Bedtime

Tonight I was rocking baby Thea in a failed attempt to get her to sleep. Over the course of her lifetime, the bedtime routine has been fairly consistent. I will nurse her, and sometimes that is enough to send her to dreamland but if not, Daddy would step in and take Thea down to his man room to rock her to sleep while he plays NCAA football on his Xbox. Now that we have the apartment and no second living room, I have had the duty of rocking baby girl to bed on occasion, while Cory keeps Leila occupied (and quiet) in her room.

If you have ever done any reading about getting babies to sleep then you know that one of the rules of thumb is to avoid eye contact with your baby when you want them to sleep. Maybe that is why I am a fairly consistent failure at rocking to sleep...I can not resist those sweet little eyes and every time I look down at her, she reaches up, touches my face and giggles in delight. Rocking baby duty, even if not successful is definitely a rewarding job.

The summer home

We are all moved in to the apartment, and life is good. The apartment has three bedrooms that are all pretty large, along with a big deck, 2 car garage and a closet that puts the closet in our old house to shame. I am in awe of the fact that there is room for all of our clothes to be clean at the same time! Oh the simple pleasures...

The biggest drawback is that we are on the second floor, so taking Zoey out, bringing groceries in and carting kids both ways is a bit of a struggle. The benefit is that Zoey can lounge on the deck and sun herself, something she always has enjoyed about our fenced yard. She is probably having the toughest adjustment but is still doing well with everything.

As nice as it is here, we are looking forward to September and our new house. I am ready to feel settled! We met with our builder this week and were able to see a 3D rendering of our new kitchen, and I am even more excited about everything now. The next step in our process is to get an appraisal done of the plan to ensure that our lender will approve the mortgage for what we are contracted to pay. We don't expect this to be an issue, but as soon as that is done, the contract will be signed and we can get started on construction! Once I have my camera and work gets underway, you can expect lots of progress pictures! I can tell you now that the house is 2 story, with 3 bedrooms, a large bonus room and the laundry all upstairs. Downstairs will be the huge kitchen, dining room, living room and a half bath. The back will have a big deck and our lot borders on a corn field. I know that I will have green siding, and probably a tan stone front on the front of the garage. Very exciting stuff! :)

Birthday

Leila had a birthday, and she got a new set of wheels from Mommy and Daddy! I think she likes the bike, what do you think?

This year we tried something new and had a joint party for the birthday buddies Leila and Sawyer. I was thankful to have the party at Andrea's, since we had moved into the apartment only a week before and we closed on the house the day before the party. It went really well, the kids had a great time and I can't even describe to you how I felt seeing Leila arrive at Andrea's for the party, in her special new outfit that she picked out. She was so excited and happy, my cup run-nth over!

All week she asked who would be at her party and she told us that she was going to invite all of her aunts and uncles, the girl loves her family.

We are planning to take her bowling as a birthday bonus with a few of her friends, but things have been pretty hectic lately so we will see when that happens.

Back in Business...kind of

Today was the closing on our old house and it is officially sold!  We are settling into our summer home on the other side of North Liberty and we gave in and set up internet and cable TV, so in that respect...I'M BACK!  The bad news is, that in our move, we seem to have misplaced the camera.

Leila celebrated a birthday yesterday, her fourth, and we gave her a new bike with princess's on it and pink tassels on the handlebars...she is a happy girl!

Tomorrow is her party, as well as Cory and I's 6th wedding anniversary.

Hiatus

This isn't exactly a planned absence, but we shut off our internet at home a few weeks ago, and we are moving this week, so I promise I will be back as soon as we get a bit more settled into our "summer home."