March 2016

House hunting has been a complete roller coaster! For the past 7 months we made offers on almost every house under a certain price that wasn't completely falling down in the areas of downtown Bozeman that we like. They all got cash offers ahead of us. In January we gave up and planned to build. We had been interviewing builders for months incase we didn't have any luck downtown or incase we found a tear down that we wanted downtown. Building out of town costs the same as buying an old fixer upper downtown.  We either wanted to live in our dream location or build our dream house. We picked a lot and the building team said they were working on securing that lot. We had a house plan and the next meeting was to pick out the finishes. This was late January. We waited all of February for updates and all we were told was that they were working on it. On March 2nd, the team told us our lot was under contract already. This meant that they didn't make an offer until it was too late...4 weeks after we told them which lot we wanted. I was frustrated and started looking downtown again. 

We drove around downtown and saw a sign in the yard of a house in the exact location we have been hoping for. We went online to look it up and it wasn't even listed yet. We made an offer and within a couple of days we were told that it got a cash offer. Then 30 minutes later we got an email that the cash offer backed out and it's ours if we want it! This was the fist house that the kids said they liked. Gordon said he liked it better than our Evergreen house. He cried after we looked at it because he wanted to move in that day. I told him we have to offer the owners more money than anyone else in order to get it. Gordon offered to talk the owner into giving us the house, he said, "maybe he will trust me because I'm small and he will just give me the house."  It was the first house that we made an offer on that I said I might cry if we don't get it. It's a fixer upper with good bones. Fortunately the inspection didn't have any big surprises. We knew it would need a radon system & a lot of cosmetic updates. Every square inch needs painting inside and out. The wood floors need refinishing & the basement needs to be finished. The kitchen and bathrooms aren't our style but they were updated recently so we will live with them how they are for a while. The yard needs to be cleaned up and landscaped. A few of the windows need to be replaced and both the front and back doors should be replaced. I'm going for a modern mid-century theme since the house was built in 1946. I think it will look pretty hip after we put some modern colors on the outside with a modern front door, new house numbers, mailbox & landscaping...and throw out those nasty screen doors. The location is worth all of the work we will be putting into the house. It's a few blocks from mark's work, a playground, city pool, ice rink, pavilion & the farmers market is behind the house with one house between them. Pete's Hill trailhead is a couple of houses away. There are 2 creeks both half a black away. The library is a short walk down a path, we only have to cross one street to get to it. Everything downtown has to offer is a few blocks North of us. This is all very exciting to us because we really want our kids to grow up in a neighborhood where they can be independent and bike and walk everywhere without us. We toured the neighborhood school which is on the top 50 list for best elementary schools in the US and the kids both loved it. We enrolled them and are waiting to hear if they get in for the fall. We could walk to school everyday! We can also go back to being a one car family since Mark can walk to work. I'm hoping to go back to our lifestyle of only using the car on the weekends. We are not car people. 

Hiking the "M" to celebrate the first day of spring & being one month post-partum. 

Our lazy Gordon only rode in the carrier for the fist 5 minutes and hiked the rest. He did cry on the way down and said, "I'm wasting so much energy crying." He is proof that your kids won't always love the same things that the parents do. I'm glad we have one kid who we can hike & bike with.

Pretending to sleep 

Gordon wanted to take the steep trail down. 

Post hike ice cream downtown 

Another good thing came out of Finn's birth. I made friends with our photographer & her kids are coming over a few hours a week to play. My kids love them!

Kisses from everyone 

Skiing in Big Sky with Aunt Lis (Gordon's new name for my sister Melissa)

Gordon & Nana

Gordon had enough of shopping 

We left the kids with Nana & hiked to Ousel Falls with Aunt Lis 

Ousel Falls 

Easter morning 

I shipped out a 55 pound box of breastmilk the last week of March! I am currently pumping enough in one day to feed 3 babies. I had mastitis twice within the first 3 weeks postpartum. I have a lump that I had biopsied 6 years ago, the biopsy showed it is a hardened milk duct. Every time I start lactating again it gives me problems including mastitis. The milk gets stuck behind and around that duct and nothing I have tried to prevent mastitis works so I have to ride it out until those ducts stop producing milk.