Whew!

Last week was a busy week! I worked everyday Monday - Friday. I can't even tell you the last time I worked five days in one week. I would guess it was before I moved to Chicago! I felt like I just couldn't catch up all week. I was busy with work and with basic household tasks, and on top of that we put in an offer on a house and it was accepted!! Talk about a busy week!!

So the house - probably didn't even know that we were looking, did you? Well, Andrew and I have been keeping an eye on the realty websites since this summer, just to get an idea of what's out there in our price range. Then about three weeks or so ago we were talking and decided we should go down to the bank to see what we could find out about financing. Andrew and I were looking ahead to our future and knew that we would need a new place for when we expand our family. Our duplex is a two bedroom and we'll need more space for another peanut in the future. We were also tired of throwing money away renting and now is a great time to buy with the new stimulus plans.

About two weeks ago Andrew & Mads went to some open houses while I was at work at the hospital. It was mostly to take notes on the houses on each end of our price range and to get an idea on the sizes of rooms and things. At one of these open houses Andrew talked with the Realtor. Dave, the Realtor, spent alot of time telling Andrew about things to look for when buying your first house. Andrew really liked Dave, so the next day we asked him to help us with our house search. He sent some emails and most of the houses were ones that we had already seen on the market. One day, must've been a Monday, he sent a new listing. We thought it looked pretty nice so we set up a showing for that Wednesday. We really liked it and ended up putting an offer in one week later. The seller countered the next day and we accepted it. That was all last week Thursday. We called up an inspector as that was part of our agreement to purchase and he was able to come the very next day, Friday. The inspection went well so everything is set to go! We had already been preapproved, but we go to the bank tomorrow to lock in our rates and set up the appraiser. We're looking at a closing the 27th of March! Can you believe how fast that went?!

Also in exciting news... Sarah and Trevor finally had their baby boy on Saturday, the 21st. We were able to fit in a quick drive to Madison on Sunday so that we could go meet our new nephew, Maddie's cousin, Gavin! He's a cute little guy and a good one too! He didn't make a peep the entire hour and a half that we were there! Here are some pictures from Sunday! Congrats Vordermann family!
Mads meeting Gavin:

Me with Mads and Gavin:

Grandpa Jeff with two grandkids:

Grandma Marie with two grandkids:


In other news Mads had her first oreo! We went out to dinner on Thursday to celebrate our new house and Maddie's kids meal came with an Oreo for dessert. Needless to say, she was a fan! We didn't do a dip in milk, so we do still have that to look forward to in the future! :)





On Saturday we went up to Appleton appliance shopping. Our house doesn't have a fridge and the other appliances are a little questionable so we went looking for new appliances. Mads was looking stylish as we shopped:

Appliance shopping wears a girl out!


While out at Sears we hit up the food court for lunch. Maddie made her first picture with crayons, all by herself. I, of course, had to take pictures of the occasion! Her masterpiece is currently hanging on our fridge!!



Well, that's about it for now! I have just a couple random pictures of Mads this week. Please enjoy them and thanks for stopping by!!
Conked out:

Riding the ice cream truck backwards:


Oh, what? You wanted some house pictures? Oh, OK! :)
Front door:

View of the house from the corner, it's on a corner lot:

The backyard: