Spring Break

We went to Memphis for Scott's Spring Break to find a house and become more familiar with the area before we make the move in 2 months. We got up on Tuesday morning at about 5:30 and left the house by 6:45. The kids were so good on the drive there!! We stopped when we got there at the Children's Museum of Memphis, the kids hadn't stopped talking about it since the first visit to Memphis. We ate lunch and went straight to the museum before we even checked into the hotel, so please excuse the children's appearance, we had been in the car for close to 7 hours :) On wednesday the house hunting began. We looked at 16 houses with both kids, and they were absolute ANGELS!!! We found a house that was built in the 1950's that we absolutely loved, it had been completely renovated and was move in ready. Scott's parents were coming in the next day to see the houses we liked, since they decided to invest in a property and rent it to us. The realtor called Wednesday night and said someone had made an offer on the house. We were pretty sad. So thursday we had to start the whole process over again. We looked at about 16 houses again on Thursday with Scott's parents and the kids, again the kids did so well. This trip was definitely not a fun trip for the kids. In the end, we found a house we absolutely adore, and with some touch ups there is definitely some potential for Scott's parents to make some money on the house!! The house was built in 1951 and has all the original hardwood floors, they need to be refinished but they are beautiful! The rooms are all really spacious, we even decided to room the kids together so we can have a spare room for when we have visitors or maybe even another baby :) We are going to renovate the bathrooms while we are there, they are really clean but dated and we thought ifwe did that it would sell faster when we go to move. The backyard is huge!! That was the kids favorite part! Unfortunately, even with the backyard we are not going to be able to bring our lab Max :( With the hardwood floors all thorughout the house and just having them refinished, Scott's parents aren't too crazy about 100lb dog being on them, which we completely understand. Anywhere we would rent it would hard if not impossible to find someone who would let us bring Max. We are still sad to have to find him a new home. It actually worked out, the family who originally gave us to him are going to take him back and they are really excited! At least he is not going to a 3rd home. We sure will miss him, he has been a GREAT dog, especially to Jackson. Thurday beofre we left to go to Memphis, the kids had "Donuts with Daddy Day" at school. The kids were so happy to have their Daddy go to school with them!!

Daddy's Little Girl

Sunday when I got home from work I found Leah on the couch like this :) SCott said she didn't take a nap that day and he had given her crackers to hold her over until dinner when I got home. She was passed out with cracker crumbs all over her!! It was too funny!!

Leah at the Children's museum

Jackson playing Twister with Mommy at the Children's museum

Jackson driving the Firetruck!! He is so cute

This room looked different in person, it was dark with mirrors all around and a disco ball and disco music to dance too. With the flash on the camera it looked pretty boring

Jackson playing the snowboarding game!

Leah and Jackson filming a music video!! Leah was really into the singing and seeing herself on TV, remind you of anyone???

Leah singing and making funny faces for the TV

Jackson pretending to drive

The kids in the constructions part of the museum. This was new from the last time we were there, it was pretty neat, it had a child's size house for the kids to play in

Scott showing Jackson how the pipes work in the house....not sure if he really knows :)

Love this pic!! Leah with a magnifyng glass! We were studying money and identifying all the symbols on the dollar

Jackson and Daddy flying a plane

Memphis has a trolley system that runs through downtown and all along the Mississippi, we of course couldn't pass this up with our little train lover! He had a blast! This is 3 generations of Ludlow Men!

Jackson took this pic of Leah, Grandma and me

Grandpa and Leah

I love this picture of Jackson, look really closely and you can see his reflection in the window. You can see it a lot more clearly in the actual picture.

This is the house!!! We love it!!

This is a grill that was built with the house. We thought it was so cute and had so much character! We can already see roasting marshmallows with the kids on it:)

A beautiful big tree in the backyard. They are leaving the sandbox in the background, too!!

Leah playing in the house

Jackson loving the sandbox

We have a laundry room!! Most people probably think big deal, but this is one of the only houses we saw with a laundry room, most people had to go outside to a storage room or the washer and dryer were in the kitchen!!

The renovated kitchen...so cute

Leah drinking mommy's giant bottle of water...we wonder why she had a problem with potty training on the trip :)

We stopped at Burger King on the ride home!! Jackson being silly with the hat :) I took him to the restroom while we were there and he likes to go in the stall by himself now. I was waiting outside his stall and there was another woman standing in there with me, all of a sudden Jackson starting giggling and said "Mom, do you hear my poo-poos splashing in the water?" I'm sure I was beet red!!

Two little monsters!! They make us so happy!!

The next day after we got home from Memphis it was Carly's Baptism and we celebrated Scott's mom's birthday. This is at Jeff and Abby's house, the kids had a blast in the hot tub Uncle Jeff heated for them

Singing Happy Birthday to Grandma

Leah and Aunt Lisa

So in the end, it was a very productive trip. We found a house we loved, found a school for the kids and beacme familiar with the area and some of the hospitals I have been applying too. Feels like everythig is coming together, now i just want to get there so we can get the family settled :)