Practicing

Our precious boy... when we go places, he gets the royal Big Brother treatment by kind strangers congratulating him and encouraging him ("You must be the BIG brother!" "What a wonderful little helper you are!").



He says the other day, "People keep telling me that I am going to be the best big brother in the whole world!" And he is getting more and more excited about this new adventure.



And God has been so BLESSFUL (my blog, my word.) in His plan as it unfolds. I have a good handful of mommy-friends (with children who are Zac's friends) who have either just had babies, or are pregnant with me.

To Zac, being a big brother is just what everyone is doing right now.



As a result, he has started a brand new interest in babies. He's been around a LOT of babies in his lifetime, and never showed any interest in them. Isn't mean, but doesn't give them the time of day. At all. Ever.

Really. Ever!



Lately, he cannot even walk past the baby section at Target without breaking out into oohs and aahs over the cuteness of the little girl clothes. He sounds like a little Beaver Cleaver. "Oh Mom!! Oh mom, just look at how cute this is! Selah Grace would just love it!"



And at recent playdates, if someone brings a baby, there's my boy - tickling feet and talking baby talk....

Spreading some love at the nursing home

We usually go to the nursing home each month with the other moms/kids from our community group at church. We've been to visit, to play bingo, easter egg hunting, etc.

Then afterwards, we hit Chik-Fil-A to let the kiddos run off all the energy they were keeping inside while trying to be polite and sweet.... :)



Each time we go, Zac and I talk about what it will be like and we pray for our visit - mostly that our visit will be a blessing to the residents - and that Zac won't feel nervous.

I can see how it would be a little scary for a young child. There are a good handful of residents that we are not able to interact with. Some are asleep in their chairs. Some make noises that are unusual to the kids. On one visit, a lady kept crying when she talked... especially when telling us about her own children and grandchildren. And there was one occasion where there was a resident who was clearly NOT excited about our visit.

But - EACH time we go, I leave with a heart bursting with pride and thankfulness for my sweet little boy.

He is SOOOOOO sweet to the residents! I honestly don't know what, if anything, he gets out of these visits. But he is such a blessing to them. We walk around together and say hi to everyone. He gives high-fives and shakes hands, and he gives hugs to ANYone who looks like they might need one. It is absolutely precious.


I usually don't bring my camera. But I really wanted to document some of these moments. The focus is off because I was trying to be a quick and subtle, but oh well! :)



The nursing home that we visit is really good to us. They usually have some sort of something for the kids (treats, games, etc). So this time, we decided to have a craft playdate ahead of time and make them some table decorations.


The kids worked very hard on these tissue paper flowers and sticker-covered "vases."



On the visit today, Zac had a really cool Dallas Cowboys hat on. He rarely insists on an outfit, but for some reason had this one totally planned for today. And the Cowboys hat really gave some of the residents a great way to interact with him - especially the man who was also wearing a Cowboys hat!










This resident "stole" ZZ's hat and put it on to be funny. Zac gave her a great reaction and she seemed to have fun making him giggle. :)




Here are the 3 oldest kiddos in the group. They are all about to turn 5!! (too fast!) We are incredibly blessed to have such sweet friends for Zac - and they have great parents for Brian and I to hang with! :)

Friday Night Baseball

This summer, Brian's on a softball team that plays on Friday nights. It's been a lot of fun, especially for Brian whose team is on a big winning streak! :)

Zac's wearing orange b/c Brian's team shirt is orange. The guy that put the team together is a Longhorn.

But we like him anyway.

Remember the fun you'd have as a kid at something like this? It's SO stinkin cute watching these kids put together their own baseball game like their daddies.

And each kid usually gets to play each position. After Zac made the mistake of running to third base after hitting, he had a lot of making up to do... but apparently he was cool enough to get to be pitcher for a bit...

And outfield......

... and catcher....

And the next time he got up, he definitely ran to FIRST base this time!

Part fish, Part boy

Swimming lessons were so fun this year! This is Zac on the last day.... swimming like a fish!







Heading up the ladder to go down the waterslide!





Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!






After lessons each day, the kids would head over to the kiddie pool and play for a while while the mommies got to visit. :)









I'm glad we are done with the lessons, though. It was *really* hot outside, especially with my own little heating system named Selah Grace. One day, I was sweating so bad that my shirt was soaking wet. Another mom thought it was from hugging a wet little Zachariah... but nope. Just sweat. Ha!



Now, we are filling up the calendar with playdates. It's nice to have a little something every day. We have the sweetest friends, and both Zac and I enjoy these little dates so much. I am going to keep our afternoons pretty open. I learned last week that Zac's little body was very used to the "quiet time" he would have in the early afternoons at our old house, and pushing him while running errands or overscheduling led to some minor meltdowns.




