2 weeks

I can't believe it. In two weeks we will be moving!The packers are coming to pack us up next Monday and Tuesday and the movers are coming next Wednesday. How did the time go by so fast? I know that when we get to Cali we will be so excited...but right now I am just so sad! We had Amy's baby shower yesterday and everyone kept asking when I was leaving. Amy and I were both holding back tears...we just didn't want to talk about it. Who knew I would find such a great friend in NC?

On a happier note, Amy's shower went really well. I finally met her sister and sister in law and they were both so much fun. And it is always a good time when Grandma Sue is there! :)

Everything is going well with the house stuff. We are just dealing with inspection stuff on both houses. Hopefully all will go smoothly! Our first week in CA will be spent at Trinity which is always the highlight of our year. Scott and I are really looking forward to that!!

Sale Pending

We finally got a contract on our house. Yay! It has been a stressful few months, but it is all starting to calm down a bit. We have the inspection for this house on Friday and we are crossing our fingers that all goes well.

Everything is going well with the house in Benicia. I have been a little stressed about the lack of bedrooms and closet space, but I am trying really hard to get over that (did people in the early 1900's really not need closets? Where did they put their things???) :) One of the positives about that house is it is on a double lot so it has about a half acre of land...which means there is room to build. If all goes well, we plan to build a master bedroom/bathroom/huge closet in a few years. It only has 3 bedrooms now so we will only have a guest room until we decide to have another baby. Another positive is the big kitchen. That was a must for me! In a few months we will be able to put in some pretty quartz counter tops. I never really cared about counter tops until our house here...I love the quartz! There is going to be some work to do to make the house the way we want it, but I think with some hard work (and a little patience from me...not my strongest quality) it will be great!

Scott has his Boards next week and we are all looking forward to that being over. :) After that we only have a few more weeks here. I can't believe it! I am excited to move back to CA but also sad about leaving here. I can't believe I won't be here when Amy has her baby...definitely makes me sad.
Hopefully we will be able to spend most of our last few weeks here doing fun stuff!

Here are a few of Caroline's one year pictures.

Birthday Pictures--Finally!

We had Caroline's party at the Little Gym...she really loves it there! She and the other kids all had a great time and I think she knew it was her day. :) She didn't dig into her cake as much as I had hoped, but I think she liked it. It was a fun party.

Amy was such a good sport. She hung out with us all day. We had the race in the morning and she stuck it out all the way through dinner. I know she was super tired by the end!

Using the air mat was "extra" but totally worth it. It is one of her favorite things!


Kremer, Suzanne, and Little Caroline

Sarah Jane and Hayes

Walking!

Caroline has been taking a few steps here and there but usually squats down after a few steps. We have been cooped up in the house because she is sick (she has croup...poor baby) and we (and by "we" I mean "I") decided to practice a little. Apparently she has been holding out on me because she just took off across the room. I was so excited I forgot to get it on video. Luckily when I called Scott to tell him, he reminded me. Here you go! :)

Happy Birthday Caroline!

Technically her birthday was yesterday, but I didn't have time to get online yesterday. :)

I can't believe that the beautiful and tiny newborn I held in my arms 1 year ago is now the independent and fun little girl I hold in my arms today.
We had a busy weekend with her party, pictures and house guests. I will upload pictures soon. But for now, an update on Caroline!
At one year, Caroline:
-is taking steps! She was only taking one step here or there, but last night she took 6! (walking toward me)
-is saying "uh-oh", "hi", "dada", "mama" (very infrequently...but at least she finally says it!)
-shaking her head no when she doesn't want something
-still has 4 teeth...no new ones since February!
-loves chicken nuggets!
-is just about weaned
-loves whole milk!
-is still putting everything in her mouth (when does that stop?)
-gives kisses with her mouth wide open
-loves to go to Little Gym classes
-can hang on the bar at gym class without anyone holding on to her
-laughs all the time...especially when she hears someone else laugh
-loves to "read" her books
-takes everything out of drawers and cabinets
-is more fun than I could have ever possible imagined

Big girl

This is not the face of a baby. I'm not exactly sure where my little peanut went, but in her place is this adorable "big girl". Who knew that I could love her more than I did the first time we met...but I do. I love her more with every passing day.

Baby girl is so long that her little legs hang out of her crib. I don't know why she always sleeps sideways in her crib, but her feet hanging out doesn't seem to bother her.

Benicia, CA

Scott flew to CA this weekend to check out some houses. We have an offer on a house in Fairfield but since it is a short sale, the process is long and drawn out. Mom was out of town (bird watching and horse back riding if you can believe it...and she didn't even fall off the horse! yay mom!) so Scott and my dad looked all over at many, many houses.
Online, Scott has been looking at houses in Benicia but i didn't think too much of it, mostly because I have never actually been there. Well, they drove around Benicia on Saturday and Scott fell in love with the town. It is a pretty small town, but is super cute. Sunday they looked at houses there and he and my dad both fell in love. :) The house was built in 1907 but has been updated. The kitchen is fantastic! The house is smaller and more expensive then we had originally discussed, but he is convinced it is "the one". There is room to build on in the future...which would be a "must" if we plan to stay there long. It looks like we will be making an offer soon! Wish us luck!

