And it begins...

We're Building a House!!

I'm completely thrilled/excited/shocked/scared-out-of-my-mind/overwhelmed...but we are under contract!!  We asked for a lot from them, and we didn't get all that we wanted.  The biggest thing was for them to pay closing costs, and they refused.  But, after a lot of consideration, we decided we'd make this work.

We could've waited a year or so and saved some more money for closing costs and the down payment, but in doing so, we'd miss out on the ideal lot we wanted, plus risk interest rates and prices rising even more than they already have.  And this neighborhood feels right...I'm so excited about that!

Unfortunately, this new home means a different school for the kids.  Of course, Riley won't be impacted as much since she's just starting, but Gavin isn't exactly overjoyed with the idea of leaving the school he's known and loved, and all his friends.  I've promised him we will keep in touch with the boys, through soccer and playdates for sure.  I know it won't be the same, but I will make sure their friendships continue to grow.

So...here goes nothing.  Bring on five months of stress, decisions, second-guessing, planning, dreaming, and anticipation.  The Pate Place is going to be amazing.

The Pate Place Update

Well, I'm a nervous wreck, but we submitted an offer yesterday!  We'll see what happens...I'm not very confident that they'll accept the offer because of how much we asked for, but we're hoping to build a Walnut floor plan home in The Parks at Brighton Creek - four bedrooms and 2.5 baths downstairs with a bonus room and another half bath upstairs.  It would have a covered patio and be on one of the premium lots in the neighborhood (still not huge, but larger than most and backs up to a green space with no one building behind us).  Here are some sketches of the exterior elevation and the floor plan.

We'll know by tomorrow!  I'll be sure to update what is going on. :)

The Pate Place

A new home for the Pate family? Maybe!

A little history.  We moved down to Bentonville almost SIX years ago.  That just blows my mind.  After a very short stint in Rochester, Jarrod was encouraged to come down here to work at the Home Office.  I was hesitant.  I did not think he would like working in an office setting, but it seemed like there were some advantages we couldn't pass up - mainly working 'regular' hours, not retail.  Plus, when we looked up housing here and compared it to UNY, we could get SO much more here.  So, we jumped in with both feet BUT I made sure he knew I didn't want to buy a house here.  I wanted to make sure we liked it here first.

So, for the same monthly rent as our two bedroom apartment in Rochester, we moved into a beautiful 4 bedroom house here in Bentonville.  And, we ended up loving it here!  Ideally, I wish I could take Bentonville and physically move it closer to Ohio (can't we just swap places with like Kentucky or something??) but overall, this has been a really great place for our family.  We started to look to buy a house, but I was still hesitant to own two homes (since we still owned the home in Miamisburg).  Well, back in 2011, we were shocked to learn our tenant had vacated our home, leaving us high and dry, and we went through a very stressful short sale.  Because of that, we couldn't buy a home here for many years.  Thankfully, we were in a great rental home with fantastic landlords and didn't have a real need to move anywhere.

Fast forward to last fall...our schools went through some major changes, which included eliminating our much-loved year round calendar and a major rezoning.  That triggered us to see if we could go ahead and buy a home so we could get close enough to our current school to avoid switching schools.  Good news - we were told we COULD in fact apply for a loan now.  Bad news - the homes near our current school have increased drastically in price over the last couple of years and no longer in our budget.  After a LOT of stress, I finally came to peace with the idea of switching schools and we decided to look in a different part of town near another school.

So, after a lot of looking, we stumbled upon a sign for a brand new neighborhood that is just getting started.  While we haven't decided to 100% go forward with this, I have spent countless hours over the last two weeks, staring at the lot map and comparing floor plans, making list after list after list of pros and cons.  Typical Jen, right?  And whether this is the route we end up going or not, I want to make sure I document the journey here for us to look back on.

