Post Recap RECAP

 . . . . After this recap I am starting where we are in current life! 

After the week on the Lake. We went back to my parents house and spent 2 more weeks with them there.

We went "Blueblerry" picking as Reese calls them. H came too.

 Popsicles with Grandma Pam

 County fair with the cuzzies

 Loons Game with the fam. Reese learned the song "Take me out to the ball game" and my favorite line that she says is " Take me out to the ball game. Take me out to the Crap" I need to get a video of this. It's pretty funny because she has no idea what she is saying.

 Lots of movies mostly Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Reese was slightly obsessed.

 Morning snuggles with Grandma

 After 2 weeks of fun we packed our car to the max and headed to Springfield.

 I didn't take any pictures of our arrival and unpacking process but you can imagine right? Moving is the worst! So maybe I am glad I didn't document it.

This baby turned 5 months a few days after we got here. At 5 months he was almost sitting on his own. He continues to be a very happy content baby. We can't get enough of him. I wish he would slow down though. 

After we had gotten mostly settled we had our first visitors! Christopher's sister Elizabeth lives 4 hours away in Wichita. They made the drive to see us. We had a lot of fun with them ofcourse like always I never take enough pictures.

 These two boys are going to be good little buddies. 

 After they visited they took Reese back to Wichita for a few days. We went there the next weekend to pick her up. Its so nice to be close to these guys again!

 

The Mother of all RECAPS

I was so proud of myself for keeping up on our life in Atlanta post Henry's arrival. Then it felt like a tornado hit my life and we had a crazy month of living out of a suitcase. Now I am so far behind. Really a month isn't that long when transitioning but we packed a lot of events into that month. So here it goes in pictures and a few words. . . .

 After we came back from Springfield we had to go get are girl! So we made one last trip to Tally and headed to the beach with these guys. We are so sad to be far away from them now but we had some good times these past two years.

 These 3 together are pretty cute.

 Henry was such a good boy. Basically just chilled in his stroller all day.

 We will miss this Ocean!

Driving back to Hotlanta.

Once back in Atlanta we started prepping the house for packers. My Mom came to visit. She originally was coming to help when I thought I was packing the whole house by myself. But after we found out the hospital was paying for the entire move she still decided to come and spend the last days with us.

 She took Reese back to MI with her on the plane. This was probably a smart move to have Reese go but I had just gotten her back from Florida and it was hard for me to let her go again. But like always I got over it and she had the time of her life playing with her cousins. There are no pictures of this because I never got them from my Mom's camera and now they will remain for ever in the abyss that is my moms camera.

The day after Reese left, Henry had his 4 month doctor visit, shots and all. Basically he is still on the large side.

18lbs

26.5 inches ( I think I am just trying to remember off the top of my head)

At 4 months he was sleeping through the night I had just stopped nursing and he was just one happy baby.

We (the moving peeps) packed up our house in one day and then packed the truck the next. It was harder then I thought saying goodbye to that house. It will hold so many beautiful memories. As i sat in it empty I tried to remember some of my favorite moments. Reese took her first steps there. She grew up there. Then we brought Henry home to that house. I loved it. Would have loved it more in a different neighborhood but that is why we moved! Ok so our last night in Atlanta we went to a Braves game with Christopher's parents and sister. This was the best way to end our time in Atlanta. I am so glad they came for Christopher's Graduation. His graduation was the very last day we were in ATL. It was such a great feeling watching him walk across that stage. I was and am so proud of him. 

 I wanted a picture with all of us and since Reese would be gone for the real thing I made Christopher put his attire on and snap a photo pre-grad. This was actually a good idea since the day of his Graduation I had to walk basically a mile from the parking garage to get there in crazy humidity. I looked like a hot mess when I walked in so I was happy to have this picture. I was also glad to get such a great picture of Christopher with his parents. 

After Graduation we went out to eat for some good Mexi food and then we hit the road. Two days of driving and we made it to Manistee, MI, where we met my family for a week vacay on Lake Michigan. It was a great week. Lots of pictures for this one.

