Just as Quick

Just as quick as we listed it.....okay, so maybe not.

We have had our house listed what seems like forever.  It has been a while, since May, almost 5 months.  We have decided to stay put for now and make the best of what we have been given.  Which is so much!

The consensus on the house from what seems to be thousands of viewers, they wish there was a basement.  Well, we can't really do anything about that...sooo like I said, we are going to make do with what we have.  Maybe do some renovations this Winter that we have talked about doing since buying this house 6 years ago.

I honestly, don't think I have ever been so happy for someone to call and cancel.  I've made so many plans for the coming year that involve this house and I'm about to get to work.

We've been busy these past three weeks visiting friends and family out of town, now that football season is here and the weather is cooling off it seems like a perfect time to do some projects!

All while the house was listed we've tried to keep on top of the kids and getting them more involved with activities.  Dan's pool league started back up, Kenzlie and I are doing Dance Class together, Kypton is going to Hope Kids at Church, I started in a Moms monthly group last night at Church that meets once a month. I'm thinking about doing more.  Kypton will be doing twice a week PreSchool in a couple months.  We are keeping busy that is for sure!

Just wanted to do a quick update as some were wondering how the house was going, where we were going and so on.  Hopefully this will help a bit.

I don't have a ton of photos as of late, when we are out of town I tend to leave my phone either in the car or in the suitcase. It's not on purpose, but Dan has his just in case work needs him, so he captures the photos during those times :)

Hope you are all doing well, and enjoying the fall weather!

Love, The Buchholz's

Listed..and Ready...

The house is officially listed with Iowa Realty!!!

I am ready for it to be sold...ready to be on to our next adventure, and be able to celebrate.

The photos were taken today and that was the last thing to get it all listed....now we wait...some more...

While we've been waiting on the house to sell, we've done some looking, cost comparisons, debating, updating of the budget, and some more selling.  We're technically not really waiting.  We are believing our home is going to sell fast and we are planning for the future. As much as possible, that is.

We've sold our living room furniture. 1. We thought we wanted recliners. Now, we hardly use them because the kids are either trying to play under them, or are running around them and we don't want one of them to fall on the metal piece. 2. They are HEAVY and BULKY, also something we thought we wanted. 3. EVERYTHING goes under them because they recline and we have wood floors there is a larger gap on the bottom.  Which means, every toy car or every small toy has at some point claimed it as their hiding spot.  When you have more reasons to get rid of something than you do to keep it in our house...it goes...sell, donate or trash. Depending on the size of our next place we have two options/styles of furniture picked out and the color.  Basically, we have made a profit selling our furniture and buying new furniture to go towards our next financial goal. Can I get a whoop, whoop...SCORE!

Meanwhile,  Kenzlie decided she no longer wants to wear diapers.  We've been working on potty training for about two weeks and she has it down. We haven't tried night time yet, we're still working on naps.  However, I haven't bought diapers in two weeks and she has done awesome, especially this week, going in to the bathroom on her own. Ahh, the joys of no longer having to buy diapers.  Another SCORE for the budget! She picked out her own undies and of course of all the different ones Target has she got Doc McStuffins. She loves her show and doesn't like when Kypton choses to watch something other than, "Doc."

Last night, being the house is cleaned and ready to go we didn't really want a mess, it worked perfect that my Brother and Sister-In-Law invited us to the ICubs game.  It was a 1st time for the kids, they did great.  It was puppy night so of course Kenzlie was in puppy heaven.

My Sister-in-Law is going to have her baby boy any time now, so I just keep hoping and praying! Kenzlie loves to say his name and Kypton told me last night, "Jenna already had the baby, remember? Paxton." I think he is going to be in for a rude awakening when he doesn't have his Yenna and Uncle G to himself anymore. Another waiting game to throw in the mix.

Do you ever feel like life is all hurry and wait? You can't do one thing until you know what yada, yada, is going to do/happen.  It literally makes me crazy some days.  I know, I have to let go and trust God.  But, seriously, just seriously.  Everything always works out the way it is suppose to. I honestly believe that. We may not like that we have to go thru the Valleys to get to the Mountain tops, but man it feels so good when we get there, right?

Hope everyone had a great Summer, and is ready for Football season to start soon..Yahhh Fallll!!!

Love,
The Buchholz's

Simply Living...

So, I know one of my recent posts was about living a simpler life.

I'm about to take it to a whole new level.  I mean starting from scratch...

Many of you know me from the college days, and I will admit I was high maintenance.  That might even be putting it nicely.  I don't know if I didn't realize it at the time or if I was just okay with it because I had a standard of life that I wanted.

