Noelle and Maddie

As promised, here are a few recent pictures of the little one and her new best friend Maddie. Maddie even seems to mostly like Noelle now (it must be the fact that she eats solids twice a day!)







I really like that they have their arms/paws intertwined in this one!

House Hunters, Catonsville

Some of you know that I love HGTV, and in particular House Hunters, although pretty much all the shows make me happy. Some of you might not yet know that Bryan and I have spent the past few months trying to sell our townhouse and buying a single family home. It has been like our own personal HGTV experience, and just like on the show, there have certainly been some ups and downs. Now that the process is just about over, we thought we'd finally blog a little about the experience.

First, remember that housing market crash? Yeah, we bought our townhouse just a few months before that so we pretty much paid a zillion dollars for our quaint 2 bedroom in Catonsville. Needless to say, we will be making nothing off the sale 4 years later. In fact, we are paying a bit to say goodbye to what we lovingly call the mistake. Oh well, you live and you learn. We figure at least we are also buying when prices are low and it also helps that interest rates are pretty much the lowest they have ever been.

So this Wednesday we are sort of saying goodbye to the townhouse. I say sort of, because we aren't quite ready to move in to the new house so we will be renting back from our buyer for a few weeks while we wait to close on the new house and move in. Everything is final with our sale which is a relief. In the beginning we were getting discouraged because everyday when we drove home there was another house for sale in the neighborhood. I wish I could say I was lying but seriously it was crazy there for awhile. But a few weeks after the snow all finally melted all 5 houses were under contract and life looked a little better. We had one false start with a crazy couple who changed their mind, but feel good that things happen for a reason and that the woman who ended up buying the house seems much more normal and less high strung. So Wednesday at 4 pm the house becomes officially hers and we return to the world of renters for a few short weeks.

We'll be settling on our new house either April 7th or 9th. You know those shows that are all about unleashing the hidden potential of a house? Yay, that is the best way to think of the new place. It is also in Catonsville, and backs to Patapsco State Park, which was really important for us because the one thing we have always loved about the mistake was it backing to the park! The house is actually built on a hill so there isn't a lot of yard but there is 5 decks, 2 of which are huge, off the back off the house down the hill. We plan on having some awesome BBQ's and crab feasts back there! Besides that, the house was well-built and has a newer roof and HVAC system and that is about the end of the great things about the house (for now!) We'll need to do a lot of updating/minor repairing to the top two floors, and the basement basically needs to be gutted but we are excited to get in to a great neighborhood at a price we can afford and know that in a few years the house will be awesome! So we are really excited for this new chapter of our life.

So that is a little update on our life. Mostly we pack and clean our house. Which happens to be really hard with Noelle and Maddie around. But we make it work. Besides the house, Noelle is an awesome crawler and has mastered the ability to pull herself up to a standing position. She also can walk holding on to the table and couch a little. She definitely wants to be a mover and a shaker! She also eats solids twice a day now that she is 7 months and usually is loving her new foods.

We promise to be better at posting after we finish the packing/unpacking process. In the meantime we'll try to post some pictures of Noelle every few days since she is getting so big! We hope you all are well!

Spring Has Finally Sprung!

Hello friends. We know it has been awhile but things have been even more hectic than usual the past two weeks or so. This will be just a short update on recent happenings! First, as I sit and type this it is about 60 degrees outside! Yes, spring might finally be coming to MD. It has been the coldest, snowiest winter I can remember and we are definitely ready to stroll outdoors with the little one again. We did take one nice walk Saturday while my mom was in town but there was still a chill in the air. The little one did enjoy her new stroller though!



Besides that there have been a few developments on the Elliephant front. First, Noelle got a second tooth almost immediately after getting her first one. It is the other bottom middle tooth and the two are still working their way to full height but are out like little daggers in her mouth right now. She is definitely still a drooling queen and we think her constant cold this season may be at least partially caused by these teeth making their way out. Second, we have a crawler on our hands! Noelle has been scooting and maneuvering herself around the room for a few weeks but on Sunday she finally crawled across the room. And now she is a crawling machine! We have mixed feelings about this - it certainly is great she is mobile since she is so much fun, but our house is definitely not Noelle proofed yet so we have had to switch gears to having to constantly watch her like a hawk. Her favorite place to crawl is by the vents where she likes to pull the grates out. She is super cute though!





We are still patiently awaiting our first full night of sleep in months, but besides that things are going well at the Saxton's! We had a nice visit from Mom Hayhoe over the weekend and were able to go out to friends for dinner for the first time without Ellie in months so that was great. Noelle also eats with us every night and has conquered bananas, apples, avocado, carrots, sweet potatoes, and squash. She is starting to really get the hang of food and is hilarious when she eats!

Hope all is well! We'll post again soon!