Getting Settled...

We are all settled in to our rental house and this week was really our first week in a long time to get back into a regular routine. It feels fantastic to be back on schedule, eat meals at home, have children in bed on time and actually have some down time every now and then. How wonderful to curl up with a book (Stephenie Meyer's The Host is FANTASTIC by the way) or some mindless Bravo TV (Top Chef rules!) at the end of the day.

In other news - Bella is 9 months old today. She weighs just under 16 pounds - definitely on the petite side but growing well and proportionately. She isn't walking yet but she has a very fast crawl, loves to climb and stands supported for long periods of time. She is such the dare devil that I think it is just a matter of time (a few weeks even wouldn't surprise me) before she takes that first step! She is eating all manner of "solid" baby food and even some real foods such as cheerios, mashed potatoes, little pieces of biscuit and puffs. She babbles and chatters up a storm, we've hit all the major consonants and vowel sounds (ma, da, muh, puh, bah, buh, etc.) plus a lot of tongue clicking and raspberries. She copies her big brother whenever possible and his antics keep her laughing that deep baby belly laugh that I love. She just continues to be a really sunny, happy, laid back baby. She wakes a few times at night to eat but goes right back to sleep and is no trouble.

Mother's Day was low key for us - made special by Coldstone ice cream and a trip down to the swimming pool. The swimming left Will and I both convinced that we would love to one day have our own pool. Not so much because it was so great, but because it was so wild. You know sometimes I really feel like we are some of the last parents on earth that discipline their children - or even watch their children. I was truly appalled at how parents were just clueless about their children's behavior and safety down at the pool. OK, rant over!

Here's some pictures of my children after Abby Beasley's birthday party last Saturday - hooray naps for everyone!

Lastly, here's a fairly updated shot of the new house, although now we have 2 trees and a front door not shown here.

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The Move

I have a confession to make - I love moving. I always have. I like the way living spaces look without all the day to day clutter. Everything is clean and simple, the bare bones-edness of that first night when you go to bed exhausted, fully satisfied with just clean underwear and a toothbrush. I like the simplicity and spaciousness that exist in those first few days. I like the straightforwardness of the tasks - clean, pack, carry, unpack, fold, put away, stack the boxes. Moving is good, earnest work, it wears you out and you sleep well at the end of it.

You sleep well, that is, unless you are three. In which case you will stay awake until ten every night! Actually, Jacob is adapting really well to being in the Little While House. He is such a lover of routine that I was worried, but he's taken it all in stride. Apart from struggling a bit at bedtime, he has really done great.

Despite the long days we are all feeling very happy and relaxed - the hard parts are all behind us - we've sold the house, gotten our money, moved into the temporary house and now all we have to do is relax and shop while the new one is finished. We are already really liking being further down on a cul de sac, we've clocked a lot of hours in the front yard and drive way of the rental and so I am even more excited now about being at the back of a cul de sac on our real house. Will jokes about this because the back yard is so big on the new house and yet he knows that I will spend a lot of time in the tiny front yard. I tell him this my Mexican-ness and he shouldn't try to understand or change me! :)


If you ever watch the HGTV show "Sleep On It" our lives are kind of like an extended version - there are things we love about our rent house (huge pantry, covered back porch, air conditioning that rocks compared with our old house) and things we really don't care for at all (hall bath is cramped, living room is a mustard yellow sponge paint). We are incredibly blessed to have a house to rent for these next few weeks but also terribly grateful that it isn't permanent.

Our "Little While House"


The Not-So- Mellow Yellow Living Room



Our Big New House is coming along great, they have finished all the brick and stone and put up the cedar timbers and when we came around the corner to see it my breath caught in my throat - I just LOVE it so much! I don't have any photos yet of the finished facade, but here are a few from last week as the stone and brick was just going up -

The front -



The side of the house -

Celebrating 9 years

April 24th marked our 9th wedding anniversary. I simply cannot believe it's been 9 whole years! We celebrated by going out on Friday night (thanks to Will's parents who kept Jacob and the Pence's who kept Bella). There's not a whole ton of fun things to do out here in the suburbs but we did go play blacklight golf followed by a late supper at Carrabas.

Last weekend we took a much deserved break from moving preparations and traveled to Austin to attend our sister-in-law's baby shower. It was a very laid back casual co-ed baby shower and all my family was also invited so it was great to visit with everyone all at once.

My Mom & Jacob



Bella and my Dad, AKA "TheBaby Whisperer"


After all the fun, Bella was not a happy girl on the way home, she pretty much fussed and cried the entire way back. We kept stopping to take her out of the car seat and soothe her and just give ourselves a break from the sound of the constant fussing.

Here's a shot of Bella "driving" during one of our stops.

Just so you know

I went to the market tonight and I remembered to bring my reusable bags and seeing as how today is Earth Day I'm feeling very pleased about the whole thing. It's late and I'm too tired to post anything more right now but the whole bags thing was really bugging me so now I feel better about it.

Our weekend

We had a really awesome weekend. After weeks and weeks of hard work we took a Saturday "off" to enjoy some family time. The children's school had a Spring Fling event which we attended on Saturday afternoon. The weather was glorious and we did all the activities including riding a trackless train, petting a llama at the petting zoo, riding a pony and jumping in the moonwalks for hours. I think I've posted on this before but Jacob is hilarious at petting zoos because he is so strategic about it. He "tagged" each animal and then he was done. Jacob had a blast and Anabel took a nice long nap in the stroller. We forgot our camera but Will's parents had theirs so I'll post pics when I get them.

Saturday evening Will and I took the kids up to Tin Roof BBQ. They now have two large play structures and kid size picnic tables set up next to the outdoor eating area. Jacob was in heaven - he had all his favorite things: mac n' cheese, live music, dancing and a playground all in one place. Yes, I had my kids out dancing to "Devil Went Down to Georgia" until 8:30 PM but you gotta' loosen up on the schedule every now and then and they did sleep very well that night!

Ready to Eat Some BBQ! (Not quite yet!)

Dancing With Daddy!

The new house is coming along great, they are really going full tilt boogie on it - we now have windows, siding and almost an entire roof and our brick has shown up. The window above the front porch is going to be redone - it will eventually be two rounded "hobbit" windows. The process to date has been great, only a few small things here and there but they have been caught and corrected right away.

Bella continues to be her little busy bee self, exploring all over the house and getting into everything she can. I'll have to try to get it on video but she makes this putt putt raspberry noise while she toodles around the house, so wherever I am if I hear her making that little farting sound then I know she is concentrating on getting into something she probably shouldn't be!

Busy Bee - these were taken about 1 minute apart! I also really like these kinds of outfits for her - they are like a onesie in the back and a dress in the front, looks pretty but without getting in the way of crawling. Like a reverse mullet (party in the front/ business in the back).

Right before I took this she was actully inside the toy basket but I was too slow to get the picture!