OH.....MY.....GOSH

I seriously don't even no where to begin! Selling our townhome has been such a nightmare. It STILL hasn't closed, and the original contract was for a June 22nd closing. It keeps getting pushed out because the buyer's lender is VERY inefficient. I won't name names, but there are things that have happened that justify a call to the Better Business Beureau. Then there's the appraiser that they hired to come appraise our home a few weeks ago. He came out and appraised our home for much less than it is worth, causing us to have to adjust our contract and sell our townhome for even less than an amount that was already ridiculously low. On top of that, this appraiser listed our townhome as a condo instead of a townhome, and when the underwriters asked him to fix it, he refused for two weeks until yesterday when someone from the lender ran over to pay him $100 in cash, and then he fixed his own mistake. This guy will definately be reported to the BBB because he is a crook. Our real estate agent sais this whole thing is the craziest situation he's ever seen. Keep in mind we are waiting for our townhome to close before we can close on our new house.

Now here's the worst part.....last Friday we got what we thought was wonderful news. Salisbury homes was going to let us move into our home before we closed IF we gave them $5000 in earnest money, in addition to the $2000 we have already given. We thought "Great!!! We can do that. The 5K will just go towards the down payment, and we will get to move in, so hey lets go!"

So we moved in Friday night. Thank you so much to our neighbors who pitched in at the last minute....we couldn't have done it without them!!! So we spent Friday night, Saturday night, and Sunday night in our new home. It was great but it still felt wierd because we still feel unsure about our townhome closing since the buyers lender keeps stringing us along. But still, it felt good to be in our new home. SO, I get home from work Monday morning at 7am and was looking forward to getting some sleep before the kids wake up. I had slept about two hours when there was a loud knock at the door, then the doorbell ringing. I threw on some clothes thinking it was the Dish network installer coming early. I answer the door, and it's a guy from Salisbury telling us we actually were not supposed to move in yet and the person who told us we could wasn't authorized to do that and "How much time do you need to get out before we lock it up?" Needless to say the tears began flowing, and after he left I had a complete meltdown....luckily the kids were asleep. I about passed out from hyperventilating. I used to think when I heard of people hyperventilating "Why don't they just get a grip and stop breathing so fast." Well, I can say from experience that it is very difficult to calm down when you are hyperventilating, and your body sort of takes over. This has only happened once before to me, and it is scary. I finally got on the phone with Ben, and he just about called the ambulance (thank GOODNESS he didn't! That would be so embarassing.) Well, Ben came home and we gathered up a few days of things, sort of like we would if we were going on a vacation. It was the wierdest feeling, getting asked to leave. It was sad, humiliating, frustrating, and we are so completely ticked off that the townhome sale has dragged on because if it hadn't, none of this would ever have happened.

Riley is staying with his grandparents for a few days while we figure this out, and this is good because I wouldn't know what to do with him all day in a motel room. It would be nuts! We couldn't go back to our townhome even though we still own it because there is NOTHING there! Anyways, once we finally close on both loans, we can move in and we are hoping that will happen within the next few days or early next week. It should have happened way before now, and the whole thing has been a nightmare and has felt so out of our control. It's frustrating when you are relying on people who you feel like you can't trust (the buyers lender and that jerk appraiser).
BUT, we will get through this and hopefully be laughing about it in a few weeks. In the meantime we are shell shocked and have no faith in the real estate business!!! But we love our agent. He is not on our hitlist :)

I couldn't do a post without pictures, so here are a couple. The one of Malia and I was taken this morning. One good thing about this is that in our motel there is plenty of time to play with Malia! I just REALLY miss Riley and feel bad that he is not with us.
Me and Malia just chilling on our "vacation"!!!

It's always interesting to see what Riley is wearing when he comes home from his friend Maggie's house. He loved this costume, and insisted he sleep in it. I found sequins all over his sheets the next morning.

