eight seats

february is generally a really long month, especially for being such a short one. but this february flew by in light of a handful of really great changes here at the anderson house. since i've been a terrible blogger i figured i'd write up some of these. more for myself and as a journal than anything.

after being outbid on an amazing house in the perfect location in january, i was crushed. i gave up looking. we got bored. so we bought a car. that made it sound like we bought a car on a whim, and let me assure you we did not. we knew we had to get a car before baby comes because the element has only two seats in the back. we'd been researching and browsing, but we just figured we would get the car after we found a house. but we were both feeling like a house was never going to happen. vegas is weird...community planning, house styles, yard size, taste level, etc. and i am learning that i am really quite terrible with change. i'm actually a complete baby about it (although i prefer to view myself with a more positive spin: i am very idealistic). i was starting to feel like i would rather stay in my tiny little rental than give in and buy a house here. we needed some excitement, though. remember, february is a long month!

so one sunday night steve was on craigslist and found a listing for the perfect honda pilot at a dealership. the salesman brought it to him at work the next morning and steve made the deal. i, of course, went with him to deliver the element (for trade-in) and give my seal of approval before we made it official later that night. when we pulled up to the dealership haven bounced out of the car and as she bounded through the parking lot she shouted, "we're getting a new car because we're having a baaaaaby!!!". it was just about the cutest thing she's ever done. also awkward for me, especially since i wasn't exactly showing. there's something really uncomfortable about telling a bunch of grown men that you've been knocked up. almost as bad as the first time you have to tell your parents you're pregnant (which happens right after you yourself accept the fact that this "thing" now has to come "OUT!!!"). i mean, clearly your parents are now going to know that you have sex! but the cluster of salesmen standing around the lot had a good laugh.

here's a super excited haven waiting...and waiting. buying a car is not quick.

you should have seen the kids when we opened the doors to let them check it out...they went NUTS. it was like a two-kid circus in there, flinging seats up and down, flipping things open and closed, climbing over the backs then the fronts. leave it to nash to discover every possible mechanism in that car within thirty seconds. and then, of course, there was me screaming at them to "get your feet OFF the seats!!!" the screaming continued for a few days while they settled into the excitement (and until i bought some seat protectors and realized that, despite the light color, the seats are actually very easy to clean). even two weeks later nash loves to tell everyone he sees that we have eight seats. he then goes into some math (which he's really good at) and tells us all the different situations that can be solved by having eight seats! he's still working on "playing it cool."