Enter the real world, a mortgage, jobs, cars, kids etc. Not only did I realize how I was living wasn't making me feel better it has actually done the opposite.  A while back we did Dave Ramsey...twice.  We follow some of his stuff still, but really have lost sight of what we were initially going after.

Four years and two kids later, we've done a lot of reflecting, talking, praying and now taking action.  As most of you know, our house is on the market, today was the last day of 'for sale by owner,' tomorrow it's going to an agent.  We've been talking with him throughout the whole process and we've finally decided after a lot of talks that its time to take the plunge.  Maybe we were just taking our time with the listing self consciously because we weren't sure if it was the right thing, now we are fired up and ready for the big leap.  We are crossing our fingers it goes FAST!

I know the big question everyone has for us..."Where are you going."  Right now, honestly, we have no idea.  And it doesn't really bother us either.  We have a lot of things we want to accomplish in a short amount of time.  We've talked about the idea of moving South (as in southern states, not southern Iowa.)  It's always been a dream to live down South and we aren't ruling it out, just adding it to the bottom of list for now. Lucky for us, Dan loves his job and team here but if he did decide to go with another team, we do know his company has locations in Georgia and Alabama (two of our top choices!)

Our list is long, first and foremost, concurring those pesky student loans (AND FAST.) Second, we've always talked about building...but doing it DEBT FREE.  Building has turned in to me wanting an acreage, where I can work the land, have some pets, maybe some big kids toys ;) and be out of the suburbs. I know some of you are re-reading that saying, "is this the same girl?"  Yes, still me, I still like cute clothes and all things girlie.  But, I've also seen how peaceful a simple life can be.

So, if you are curious about what things are going to be happening with us you will have to keep up with the blog.  We won't be posting much on FB about our new journey and the changes we're making, but I'll try to update the blog with all the changes: budgeting like crazy, everything from scratch, going green, simplifying the closet, decluttering, and decorating our new place. This is the short list.  We are so excited to be stepping closer to our dream life!

This is going to be a long, exciting journey and we are excited to see what God has in store for it all.

Are you living simply? Have you given up the "American Dream," of material must haves and debt? I'd love your tips!

Love,
The Buchholz's

1st BIRTHDAY!!

Oh My GOODNESS!!  We have been so busy lately...November is flying by and well tomorrow is Kypton's 1st Birthday.  It's so exciting to celebrate as he has grown so much this past year but this mama is going to miss her baby boy.  He is growing more independent each day...

He started walking around 10.5 months (yes, I have been lacking on blogging!) he talks so much now.  We are up to apple, hi, no-no, yea-yea, dog, mama, dada, quack-quack and other words were not sure of...right now we are working on ho-ho-ho for some holiday spirit..

We had his birthday party actually last week--it was a lot of fun--and a lot of work getting it together but we are so thankful for all of our friends and family that could make it.  Kypton has a lot of people that care about him and we feel so blessed!

I know I haven't put up 11 month photos and there wont be any photos on this post as we are again at my parents house!  I told them I think they just like when we live with them for the fall months.  Haha--sadly not the case.  A long story short, we got rid of the two dogs :( It was super hard but we knew that they needed a home where they got more attention.  I never thought that when we had kids we would skimp on dog time.  I thought after the kids were in bed we would cuddle with the dogs..not the case after Kypton is in bed...I am past ready for bed.  So, sadly, we made the hard decision to give them up. In doing so we found fleas (NASTY!!) I know everyone says it's bound to happen when you have pets but really NASTY!!  So, our home is being treated and we didn't want Kypton around the chemicals even though some people would say they are safe.  Well, we would rather be safe than sorry...so we are here, Dan goes to the house everyday to check things out and do a little cleaning.  Needless to say I am a paranoid freak now when it comes to anything small and black...(more so than usual!)

The past few weeks before Kypton's birthday I helped my parents tear off wallpaper in their formal dining room, and paint the kitchen, entry, and the formal dining.  We cleaned top to bottom.  The night before his birthday my mom and I were up until 4am working on things.  It all looks amazing now (not that it wasn't nice before) and updated :)

Kypton and I have been spending our days doing laundry and making sure the house stays clean.  kypton isn't sure what to do with all the room he has to walk around in.  I think between their main living-level and the stairs he gets more than the recommended amount of exercise haha.

Tomorrow we will be taking our first trip to the zoo.  Now that he really points and is really interested in things around him we thought it would be fun to do on his 1st birthday :)

I think that is about all I need to catch you up on..I will be sure to get photos up asap..it might be a few days if not more..we shall see.

We hope everyone is doing well and ready for the start of the holiday season.
We are ready for some good eats this week :)

Love the Buchholz's

Making it a Reality..