Reese and Isaac

Lake Michigan

 Cuties

 This trip may have provided these two with some good solid birth control. They were seriously cute with the kids though.

 Face Painting by Reese. Her style is a little abstract but what you are looking at is spiderman for the boys and fairy princess for the girls.

 Always had to be mermaids in the sand even Jackson liked to get in on it of course he was a merMAN

 Grams and Gramps w/ the little bear

 H with his namesake, love that they are twins in this pic.

 OH. THAT. FACE!

I do this to him all day long. I can't help myself I mean come on, look at those cheeks!

yummy baby, the Tank started sitting while we were at the lake.

 Dog piles on Uncle Ryan were a common accurane. He was the definite favorite.

Lots of naps and Olympics.

 I loved spending time with this guy especially after he found out he passed his boards and could start his new job! 

It was so nice spending time with all of my family. There was a lot of beach time, good food, olympics, and games. I can't believe we are all grown up. It happened so fast it feels like and now that I have my own babes its going even faster. Time is so precious in this life. I am trying to always remember that and to use it wisely with the things that matter most and that will make me happy. This week at the lake was definitely time well spent.

Springfield, Missouri

So we are moving to Springfield, Missouri. Christopher accepted a position there in January. I stole this picture from my friends blog. It was taken in winter when everything was dead! I was much more green this trip This past week we went there again to find a house to live in for a while. But first thing was first we had to say goodbye to our baby girl. She went and stayed with Nana and Poppa in Tallahassee for the week. She was sooo excited! She will barely speak to us on the phone she is having so much fun. I know it was way harder on me then her. 

 So we set off to Missouri just me and the boys! Seriously the pictures below is what most of our 4 days looked like. We were in the car pretty much all day everyday! Lots of pictures in this post of Henry but how do you choose! 

 This kid didn't mind though as long as he got to eat whenever he wanted. 

So the driving around payed off. It was pretty frustrating trying to find a place. There are plenty of houses to rent in Springfield but NO ONE wants to rent for less then 12 months. Christopher and I were looking for a short term lease because we want to buy pretty soon but we also wanted to get to know the area before we do that. We called so many houses on the first day I can't even count. At the end of day one we were ready to give up. We went to dinner and on a whim decided to go look at one more neighborhood. We passed this house and saw the for rent sign. I did not want to even call but Christopher told me to just do one more today. So I called and of course the guy wanted a 12 month lease but then he stopped me and asked why I wanted a sort term lease. I told him and he said that he and his son are Realtors and that if one of them writes the contract for the house we find, we can get out of our rental lease whenever we buy. 

Its a pretty cozy little house. Its the only one we even looked at. It has a fenced in backyard and it even has a little pear tree back there. Its in a great central neighborhood. I think we will be happy here for a while. 

Christopher might kill me but I have to tell one more story about our trip. On Saturday we thought it would be fun to go and explore the surrounding area of Springfield so we set off down to Branson, MO (40 min away). We didn't look at a map until it was too late but we ended up driving on some seriously unnecessary winding and rolling roads. I was kind of mad about it and I was getting car sick. I was letting Christopher know how I felt pretty much the whole time we were driving. He got pretty quiet for a little while and when I looked over at him and he was pretty much white. Now if you know Christopher you know he has extreme motion sickness. He barely made it off the road and into a gas station before he lost all his breakfast. Poor Guy. Apparently he told me that talking about being sick made him sick. Usually the driver does not get sick in cars. This was his second time he got sick on this trip. Not good. We are going to have to get use to these roads if we are going to make it out here.    

Overall it was a good trip. I am trying to get excited about moving to springfield. Hopefully I will like it more once I get there. Everyone that knows anything about Springfield always tells me I am going to love it, so hopefully they are right. As of now I am just excited to be normal people with a job! No more student Status!

Henry: 3 Months

 Henry is 3 months!