My doctor appt went well yesterday. These appts are fast and furious. Nothing much to do except measure, weigh, and listen to the heartbeat. I'll go back again in 2 weeks. She is head-down now. I love to try and tickle her little feet. She is SUCH a mover. And I can see her feet kicking around at the top of my stomach. She isn't a big fan of me tickling them, but she seems to like it if I rub on them. Also - according to my weekly email, she is 3 pounds already and 15.5 inches long! Makes me feel better about having such a LARGE belly... ;)

I need to get going on her layette. And by layette, I mean coordinating bows/shirts/shoes for her to show off! :) Zac has another vacation bible school coming up, and for once - I'm not volunteering! I'm going to sit down with my glue gun and go to town on some accessorizing!




The apartment is coming together well. We've been unpacked since day one, but stuff was still laying around. I'm forbidden by the Hubster to hang any window treatments without him. He caught me standing up on a bar stool the other day and I thought he was going to pass out. So, those are taking longer b/c I have to wait until he's home. Thankfully, he is SO patient with me and my ever-changing mind about what I like/don't like, hanging and rehanging, etc etc. :)

Now, if only we could sell all our craigslist things so I can pull my car into the garage.




I'm slowly coming along in my photography. I have a small little list of camera accessories I'd like to get soon. I've been posting some of my recent photos on a photographer's forum for some critique. It was really hard at first, because real photographers are very brutal to new photographers! But, I have learned a LOT, and I really feel like I am getting a better hang of it. Our local camera store offers classes where I think I could learn a lot.

One of my weaknesses is lighting, but I think I've found a flash diffuser which will help that issue. We have learned that photography is quite an expensive little hobby! But I really am loving it. :) I got to photograph a friend's children the other day and LOVED it! She was so sweet to let me practice on them! :)

I still use the point-and-shoot for regular pictures and videos and at places I don't think is safe for my Nikon to go (like the pool!).




Today, Zachariah and I are just hanging out. It's our only "free" day for the next 3 weeks and I don't plan to change out of my jammies for at least a couple of hours.




And, finally, just because I think he is the most beautiful child in the UNIVERSE!!

All moved in!

And we love it!

It was a busy week for us...

Zac and I had so much fun together this week. He finished his swimming lessons - and was the only one in his class who was swimming all by himself! :) His teacher said he could move up to Level 1 with the 6-year-olds, but we are just too busy this summer with other things to commit to daily swimming lessons. We were SO proud of him, though! What a superstar!

We also got to do the regular weekday things.... had some fun playdates with friends, our weekly bible study, and storytime at the library. Each night when Brian got home, he and Zac would go down to the pool for an hour or so. Then Zac would come up and just crash into bed. So would Brian!

Brian's commute is great. It's actually pretty much the same time - maybe even a bit quicker, which has been a total blessing.

We are getting everything situated here at the apartment. Everything is unpacked and put away, but that's about it. I haven't found time to decorate yet. :)

Our garage is a disaster. Full of things we need to sell on craigslist. We are hoping to get most of it sold this week, so we can organize the garage next weekend.

We have met several of our neighbors. We have also met the Cares Team who is leaving. We went to one of their events (a dinner on Tuesday night) and met some of the residents. Sweet sweet people! Several of them are older residents, which we weren't expecting. We have another Cares event tomorrow - a bbq by the pool - where we can hopefully meet some more residents and learn more about our community. :)



The current Cares Team has a little boy who turned 5 this week, so we got to go to his birthday party today. It was Zac's first time to a gymnastics party, and he absolutely LOVED it. It's typical for him to "check in" with me often during something like this. He likes to make sure I'm still there and gets concerned if I'm not where he can see me. He waves to me all during his sports class, comes and says hi a lot, etc. At this party, I got the usual waves for about the first 5 minutes... then I don't think he looked my way again for the rest of the party!




We also stopped by our "old house" to hand over the keys this morning to our renters - 3 girlfriends from church. It was SO weird driving off as they moved their things in.

Brian might have had a harder time leaving than me. They had their hands full of boxes and I was trying to get him out of their way when he had to tell them something really important.

Don't put eggshells in the disposal.

Then he debated on turning around because he forgot to tell them something about the garage door. I dragged (drug?) him out of there. They had 17 people helping them move in, separated into "teams" to move each girl. They'll be fine.

And, we were also driving off with their rent checks, so that made it a lot easier.




We'll post some pictures of our new place soon. I really want to get the windows dressed. And I want to make a feather boa wreath. All in good time.

Until then... we have an appt for Miss Selah and Mommy on Monday morning. And a PLAYDATE!! Whoohoo! I need to get my bible study done and we need to plan our August Cares calendar before a meeting on Tuesday. I'd love to get some sewing done this week, too. :)



Life is good. We've looked at each other several times this week and just been like, This is so cool! We wish everyone could feel this amazing sense of His purpose that we feel right now. It's exhilarating. We feel extremely blessed, excited, happy, and EXACTLY where God wants us to be.

Finishing Up

We are almost done here! Brian has done SO much work over the past 3 days. (Have I mentioned lately how AWESOME he is?!?!) He has collapsed into bed each night, and then I stay up WAY too late trying to unpack and put things away, since I'm not much help actually moving anything.


We missed a fun party last night. :( It started at 2pm. We looked at our phone clocks at 8pm and knew there was no way we'd be making it.