What a wonderful weekend we have had, it's only Sunday afternoon, but were going to relax (well, Kypton and I are) Dan has some work to get done. Church was great this morning, first time taking Kypton without his carseat and he was a champ. Didn't make a peep other than to giggle a little :)

Let me back up, Friday Kypton took a nap in his crib for the first time, usually I hold him during his naps as I rock him to sleep. He sleeps longer that way. We think he likes the feeling of being next to something and really warm, because in our bed he doesn't move but in his crib he rolls and turns to try and cuddle up to a railing, only to get a foot caught. So, since he can't have blankets yet I just hold him. Friday though, I put him in there because he was really crabby and just wouldn't sleep so I thought if I just put in in there he would calm down. Well, he went right to sleep so I got the casserole for dinner made and ready to put in the oven as soon as Dan said he was on his way home, and I got to do a little reading!

I started reading Dave Ramsey's My Total Money Makeover..again! I loved it the first time and it really got me thinking since then we have lost sight of our goal the last year or so. I thought I would read it again to give me more intensity to get back at it. So far so good, you can check out my Blog on our finances if you would like! The rest of Friday we stayed in and relaxed, watched TV and talked best night all week that is for sure :)

Saturday (FUN DAY!)--we started by getting ready early for the day, going to McDonalds for some breakfast (Blow Money) and then heading to my parents to show them how cute Kypton looked in his overalls :) We had an appointment with a realtor at 1:15 so we just hung out with my parents for the morning and then around 12:45 headed to our appointment. My parents went with. We looked at the house we plan to purchase. The house is not built and they won't start building until we are ready. We are thinking by next summer we will be ready to put our house up and sell it, it will take about 6 months for them to build the home key word here "thinking" were not really sure how things will all come together (as no body can be sure) but this is a little how it would look if we had our way--

First, have all of our consumer debt paid by next summer/fall. This would then leave us 2.5 student loans which are rather large. Second, sell the our house, move into a SUPER cheap place or ask my parents to live with them while the house is being built. This way we 1.Wouldn't be making a house payment and 2. Could use that money to payoff at least the .5 student loan before the house is finished if not 1.5. Then all the debt we would have when we move in would be the house and student loans which the student loans if we do things right will be all paid off by 2015 yep three years and a brand new house! Again, this is how we would like things to go but we know things could/probably will change :)

Either way, the house is amazing, I saw it about a year ago (the drafts) and fell in love with it. I thought okay I know how things like this work on paper it's great then you see it in person and it's nothing like the drafts. WRONG, on that! This house was everything I pictured and more! It was set up like I always wanted, has enough rooms for 4 kids and a master suite! I pray God will bless us with 3 more little ones! Plus a basement to finish to add a bedroom and bath for when we have family come visit! I can't wait for the day we have enough room to have friends and family over without feeling cramped or having to sit on the floor haha! We are blessed to be where we are at today and wouldn't have it any other way, we are excited to see where the next couple years take us!

After looking at the house in one part of town we went to another part of town to look at the land because the house we looked at wasn't a walk out and the one where they are going to build will be a walkout so the basement will be a little different. We then stopped by to see how my brothers place is coming along...we're so excited for him! After that we went to have some lunch with my parents, then headed back to my parents house, Dan went home to get some work done and Kypton took a nap and my Dad and I watched a movie. We spent the rest of the night hanging out with my parents watching a movie and relaxing. We typically spend either Friday or Saturday with my family (I LOVE IT!) I'm very blessed that I have a husband that loves to spend time with my family as much as I do :)

Going to show Grandma and Grandpa how cute I am in my overalls

then going to see my new house and pick my room :)

So, that was our weekend, life is good but God is amazing!!

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend!!

Love the Buchholz's!

Before and After...

Happy Birthday to my sister! Hope you have an amazing day, you deserve it!! Love-Dan, Hollie & Kypton =}

As promised some before and afters of the house this far.. it took forever to get these photos uploaded to blogger so I'm not going to write much as little man is getting ready to eat. It looks great in the preview page but when I publish this post the photos go whack and the spacing is off..sorry about that...hope you still enjoy the photos...

Bathroom when we first moved in...

Bathroom now...

Kyptons's room..the spare bedroom when we first moved in..

Kypton's

room now..

Bedroom

before...(while it was still a bachelor pad)

Bedroom

Now..

Office before...

Office now....

Family room 2009...

Family room 2012...

Laundry 2009..

Laundry 2012...

This is what has been done as of right now, basically the kitchen is the only room that hasn't been touched and I'm not even sure where to really start in there...I know what I like, but I'm not sure it's worth the money at this point...Hope you enjoyed the photos!

Love,

The Buchholz's