The perks of being in this new neighborhood are really appealing.  We'd be just under a mile from the elementary school, middle school and junior high (assuming we don't get rezoned again...which I've learned I can never assume anything with our school board).  Finally, we'd be in a neighborhood with kids for Gav and Riley to play with.  Yes, it's brand new and I don't know that for a fact, but Riley did make a friend while we were just meeting with the builder's salesperson at another model home and they're also building in that neighborhood.  I have a feeling Riley and Sydney are going to become close friends if we go this route. ;)  The neighborhood will not only have a pool and a playground like I've always wanted for the kids, but also a dog park.  Seriously?!  Oh, and the POA is responsible for all lawn mowing.  We wouldn't even have to cut our grass.  Jarrod's not so sure how he feels about that, but I've assured him we'd still be able to do yard work and it will give him more time for running.

So, the cons - the lots are not going to be very large, and in keeping with most of the new neighborhoods here, the houses are going to be pretty close together.  Not ideal, but probably something that we can deal with if it means a better neighborhood for the kids.  The floor plan we are leaning toward is a bit more than we want to spend, and it will most likely mean that I will need to do some part time work when Riley starts kindergarten to help with our budget, but again, I think it will be worth it.  And of course, since it is BRAND NEW (meaning the model home isn't even ready....they just poured the foundation actually), we aren't able to walk through floor plans and make sure what's on paper is actually what will work for us.  Kinda scary for someone like me who is very hands on.  I really wish I could walk through a few homes first.

But...that's where we are right now.  Still figuring things out with which lot we'd go with and for sure which floor plan we'd choose.  Jarrod's been gone most of the last two weeks traveling for a new club opening and YBM, so I'm hoping after Friday we can really make some headway because kindergarten registration is next week and I want to try everything I can to avoid the kids being put on a waiting list for their new school.  I'll keep you posted on the Pate Place! :)

Our 2016 Snapshot

A month or two back, I saw that my amazing friend, Amy, did a 'snapshot' on her blog and loved it.  When I told her about it, she said that she realized when she went back through her scrapbooks, she liked seeing pictures of how their house looked, etc.  Right around the same time, I read a parenting article written by an empty-nester that mentioned how we tend to document big milestones, like first words and first days of school, but one day, we'll forget what the kids' rooms looked like or what we talked about at family dinners.  It made me realize that the little things deserve to be remembered, too.  And with a move on our horizon, I figured it would be a good time to start with our yearly snapshot since it may be our last year in this house. 

Gavin Jack

{I did a project for Gavin's class last week about how to make the world a better place and this picture is from that photo book.  He just thinks we need more free stuff!}

Height: 4'

Weight: ~ 50lbs

Current sizes: 7/8 in most clothes and a size 1 shoe

Lost tooth count: 4

Gavin is creeping closer to his EIGHTH birthday.  Somehow, he's getting older everyday....not sure why he thinks that's ok.  He's in Ms. Behnke's second grade class at Elm Tree, and loves going to TREC every Tuesday, where he's studied money and currently in the 'experimentality' unit where they're doing all sorts of fun science experiments.  Spring soccer is about to start soon, and he'll also sign up for Running Club again as we train to run a 5K together in May.

This kid lives and breathes Minecraft, xbox/ipad, and Legos.  It's like all he does.  I'm not sure why we even have any other toys for him (though we really don't have much more for him...he's weeded out most other things.)  He does love to read, too, and goes through about a chapter book a week with Daddy at bedtime.  Every now and then, you'll find him drawing in his sketch book, and he's just started getting into music (but, of course, they're only Minecraft songs).  

His room is so dark, and it's one of the things I'm looking forward to most in a new house...being able to paint and lighten up his bedroom.  Of course, I snapped the photos of the bedrooms on a day we'd just finished cleaning, but to be honest, his room is typically littered with dirty laundry, used tissues, and legos covering every surface.

He's still pretty quiet most of the time, but slowly but surely, he's coming out of his shell, and we get glimpses of a goofy kid that makes us so happy.  He LOVES to take silly selfies when he gets his hands on my phone, and seeing him with his friends shows us a whole different side than we're used to.

We love you, Gavin Jack.

