Two Words

UNDER CONTRACT!!!!

I guess I owe you more of the story. The seller signed the papers so we are soon to be second homeowners! Can you guess how stinkin' excited we are?!?! We are set to close on April 30th, but that could change if the broker needs more time. Let's pray that he works fast! At least this time there really isn't any packing to do.

Thank you, Lord!

Baby Simon Update

I know I've been doing a lot of little updates here and there but you'll just have to put up with a few more! (One update I can't share with you yet because we do not have anything concrete yet, but are very hopeful!)

Baby Simon was the little preemie boy that is in Brandon Hospital's NICU. His grandmother e-mailed me yesterday to say that he is now about 3.5 lbs. (YAY!-weight gain means SO much to preemies), but he is still on a ventilator. She said that that is not a good thing. They were going to start giving him steroids in hopes of strengthening his lungs so he can start breathing on his own. So please pray for the steroids to work!

There is also an update posted on Olivia's blog. You can check out the link to the right.

Thank you!

Short Little Updates

Some of you have been asking how things are going with the house and the girls, so I thought I'd let everyone know:

Hannah & Kate-their bowel issues are all cleared up. In fact they cleared up so well that we are now back to having our normal bowel issues with Kate. I took her off the Miralax while she was sick but I put her back on it and hopefully it should clear up her problem. She does have a bit of a runny nose. Not sure if it's allergies or a cold though. One of the reasons I know they are feeling much better is because they are back to eating really well. Hannah scarfs down almost anything put in front of her and Kate ate lunch twice yesterday.

George-he's doing good. He's still dealing with some back pain, but at least has some pain pills for that. We went out to the Greenfest at UT this past weekend with my parents and sister and had a great time. Ever since George started his lawn care business, he has become increasingly interested in plants and trees. I made a deal with him that he can landscape the outside of the house however he wanted if I can decorate the inside of the house however I want.

Lauren-I have good days and bad days. It kind of depends on how busy I keep myself. Don't really want to get into too much more.

The House-Thank you for continuing to pray. We actually came up a little bit on the price, which we thought was fair. Once that was communicated, we found out that there was at least one other "off the books offer" that is higher than ours, but also involved concessions (asking the seller to pay closing costs). There is also a 2nd showing of the house today to another person and they are waiting to see what comes from that. Our frustration with all of this is that we thought with offering a higher price we'd finally be able to move forward, but we're still waiting. It seems like things get within our reach, but then snatched away. We're both disappointed, but trying to remind each other that we are putting our hope in GOD and not some house.

I guess that's it for now!

An Update-Kind of

We got a call from our realtor saying that he received a call from the seller's realtor and she would probably come down $6500. It was not an official counteroffer or anything. Her realtor is keeping in constant contact with our realtor, so I guess that is a good sign. Just $3500 more.

I really appreciate those of you who left encouraging comments & those who didn't but are still praying. We love you guys!

Homesick

This is one of those posts where I'm going to get down and dirty with you. I'll tell you what's been on my heart lately & there's a lot. If you could describe me in one word right now, it would be homesick. Do I have a house to live in? Yes. Do I feel like it's home? No. Am I grateful beyond words that my parents would welcome the Lantz circus into their home? Yes! One of the reasons that I failed to post anything for about a week was because of the funk that I was in. I was really struggling last week and still find myself struggling this week, but not as much. Have you ever gone on a vacation for longer than a week? Usually by the end of that week, you are itching to get home. That's how I feel, just on a more amplified level. My parents' house is not supposed to be our permanant living space. You are supposed to go over to visit the grandparents and then go back home. We're not supposed to share a room with our girls. (We do sleep in different rooms. Their cribs for naptime are in our room and their pack n' plays are in the next room for nighttime sleep.) I want to go home.

George and I looked at houses yesterday and before we even started I just felt so tired. We both commented yesterday about how tired of this process we are. The house that we still really want is available. The seller has come down $10,000 in price from the asking price of when we put in an offer. However, we need her to come down at least another $10,000. She had an open house with no luck. She's even advertised that she can close in 30 days! This would be perfect. It just seems so far out of reach though. Every house seems to these days. Can you tell that I'm a little discouraged at this point? We've been at this for about 5 months now. It's emotionally draining.

Bear with me as I continue on in my pity party. As I was putting the girls into their cribs for a nap today, I just started crying. Hannah was reaching for her crib because she was tired and all I could think was, "I'm sorry honey. I wish so badly that you could sleep every sleep in your crib." I want our furniture back. I want our privacy back. I don't mean privacy from my parents. I mean from the girls. My parents are wonderful! If they weren't, we wouldn't be staying here. Last week, I had a two hour sobfest. I thought once I had that out of my system that I would be okay, but I'm still struggling.

I'm the type of person that needs stability. I need organization. Not only do I feel like all of our stuff is disorganized, but that I'm living in a constant state of disorganization. Not a good feeling for a neat freak. It's overwhelming.

