Sunday Craft Hour

As our move gets closer and closer, I've been trying to wrack my brain for ideas to keep our hotel/airplane as uncluttered as I can, but also to take things and prepare so the kids don't get too bored. One idea that I had was for transporting Finn's Cars. As many of you already know, Finn LOVES the movie Cars. Well, he used to love it... now it's been demoted from the top of the list, but he still enjoys to play with cars any chance he gets. So I knew we couldn't be moved out of our home and move across the country without having a few entow. So, I started scouring the internet for toy car keepers. I found several on Etsy, but the more I looked at them, just wasn't willing to pay the price for one that that didn't necessarily meet all my standards. After posting a call to all crafters on FB, a friend of mine mentioned this super great crafty site. She had a great keeper pattern posted, that I modified based on the fabric I could find and what I wanted for my little boy. So here is one of the final projects. I made two, so that he could take 12 cars total, and keep them each in their own bag, and we'd know right away if one was missing.

An update from the M's!

So, it's been a while since I actually sat down to write a post. I've thought about it several times, but just haven't had the drive to actually do it :)

We've been busy for the most part around the house with growing kids and planning our continental move. The house purchase is mostly on schedule, but we've hit our bumps here and there. We are now simply working to try to make the move from one home to the other seamless for us, and for the family that will be moving into our house after we leave. There are moments that I still can't believe that it is really happening and that is less than 3 weeks, I'll be watching my belongings being packed up and shipped across the country, and then just a few days later, packing my children, 2 dogs, 3 laptops, 2 carseats and a week of belongings on an airplane to only return on occasion during the next few years. And relocating to a new city, new home and new neighborhood. It is mind blowing!!

On other fronts...

- Penny is crawling like crazy. Well, army crawling that is. She gets up on her knees and rocks from time to time. But no movement yet. She uses her legs in her army crawl, so I'm sure it isn't too far off.

- Finn is loving his new swimming class. We switched from a play swim class to one that is more instruction, with little idle time. He goes underwater, jumps in the pool and blows bubbles better than he ever has! What a joy it is to have him finally enjoy it.

- Penny is still having trouble at night since our return from MD. It took her about 2 weeks to adjust back to the time zone from the trip, and after a week or so, she reverted back to getting up in the middle of the night to eat. I've been trying to adjust her meals during the day to get her more to eat during the day so there isn't the need to wake up in the middle of the night. But this week, she's now teething/sick with a cold, and was up most of Tuesday night and now adjusting back to sleeping through the night again. Boy, getting up in the middle of the night more than once is definitely rough on me, especially when your not expecting it (ie. when you don't have a newborn).

- In the last 3 weeks or so, Finnegan has begun blooming as a boy! He jumps, and runs and yells ALL the time. Although I loved my quiet child, I love my little BOY. But I am also getting used to what is normal and accepted, and what is just disrespectful and rude! Oh, another balancing act! :)

- So many of my friends have given birth within the past week. I think there are at least 5 on FB this week alone! Ken's talking about wanting another.... We'll see, but not sure I'm ready to do it again, just yet :)

- I have been working more and more to keep the house clean and tidy as I won't be able to afford my cleaning lady at the new house... I think so far, I'm doing ok. Anyone who has any pointers let me know!!

Well, the kids are just waking up from their naps. I'll try to keep you posted more throughout the next few weeks!

Swagger Wagon!

Check out this video... super Awesome!!

xoxo

My baby's crawling!!

Here is a new video for us... Penelope is crawling, as of Wednesday! And although it's Saturday, she's even more of a pro at it than she was when we shot this.

Super exciting times in our house. Oh, and sorry for the loud cheers at the end! :)

Let the Decorating Begin...

So, here it is. This is the home that we put an offer on and were awarded... so far! Any of you who have purchased a home before, know that the journey of home ownership is a long one of numbers and signatures. And to do it long distance is just as difficult. But that is who it works this time. So, we won't dwell on the negative, but look to the positive and all of the design and decorating ideas :)

The house has four bedrooms as well as a family room, kitchen, formal living room and formal dining room... about 1000 square feet more than our current home... PLUS an unfinished basement.