He didn't go to the doctor this month but his weight stats were about 17 lbs when we weighed him ourselves. We weighed him because he had been spitting up so much and I thought he was getting lighter. I was wrong he is not lighter at all he is just getting chunkier by the day. I must be getting stronger. Of course how could I not be lugging this chunk around everywhere. Henry is really coming into his little personality now. He is the sweetest little boy and he smiles all the time. He is starting to do the " I'm a cute baby that likes to smile at you then pretend I am shy and look away, then slowly look back to make sure you are still looking, give another smile and look away again thing". You know what I'm talking about? Its possibly the cutest thing that babies do! He is also a little chatter box. His favorite time to talk to us is when we are changing his diaper. He wants to sit up all of the time. If he is even slightly reclined he will try so hard to pull his body up to a straight position. It looks like he is doing crunches, its cute. We are still trying to figure out a daytime schedule he is kind of a little cat napper during the day but he sleeps like a dream through the night, so I will take that! I feel very lucky to have this little guy in my life.  

 Reese always likes to get in on the photo shoot and it can get a little crazy. She likes to add props and wants to be in every shot. We have a lot of pictures from this shoot. Note to self: Do monthly photo shoots when the bug is asleep!

Look how much he has grown!!! Don't you just want to eat those cheeks!

The Fourth

 Happy 4th of July!

I am so happy to live in this country. I am grateful to the men and women who serve so selflessly to keep us safe and free. 

 We went to a BBQ with some friends and had a great time. On the way home we realized that we forgot to get sparklers and b/c we were calling it an early night and not going to see a big show we really wanted to do some with Reese. We drove around to 3 different stores before we found some. We got home just as the firework booms started. We couldn't see any fireworks even though there were about 4 shows in a 5 mile radius of our house. Trees here are quite substantial so its pretty impossible to find the fireworks. Anywho Reese of course got scared because she couldn't make sense of the noise without actually seeing the fireworks. This alluded to the above picture she could hardly look at the sparkler let alone hold one. She came and sat by Henry and I begging to go inside the entire time. I told her to be brave like her new favorite princess Merida. Immediately she said "ok Mother" which means she is transforming into Merida (I know this because she calls me mother when she is Merida and Mom when she is Reese). She took a deep breath and clung to Henry and I and finally watched a sparkler. Next year I'm hoping she will enjoy this holiday a little more.

Happenings as of Late

This guy fell asleep like this pretty much every night in the month of June after studying and working all day. He was preparing for his boards and finally the day has come and gone! We are so happy to have him back! He feels pretty good about how he did and I know he did well. We won't know officially for a few more weeks though.

(gotta love the painters tape holding his glasses together)

Annabelle missed her Daddy almost as much as I did. After he took the boards we spent the day at the pool and then he took his girl to Brave, the new princess movie. She loved going to the movies but was terrified of the bears in the movie. She pretty much cried the whole time and kept telling Christopher to take her to the bathroom. Surprisingly enough though she retained a lot of the movie and we have been talking about it/ acting it out everyday since. I am Mother and Christopher is Angus her horse. She of course is Merida and Henry hasn't received a role yet. 

This is a picture of them before the movie. She loves to get dressed and do her hair. The first thing she always wants to do is show her Dad. She talks about it the whole time we are getting ready. Today I bought her a new pair of sandals and the first thing she said when she looked at them in the mirror was " I want to show daddy when he comes home from work. He is going to think they are sooo pretty". She kind of likes her Dad I think.

 I can't believe how time is just flying by. Things are going to be pretty crazy 'round these parts for the next 4 weeks. That is all that is left of our stay here in Atlanta. I am getting pretty excited but I also feel like I am just kind of starting to like it more here and now its time to go. Isn't that how it always happens? Why? Christopher and I are going next week to find a place to live in Springfield, Missouri. I can't wait to have that done so I can really get to packing. I hate packing. Lets be honest everyone hates packing. I will start packing soon! I tell myself that everyday it needs to be my reality now. I MUST pack now! Ok I have declared it on cyber space that means I have to do it. I'll let you know how that goes. Hopefully this guy helps me out a little bit by being more like the top picture and less like the bottom!