I know that many of you have been praying for us to find a house. Those prayers are so appreciated! Can I ask you to pray for something very specific? Can you pray that God would move the heart and mind of the seller of the house to come down $10,000? I'm asking for that specific amount because when God answers it (in whatever way he sees fit to), we will clearly know what God's answer was.

I appreciate you bearing through my honesty. A lot of times people comment on the fact that they don't know how I do it everyday with twins. I think that sometimes people think that I have it more together than I really do. This last couple of weeks though, I've just been barely scraping by it seems. So if my honesty makes you feel a little bit better about your own disorganized life, then mission accomplished. I don't want to pretend to be someone I'm not.

Thank God that He is a constant rock and a firm foundation throughout trials. I can stand firmly on His faithfulness because He has delivered us before and He will deliver us again!

Calling All Prayer Warriors

I believe that I have some of the best prayer warriors out there. My girls are shining examples of that. However, this time I'm not here to ask for prayer for our family. I have two people that I'd like you to pray for, even if it's just a quick simple prayer.

Olivia Cooper-this is a precious little girl that was born premature and small, like Hannah and Kate. The amazing thing is that I have never met this family, but connected with her mom through the twins website that I am a part of. She is a sweet sister in Christ and has two beautiful little growing girls. Olivia was born with some heart problems and is facing a possible open heart surgery or a heart cath. Her mom gives a little more detail on their blog. It's just to the right.

Baby Simon-this is a precious little preemie boy in Brandon's NICU. He received one of our gift bags this month. I don't know much about him other than he was born 1 lb. 15 oz. and at 28 weeks. I am thrilled beyond words to be able to pray for this little boy & his family by name.

Would you please join me in praying for these families facing difficult challenges for their children? THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart!

California-The Sequel

If you remember, our trip to California last August was a lot of fun...minus one very obvious aspect. Hannah and Kate had some bowel issues. I mean exploding bowel issues. Well, it's back. I was so proud of us for being at church for the 3rd or 4th week in a row. I guess I shouldn't have gotten ahead of myself. They haven't been eating well the last week or so but I just attributed it to being a picky toddler. Let's hope this passes soon though. I don't know if I can put up with this for a month like we did last time. The only way it got better was by antibiotics, which the doctors seemed to just think was a fluke anyway.

Despite being overloaded with...well, I'll spare you the details, the girls have a new favorite thing to do. They love to climb in the stroller and just sit there. Kate screams if I try to unstrap her and get her out. She also LOVES the slide at the park. She goes up the stairs and down the slide...the BIG slide. Hannah LOVES to explore at the park. They are one in the same, yet very different. This makes it a little difficult for me to supervise them, but I do the best I can, even if I do get some "whose child is that wandering out the gate" looks. George has the rest of the week off and we plan on doing some house hunting tomorrow. He also cannot wait to take them to the park. He hates that he has yet to see them go down the slide.

Watching Mommy make dinner

Maybe this is how she got sick

So Much to Share

Where to begin? Do you want the good news or the bad news first? I'll give you the bad news first. We did not get the house. She counteroffered and it was too high so we walked away. We have committed to not going above a certain price out of financial responsibility and while it's hard to stick to that, we know that it's the best thing for us. So the house hunt continues. We told the seller that our offer was still on the table. Hopefully, she'll keep that in mind over the next couple of weeks. The other bad news is that George hurt his back badly on Saturday afternoon. He was trying to show Hannah how he could walk on his hands doing a handstand, but he fell wrong. The sad thing...Hannah wasn't even looking...no one was. Luckily, he has today off so he can recuperate.

We have St. Louis family in town. My dad's parents and my cousin came down to bring us their pop-up camper. It's almost as old (or young) as I am, but it's still in great shape so we are looking forward to taking it out this Memorial Day weekend. George and I went to the Strawberry Festival in Plant City this weekend. We always said we'd go every year, but just never went. Well, we finally did this year. The only thing was that we didn't get strawberry shortcake. What kind of people do that? Go to a strawberry festival and not get strawberry shortcake? I know, weird. We had the girls with us and were kind of trying to go around their schedule. We ended up leaving so George could take me to his favorite BBQ place in Plant City. The girls acted surprisingly well even though it was right during their nap time.

And the good news is that I have lots of pictures of my sweet, adorable, get into everything girls!

Hannah
Kate

Hannah's first girl scout cookie, thin mints

Kate's first girl scout cookie, too

Kate in her cute Sunday dress

Kate

Hannah

Hannah

Kate, Hannah, & Rachel during bath time-their first bath together

P.S. Hope you have fun in West Virginia & Maine, Nanny & Grampy! Miss you!

It's Beginning to Feel A Lot Like Spring

We have had an unusually longer "winter" down here in FL this year. We've (Hannah & Kate) been going through the long sleeve clothing sometimes more than once a week. However, this past week has been a little nicer, at least enough to go play outside. I take balls out there to play with, but the girls are more interested in Grandma's lawn ornaments and the mulch. Here are some pictures of their adorable little feet in flip flops they got for Christmas.

I know it's not that exciting. I'm hoping the next time I post, I'll get to tell you that we finally have a house!

