Selling Our Home! EEK!

Yep…you read that correctly. Sorry for the massive delay in blogging. If you guys ever don’t hear from me for a while, that can only mean one thing---

 

I am drowwwwwning!!! Ahhhhhh!!!

 

Life has been spinning out of control at 100,000,000 mph and I have been totally struggling to keep up! My body is about to poop out on me~ it is SOOOO mad at me right now.

 

After years of stressing out/wondering if we should put our house on the market (to move closer to family, friends, Joe’s job, better schools, etc) & LOTS of prayer~ we felt that it was now or never.

 

Joe and I made this HUGE decision spontaneously one weekend & quickly packed up about 50% of everything we own…

 

(When I make my mind up about something, WATCH OUT WORLD! I attack it at full speed! 110%… Blowin’ and Goin’ until my body completely gives out)

 

 

We threw our stuff into a uhaul, to sit in storage for a while (hopefully not too long!)..

 

 

It was absolute craziness because I was working 3-4 twelve hour night shifts a week and busting my rear during the day to get the house ready (on little, if any, sleep). Not recommended, folks!

 

Joe has been AMAZING~ helping the kids get ready for summer school in the mornings, packing lunches, picking them up from school, etc…all while working HIS job and working JUST AS HARD on the house. I’m telling y’all….life for the Steece crew has been NUTS!

 

Once we had removed half of our furniture and TONS of other stuff, I researched house staging on Pinterest and this Mama kicked it into over-drive.

 

First off, we painted Savannah’s bedroom so it wouldn’t look so “kiddie”.  Jah feel?

BEFORE

 

AFTER

 

 

The kiddos have actually been a HUGE help! This is a great age to involve them in the whole buying/selling of a house process. They have helped in many different ways: by tearing off wall decals, sorting through toys to give to charity, meticulously making their beds, and cleaning the house every day, etc. So proud of our little guys and gal.

 

 

Sav wanted to run errands with me, bless her wee little heart. I took her to 4 or 5 different decorative stores , over the course of several hours, for various staging props. We were both exhausted.

 

 

Liz, Ashley and Joe were also good sports~ I would take pics of everything I found…trying to decide if I should purchase or not. I kept a few of them. Sav was my little model. Loved it.

 

 

Here are a few of our purchased items: a new porch bench and accessories…

 

 

Freshly painted front door (courtesy of J. Steece) and a new crisp, clean wreath.

 

My good friend and fellow quad Mumma, Jennifer King, noticed that I had removed the “Welcome to the Zoo” doormat. Yeeeeeah, I didn’t think that would give a good first impression. LOL.

 

(OMG~ they are TINY!!!! Aww…okay, here is where I start to get sentimental about leaving this house. Nope. Not gonna go there. Cannot go there yet…Too much left to do. Gotta stay in “work” mode before I lose it…)

 

 

The random space above our entry way, which had been empty for 6 years~ finally had some buddies up there to make it a little more comfy cozy. (Uhhh, why did we not do this before, Joe?)

 

 

After lots of hours, blood, sweat, (no tears…yet)…our house was ready for pictures. Take a looksie-poo:

 

The day before we officially put the house on the market, Joe and I headed south to the beach with our best friends and cousins (working on that post! We had an absolute blast!)

 

I guess our hard work on the house paid off, because in less than 24 hours (and by the grace of God)…we had TWO separate offers on the house!

 

God is good and HIS timing is always perfect, y’all. What an amazing blessing.

 

So~ we signed the papers and inspection was today. What a whirlwind. I’ll tell yah- Joe and I have never had to sell a house before. It is frickin’

 

STRESSFUL!!!!!

 

Why didn’t y’all tell me?!!! LOL. I’m pretty sure Joe and I are both on the verge of heart attacks. I can’t imagine having your house sit out there for months and months. OMG. God bless.

 

If all goes well, we will be officially homeless by the end of July. YIIIIIIKES! That is scary to think about…

 

So, that’s what the Steece 6 have been up to over the past couple of weeks!

 

And house hunting like crazy.

 

Appreciate the prayers, blog peeps… more than you could ever imagine!

Building Forts

So, we are getting our house ready to put on the market! It is exciting, but there is lots to be done. The kids have actually been helping ‘ole Mom out a LOT~ going through toys & books, taking down wall decals, cleaning rooms, etc.

 

 

They have been so excited to have these giant cardboard boxes lying around. During my intense cleaning/organizing frenzy… I stopped to build this massive fort in the front room.

 

 

They LOVED it! Look at those grins…

 

 

They spent all day in the “Kids Club Fort” as they called it~ ate lunch and watched some movies on the ipad.

 

 

I’m not going to lie~ I would love to say that I was solely trying to be an awesome Mom… but I also knew it would keep them occupied (and out of my way) for the entire afternoon! Ha!

