It has been almost three months since I last posted on here. And let me tell you, it's been a CRAZY three months. Yes, we did get the home from the last post. Yes, we did move to Georgia right before Thanksgiving.
Yes, it was one of the most stressful and hectic times of my life. But God is good, and faithful, and worthy to be praised! So much has happened since moving. Little Man turned ONE!!
And we celebrated Christmas.
And the Grandparents visited; all of them.
And Little Man took his first steps.
And then he took some more.
And he's decided that he LOVES to play "fort" and Hubsters makes a great fort for Little Man.
I hope to be more regular about posting. And I hope my posts are not all about Little Man (though he takes up the majority of my time), but also about what we're doing as a family, and new recipes I'm trying, and our new adventures in Georgia! Write to you soon!
Dear Friends, Well, it has been quite a while since I've last posted. Life has been unbelievably busy, and I can't believe how much has happened. Bopper has changed so much (and I hope to post some more when we have some time), but as a highlight he is crawling up a storm, standing up easily and cruising along like it's nobody's business. He loves big people food and if the world were made out of Cheerios he would be in Heaven. Other than that, we've decided that as much as we love DC, that it's not for us anymore. Hubsters received a transfer to his agency's Atlanta office, we put our home on the market, it went under contract in fewer than 5 days, and now we're looking for a home in the Atlanta suburbs. We think we have found the one.
We gave our realtor a list of 10 houses we wanted to look at, but this one wasn't even on the list because it's not on the market yet. A colleague of our agent is moving due to a work transfer and needed to sell her home on short notice. Our agent scheduled a showing and it was love at first sight. We put in an offer today, we're waiting to hear if it has been accepted. We hope it is because we're in love with the house. We're hopeful that our offer will be accepted (there's no other offer since it's not on the market yet); we should know by tomorrow morning. Since the home isn't even officially on the market yet, there is no link
to send you to a listing. We took some quick photos of the house today
when we went back so you can get a feel. Enjoy!
Front of the House and Cul-de-Sac
Entryway
Formal Living Room
Dining Room
Kitchen
Sunroom
Den
Stairs
Master Bedroom
Master Bath
Upstairs Hall
Bedrooms
Laundry/Bath
Hubster's Office Space
Garage
Back Patio (Sorry, forgot to take photos of the upper deck too)
When Bopper was 7 weeks old we took a trip to Maine. We drove. It was a long two days. But it gave Hubsters and I a chance to talk about some of the things we would like to institute as a family. One of those things was family breakfast Saturdays, where the whole family sits down together for breakfast. We decided that this tradition, along with some others, should start when Bopper was 6 months old. Well, his 6 month birthday came and went and we didn't do any of these things because life got busy and we forgot. So we started when he was a hair over 7 months. Our first family breakfast included Grandma Bennett and pancakes!
Hubsters getting ready to make pancakes.
The secret recipe!
The first batch.
Bopper patiently waiting for breakfast to start and working on those sippy cup skills.
The July 4th week was full of adventure for our family. We traveled to Hubster's parent's house in Blacksburg, VA. July 4, 2013 was not only the 237th birthday of America, but also the 7 month birthday for Bopper. I can't believe it has been seven months! A couple at church had a little boy two months ago who was 1 ounce larger than Bopper at birth, and when you compare the two today, the difference is amazing! Bopper is so big, and has learned so many things!
Bopper, from birth to seven months! My, how he's changed!
7 month birthday fun!
Bopper is probably about 20ish pounds (he was almost 18 pounds at his 6 month check up, so the 20 pounds is just a guess). He is firmly established on eating non-formula food. He LOVES broccoli (huge surprise there if you know me and my distaste of anything green) and carrots, apples, peas, pears, peaches, potatoes, string beans, and sweet potatoes and there are more to come! Welcome to the world of yummy tastes little one! There hasn't been a food that Bopper hasn't enjoyed. Now we are working on making the food thicker and transitioning to finger food and self feeding.
Bopper loves to sit and explore. His favorite thing to do is sit and pull all of his toys out of the toy box. He rolls over like its no body's business and has decided that he likes sleeping on his tummy (after a week of not liking it and not wanting to roll back onto his back and therefore screaming at 2 AM for Mommy or Daddy to roll his back over). Along with a birthday, we also had July 4th fun! Hubster's sister and her family came down too, so it was a full house. I have to say, her boys were smitten with Bopper, and Bopper was equally smitten with them. Even Uncle Ray got in on some of the fun!
"Uncle Ray, are you making fun of me?"
What would a July 4th be without a parade and fireworks?
Bopper wasn't too sure about the parade, and the firetrucks at the end made him cry, but other than that I think he enjoyed it. The parade even had a street sweeper as a part of the line up! Yes, small town America!