More House Hunting

Hannah and Kate are feeling much better. The fever they had was gone by the next morning. However, they are drooling like crazy. I'm not sure if they are getting new teeth, but Kate has been soaking the upper part of her shirts.

George and I have been continuing our house hunt. We looked at about 4 houses this week. We found one on the original street that we began our house hunt at 4 or 5 months ago. It's an older house, but with a lot of room, a nice pool, and an acre. It about a quarter mile from our church and very close to where we used to live. We plan on putting an offer in on Monday. Not sure how it will go because we are dealing strictly with an owner on this house. It's not a short sale nor a foreclosure, which should make it quick and easy to close in the long run. The house itself is not perfect, but it meets the overwhelming majority of our needs and wants. The lady who owns it has done A LOT of updating and adding on. She did a good job, too. Unless God throws a huge NO in our face (which we have given him permission to do & He has with several houses thus far), we'll hopefully be making some deals next week. I know that many of you out there have been praying for us and it is so much appreciated. We have been discouraged lately because we feel the rush & pressure (being put on by ourselves-not my parents) to move out of my parents' house. Honestly, I feel like God has spoken to my heart a little bit about not being 100% satisfied about this current house. The couple of things I'm not crazy about are things that the overwhelming majority of the world would consider extreme luxuries to have in a house. That's not to say that there is something wrong with having a walk-in master closet or a master bedroom on the other side of the house. I just think that sometimes I should feel more blessed by the things that I do have rather than by what I don't.

Feverish Fun

Or not. We had a low-key day today because these two sweet girls were running fevers between 102-103. I called the doctor to see if it was a reaction to their vaccines on Monday, but she said it most likely was not since it was that high. So I doped them up with Motrin and Tylenol. As soon as the medicine kicked in, they were back to their normal playful selves. Once it wore off, they were back on the couch with pacis, blankets, pillows, and Hannah even had Bella cuddled up to her. Per the advice of a friend who is in the medical field, I eventually stripped them down to their diapers to cool them off. These were pictures of them before the medicine kicked in. They were pitiful. They laid on the couch for a while today and just watched whatever cartoons were on PBS.

Kate
Hannah

Kate

Kate

Kate

Hannah

Happy 18 Months!

Happy 18 Months, Hannah & Kate! How exciting that we have reached the 1.5 year old mark. No longer babies or infants, but toddlers. And let me tell you just how toddlerish they are becoming. My sweet happy Hannah definitely has developed quite the temper. She gets her little feet a dancing and a stomping and she lets you know how unhappy she is. She has even thrown herself on the ground this past week. Kate gets upset when she's unhappy, but certainly doesn't throw the foot-stomping tantrums that Hannah does. Kate is our little talker. She is obsessed with telling us that the puppies say woof. She also knows what a sheep, bear, and car say. She can say ball, bye, dada, and uh-oh. Hannah prefers her own little language. However, she can tell us what a bear says and says mama and dada. They love calling their dada's name. Of course, George loves it just as much. They have pretty much dropped their morning nap. We've been so busy these past couple of weeks that I think they've decided there are much more exciting things going on than sleeping. They generally take a 2 to 3 hour nap in the afternoons.


Hannah weighed in at 19 lbs. 8 oz. She is 30" tall. She even wore 18 month clothes this morning. She's growing! She loves her veggies and is overall a good eater.


Kate weighed in at 22 lbs. 8 oz. She refused to sit on the infant scale, but loved the chance to stand on the toddler scale. She knew exactly what was going on when we went into the exam room today. She is 31.25" tall. She is still having some bowel problems, but we are upping her doses of Miralax and if that doesn't work, then we'll be talking her to see a gastroentrologist doctor. It's like the poor girl is trying to birth a child every time she poops. It's bad.


On the home front, we are completely moved out of our house. We are home owners, but homeless. The offer that we put in on the house out in Dover has expired and we are moving on. We offered the full asking price, but the seller's realtor obviously had no true interest in selling the house because she never even answered the offer. Her loss. Unfortuately, our loss, too. I'm choosing to believe though that God didn't want us to have that house because nothing was working out. We have a couple of other houses that we want to go look at. To say that we are discouraged and frustrated would be right on. We have invested so much work into getting our old house up to par and we just feel exhausted. We also are emotionally drained from looking at houses and nothing coming to fruition.


I had my 26th birthday this past week. As an adult, they come and go without much hooplah. I actually spent the evening shampooing the carpets at our house. Woohoo! We did have a family celebration last night at Erin and Dru's house. They made some yummy pizza! I'm looking forward to a "normal" week that includes bible study, story time, and the normal errands. Everyone is finally healthy and we're hoping that it stays that way!

Here are some pictures of our time running around in the backyard this afternoon.



This is just me trying to get some pictures to put on the blog.

Hannah

Kate

Hannah

Here are some of Hannah playing at our old house while I was cleaning. I actually forgot I had these on my camera. She loves having her blanket over her head.

And here is some video of them during snack time today. I was trying to get them to show off, but apparently all it did was make me look stupid. Normally when I tell Hannah to say cheese, she squints her eyes and gives a big toothy grin. Enjoy!