Bye Bye 2011, Hello 2012!

So, it's 10:53pm. Nathan is in bed. We need to get to bed because Matt has to work tomorrow morning. But right now my awesome husband is out at Wal-mart trying to scour for boxes for our move (they said to come around 10:30). This is what New Years Eve looks like for us this year! I don't know if we are getting old, or it's just the fact that Matt works over the holiday weekend AND we are moving right around the holidays...but I'm okay with it. I have a fire going in the fireplace at least! And we ordered curbside to go from Applebees earlier tonight. Way to ring in the New Year!

It actually turned into a trying day this afternoon. It started out great. Nathan slept until after 9...hooray! So Matt and I slept in before Matt had to go see his first patient and then Nathan and I went to the gym. I had a great long talk with a dear friend of mine from Indiana and Matt made it home early enough to meet the guys at the house to do a "walk-through" of the house. They've been scraping the vaulted popcorn ceiling this week. Well, due to circumstances that we believe were IN their control, they are not done and have to come back Monday, ruining our plans of getting the house ready this weekend for our move in next weekend. Matt has off Monday, so we were hoping to have that day as well, but most likely will not. We felt very frustrated and disappointed this afternoon especially when everything we went to do became more trying because Nathan just wasn't being very umm, "adaptable"! Oh great, where did he learn that from? ha!

Anyway, the good news is, it gave us time together as a family at home...not running around trying to get ready for the move. Matt and I were able to give Nathan our full attention and laugh and lay around on the floor while he chased stuff we threw, rode on our backs and "honked" our noses (We've been teaching him to show us where his and our noses are...this is how we do it!)

We have been struggling to balance everything. Everyone says how easy it is to move from an apartment and I agree that it has to be much harder to move out of a house, but it is HARD with a 16 month old. Everything takes so much longer to do. Every load that Matt (or I) takes to the car Nathan cries because he wants to go out with us. Doing work at the house is difficult as well and almost every other day we say, "If only I could drop him off with mom so we could do some of this stuff faster!"

But I think God has something to teach us through this. I did notice how much better Nathan was with our undivided attention tonight. He needs us, he needs our love and attention. And we are going to look back some day and wish we had more time with him at this stage of life. Matt and I talked about this tonight. From here on out there is probably always something that we are going to need to be doing (part of why we loved apartment living for so long!) But we don't want to sacrifice our time with our child(ren) to get our "to-do" list done. Obviously, there are times when we don't have a choice but want to be smart with the time we have to be productive (ie. when he is sleeping) so that we can love on him and enjoy him when he is with us. We don't want this rich time in our lives to slip by. It doesn't mean it will be easy. We knew there would be challenges to raising a family this far away from our own. And that is the hardest part sometimes. It is the decision we made, but it is still a challenge that we will continually work through.

But we are blessed beyond measure. To be the owners of a home right now is a rich blessing. To have a healthy son is as well. We have SO many things to be grateful for and Matt and I spent some time tonight making a list. We wanted to focus on these things as opposed to being so frustrated over the here and now and what is going on with the work we are having done with the house. According to a study we did in small group, that is a "rich people's problem." The fact that we HAVE a home and our PAYING someone to do work means we are rich...as opposed to about 90% of the rest of the world. And this is where our focus should lie, on gratitude and contentment.

So I guess there is a prayer request for us in all of that writing! I don't blame you if you didn't even get to this part, I wouldn't have. Thank you for listening and Happy New Year to all of our dear family and friends! Here's to another year of the Lord's refinement in our lives. Love you all!

Oh, and a picture to make it worth your effort it you got this far. Nathan loves bananas. It's his new obsession:

Also, you might notice he likes to have his drink options of water and milk on hand.

P.S. Yes, I have some catching up to do of our Christmas! No promises as to when that will be :)

Our First House!

On Tuesday of this week, we closed on our first house! It was such a surreal feeling that day. We have been pretty busy lately...especially with just getting back from Pennsylvania, so it almost just felt like checking something else off my list! It was a really neat experience meeting the owner. Everyone has a story, the buyer and the seller, and it really personalized the experience for us.

So now, it is sinking in as the to-do list grows! It's both an exciting and overwhelming time for us. Moving and preparing to move with a one year old tends to slow things down a bit but I know we will get it done! We want to keep things intact though at least through Christmas so we can enjoy and celebrate Christ's birth in a state of peace. :)

Our new home...








Entryway/Living Room


Looking into the home from the entryway.


Again.


Kitchen and Dining




Family Room.


Master bedroom


Our "manageable" yard. :)




For some more pictures, go here.

