Lab/Rottweiler Mix. I wanted to bring her home.

We came back Sunday evening and finally slept in our own house, after 4 months of being homeless. The first thing I did was paint Cali's room. I wanted to get her room ready so that she could settle in and adjust. I explained that it was her room and that this was her house and I think she understood because she didn't say a peep when I put her down for her first nap in her new room on Tuesday (had to let the low VOC paint dry and air out).
Her first nap in her new room.

Here's a better picture of her room.

I need to paint the night stand black. I've added a few accent to her room since then, haven't taken another picture yet, I'll take another picture soon and post that.
That's it for now. And Daddy we miss you!

Lots of work

I'm sure you all know that moving is lots of work. I spent most of the day cleaning, priming and making trips to Lowe's/Home Depot.
First thing I did was take a picture of the front of the house

While I waited for the carpet cleaner guy I took out a couple (hundred) thumbtacks and staples out the walls in Cali's new bedroom.

While our carpets were being cleaned I cleaned the kitchen cabinets! As most of you know clutter and I are BFFs, but I do not like living in other people's germs so scrubbed fried fish smell out of the cabinets. I took me 2 hours to clean the cabinets. I think I got most of the fish smell out. I left the cabinets open to air out.

I have learned a little about the family that used to live there. They had a boy and a girl. The boys names is written on one of the walls in the blue bedroom (can't remember his name now) and the girl's name was on the door, but was removed when they were replacing all the missing fixtures. The girl was probably between 11 and 15 because only someone that age would have that many holes in the wall. The boy was the youngest because he had the smaller room. I also learned where they kept their coffee pot because when I wiped the walls the smell of coffee was very potent in a particular area.
After I cleaned the kitchen I took a break to hang out with my little girl. When she went down for a nap I went back to the house to prime Cali's room. It took FOREVER and I'm still not done. I ran out of primer and I needed a latter, so I stopped for the day. I did go buy more primer and a ladder. Oh yeah this is getting expensive.
After dinner I gave Cali a bath and put her to bed, but not before we read.
This is her reading corner, we read almost every night.

No I don't make her sit in the corner before bed, that's where she likes to sit.
Her favorite book right now is Hop on Pop, I have to read it every night.

YAY!

About freaking time! We close on the house tomorrow morning!!!
She will finally have her own house to destroy!

And a quick flashback
August 2008-August 09

Is she getting prettier or what? I think we are going to have to build a basement to lock her in!

"Don't"

What are Cali's current favorite words you wonder? "Don't" and "No"
She can't seem to get enough of those words! And honestly I don't know how much more I can take it. She has developed this little attitude!
Here she is saying "NO!" to the camera

Thankfully she's still a toddler and drops the attitude in a matter of seconds, sometimes minutes, and we have our happy baby back

Are you wondering if we have moved into our house yet? Take a guess! You're right! NO! We still can't move into our house! What's the holdup? The selling back needs to sign it over so they can get their money, you would think they would be more anxious to get their money considering the house has been theirs since December!
Maybe tomorrow will be the day.
In the mean time I have been keeping myself busy shopping and reading.
I bought this lamp for Cali's room

Her room is going to be birds in blue and pink.
I also got a library card and got a couple of books

The Happiest Baby on the Block is to help me take control of Cali's new found attitude.
Mommywood is for pure entertainment
And California Real Estate is so that I can make some money since we moved to a small town that lacks well paying jobs!
That's the update so far! Keep your fingers crossed for us.

Home Owners

Daddy and I will soon be home owners, YAY!!!


We signed the loan documents on Tuesday afternoon and now we are just waiting for our money!
We are so sad because daddy won't be there when we finally close and can move in. He left for Japan yesterday morning and won't be back for a little while.
Here's our new home

Sorry it's so small but I haven't taken a picture of the front of the house and this is a picture from the listing. You can go here to see more pictures of the house.

Last Weekend

This was the last weekend with Daddy before he leaves for Japan in a few days. We had a pretty laid back weekend.
We went to the Garlic Festival on Friday, Dave was still in SD, I brought my camera but left the memory card in the truck so I couldn't take any pictures, the worst part is that I had to lug my camera around and it's sooo heavy! We tried several different garlic foods, the worst was garlic ice cream and you can pretty much guess what it taste like, garlic, it was NOT good.
Saturday we just hung out, we did not sign house papers. It was really hot so Cali sported a new hair style.

We did pretty much nothing on Sunday too, Dave went back to SD. Cali was really mad for some reason so she didn't want so say bye, fortunately I have to drive to SD so that we can sign papers so I get to see Daddy one more time before he leaves. Keep your fingers crossed that we actually get the house this week.
After Dave left Cali wanted to go with him. She got her purse and walked to the truck.

So instead of going for a drive we went for a walk. Cali LOVES going for walks it really relaxes her.

San Diego Fun

Well it looks like we will be signing papers on Saturday, but who knows if we will.
We went to San Diego this last weekend for a friend's baby shower. It was so nice to go back but it made me miss it even more.
We went to their baby shower

Thrown by this crazy person... I will admit she's one of my good friends

Okay I will admit she's one of my good friends
Can you believe she's the mother is this cute baby?

We had a good time at the shower but I think Cali had more fun hanging out with her little friends.
Cali got to ride Bethany's bike and she looked so cute in the helmet
"Peace"


Cali's Best Bud Bethany making sure Cali is being safe

And that was our weekend.
This picture was from last week sometime.
Yummy Popsicle that she wouldn't share

Too Much Shopping

Well we still don't have a home and might not have a home before Dave leaves for Japan.
But we figured that we are close enough to closing so we have started buying house stuff. We couldn't help ourselves.
We purchased this stove

It was on sale at Sears and it will take 3 weeks to arrive so we figured we might as well hit "buy."
We bought this fridge

the one we were going to get from Ikea (which we found 3 weeks ago) is out of stock and they don't know when it will be back in stock but they do know that when it is back in stock the price will increase by $500. I started freaking out when I heard that because I haven't seen a French door, bottom freezer for that prize anywhere else, I guess Ikea figured that out too.
So I immediately started looking online for another fridge. I found that one one sale at Sears but it was smaller than the Ikea one so I wanted to go see a fridge that same size before we bought it. We went to Home Depot to look well it turns out that Home Depot has a 10% Price Match Policy, most stores have a similar policy but it's rare to find the exact item at 2 stores. It so happens that Home Depot had the exact same fridge. The fridge was 10% off at Sears and we got an additional 10% off and free delivery and installation.
We are buying a foreclosed home so the previous owners took EVERYTHING!!! Even the smoke detectors! Some items had to be replaced by the selling bank, those two big ticket items weren't part of the deal.
We also bought these patio chairs at Tractor Supply

We fell in love with them a couple weeks ago, Dave wanted to purchase them on the spot. The clerk told us that they were going to have a Grand Opening Sale the following Saturday so they would probably be on sale. We go them this past weekend for 10% off.
We plan on buying this overhead microwave

We saw it when we bought the fridge but decided to wait because I wanted to do research and see if I could find it cheaper anywhere else. Good thing we waited because Home Depot has a 10% moving coupon.
The house already has a dishwasher, it won't match but we are okay with that for now.
And what's a post without a picture of Cali

Her hair is slowly getting longer.

More pictures

Here are the rest of this pictures from yesterday