Happy Fall!!!

Is this the cutest picture collage or what? Cute BOYISH Colin in the pretty pink throne...poor boy! (Colin can now crawl up onto chairs and he LOVES the pink chair!)

Andy mentioned that the blog had not been updated in awhile--he was right on! We have been busy! Aside from letting Colin nurture his feminine side by playing on the pink chair and with the millions of purses around this house, we have:

started teaching Ava how to ride a 2 wheeler! Who would have thought?! It seemed to last just 1 day, but she did a pretty good job before realizing that it was a tad bit easier to just ride with her training wheels...and back they went, onto her bike!

School and activities are keeping us REALLY busy. The big girls are both taking piano lessons and one afternoon, I peeked around the corner into the living room and saw Colin up on the piano bench with Ellie while she practiced!

Jayna and Ava are in swimming lessons; Ellie is taking diving lessons and just joined the swim team at the YMCA.

Ellie and Jayna auditioned for a singing group at school called "Celebration"; it is a ministry of singing and dancing. We were so proud of them, for singing a solo to audition--that took a lot of determination! They both have said they are loving it (Yes, for those of you who know the whole story...Jayna is back to loving it!) and want to auditon again when this session is over!

Ava is enjoying preschool; Colin is enjoying Elmo and becoming very 'toddler-ish' in all that he does.

Andy is busy at work and enjoying the Hawkeye football season; I am busy trying to remember what activity is happening each day and making sure nothing is forgotten :)

However.....

the biggest news of this season is that our house is officially sold! Jayna made this picture for Andy the day after everything was official--it was so sweet of her! The short story is that offer # 1 lost out to offer #2 who had no contingencies on the purchase of our home. We continued to have interest in the house and now, the sign is gone from our yard; the internet states "Accepted Offer"...and today, offer #1 called to tell us that if anything falls through with offer #2, to call them--they finally cleared their contingency! Needless to say, in 6 weeks, we will all be learning a new address and phone number!

But back to Jayna's picture....what a fun experience it was, selling our house with Valley By Owner...and Andy was quick to acknowledge that it took ALL of us working together to sell it--to keep it clean, to get out of the house during open houses, to show the house etc--what a crazy summer it was for us! From start to finish, it only took 5 weeks! Amazing!!! We are so thankful that things are starting to fall into place--what an amazing blessing to have everything happen at just the perfect time!