Hopefully, once we get moved in and get our things in there it will feel like us! I'm sure that will be a continual process, but give me time to get things set up and maybe I'll post more pictures in a few months!

Final Days of PA Christmas Vaca

David, Age & Colin came over Thursday night for our family Christmas celebration. The boys helping Pappy start a fire.

Ok, so Nathan is a little distracted by the reindeer!





Colin & Nathan got started on their very own Christmas tree!




What a beaut!


Nathan mastered these few steps so well. It was so cute, one time when he went down them he started several feet away from them, turned around and backwards crawled all the way until he reached the stairs to scoot down!


More tree trimming.




It's hard to tell here, but this is one of Nathan's famous Colin tackles!




Talented boys.




This kid loves his pappy!

I think the feeling is mutual :)



What a trio!


Pappy is pretty crazy about both of his grandsons!


Opening his gift from Colin, Uncle Dave & Aunt Adrienne.


He got Thomas trains and the train track and train wash that Colin had when he was his age! Great gift!!!






Oh dear. Grandma got him markers!!!


Washable yes...but still!




Mmmm! Tarts and a tart warmer!






Bowling!

These things are cool...they're foam.

Family shot!

Okay, I admit it. I was trying to distract Colin so he didn't see Matt bringing in his last gift.

David distracting him now! :)


A sweet bike!


Oh boy, wheels for Nathan too!


Cool!


Check out the license plate.


He loved the buttons that made all sorts of great noises.


Men and their wheels...it starts early :)


Colin giving him a push.




Trying to get a picture of them by their tree.

Colin was SO cooperative...Nathan, not so much!



Age showing him how to get the caps off of the markers. Thanks, Age!


He would grunt and grunt in an effort to pull them off. He was totally elated once he got it off. Age shares in his excitement :)


And THIS is what happens when you give a one year old markers!

ha ha! Mom said last time he had his Eagles shirt on Matt put eye black on him, so he was just trying to do it again.





This was really funny. He kept pulling mom's tarts out of the bag, sniffing them, wrinkling up his nose and pursing his lips, flinging it to the side, and then going in for another.


Somewhere we have a good video of this. Matt has lots of videos to post so it may be awhile until we are caught up on that!


What's Christmas without Christmas PJ's!?


LOVE these two boys!


Excited about something!


Such sweethearts.


Ha ha!


Mom and I coming home Friday after some shopping. We found Dad & Nathan at the window watching Matt blow leaves. Apparently, Dad had gone in to get Nathan up from his nap.






Mom, impressed with Nathan's HUGE bite of the banana. He's a monkey!


She taught him that her coffee was hot and that he couldn't touch it.

Mommy doesn't drink coffee so it's a new concept.



:)


Attempting a picture of the boys in vests. Colin did great again! Nathan was a bit distracted.


I'm starting to wonder if it was a really good thing he wasn't walking at his one year pictures...they probably wouldn't have gone as well!




Nathan also mastered the stairs during our visit! We don't have stairs now (although we will at our new house) so he isn't used to them, although he loves stairs. By the end of the week he was going up and down them like a pro. Although I still like to be close when he is doing it. He also enjoyed being able to open all of the doors by himself at my parents house because they have the "lever" handles. I was going to put one of those on our pantry door, but now I'm wondering if that is not a great idea! :)


Matt really wanted to get Nathan and Eagles pillow pet after seeing Jaxon's Steeler's one. So mom and I got this for a really good price while we were shopping (of course, she had to forfeit her $10 off at JcPenney!). Mom sucked the life out of it so we could take it back in our luggage!

Good news: it made it home safely and unaffected by being flattened :) I would have hated to rebuy this thing again!

Saying by to Pappy.


We rigged this up for him to eat. A belt around a chair really does the trick! (As long as we stay close) :)


At the airport on the way home. Daddy coloring with him while we wait for our plane that was delayed.


The flight went well overall, although the second hour was trying. We were SO thankful that on the way out and the way home we got a seat for Nathan without paying for it because there were empty seats on the plane. And in most cases, if someone has to choose a seat, they are not going to choose the one by a 15 month old child :)

Picking up baggage in Denver.


Short morning nap, hardly an afternoon nap (he fell asleep about 10 minutes before arriving at the airport at the end of the 2.5 hour trip), refused to sleep on the 3.75 hour plane ride to Denver leaves for a very tired boy at 9:30pm Colorado time (11:30 PA time)!!!


A few minutes later, as we are waiting for the shuttle to our parked car in the freezing cold, Nathan falls asleep in his stroller, exhausted. He stayed that way on the shuttle ride and when we got to our car!


Finally...sweet sleep!