Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Buddy the class bear!


Cambria's preschool class has Buddy the bear! Each kids gets a turn to take it home and then right about it (okay, so the parent rights about it). The first time she brought him home in the fall, she didn't seem to care much. She played for a little bit and then moved on, this time she was so excited. She first ripped off his clothes- she could care less about his accessories. Cambria jumped up and down with a huge smile and ran into my room.

Just had to jump on the bed with Buddy- I know we are those crazy parents who let our kids jump on our (king-size) bed. So much fun to take her new friend for a jump!










Then a little peek-a-boo before moving on to another toy. A fun little time with Buddy the Bear!

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Monday, April 11, 2011

Real Estate

We've been pretty busy around here! With the move just a few months away. We got our house ready to sell in Feb., put it on http://www.militarybyowner.com/. We prayed about it and decided to give for-sale-by-owner a try for a few months. The response has been wonderful, with nearly 600 hits on our home on the one site. We have had several interested in buying and lot's of offers to rent. Most military families want to rent right now and we feel strongly about selling and using the equity we have in our home for the next home and during med. school. We know God will provide a buyer! We have one more week as FSBO, before we call our realtor. FSBO has been a calmer way to enter the real estate world. Most interests have been from out of state, so there is lot's of emailing, talking and plenty of time to get the house perfectly clean before they come visit. We've had several showings. One family, the only local family, that has come by are still interested and have called back. They were on the beginning of their search and haven't made up their minds. The other family that remains interested, is out of Washington. They would love to buy it, but have a property in Colorado that they need to sell or find another renter for. They are really busy and haven't found the time to come see it. We would love for one of these families to buy our home, but we can't wait much longer. We move in June (Kyle at the beginning of July) and we have already purchased our home in San Antonio.





We do love our home in NE and hope it sells soon!




During all the work to sell our home, we had continued an extensive web search for our home in TX. About a month ago I found our home online and told Kyle "I found it" (that's not the first time I've said that). It met our needs, was in the perfect location (haven't found many), and was in our budget. A new home, priced much lower than the others in the neighborhood, I was quickly concerned in wouldn't stay on the market for another month (when we were going to go purchase a home in SA). I didn't say much to Kyle, but after a day or 2 of looking at it he asked if I thought we should make an offer. I of course, said yes! I was content with not looking further and had complete trust in my Mom and our realtor's opinion of the home. They both agreed it was a great house- that's right we bought a house without setting foot in it! After a long week of dealing with banks and loan stuff, we finally put our offer in on a Fri. night. We were excited that we were the first to put an offer in and were ready to negotiate. There was quite a bit of disappointment Sat. night when we found out another offer had been made on the house, after ours. No negotiation, we each got to put in our best offer and the seller would choose. That was a very stressful Sun. God was definitely teaching patients and trust in him. I let it go, even started looking for another home, until we got word late Sun. night that it was ours!!! We paid a bit more that we wanted too (have no clue what the other offer was), but felt like we didn't over pay. We are so excited!




Our home in San Antonio! It's hard to stay focused on the home we need to sell, too much fun to look to the future and our new life in our new home! We feel so blessed to be in the home we've been in for the past 4 years and feel so blessed to spend the next part of our life in this house! God is good and we look forward to sharing this blessing with all! As most of you know we love having visitors and hosting parties and having people over!




A few pictures of two of our favorite rooms! We were thrilled it is so open, just like our current home. What can't be seen in the kitchen is the double oven and walk-in pantry along with more cabinets- a few things our current kitchen could use:)


So that's what's been going on in the Johnston home lately and why I've been horrible about blogging. Real Estate has certainly been bittersweet for us lately, but God is GREAT and we look forward to what he has in store for us (I am definitely ready to move on). Now off to clean and get this house ready for an Open House Sun. 2-4!

Saturday, March 26, 2011

The Helmet




Gavin was an astronaut for a presentation at school. He wore a space shirt, but we didn't have much else. Daddy surprised him with his helmet. Of course it's not an astronaut helmet, but the kids loved it and Gavin was very proud to show it to his class.


Ainsley had fun with the helmet too:)

Friday, March 25, 2011

Catching up on....

some serious cuteness!!! I LOVE my babies! Cambria's ducky going for a car ride! She is doing so much more interacting play with her toys, it is so cute to watch! Cambria in her new top and jacket mommy got at the MOPS swap!

Following in big sisters shoes;) She loves dressing up!


Ready for school!


Always something "fresh" and "new" in Avalyn's style!




Cambria checking out our Disney book! She loves pictures and what wonderful memories:)

Friday, March 18, 2011

Gavin's 1st Part

Gavin's Spring Program. Gavin has never been into programs, he usually just stands up there and doesn't sing. We were shocked a bit when he came home and told us he had a part in the spring program and he had to memorize it. He did AMAZING! He remembered his "spider" lines perfectly, said them clearly and not too fast! We were very impressed, no fear of the stage or crowd. Now the rest of the program, he was front row center and only sang a few words and did a couple motions the entire show- Broadway is probably not in his future, but maybe speaking;) So proud of BIG brother!
Check Spelling

an attempt with all 4


The sisters love their big brother, even the littlest one:)


Saturday, March 5, 2011

Basketball season #1


Gavin hasn't played a sport since baseball last summer and he was eager to try basketball. We signed him up on base and to our surprise he loved it! He definitely wants to play basketball again. We were just happy he didn't find it frustrating and had a lot of fun!


So proud of her big brother!
Now onto flag football!