I was hoping we could take Bopper with us for the show, but by 7PM he is dead to the world and there is no way to wake the child up. So Hubsters and I, along with Sharon and her family enjoyed the show. Thanks, Grandma and Grandpa Cook for watching Bopper!
The festivities did not end there! Hubster's parents celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary at the end of December. Because Bopper was due to arrive on December 27, it was decided that the celebration would be postponed until the summer - which we celebrated on July 6 - and what fun we had. Not only did Bopper meet many of his distant relatives, but he did such a good job at the party. He didn't cry at all, even though we were outside all day. He even fell asleep in his new stroller without fussing.
I love the sound of Bopper's laugh. I love it even more when the house is filled with it. It warms my heart that Hubsters has the gift of being able to make Bopper squeal with delight.
E has started laughing, but it's an elusive little sucker. What got him laughing yesterday most likely will not make him laugh today. Today Hubsters found the laugh and it's precious. We love E!
Today is E's 5 Month Birthday!!! I took the pics, but I still have to go through them and post them. But, E gave Mommy and Daddy a very, very, sweet present today. He gave us his first laugh!
Those who know me well will be some of the first to tell you that I am not the neatest or most organized person. My home, and my husband will attest to that. I am working on it, I promise. Before Bopper arrived, our home was pretty normal, we had a living room with a coffee table in the proper place with books and magazines on it. I have had this particular coffee table since I moved to DC, so for 9
years. It has served me well, except that I could never find baskets
that fit in the cubby hole, and I've tried. When I lived with Jenn and
Priya we bought baskets that we thought would fit only to get them home
to discover they were a quarter of an inch too tall...ugh.
Then Bopper arrived, and this little 6 pound person took over our home. Instead of the coffee table being directly in front of the sofa in foot's reach, it has been pushed to the wall to make room for a play quilt and lots, and lots of baby toys.
I've done my fair share of tripping over these toys after a late night of trying to put Bopper to bed when all he wanted to do was either play or cry. And then I made a discovery. The little canvas bin we got to hold diapers on Bopper's changing station is the PERFECT size for the coffee table cubby holes, and the PERFECT size to hold his toys.
So, now instead of toys everywhere, I can proudly say I can put them away at the end of each play time and my living room looks better for it.
And poor Clarence, the singing elephant, is happier too, now that I'm not stepping on him everyday.
It finally happened. After 8 weeks of life, E has met all of his grandparents. One thing I have learned since becoming a parent, is that things seldom happen according to the plan anymore. E is either too cranky or too tired to leave the house at the appointed time, or to go down for a nap at the appointed time, or too excited to wait for his due date to be born. The original plan was for my parents to come down and visit right after E was born around Christmas, but because he was three weeks early, and my dad was on a business trip in Oklahoma, that didn't happen. And then some other things happened which prevented my dad from coming to visit. So Hubsters and I decided if Dad couldn't come to E that we would take E to Dad. This picture is the first time E meets my dad. I love the huge smile on my dad's face as he holds his first grandchild for the first time. Looking at this you might think that E doesn't like Grandpa, but in actuality, E was still working on a burp that we couldn't get out, so he was just uncomfortable.
But then things got better. E decided to check out the new person holding him, and then E decided Grandpa was cool. He soon lost interest in Grandpa and decided to look at the black box that Mommy kept pointing at him...what was that???
I'm excited for E to get to know Grandpa and for my dad to spend some time with E. I love family!
It's one of those times that we will never forget - when Christmas went from something we celebrated as a couple to something we celebrated as a family of three. It was E's first Christmas. Like me, many, many, many, many, moons ago, E's first Christmas was so close to his birthday that he really had no idea what was going on. No idea why we traveled to Aunt Sharon's house, why there were so many people there, and why he got presents. He doesn't even know what presents are yet. But we are still so blessed to celebrate the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ, and to be able to include E in that celebration. A Christmas tradition for me growing up has been eating cinnamon rolls for breakfast. Granted, these are not homemade (but they never were when I was growing up either) but they are a tradition, and they are yummy. One day, E will enjoy them too.
Hubsters, E, and I celebrated our first Christmas morning at home, as a family. Hubsters read to us the story of the birth of Jesus and E enjoyed listening to it. This is one of the new traditions for our new family and we are looking forward to many, many, more years of listening to this story. Then, because it was Christmas, we dressed E in his Christmas PJs that were a gift from Kim, and said hi to Grandma and Grandpa.
Then E went down for his morning nap and Hubsters and I opened presents. I have to remind you though, that we had a baby three weeks prior to Christmas, so presents were minimal, and both of us went shopping a couple of days before Christmas. But, Christmas isn't about the stuff, it's about remembering the birth of Christ. Anyway, we didn't really even have a tree, except for this little one that Kim got us two weeks prior. So we put all the presents under it and had a good time.
Then it was off to my sister-in-law's house where we had another round of presents and celebrating Christmas with Hubsters' family. Here are some photos of our time there.
