Crazy Week

It's been a crazy week, which explains my lack of posting. After much deliberation, Ben and I actually decided to put our condo up for sale (our orig. plan was to wait until next spring, but we changed our minds). We found a house that falls in the sort of-affordable range (for around here at least) and while it needs lots of work, it could be a really neat place. And the location is the best - it's a 3-minute walk to the train for Ben and the house faces a cute park - what more could you ask for??

So now the fun begins. We started boxing things up on Monday and had some friends from the ward come on Thursday to help Ben move junk into a storage unit, with the hope that this would clear our place of the clutter we've accumulated in the last six years. We filled at least 30 boxes, moved out two bookcases, a dresser, a trunk, and a few other things, and what a difference!

We had our first showing yesterday and have an open house planned for this afternoon. We're selling by owner and will keep you posted on what happens. My biggest nightmare is that the house we love will go under contract before we have a solid offer on our place (a problem b/c the house sellers aren't taking contingency offers, which really limits us since we need the money from our condo for the down payment on this house).

One funny thing - my mom came on Friday to help with Eli (but stayed much longer to help get our place ready... thank you!!). We have something called the Flip Fold, that I bought from the Container Store last year, but then never got around to learning how it worked (I am terrible at folding clothes nicely). Well, we opened it up and my mom flipped and folded ALL of our pants, shirts, etc. so they would look good in our closets. My clothes have never been folded so well!! And it's really easy to use - you'll have to check out the link to see the demo on the Flip Fold site.

Here are some pictures from this week:

Above and Below: Eli still adores his sheep rug from Gram! We have had some miserably hot and humid days this week (yesterday it was 93 percent humidity with tornado warnings), hence Eli wearing just the cute Beatles onesie :)

Below: Eli's favorite hiding spot - the radiator cover in the living room. He loves flipping up the panel (inside is where you open or close the radiator) and putting little treasures inside... whenever I can't find something, I check this spot - and it's usually there!

Below: A small portion of the boxes before we packed this week. Eli loved having an obstacle course and had fun peeking around them to see us.

Below: The living room after we got rid of the boxes, hallelujah!

Love Tastespotting

I would say 9 times out of 10, I draw a blank when I think about what to make for meals in the upcoming week. I've mentioned this site before, but I wanted to share my latest Tastespotting finds from today...

• Pasta with Vegetables and Peanut Sauce
• Snickerdoodles
• Snickerdoodle Cupcakes
• Chicken Salad with Almonds, Queso Fresco and Rasberry-Lime Vinaigarette (I would omit the queso of course)
• Crash Hot Potatoes
• Lemonade made with only 2 Lemons
• Broiled Chicken
• Ting Town Barbeque Beef Sandwiches
• Blumenthal's Roasted Potatoes
• Garlic & Honey Bread Cubes (shown below, picture via Patricia Furtado.com)
  


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Hilarious Video of Eli and the Sheep

This is a video from after the birthday party on Saturday night. We went back to our condo with my parents, Davey, and Gram and opened presents. Gram gave Eli this small sheepskin rug from Ikea and he went CRAZY - he was so so excited about it. It's a long video (4 minutes) but he does some pretty funny things throughout the clips. And at the very end he looks at me and says "Aarah" (Sarah) - so you can hear that it's really what he calls me :)



We think this is especially funny because he loves his stuffed animal sheep, Bob, and now has a strong affection for this very soft rug.

Party for Ben's 30th and Eli's 1st Birthdays

I decided to throw a party for both Ben and Eli since they were celebrating big birthdays this year - Ben's 30th and Eli's 1st. Well, when I put the invite list together, I didn't really think we would get a good majority of attendees since Saturdays in the springtime are so busy... but we did! Including babies, children, and adults, there were 89 people at our party at the park (not hard to do considering many families had at least one child and many with two or three).

I was a little nuts at the end trying to get everything together, but it was a success thanks to help from my Mom who made 53 (?) cupcakes and Gram who made two large Texas sheet cakes. Friends brought chips, veggies, dip, salsas, fruit, etc. for people to munch on. Some of our friends going to Kellogg b-school came from an activity and brought the leftover ribs and cornbread, which was a nice addition! I spent six hours on Friday night baking chocolate chip cookies (167 in total) for party favors for each family, and then we had small bottles of bubbles for each child.

Below: 1) On the way to the park, Eli loved having a car full of balloons. 2) Gram setting up the candles, that we later couldn't get to stay lit because of the wind. 3) The table of sweets! 4) My dad and Eli. 5 and 6) Eli with me and Ben. He was in good spirits through most of the party, which I was so thankful for. 7) Sarah C. and Kelly, who brought the ribs and cornbread - yum! 8) Eli with some of his favorite people, Sharon, Maggie, and Ivy. 9) The snack table.

Below: 1) Geoff the Cubs fan talking with Brett and James. Yeah for another Cubs win yesterday! 2) Saralyn holding Will, talking with Davey. 3) Keenan, Rebekeh, Cami, and various kids. 4) Khania and her mom, and Katrina and Macy. 5) Rachael and Nathan, Sarah and Jenn. 6) Katie and Tommy with kids at the drinking fountain. 7) Mark, Mike and Steve. 8) The Ryans. 9) Kids playing at the park.

Below: 1) Drew playing catch. 2) Tommy again at the water fountain (it was a popular spot for the kids). 3) Drew at the fountain. 4) George at the fountain. 5) Sharon helping Eli try out the fishing booth. 6) Caroline holding sparkly shoes. 7) Eli chugging water. 8) Me trying to light the candles (unsuccessfully). 9) Getting ready to sing happy birthday.

Below: 1) Still trying to light the candles, with help from Kelly and Gram. 2) The crowd. 3) More of the crowd. 4) We eventually just had Eli try to blow out a match since the candles weren't staying lit. 5-9) Feeding Eli and Ben cupcakes.

Below: 1) Eli being snuggly. 2) Gram passing out cake and cupcakes. 3) The group enjoying sweets. 4-6) Happy Eli. 7-9) Eli not as sure about this party (the last one is with my mom).

Below: 1) Gram with baby Isaiah and Alice. 2) Sarah, Davey, Carrie and baby Jacob. 3) Heather with baby Tabitha. 4) The Paxton family riding bikes back home (they rode 5 miles+ round trip to come to the party!). 5) Eli playing with Ben and my parents. 6) Caroline blowing bubbles. 7 and 8) Eli with my dad and Alex. 9) Jenn holding Isaiah.

Below: Eli had fun with my mom finding sticks and walking along the path to the playground.

Below: Opening gifts at home. Eli got such a fun variety of things, ranging from sand toys from my parents, an Ikea sheepskin rug that he LOVED and kept rolling around on (video to come soon - it's hilarious), a cute sand bucket with bubbles and fun things, a fun fishing bath toy, a darling Evanston hoodie, and three books - Noisy Jungle, Tails, and Gallop (all great books!). Ben received a purple African shirt from our friend Alice (she made the shirt, including dyeing it) who is here as a refugee from Liberia/Sierra Leone.

All in all, it was a really fun day! Thanks to everyone who came and celebrated with us.