House Updates & the Boys.

I have found my camera/computer cord and have successfully unloaded my memory card to my laptop, and I have photos to share!

First, I have one photo of our new house. I know, I know... I should have more by now, but sadly I don't want to post photos until the house looks perfect, so it might be a few more weeks.

Our back door leads out to the backyard, and our garage. So it's the main exit & entrance into our house, and I noticed a lot of clutter/shoes/coats/(crap)/stuff was piling up there. My solution was a shoe shelf, coat rack, and my butterfly collage:


What do you think? It serves all the purposes I was hoping to tackle, except mail clutter. I'm still not sure what to do about that, but I'm thinking on it.

Our little one, Jack, turned 9 months old today.

He is finally eating solid foods with a smile on his face:


Today's lunch was prunes, oatmeal, and applesauce. For dinner he had a pea, carrot, and turkey puree (which he didn't like), strawberry yogurt, and apples in his little mesh bag. Meal times are so much less stressful when I have two boys who are eating well.


Thank you, Uncle Tom, for the adorable Gymboree hat for Jack. When we left the house last night to grocery shop it was only 24 degrees out, so we were all bundled up.




Evan loves his new playroom. We spend a lot of our day in there, racing cars, playing ball, creating train tracks, building blocks, and entertaining Jack. He is at his best when he can play until he's exhausted. He loves to make up games and turn his firehouse into a "messy house" that needs to be cleaned up.


Lining up and counting GeoTrax cars & trains.


Last week I set up a huge GeoTrax track for Evan in the playroom. He was so happy we didn't have to take it down at the end of the day. At our apartment in Pullman the tracks would have to come down each night or Mark and I couldn't walk through our living room. Another advantage of having a playroom.


One of Evan's Christmas gifts was a Melissa and Doug See & Spell game. It has been a huge success and he enjoys spelling "sock" and "bus".


Jack @ 8 months old.


While Jack was recovering from his flu bug, he was having some pretty nasty diapers. I picked him up out of his high chair and he had completely leaked through his diaper & all his clothes... so into the sink he went. He really liked pulling on the faucet & getting hosed off by the sink sprayer.

I hope everyone has a great week! -E

Settling In.

What have we been up to? Too much, I'm afraid! Mark & Jack both got the flu (and I got a milder version).

Mark had his first "off Friday" yesterday & it was blissful! He works a 9/80 (80 hours in 9 days) & consequently has every other Friday off. This is something I am going to love about his new job!

We have been putting shelves together & organizing closets.

We toured a pre-school yesterday for Ev. I'm not sure if it is "the one." I know it sounds silly, but we loved his pre-school in Pullman, and this one didn't feel right... maybe because it's not what we are used to, or maybe because it really won't be a good fit, but I'm not sure. I'm usually a believer in trusting my instincts, but I just can't make this decision! So we've decided to try and find another school to compare it to.

The four of us ate an amazing meal with some new friends tonight. I'm so thankful we had a dinner out of the house with other adults. Seriously needed that.

Jack has figured out that solid foods really are tasty and he is gobbling them up now. That makes mommy's life a whole lot easier!

Evan is really into trains and cars again... and Olivia on Nick Jr. And Backyardigans. He is so much like his father in that he gets completely obsessed with something for a bit, them moves on to something different, and the cycle repeats. He might be a little like his mama, too :-)

Our evenings are peaceful. No homework, exams, finals, internship work, or school related stuff at all. Mark gets to play Xbox & hang out with me. I kind of feel like we live a "grown up" life now!

I haven't been able to find my cord to connect my camera to my laptop, so no photos right now. I'll look for that again tomorrow.

-E

This Is What Grumpy Looks Like:

This little guy has had a stomach virus for the last three days, so I have seen this face a lot lately. I just hope the rest of us don't get it... I don't want Mark to have to take sick leave only 7 days into his first real job!

Our house is getting unpacked & organized more & more each day. I am almost ready to take photos of some completed rooms. It has been such a s-l-o-w process, and the play room is still a disaster, but it's getting there.

Our phone line was activated today (although we don't know which box our phone is in...), but our Internet is still unavailable. Right now I am tethering Internet from Mark's iPhone :-) Hopefully I will catch up on e-mails and such soon.

That's it for now. I have a Candyland play date with my three year old in the morning so I better get to bed :-)

-E

Design Your Life Assignment 1

As I look through photos of our time in Pullman, I am compelled to write down stories & document our everyday activities before the memories are forgotten. We really did love spending time in Pullman, and I want to make sure Evan (and Jack) have scrapbook pages detailing their activities and adventures.

The first assignment for my Design Your Life class focuses on balance, and I new I had the perfect photos for this layout:

Evan, Jack, and I are heading back to the Hamilton House (as we've nicknamed it) tomorrow for more unpacking. I'm almost done with the kitchen, then I will be tackling the play room. I have been informed by my three-year-old that I need to find his red airplane. And Zippity. And Click Start. And Candyland. And I'm sure I'm forgetting many of his toy requests from the last couple of days :-) Jack is happy simply sitting on his blanket and watching Evan, while chewing on his favorite toy... his butterfly teething ring from Uncle Ken.