On another note, we still have not sold our house! We have tons of showings, but nothing so far. Hopefully something positive will happen soon.

This is a running/bike trail near the house

"Uh-Oh"

Caroline has learned a new game! She has enjoyed throwing things on the floor from her highchair or the shopping cart for a while now. Her favorite part is when I pick it up and give it back, because then she can do it all over again. This weekend she started saying "uh-oh" after she throws things. It is a fun game for her...not so much for me. :) Of course I reinforce her behavior because I think it is too cute and laugh every time she does it!

Quick update

My mom keeps giving me a hard time for not updating my blog, so here we go. (happy, mom?) :)
Our house is now on the market. We have had a bunch of showings, but no offers yet. Selling your house is not so much fun...especially in this market. Hopefully something will happen soon! We have had my parents looking at houses in CA...mostly in Fairfield and Vacaville (although Scott found a pretty cool house in land Park this morning...but I think the commute would be too much for him). They found an awesome house in Fairfield that we have put an offer on. Pretty brave considering we haven't actually seen it! It is a short sale which makes things complicated, but hopefully things go well. Scott is going to fly out to CA next weekend to do some more looking. It would have probably been easier for me to go, but flying alone with a baby across the country did not sound "easier" to me.
On another note, Caroline is almost 1!! I can't believe how quickly this year has gone. She is getting bigger and cuter every day. This week, on Monday and Tuesday, I watched Hayes. I was worried about having two little ones running around, but it was a lot of fun. Amy came on Monday and we took the two of them to the museum. They had a great time! He is such a cutie. it was really good for C to see me around another kid. She was a little jealous (okay, really jealous) but by the second day, she kind of got over it.

Here are a couple of pictures from when he was with us and then a picture of what C wants for her birthday!

Crazy Week!

What a crazy couple of weeks we have had! We are trying to get our house ready to sell...hopefully quickly. We have had painters, landscapers, realtors, and (this week) a handyman here to help us get things together. I think we are getting close. We rented a huge storage unit to get rid of some of our things for a while. How did we accumulate so much stuff???

We are super excited to be moving back to Northern CA. It will be great to have family so close. We are sad too because we have really enjoyed our time here in Chapel Hill. We both have had amazing jobs...I am really going to miss seeing my kids at Rashkis. Even though I am not teaching this year, I still volunteer there a lot. We have also made such great friends who will hopefully be visiting us!! It has also been great being close to Kate and Brian (and of course Bridget and Dillon). We will miss them! Hopefully they will visit us too. :)Here are some pictures we took yesterday of Baby Girl in her beautiful dress Erin and Mike gave her. Such a little ham!

Assignment 2009 Update

Well... we finally know. You'll have to watch if you want to know.

Caroline and Jack

When we were at Erin and Mike's house the other day Jack was being super sweet to Caroline. Here is the video I was talking about.

Scott got me a tiny video camera for Valentines Day. It is called the Flip Video and it the size of a small camera. I carry it in my bag and it has been so great to have. The camcorder is great too, but I don't carry it on a regular basis. This Flip Video was such a great idea (thanks Scott!) because I always have it with me. :)

The best sound ever!

Today C and I met friends at the Museum of Life and Science in Durham. I took my class on a field trip there in the spring, but I was 37 weeks pregnant and huge so I didn't walk around and see everything. It is a great museum with a lot of things to do. We liked it so much we joined for the year. This may seem silly since we are moving in a couple of months (still don't know where!) but with this membership we can visit other museums all over the country.

Anyway, Erin was playing with Sam and Caroline thought it was the funniest thing she has ever seen! I have never heard her laugh so much. A baby laughing really is the best sound in the world.

Happy St. Patricks Day!

I have no idea where our camera is right now (our house is being painted and in shambles!) so this is the only picture I could get of my little leprechaun (on my phone)...and getting this wasn't easy! :) She is a busy girl these days. She is standing here and there, but seems to get nervous and squats down after a short time. We have moved her up to the next gym class (she is now a Birdie instead of a Buggie). She is the youngest in the class, but is definitely more adventurous. I think watching the older kids is good for her.

She is babbling a ton. She is still doing the "ba-ba", "na-na" and "da-da" but is now also making different sounds. It sounds like a little made up language. It is especially cute when she is looking at her books and talking....it's like she is "reading" them to herself. Her favorite things to play with are her books. She may not look much like me, but she definitely gets her love of books from me! :)

Dress Up

Yesterday we went over to Erin and Mikes house for an early dinner and all the kids had a great time. Little Jack loves Caroline! He was so sweet with her. He really wanted her to dress up in his Batman costume, but I told him it is too big for her. He went and found this fancy outfit for her to wear. So cute! Of course we forgot our camera so this is the only picture I have (with my cell phone). We did take a little video, so I will see if I can add that.