So, I've been thinking through colors that could work with our current living room furniture, without doing the same brown color on the walls. I've found a design website that has a beautiful dark teal color on the walls with brown/khaki and red accents (which is what our furniture is). I'm contemplating consulting the interior designer for some color flow ideas from one room the the other, as this is something that I've never done. We'll see what we come up with.

The kids room ideas are coming together. Finnegan would like a "train" room. So we'll probably do a lower key paint job and do art centered around trains. Penny's room will also have a simple low key paint job (perhaps two colors) and then the bird theme that she has in her room currently, but a bit different, perhaps.

As we get moved in and get things rolling, I'll post photos of how things are going. :)

Meeting Optimus Prime

On our way to Baltimore, last week, we had a layover at JFK. The flight from JFK to Baltimore started off well. We'd been told that it could be a while before we left the airport as the airport had a horrible system for selecting planes for take off (basically pulling numbers from a hat). So, while we waited and made our way to the runway, the plane drove pretty slowly around the airport. And we actually made a full circle around the particular terminal we originally boarded from. Anywho, before we were seated, a man and his son sat down behind us. The boy was by the window and he was about 6 or 7 yrs old. The dad seemed to be a young guy, perhaps in his early 30's. As we drove around, I glanced out the window as we drove by the row of large snow plows, and then sitting all by itself, a mac truck without a trailer attached. It was purple, if I remember correctly. When I saw it, I thought of Finnegan and his love for the character Mac from CARS. Then I heard the boy behind us say, "Look Dad! It's Optimus Prime!" You could really hear the excitement in his voice that he'd actually seen him. His dad's attention was caught and he began to talk to his son about it.

Son: Dad, can we meet Optimus Prime?

Dad: Sure we can.

Son: Dad, why is Optimus Prime at the airport?

Dad: Well, he's protecting the airport.

Son: From the Decepticons?

Dad: Yup, from the Decepticons. He's here making sure that we're safe at the airport.

As I heard the conversation, I just smiled. Although we all know that the transformers isn't real, it just made me smile for a minute that the dad lived in his son's world for just a few minutes and let him dream. He indulged in his son's world for just a moment. (Granted, I'm wouldn't have let my young child see a movie that is rated pg-13, but that's not the point of my post).

Indulge in the world of your child today. Entertain dreams and fantasies with them. Dream through their eyes.

Move Update

Friends -

Many of you know that Ken and I are in the midst of a coast to coast move. And boy are things getting hectic. Just a little over a week ago, we learned we'd be coming to our new state to find a home and that our final move date would be mid-June. I feel like it should be the first week of April and yet tomorrow is the first day of May!

We are here in our new state, and looking for a home. We'd seen several before visiting that we wanted to see. But since speaking with a mortgage lender, our list has been narrowed down. On our first day in town, we visited 6 homes in 4 hours, and were convinced we hadn't seen all that we needed to see. Later that night, Ken and I along with Penelope, drove all over creation and visited about 12 other homes, driving by them at night, taking a look at the neighborhoods and then later reporting back to our agent about more homes that we were interested in. Late last night, we emailed her our top three from the day as well as 6 others that we were interested in. Of the new six, only 3 were truely available, and only one was worth looking at. So, today we viewed our top two from the first day, and then the third.

Essentially, we have three homes: A 2007 3 floor town-home, a 2004 2 story home, and a 1994 2 story foreclosed home. Both independent homes need some form of work. The 2004 home needs more major projects for a contractor/skilled tradesman to finish, and the foreclosed home has more work for us/general help to do. So, we've decided that perhaps we will begin making offers on these homes starting with the 2007 home (which has been on the market longer than Penny has been alive) and then move down the line to the others.

It's been a long trip so far, and we have a day or so left. We attempted to get on base today, but I wasn't permitted to be on base without a special pass. But you can see some pretty cool planes from the road... and we saw several fighter jets flying over while we were looking at homes.

We'll keep you posted on how things go. I've been bathing these homes in prayer for the past 2 days and know that God will work out the details.

Love you friends... I'll post when we've landed on the other coast!! :)

PS -- our toddler is not with us while we're here. We thought we'd be able to get a bit more work done without him here and it's proven to be true, although Penelope is a handful herself :) But she's proving to be more flexible that I thought she would be. We miss Finn ALOT and find ourselves talking about him alot. Can't wait to get my arms around my little buddy!!