 

Mission accomplished.

 

Good times.

The End of T-ball

Last week was our last T-ball game. We are definitely going to miss it!

 

Savi at catcher~ SO cute! (I took lots of video, so I don’t really have any pictures of this game)

 

 

So apparently our kids have been watching a bit too much “Sandlot”. When Ethan steps up to bat, it is freaking hilarious! I do not exaggerate. He puts on quite the little show!

You have to watch this quick video!

Ethan at bat

 

Several things…

- he does this little pre-swing routine, EVERY SINGLE TIME at bat

- it typically involves a look back at Mom in the dugout out with a big grin and a thumbs up or a wave

- in this particular clip, E is constantly looking at Auntie Liz (behind the camera)

- I LOVE that he does all this, and completely whiffs on the first swing!

LAUGHING SO HARD!

 

 

Last team huddle with Coach Franklin

 

 

The Mighty Green Knights! We had such a blast this season. Great coaches (I’m partial to the curly headed guy), great kids, & great parents.

 

 

The team post-partied at Chuck-E-Cheese! Coach Franklin passed out the trophies.

 

 

The kiddos were SO excited!

Ben and his big smile!

 

 

Andrew is BEAMING! Lol

 

 

Of course sweet little Ethan went in for the bro-hug.

 

 

E-bud

 

 

Beautiful Sav and her trophy- so proud!

 

 

Time for games! Sierra and Savi~ the only 2 girls on the team. They were an awesome duo on defense! So fun to watch…

 

 

Sierra walked back to the tables with this in her hands and we all just about died laughing! OMG! Awesomeness. Sad that all of these tickets probably equaled one tiny piece of gum. LOL. Gotta love arcades…

 

 

LOVE these 2 ladies! The dugout Moms. We OWNED that dugout and worked our tails off each game!

Beth, me, and Robyn

 

Thank you so much to everyone who made this season an absolute blast!

Another ER trip for Sav

Yesterday started off like any other summer-fun-day-Monday…

 

The kids ran errands with Mom---acquired some moving boxes (and yes, Sav buckled before I began driving)

 

 

They received a package from Grammy in the mail… GOGGLES! And instantaneously morphed into quadling superheroes…

 

 

Later that evening, after cleaning out closets & the entire garage (I threw this in there to let you know how sweaty and gross I was), and helping the kiddos save the world from imminent danger…

I was on the phone trying to make another hospital payment from Sav’s 20+ hospital visits/surgeries (it’s a never-ending bill, folks)…

I couldn’t hear a thing, so I sent all of the kids outside with Dad who was grilling…

 

All of a sudden Sav starts screaming (like she had been doing all day---fighting with her brothers, nothing new)…I was furious. The lady could not hear a word I was saying! I promptly kicked Sav outside.

 

Joe thought she had gotten in trouble for fighting yet again and told her to be quiet. It wasn’t until he saw the brothers getting Sav paper towels and tending to her cries (aww) that he noticed she was bleeding from her ear!!!

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WORST. PARENTS. EVER.

 

Apparently, she had been sprinting through the living room, tripped, and fell head first into the corner of a barstool. (EXACT same scenario from her last ER trip about a year ago with a facial laceration). Yep, she’s graceful, folks…

 

We were sent from (1) a Care Now clinic, to (2) a pediatric emergency clinic to (3) finally Cook Children’s Emergency Room (I was trying to avoid the hospital ER at all costs---knowing it would be a 5 hour endeavor at least!).

 

LONG DAY.  (6:00pm to 12:30am)

 

The outside pinna of her ear was almost completely severed off. Ewww. Sav getting stitched up. 10 stitches to be exact.

 

 

While at the hospital, Sav made sure to tell every person she came into contact with that she: (1) had 3 brothers; (2) was a quadruplet; and (3) that I was a nurse. Her banter with the child life specialist and medical staff had me dying laughing. Definitely her Daddy’s little girl. Hilarious.

 

She was so brave. I just kept sitting there thinking how much she has grown in the last year. She didn’t fight the nurses or scream. I was so proud of her!

 

Sav’s quiet sobs, broke my heart. Her poor pitiful face and puffy eyes make her look 2 years old in this pic. Sweet baby girl.

 

Beautiful stitch job, as always~ Cook Children’s wound care team rocks my socks off!

 

 

Little Miss Priss scored a rainbow popsicle…by this time it was 11:45pm. Exhausted.

 

 

I promised her a treat of any kind at the ole Café on our way out. I just love this picture! She’s so proud.

 

 

My daughter will always and forever remain MY HERO.

TOUGH AS NAILS.

Love her.

(but seriously Sav… NO MORE HOSPITAL TRIPS!)