These two! They are so funny. It's heartbreaking that they don't live right next to eachother anymore, and all the other sweet kids in the townhomes. When things settle down, I'm going to make sure Riley gets to see his friends at the townhomes.

Again, Riley dressed up with his friend Maggie. I can't wait to embarass him with these pictures when he is a teenager :)

Eight Weeks of Joy!!!

HAPPY BABY! (She is giving us the peace sign. I always thought she seemed like a hippie)

MAD BABY!

AMUSED BABY (WHEN I TALK TO HER IN AN ANIMATED WAY, OR MAKE FACES AT HER, THIS IS THE LOOK I GET. IT'S THE SAME LOOK RILEY GAVE ME)

MALIA WAS BORN EIGHT WEEKS AGO TODAY, AND WE HAVE ALREADY HAD SO MUCH FUN HAVING HER IN OUR LIVES. SHE IS SUCH A FUNNY LITTLE GIRL...DEFINATELY THE SEARCH FOR FOOD DOMINATES HER THOUGHTS! ONCE IN A WHILE SHE'LL FORGET SHE WANTS FOOD AND SHE SMILE OR COO, BUT THEN SHE QUICKLY REMEMBERS THAT SHE'S HUNGRY AND GETS BACK TO THE BUSINESS OF LETTING US KNOW SHE'S HUNGRY BY SMACKING HER LIPS OR ATTACKING OUR FACE WHEN WE KISS HER CHEEK. WE LOVE HER SO MUCH AND GET SUCH A KICK OUT OF HER PERSONALITY!

AND HOW CAN WE NOT MENTION RILEY??? HIS FRIEND MAGGIE PLASTERED BAND AIDS ON EVERY "OWIE" HE HAS ACCUMULATED IN THE PAST MONTH. THEY WEREN'T BLEEDING, BUT AS RILEY PUTS IT "BUT THEY MIGHT BLEED."

Riley, Malia, and Friends

A smile!!! Not a big one, but still to get a picture of a smile is cool.

Our beautiful girl in her blessing dress. I love this dress! For one, it is cute. And secondly, she can wear it for other things besides her blessing. She was a very good girl during her blessing :)

These two cuties are 12 days apart. For all the pictures we took, they alternated on who was having a meltdown. I have to say that our friends baby Kaylie's cry is too cute. Ben and I couldn't help laughing because she has such a unique little way of busting out into a full blown wail. We think they will be really good friends, but for these pictures they were just stressing eachother out :)

Riley and his buddy Evan, who loaned Riley his extra jacket that night because it was raining outside. We had a fun dinner at our friends house (Ben and Laura). Riley loves playing with friends! Only problem is he expects all his friends to borrow him toys for him to take home, and when it doesn't work out it sort of shocks Riley and he throws a fit (he is used to borrowing toys back and forth with his neighbor Maggie).

Maggie, Riley, and cousing Kortley. Just chillin with a movie, some stuffed animals, and a drink. The life of a kid.....I'm jealous!

So this is Maggie, and the child who Riley plays with nearly every day! They are SO cute together (I have overheard them talking of marriage). As you can see, Maggie likes to pose. Ben took them both fishing last week. They didn't catch anything, but that's not the point :)
As I mentioned, she is a poser. We have about ten more pictures like this and in all of them she is doing some amazing pose. I also love Riley in this picture because you can see a little wet spot in the front of his pants. This happens a lot with Riley, and even at this point he will deny that he needs to go to the bathroom.

My new babysitter!!! How much should I pay a three year old?

Ben put Riley too bed and never came out, so I went in to check and found them snuggled like this and both asleep. Riley looks huge to me in this picture!

The Kiddo's and The House

Aren't these two cute! Riley definately loves Malia. He gets upset with me if I call her a name like hungry hippo, or little missy, or whatever he thinks might hurt her feelings, and he lets me know that I shouldn't talk like that to her :)

We've been spending a LOT of late nights at our new house painting and putting in this stair railing. Very time consuming but fun (except for that one night we were painting until four am.)

