We have moved!

After a long year of trying to sell our house in the worst housing market of my generation, the impossible happened and we closed on our old house and new one on Tuesday.

We are 95% moved in and that's to say our stuff is in the the new house. We still have a lot to put away and organize, but we're happy to be in our new home.

Our new home comes with a couple of games that we're enjoying. The first one is affectionately called, what box is ____ in? We play by looking for something and trying to figure out what box that item is in.

The second game is called, what light does this switch turn on. I've never seen so many light switches in my life. Inevitably, it takes a few tries to figure out the right switch to turn on/off the desired light.

All in all, we're all thrilled to be in the new house. One of the many benefits to our new digs is that we have a real guest room (with your own private bathroom). So, no more air mattresss in the living room floor. So, we'll be ready for houseguests in no time, so come see us soon!

As soon as we figure out what box our camera is in, we'll take some pictures of the house and get them posted shortly.

Waxhaw here we come!

Well, it's been a whirlwind couple of weeks. As many of you know we spent last week dodging hurricanes at the beach! We had a blast. We took tons of pictures and even had some professional pix taken as well. If you want to view, look at our shutterfly page at: http://howellfamily4.shutterfly.com/

In other news, also while we were at the beach we recieved an offer on our house! It wasn't the offer we would have liked, but we were able to get creative and find a way to make it work. So we will be closing on both houses on September 30th.

We are so excited that we will be spending the holidays in our new home. The kids are thrilled (we can finally get thier toys out of storage). I'm a little nervous about switching daycares as we've been a big fan of Field of Dreams since Ethan started there 3 years ago. Hopefully E will do ok with the transition, Brady I'm not so worried about.

Wish us luck in the move and now that we finally have a guest bedroom instead of an air mattress on the floor - we expect to see some visitors!

We'll keep everyone posted!

Love,

Brian, Michelle, Ethan, Brady & Bogey

Sun, Sand and Chess?

Monday was another beautiful day at Topsail Island. Brian & Momoo went golfing and Grandma & Michelle spent the day on the beach. The rest of the week has a little more chance of rain, so we're hoping our nice weather holds out.

Mommo taught Ethan to play chess. Seriously. Real rules and everything. They played for about 30 minutes before giving up. I was pretty impressed, first with Momoo's ability to teach a 4 year old chess, and second for Ethan sitting still long enough to learn it!

We're having a great time. Tuesday afternoon we're going to drive down to Fort Fisher and meet a photographer that our friends Wes & Cynthia recomended to have family pictures taken on the beach. I'm excited but ready for a fight, as the outfits I've chosen include khaki shorts, which you can be sure will send Ethan into a tantrum, since he HATES anything other than "comfy clothes". Hopefully we can get some good shots!

Brady is a beach bum!

Brady has always had the looks of a beach bum, but now he has the credentials to prove it. After being a little hesitant most of the day, he came around right before dinner. Once he found the joys of playing in the surf, we couldn't keep him out of it.

Ethan had a great day as well, spending nearly all day on the beach playing in the sand and waves. Our first full day is in the books and everyone had a great time. He made friends with a little girl who lives a couple blocks from our beach.

Michelle got in some reading and sleeping in the sun, so she's happy. Brian's vacation starts tomorrow with his first round of golf planned.

The weather was very humid this morning and pretty warm this afternoon, but we really couldn't ask for better weather, especially with what was in the area just a couple days ago.

I hope everyone is well and we're looking forward to several more days of sun, surf and sand from Topsail Island, NC.

Howell Family Vacation Day 1 - The Aftermath of Hanna

This week is our annual trip to Topsail Island with Momoo & Grandma. As of Friday Tropical Storm Hanna was supposed to hit right on Wilmington, NC possibly as a Category 1 Hurricane. Friday night came and went and in Charlotte and we woke up to find that Hanna hadn't done near the damage it could have in our little slice of paradise. We were still a little worried as we drove in that what if the power was out, what if our steps had blown away, what if.... By the time we arrived in Topsail, after a beautiful sunny drive (and quiet too - Ethan & Brady rode with Grandma & Momoo!!!) we arrived to our beach house. The beach is just as beautiful as ever, and other than the waves being a little choppy, you never would have guessed a storm blew through just 12 hours before. Here are some pictures of our view from the deck. I took them a little close to dusk, so that's why they are a little dark.

Waterpark with Nana & GrandDad

In a rare 3-day weekend where we didn't travel, Nana & GrandDad (Bri's parents) came to visit. We spent Sunday at Boomerrang Bay, the waterpark @ Carowinds. Nana and GrandDad had fun playing with the kids in the water. Brady braved one of the "big boy slides" and the them of the day was Brady and "one more time, GrandDad." Needless to say, everyone slept well Sunday night.

We're gearing up for our annual beach trip to Topsail Island. We leave this coming Saturday and everyone is ready. Although, we may have an unwanted houseguest when we arrive at the beach house....Tropical Storm Hannah. Here's hoping it get's in and out so we're not locked inside for a week.

Our new addition....