... and we are moved in!

No, I don't have photos of the move right now. I know, I know, what was I thinking?!? Well... we had to meet the movers really early, I am still blaming jet lag for my groggy mornings, Evan was so excited (and underfoot) so he was hard to entertain with movers in and out of the house, and I completely forgot my camera... but Mark did get a few photos with his iPhone, and I took a few with Evan's little digital camera (from Auntie Abby), so hopefully I will have a few (possibly grainy & almost certainly blurry) photos to upload soon.

But... the movers worked for six hours (minus 3 or 4 smoke breaks), and all our stuff made it in the house/garage without a problem. I was concerned about getting our washer and dryer into the basement, but they managed to squeeze them through the drop down stairs with less than half an inch to spare.

I figure since it took three movers only two days to pack us, seven days to drive to Ohio (with two stops: Yakima, WA & somewhere in Minnesota), and six hours to unload us, it should take me approximately 234897395629358739 hours for me to unpack us... and even then I will still have the garage to do. I forgot how much I hate unpacking and finding new homes for all our stuff. Our new kitchen is about the same size as our old kitchen... with less cabinet space :-( I spent most of my time after the movers left unpacking the kitchen boxes, and I already have a garage sale box, donate box, and garbage box to eliminate some of our excess stuff. That actually felt really good to do. New year, less crap (my new motto!).

Okay, enough rambling. I do want to leave you with a photo of the munchkins that was lost amongst our Christmas/December photos:



... and thank you to all our friends and family who have been thinking about us (and e-mailing, and calling) during our little cross-country adventure. We are thinking about you too and missing everyone terribly! I will probably have a post soon about all the things I miss about Pullman (like Safeway, how it only took 10 minutes to drive across town, no freeways, knowing more than 4 people {and those people just drove away after unloading their Atlas truck into our house}, etc., etc.)... but that's for another day.

-E

Design Your Life Pre-Assignment

Call me ambitious, but when I read Cathy Zielske was teaching her Design Your Life class through Big Picture Scrapbooking, I knew I had to sign up! I knew I wouldn't have my supplies with me because of the move, but I do have my computer & CS4 so I would be able to keep up with the class material.

The pre-assignment was to create a title page for our album:




Our moving company called today and our things are arriving at 8:00am tomorrow morning! We went by the house early today and turned the heat on & put our new Ikea shower curtains up. Evan is so excited to have his stuff back, and I want to curl up on our couch... I miss our couch!

I am off to complete my first assignment. Goodnight!

These Two...

(taken today in our hotel room)


(taken on 12/20/09)

... are finally getting used to the time change...

... mostly because the fire alarm started blaring at 7:45am this morning, waking us all up.

... love going in the pool at the hotel.

... miss their toys terribly! Evan keeps asking me when his toys will be arriving on the big truck. Hopefully soon!

... are settling into our life here in Ohio. I thought it was going to be tougher than it was. Getting settled into our house will be another adjustment for all of us, but so far we have done really well.

-Erin.

Hello Ohio.

We are here! Our trip on Wednesday was what I expected it to be: crazy, stressful, a few meltdowns (Evan), some bickering (Mark and me), but ultimately successful. Our flight out of Salt Lake was delayed over 90 minutes, so we didn't get into Cincinnati until almost midnight, but the boys did so well throughout the whole trip. Evan was a little crabby the last hour of our final flight, and Jack cried before take off, but some love (and a bottle for Jack) solved both problems.

Can I just say how much I HATE rental car agencies? Budget was especially obnoxious yesterday when we returned our tiny Subaru. Okay, vent over :-)

Evan has been asking all sorts of questions the last couple of days, like "where are all my toys?" and "do I get a new house?" So we took him to our house yesterday, and he was so excited. He knows he is getting a play room in this house, and he and Jack have a big room upstairs. He also is excited about having a backyard (although I'm not sure how excited Mark is to mow the new backyard...).

We are settling into our hotel room until our things arrive in the next couple of weeks. It will be an adjustment for all of us when Mark goes to work Monday. What on earth are we going to do all day in a hotel?!? I really wish we would have packed the Wii, because that would be instant entertainment for Evan! But we will figure out something to do. I feel bad that Evan got so many cool Christmas presents, but they are all on a truck somewhere between Washington and Ohio. I guess when we open our boxes it will feel like Christmas all over again for him :-)

We are still adjusting to the time change. The boys went down last night at 11pm local time, and woke up at 11am this morning... so we aren't really adjusted at all! Tonight we will try to get them down earlier. Maybe that should be my New Years Resolution: get the boys to bed at 8pm Eastern Time, not Pacific Time.

We are hoping to take the boys to the Cincinnati Zoo for zoo lights tomorrow night.

I am really, really sick of eating at restaurants & fast food.

I still can't believe airlines charge to check bags. Our tickets were so expensive because we traveled during a peak time, yet we still paid $30 to check two bags. Yuck.

I don't know how military families move every 1-2 years... it is so stressful! I am hoping this cross-country move is our last for a long, long time.

Happy New Year from the Taylors in Ohio!