I thought I flipped this picture, but you get the idea. Basically what we have here is a cute little girl sticking her tongue out at me.

The front of the house. To be honest, we aren't too crazy about the stripes and didn't know the builders were going to go zebra on us. Tell us what you think about them because all I can think of is candycanes!

Malia

I have a picture similar to this that Riley has in his room on his nightstand and he just loves it. So we did one for her too so they could each have a special picture with me :)

I LOVE her little rosebud lips in this picture! She didn't just happen to be puckering...I had just pulled a binkie out of her mouth.

Okay, THIS is my sweet little chubby (and getting chubbier each day) girl! I love her all snuggled up, with the double chin which she got from her daddy ;)

And how could I leave out the picture of a furious Malia? I love how newborns tongues curl up when they are really mad!

She really has a lot of similarities to Riley when he was a baby. It's fun to get a lot of the same snapshots that I got of Riley, such as this one with her all snuggly in my bed.

Hey Ya'll

I cannot believe how fast our home is being built! I swear it took just one week to go from a foundation to this! We are so excited to have our own house....the townhome has been great, but oh to have more space and a basement and a garage!!! Of course the big worry has been if we'll be able to sell our townhome in time because two mortgage payments sounds awful. Well, we accepted an offer today (not a very great offer, but hey we are grateful!) and so hopefully everything will work out.

Here we have Malia and her cousing Brynlee! They are just eight days apart, though Malia looks like she could squash little Brynlee! Brynlee is special because she is the first girl for Ben's brother and his wife....they have five boys, and of course they are all special too!

I wanted to get a picture of Malia's room. It's hard to tell, but there are different shades of plum, lavender, and purple. Ben made the wood letters that spell her name...what talent!

Take notice of the quilt! My friend Staci made this quilt for me, and it's almost like she could read my mind when she made it because it is SO perfect in malia's room. I love it! And I am amazed at how nice people have been with all the wonderful gifts we have received for Malia. I have gotten some really cool quilts, tons of outfits, bows, etc. People are so generous, and they make me want to be more thoughtful and giving to others :)

My dear hubby turned 30 (gulp!) on Saturday! We ate at Tucanos and then went to see Star Trek, which was SUCH a great movie. We thank Ciara and Kade for watching our kiddos. They are so nice to do that, and trust me we REALLY needed a date!

The time has come....

....to go private!!! Please leave your email in my comments or email me your email address at darcicookus@yahoo.com. For my reasons for going private, please see pictures below :)I need to protect these "three" kids! Ben is so sexy that he is prone to being stalked. I wouldn't want him to be kidnapped by any of his stalkers who just want him for his Arnold Schwarzeneggar body!!!

One of the many faces of Malia! Anyone who's ever taken a moment to watch a newborns faces knows it can be hilarious!

My Mom came for a few days and came bearing many gifts for BOTH kids (smart lady to make Riley feel special too!) We had a really fun time and went to many movies, out to eat many times, got Malia's pictures done, and went for a nice long walk with Riley on his new bike!

I know Riley's hugeness in this picture has a lot to do with camera position, but STILL! He is large and she is so small :) I've always thought Riley has a big head (Ben calls it a big melon), and the other day we went to buy him a helmet and had to get him the 8 years plus size! I love my kids!

Having two is....nice at moments like these! But the moments aren't always like these :) For the most part it is going fine. Overwhelming, but quickly turning into the new normal for us like everyone said it would. Sometimes it's fun to take care of Malia and enjoy the way she is now, then go be with Riley and laugh at the funny way he is now. Last night he yelled out to me from his bed while he was trying to get to sleep. He said "Mommy, guess what! I think I have a bad dream in my tummy!" I thought for a second to make sure I heard right, then said "Okay...well, try to have a good dream." He replied "Okay, I'll dream about good cops."