Instantly Outnumbered: Sorry...I'm Out of Witty Titles

Has it really been four months since the last post? It seems like just yesterday that I was sitting on the couch writing about the holiday season and now I look up and it is 80 degrees outside. So much has happened in the past few months so where do I begin...

Shortly after the last post we got a couple of good snow storms which was great because the kids were actually old enough this year to care about the world turning white. For a few weeks it became normal for us to have a 70 degree day followed by a snow storm. We broke out the sled again but all Ryan wanted to do was pull it around by himself. My attempt at making a snowman was a complete failure due to the snow not being very sticky and the kids desire to smash anything that started to remotely resemble a snowman.

During the past few months Julie and I led a financial class at our church which was supposed to last 9 weeks but ended up going 13 weeks due to cancellations from all the snow and ice that seemed to get every Wednesday (the day our class was held). For those that are interested we taught the Financial Peace University class from Dave Ramsey. We have been on the plan for about 4 years now and we highly recommend it to anyone who is feeling overwhelmed by their finances or who think that they make too much money to live paycheck to paycheck.

The kids continue to grow up way too fast and we are actually enjoying the stage of life that we are in right now. With the exception of a REALLY rough time that we went through back in February with everyone getting sick, followed by at least one family member being sick at all times for about a month, things have been relatively enjoyable. The kids are starting to listen (sometimes) and they find new ways to crack us up every day. The boys have begun singing songs and we are constantly amazed by their memories and the things that they notice.

Ryan has learned a bunch of new things including the ages of most immediate family members, the entire alphabet in reverse, the 7 baby steps of the Dave Ramsey program, among many other things. Andrew has started to use sentences and he regularly notices shapes in everyday items. Both boys have also learned to count to 10 in Spanish courtesy of Jen, the college student that watches the triplets several hours during the week. Nadia's usage of sign language has been steadily increasing and we often find ourselves behind the curve when she uses a sign that we don't know. Nadia has also physically grown a lot in the past few months. She is still the lightest of the three but now she is almost as tall as Andrew and has been rapidly growing out of her clothes.

The biggest thing that has been going on over the past month has been our search for a new house. When Julie and I moved into our current residence, we assumed that we would stay here for the birth of our first child and then move to a bigger house sometime around the arrival of our second child. God laughed at our plan and gave us 3 at once which prevented us financially from being able to buy a house for a couple of years. Somehow we managed to utilize every square inch of space in this 3 bedroom, 1000 square foot house over the past 2 1/2 years but recently we have felt very confined. Thankfully we are finally at a place where we can afford to purchase a house so we have spent most of our free time over the last month and a half finding a realtor, applying for a mortgage, searching for properties, looking at properties and talking about properties.

As I write this we are working on an offer for a house that we really love in a neighborhood that is a little farther away then we'd like. There aren't a ton of houses available in our price range in the Williamsburg area that are significantly bigger than the rental house we are in now so we know that we will have to compromise something to stay in this area. We'll keep everyone updated via the blog (seriously I will) regarding the progress of the house purchase if and when that happens.

As a side rant...I thought we had learned our lesson from the real estate bubble several years ago about taking out mortgages that were way more than anyone could realistically afford. I guess we haven't because when we applied for a mortgage they were willing to approve us for close to FIVE TIMES my income! Are they kidding? We don't have any other debt and we still couldn't realistically afford that much house. Sadly, I guess I know why no one has any retirement or college savings - they are putting it all in their house. Stepping down off my soapbox now.

As always the one thing that doesn't change now matter how long I take between writing posts is that the pictures and videos remain the best way to show you what has been gong on in our lives...so here you go...the videos will come in a separate post...