It sure is amazing how much can change in a year, no? When the above image was taken, it was about a week after Lexie had been born, so mid-November 2011, we were living in Arizona and J.E.B. was still a Marine CH-46 helicopter pilot. Fast forward one year and my, how different things are!

We are settling into our new house...well I am at least. J.E.B. has been in Canada since just after Thanksgiving and since we moved into the house just prior to Thanksgiving, he really hasn't spent a whole lot of time in it! He has been getting a steady stream of text messages from me as I ask him to Q/A me about the quirks of the house ("should the door make this kind of noise?" or "How do I set the sprinkler system?'") so hopefully it will just feel as though he's coming home when he gets back.

The girls, and the dog, are acclimating very well to the house. Rather impressive when you consider that they have lived in 4 different houses since the beginning of May when we left Arizona. I am not sure if the fact that they share a room is what made this transition so easy or what, but either way, they certainly enjoy sharing a room. I cannot count the evenings that I've heard Lexie erupting in giggles after I've put them to bed. But as long as the light remains off and by 8pm all is quiet, I'm OK with a short giggle session before bed!

I can say that the house is finally as unpacked as it is going to get. I worded that carefully since the only room which still has packed boxes is my so-called craft room and I just don't see myself organizing that anytime soon. It is one of the extra bedrooms upstairs and I spend so little time upstairs that all of my craft stuff that I am currently using is stashed in the utility room down here. So, it will stay a bit messy for a while. I'm OK with that.....for now!

Speaking of crafts, I picked up a new hobby over the summer while we were hashing out the home-buying process. I have learned (and am still learning) how to crochet. I know, GRANNY ALERT! But it actually helped me deal with the stress of doing the new house stuff on my own since I have to concentrate on the number of stitches I'm crocheting.

Where did I get started you ask? Where else? YouTube! Yup, I found a video tutorial of the red angry bird hat on YouTube and watched the woman's hands and copied her. The hat turned out amazing actually! I am quite impressed and hope that my nephew Nate is as impressed. Then I went on to try a different pattern (still a hat. I have made only hats so far. 5 total, but each has some different kind of technique or stitch) and after 6 start-stop tries I was able to make a Lightning McQueen hat for my nephew Ethan. Then in keeping with the gift-giving theme, I made a dinosaur hat with spikes for my other nephew Sage. That one also took 4 tries and three different patterns, with the final result being one pattern for the hat and a different pattern for the spikes. But it turned out pretty good too.

My girls have been getting bombarded with hats here too. I made an Elmo ear-flap hat for V and while I am impressed with it, you can tell it is done by a beginner! Poor Elmo's face off-center. But Bean loves it and it 'almost' fits Lexie so who cares! My next crochet attempt is going to be something for ME, a shawl/wrap thingy. We'll see how that turns out!

J.E.B. comes homes on Saturday (YAY!!!) and we can't wait to see him. Victoria has had an especially hard time with him gone this time around and we have all wracked our brains to come up with ways to help a 2-yr-old understand that Daddy is really going to come back. I tell her that he is at "Special Work" and hopefully that will be different in her head from just plain "Work". We'll see!

I also got serious with potty training V and so far (since beginning this past Saturday) she has done amazing. She's even gone to day care this week and has been a rock star! Doesn't even tell you when she has to go, just goes on her own. I guess all it took was to get her Dora undies! HA! Next up, get rid of the binky!

And to top off the good things happening lately, Alexandria took her first steps last week. And it just so happened that we were skyping with J.E.B., so he got to see her first steps at the same time even if it was through a computer! I was talking to him as Bean was bouncing around and out of nowhere, Lex comes strolling into view behind me! Since then she has only gotten better and stronger. It is adorable to see her waddle around or even to just stand on her own and watch what V is doing!

Standing at the front door, office is on the left & dining room on the right



 



 

The girls' room (that black blob on V's bed is Cincy, MY old dog puppet from when I was little!)



Atlas really enjoys this backyard!

 

 

Making Gingerbread Pancakes with Dad the day before he left