We also clogged a toilet last night. Well, more me than we. No details necessary really, as it is quite embarrassing and nothing that a Proverbs 31 lady would do. It should be noted that we will definitely be bringing back a plunger to the apartment tonight.



Other than that, everything has been going smoothly.

There is just no one on this earth I'd rather be doing this with than Brian. I can't even begin to tell the number of reasons why. I just don't know too many people who can actually make moving fun and happy and silly - all while doing the majority of the work. Love this guy.


We've done really well on the ol' budget, too.
*Only one fast food run (for Brian....I haven't been hungry at all lately... maybe too much going on?). Otherwise, we have food and water at both places.

*We rented the small UHaul only for one trip, for the items that we couldn't fit into the minivan

*We had friends helping

*We scoured the neighborhood during Bulk Trash Pick-up Week to get boxes and ended up having way more than we needed




Right now, Brian is steam cleaning the carpets.

I remember when we first got married, he scheduled a carpet cleaning service because he thought you were supposed to do that once a year or so. I was like, Really? For real?! Being entirely too frugal for that, I asked him to cancel and then showed him the Rug Doctor rental counter at Albertsons and a big old jug of white distilled vinegar. It works great. :)

Today, though, I am pretty much useless. I watch him dump out the dirty water. *I pour a cup of vinegar in.* Then I watch him pour the boiling water in the machine. I watch him fill the pots back up. Then I watch him vacuum.

And then I update him on what's going on with my favorite blogs, facebook, and just my thoughts on life in general.

Oh, and tell him how great he looks with his shirt off. He loves that.



I am great from about 11pm-3am, when I get unpacking done. I decided in the middle of the night last night that I couldn't sleep with boxes in the apartment. Cardboard freaks me out. So, I got them all unpacked and in the garage. I also arranged ZZ and SG's room, including putting sheets on ZZ's new bunk bed.

If you haven't seen a 7-month-pregnant woman on top of a super tall loft bed trying to put on a mattress protector and fitted sheets, then you're really missing out.

Good times.


But the kids' room is done for now. Her crib is underneath his loft bed. I hung Selah Grace's bow holder on one side of their big window with her rocking chair, and one of my next projects is to make Zac a coordinating hat/medal holder to go over his easel. It's just too cute. <3

Their room is quite large, so it fits more than both of their rooms did here. And their bathroom is huge. I'm actually using those cabinets for linens because my sewing stuff took over the linen closet.

We absolutely LOVE our new apartment. It's big and pretty and the ceilings are so high. We love our view with lots of trees. Our deck is big enough for our grill, our bikes, some chairs, and hopefully some plants. There is a big green area in the back for Brian and ZZ to play ball. Everything fits perfectly and my car can even fit in the garage. The closets have great storage with a lot of height. Brian's already been down to check out the gym. I can't WAIT to go swimming whenever we want.

And the windows! We have SO many! This is like Christmas for me. I just sit on the couch and stare at them, dreaming of how to dress them. My hot glue gun is ready.

While I sit and dream about window treatments, Brian will come over and put his ear on my belly to listen to Selah Grace's hiccups. It's so cute. Selah and Zac are just such sweet blessings to us. :)




That's all for now. Brian needs me to pour my cup of vinegar in. And since that's my only real contribution to the day's efforts, I guess I better pull through.

Don't know when we'll update again. We have to call tomorrow re: internet hook-up. Maybe they do same-day installation? A girl can dream.


Happy Independence Day weekend! :)

The HEAT

3 trips to the apartment so far.

Brian is amazing.

Zac is hilarious.

I am tired.

Everyone is really really hot!


We pick up the UHaul at 6 and will hopefully only have the couches and mattresses left to bring. Gotta love having a minivan!


Brian is a moving machine. I'm not kidding when I say that I point and he moves. I don't know where he gets his energy and drive. It's a little un-human-like. And he smiles while he's at it!

Zac has actually been a big help. And when we got to the apt this morning with our first load, he walked out onto the balcony, saw the pool, and exclaimed, "This is the best hotel ever!"

We shut off Dish Network today. It's very perplexing to Zac. ("Where are my channels?") This will be a good thing for all of us. We decided on a Netflix membership that will cost less YEARLY than our Dish cost MONTHLY.



That's all for now. I wish I could say I'm off to help pack..... but I'm really off to watch and sweat and point and sweat some more.

Beauty School Dropout

I've been cutting Zac's and Brian's hair for over a year now. Most people don't even notice, which I see as a really good thing.

And last week, I gave Zac a really nice haircut that I even got compliments on this weekend.



So, why did I decide on Tuesday morning to give his bangs a little trim? Thankfully he's too young to know how badly I butchered his cute little 'do.

Sorry little guy. It should grow out soon. Until then, do your best Jim Carrey impression.

A Little Fish

He is having so much fun in the water this year!

This is the 1.5ft pool, but it's the only way I can video him, since my camera isn't waterproof. :) He does the same thing in the big pool now!

Superstar swimmer!

ETA: Brian just watched this from his hotel and said that ZZ looks like he is about to cry at the end! But he didn't... I guess the end just caught a weird look on his face. He happily ran off to play with his friends (I interrupted their jumping game to ask for this video).