Whew!  After I started this post, life moved at even more of a break neck speed!  Here's the original post, with an update below in blue.

2013 will go down in the books as the biggest year in our marriage for sure!  In January, Mark quit his job, went back to school, and started an internship in the field of long term care.  He used to work in municipal athletics, so this was a HUGE change!

After countless hours of studying, and even attending and extra test prep class down in San Antonio for a few days, my honey took the very final step of this long process.  He took and passed his national boards on the first try!!  The girls and I were at the pumpkin patch while he took them, and it killed me to not be there right next to him, praying for him and watching his expression as he took the test!  We did the next best thing.  Our dear friends with us at the pumpkin patch stopped what we were doing and prayed for him as he started the test, and continued to pray as our kids played!  

When he called with his AMAZING results, I just sobbed tears of joy!!!  Then immediately got Landrie up from "rest time" so we could paint him a banner before he got home!  That was on a Friday afternoon.  He already had a job offer outside of Houston that started on MONDAY.  Oh, and his wife was alomst 38 weeks pregnant.  Oh, and we were prepping our house to put it on the market as soon as he passed.  Talk about pressure to pass a test!!  I am so proud of him!  (And both of us have agreed 

that if at all possible, we will never do something that stressful again!)

I came outside after showing our house one day and the girls' playhouse was moved to the middle of the patio.  I asked Landrie about it.  She said, "We were playing moving!"  I guess I have a little more explaining to do! 

We were all set to meet with our realtor, when I talked with my friend Megan.  Her mom is a realtor, and she passed along a great tip!  Realtors can take pictures on their own or hire a professional.  If you've spent hours on realtor.com like we have, you can certainly tell a difference!!  Because of Megan, we knew to ask for the professional ones, and it made a big difference.  He gave us lots of tips to make sure the house showed well.  Since this blog is our family's only scrapbook, and our house has never been cleaner, I'm posting the pictures from our listing!

Our first home!

Come on in!  We edited out a LOT of furniture and family pictures before these pictures.  We aren't usually quite this sparse!

I LOVE that Landrie calls this this "diamond room."  I don't think I'll ever correct her on that one!!

He had special lenses that could capture our entire family room in one shot.

This bedroom used to be the girls' playroom, but we borrowed a crib from my sister- in- law to stage it as another bedroom.  Plus, we will need a second crib for Harper soon!

The girls' bathroom

Landrie's room

Tatem's room

UPDATE:

So, I never even got to post this!  We met with a realtor Sunday afternoon, then Mark made the 4.5 hour drive to the Houston area to start his new job that evening.  Monday, I was 38 weeks pregnant, my husband was out of town and our house went on the market.  We had 2-3 showings every day!  The girls and I had to be SO clean and out of the house A LOT.  When we were home, friends dropped in to help pack or to take the girls so I could get stuff done. Thankfully, Friday of the same week we got 3 OFFERS!  One was more than the asking price, which just doesn't happen in our area in our price range.  We accepted the offer Saturday and 2 days later, I went into labor and gave birth to Harper!  What an answer to prayer that our house sold before she was born!!  Her birth story is another post entirely. :)