We are excited to announce a new addition to our family....yet another Howell boy! Bogey is a 4 month old golden retriever puppy. Ethan has been asking for a puppy for months now, I've had my heart set on a golden and finally we wore Brian down enough to say "yes". Bogey has been with us for about a week and a half. I feel like he's already doubled in size. (see the pictures below, the first one is the day we brought him home, the second is ONE WEEK Later) He is 42lbs already, so he's going to be a BIG dog. He thinks the kids are just new littermates and he plays with them just like he would other puppies, jumping and chewing. We're trying to break him of those bad habits, and I think he's coming around. Although not fast enough for Ethan & Brady's liking :)

In other news, Ethan had his first T-ball game last weekend (I think Brian was more excited than E). He seems to be enjoying it and loves to play defense. It's so cute to see someone hit the ball and you have 15 four year olds running to get it and end up in a big pile.

On the house front, no news yet. We still haven't sold, despite changing our real estate agent, dropping the price and doing some additional staging. We're pretty frustrated and plan to give it until we get back from the beach in September then we'll take it off the market and try again next year. We were really hoping to move this year, but it might just not be in the cards for us. Luckilly our builder has been great, and we still have our house in Millbridge waiting on us if we are able to sell this one.

Hope everyone is doing well. I'll try to be better about posting updates. We have our annual beach vacation coming up in a few weeks, so you'll definitely see some pictures from that.

Take care!

Love,

Brian, Michelle, Ethan, Brady & Bogey

Latest Update!

Sorry it's been so long since our last update! Things have been busy around here. We spent Memorial Day in WV, visiting Momoo & Grandma and celebrating Momoo's 50th birthday! We had a great time and the boys proved yet again they are truly country boys at heart. You couldn't get either of them inside for more than 20 minutes. Brady's favorite new phrase is "Momoo's Tractor....RIDE"

On the House front, we still haven't sold our current house. So it looks like our closing date of June 17, isn't going to happen. Fortunately the builder has been great with working for us and is really helping us out, so I don't feel all is lost yet. We'll see how I feel after another couple of months on the market. the house is in final stages. They are finishing up the exterior, they've laid sod and finished landscaping. On the inside, they've painted, installed all the doors and hardware, countertops, faucets, lighting fixtures and hardwodds. It looks really great. I've added some pictures, but we weren't able to get upstairs because they had just stained the staircase.

Our house is stoned!

We're about 9 weeks from our closing date on our new house (June 17). It's coming along very nicely.

On the inside, all the mechanicals are complete, they've added insulation and drywall will be going up either this week or next.

Outside, we have the siding is up and ready to paint. The windows and skylights are in, except for the one that the workers shattered, which will have to be replaced.

The stone front is up, so the outside is really taking shape. Once drywall is up, they will paint inside and out.

We're starting to get a little nervous about not getting our house sold in time, but we still have a little time, so keep your fingers crossed.

"Gone Vertical"

Well, it's official the house is definitely in progress! Sure permits and foundation and plumbing is important, but now the real fun has begun. We've "gone vertical" as our builder called it. They've started framing the house and should be under roof in the next week or so. Here is one picture and I have a few more on our Shutterfly site. I think both Brian & I were amazed at the sheer magnitude of seeing an entire house sitting where two weeks ago nothing but a concrete slab was. It puts even more of an emphasis on selling the house we're in now. Hopefully going into Spring, the house looks great we'll start to get some serious lookers....here's hoping!

Welcome Levi!

Exciting news - we just got back from TN this weekend visiting the newest addition to the Howell Family. Our nephew Levi Steele Howell was born on February 20th. He's absolutely beautiful and such a good baby!

Ethan is obsessed with Peter Pan. Last night this is how he fell asleep.

Notice, he's still holding his sword.

It's been a busy start to the new year! Brian and I have both been traveling for work, last week the only time we had seen each other in a week was when we passed in the airport! Unfortunately, I've been the one traveling the most, with Brian playing the single Mr. Mom!



We've had visits from the grandparents already this year. Grandma came to visit two weekends ago (Momoo had to stay behind and work) and Nana & Grandad were here last weekend and were all were a huge help in getting the house ready for the market. We have had the house on the market for one week and have had two showings so far, so we're keeping our fingers crossed! If you know of anyone who is looking for a charming 3 bedroom 2.5 bath house in SW Charlotte, send them our way!!!



The boys are doing great. Ethan is fully immersed in Peter Pan and Captain Hook, he has so much fun playing pretend. Brady is starting to talk more and more, he's beginning to put two words together like "close door" he also has a charming new habit where when you are reading books with him and if you look away and he catches you he will grab you by the nose and make you look back at the book!

Happy New Year!

One of my New Year's resolutions is to do a better job keeping up with our friends & family. This one's been on the list for about 4 years, ever since Ethan came along...but as those of you with kids know, time finds a way of slipping away pretty fast! We have a lot of exciting things happening this year and I wanted a way to keep everyone involved, so we decided to start this blog...very 21st century of me...don't ya think?

First of all the kids are growing like crazy, they are so much fun. I hope to keep their pictures updated here a little more frequently than I usually do.

Second of all, we've decided to move. We're staying in the Charlotte-metro area, but moving out to Waxhaw, NC. It will be very close to Bri's office and since I work from home 4 days a week not huge inconvenience for me. We are building in a brand new neighborhood called Millbridge. We're only the second house to go to contract with our builder. The neighborhood is going to be amazing. 60 acres of parks, walking trails, sports fields, a huge recreation complex with pools, workout room, pool tables and a brand new elementary school. We're so excited though it's going to be a long 5-6 months while we build! It's looking now like we'll be in the new house by July-August! Now just keep your fingers crossed for us that we can sell our existing house!

So stay tuned for more information, we'll try to keep you updated on the boys, the building process, and Brian & I too.

Love,

Michelle