Riley Savannah

Height: 3' 5"

Weight: ~ 41lbs

Current sizes: 5/6 in most clothes and about a 10 in shoes 

 Oh, sweet Riley.  This little four-and-a-half-going-on-fourteen firecracker brings us so much joy every single day. She's thriving in her Tiny Tots pre-K 4s class with her new teacher, Ms. Tricia and learning to read.  It's so exciting to watch her put things together and see it click...you can literally see her brain working.  So cool!  On Wednesdays, she stays after school for Jitterbugs, which she loves, and she's also in her third month of gymnastics.  She's officially pre-registered for kindergarten, which has been really hard on me to accept since I thought we were going to hold her back a year. I can't believe she's old enough to go to school already!

She loves to dress up (and dresses herself most days...and I don't usually fight with her over her choices, as you can probably tell in photos of her!), play with makeup, and play pretend.  Her favorites are to pretend to be a baby, or to pretend to be an animal of some sort.  We play 'pet store' almost daily!  She also loves to help me cook, and really enjoys doing dishes.  When she has iPad time, she loves to watch YouTube Kids videos, and Sofia the First is definitely a favorite tv show right now.  We love seeing her creative side, too.  Drawing is definitely one of Riley's talents!

Her room is currently a hodgepodge.  She decided she didn't want her flowery comforter anymore and we picked out a new one together during the Christmas sales, but the comforter she liked didn't come with matching bed skirt or shams, so it's kinda all mixed together.  When we do eventually move to a new home, her room will come together more.  When I took pictures for this Snapshot, it was close to Valentine's Day, when their doors were covered with hearts.  Also, if you look closely, you'll see a little word wall on her closet doors, which I love.  Just a couple months ago, we started that because she was asking me to help her learn to read words. <3 font="">

The six month period from age 2years 9months to 3years 3months was really rough.  Riley was trying to deal with big emotions, and everything made her REALLY happy or REALLY mad.  Slowly but surely, we started to make progress.  I started reading more parenting books, and changed the way I dealt with her meltdowns and tantrums.  Silly as it might sound, her tantrums at 3 were just so scary for me because I just kept thinking about when she was 13, 14, 15...  I knew I needed to work on creating a stronger bond with her NOW so that we can get through those tween/teen years.  There are still days when we have BIG issues.  Like tonight...when I 'just maker her mad' and I'm 'so bossy' that she 'just doesn't want to see me anymore.'  But I'm determined to keep working on her emotions and mood swings so that we not only have a great relationship in the future, but so that she knows how to be a better friend and treats her peers appropriately.

The Parents

Well, here we are about to celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary.  Crazy! I honestly hate how fast time flies.  

Jarrod is in his 15th(I think!) year at Sam's Club and currently working with new clubs opening up.  Almost two years ago, Jarrod was introduced to the world of triathlons and got hooked quickly.  After doing a Half Ironman 70.3 last spring, he committed himself to another one this year as well as a full Ironman 140.6.  Crazy.  He's so dedicated...I don't know how he does it, honestly.  He runs 6 days a week, swims two mornings at 5am, and currently does one long bike ride a week, all this on top of working 50-60 hours a week.  Told you...he's crazy.

I'm kind of in a transition phase.  I stopped coaching with Beachbody last year and I am not doing much with Tastefully Simple anymore (actually...I'm probably going to lose my consultant status after this month, but I think I'm ok with that.  Feels like the end of a chapter in my life after 7 years as a consultant.)  I started a blog, but lost momentum with that for some reason.  I constantly am reminding myself that I only have five more months with Riley not in school full time, and I'm going to take advantage of every minute that I can.  When Riley heads off to kindergarten, I do plan to do something - I'm not sure what yet, but I have time to figure that out. ;) 

This is our room, that we currently share with Phoebe.  I'm still so in love with our headboard that we made last year.

This isn't a great picture of our living room, but for the sake of getting this blog post done, I'm going to use it anyway.  Our living room looks pretty much the same as it has since we moved into this house to be honest.  Over the years, baby and kid things have come and gone, including the pack n play and our little blue table.  Now, a trampoline sits in the corner that the kids use a ton, but all other kids' things are kept behind closed door, safe from puppy teeth. :)

Thanks for the idea to have a 'snapshot' of our lives, Amy.  I'm looking forward to doing this yearly and see how we change.  Our days may be long, the years are short and I want to remember every little thing.