Adventures in Babysitting ~

We had the amazing responsibility of taking care of my then 5-week old nephew, Asher, a few weeks ago.  Tracy and Eric had a meeting to go to at their church and couldn't bring him with so Aaron, Micah, Caleb and I got up and headed to Kenosha to watch Asher for the morning.  What a joy!  Asher is such a sweet baby and was very easy to care for.  He pretty much slept most of the time we were there, but 5-week old babies do a lot of sleeping, so that wasn't unexpected.  :)  I did manage to get a couple of pictures of the boys being cute, so I'll let those do the "talking".  Enjoy!
 

 Snug as a bug in his swing ~

 Micah was "helping" to swing Asher...

...then he started fussing and the look on Micah's face was priceless!  You can see in this picture that his hands are off of the swing, but what you can't see is the look on his face which says, "I promise it wasn't my fault!"  :)

Snuggle time with Uncle Aaron ~

 

We tried to get a few pictures of the boys together, but Cars was on the TV...

At least Asher is looking at the camera!  :)

Cousins ~

 

Love this sweet little boy!

Kisses from Micah ~

As you can see, we had a wonderful morning with Asher.  Emma was there too, but she tends to run for the hills whenever our boys are around.  :)  Thanks, Tracy and Eric, for trusting us with your sweet little boy!  We hope we can watch him again sometime!  :)

Transitions

We are in the throes of a transitional phase in life right now.  We recently sold our townhouse in Mundelein and have been living with my parents since July 7.  All of our stuff is in storage, with the exception of our clothes and a few shoes, pillows, and a few of the boys' toys, and while this has definitely been an experience I'm very thankful for how smoothly everything has gone so far.  We are eternally grateful to my mom and dad for putting us up (probably more like putting up with us  ;)  ) while we're between homes, and we're thankful that we have a place to stay that is familiar for our kids.  

The boys did seem a bit confused when we started packing and taking everything out of our townhouse.  Caleb made packing particularly difficult because he would not let me put him down.  I'm not sure if he's just in the "all I want is mommy" stage of being 1, or if he was actually nervous that we'd forget to "pack" him.  :)  And Micah kept asking where his things were going.  Aaron and his dad brought Micah with them on one trip to the storage unit, and I think that helped put his mind at ease.  Once he was able to see all of our stuff there, and realized we'd see it again eventually things went much smoother.  Now he talks about how his things are in the storage unit and we'll get them out when we move into our new house.  :)  

I did my best to pack things in as organized a way as possible, but with 2 kids under 3 you can imagine how well that went.  It started out alright... I'd pack a few boxes while the kids napped, or give them a box and tell them to "pack" their toys (which they had a blast doing!  Thanks for the tip, Steph!).  I wrote down the things I was putting in each box so that if for some reason the sale didn't go through we wouldn't have to unpack everything to find something we needed.  I think I packed up most of the kitchen and a few other boxes that way before we got the call that our closing was finalized and we had a week to get everything out and the place cleaned.  Then, I went into semi-panic mode!  :) Not that things just got thrown into boxes at that point, but I wasn't writing everything down anymore.  And at that point, I had more help so I wasn't packing everything myself either.  (turns out, we ended up packing the cards I'd written everything on anyways, so we'll still have to go through pretty much every box after we move.  Oh well.)  

There is ALWAYS more to do than you think there is when it comes to packing and moving!  After all of the big furniture was moved out (HUGE thanks to Aaron's parents for their help with that, and with packing!  And HUGE thanks to Beckie for her help with the kids!), Aaron and I spent almost every night of that last week before our closing finishing the packing and moving, and getting the house clean.  We would put the kids to bed at mom and dad's and head over, and be there until midnight or later.  It was a lot of work, but it felt really good to be done and to know that the new owners had a clean place to move their things into.  

It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be to say goodbye to 1209 Orleans.  Maybe that's because everything got moved out so fast, or maybe it's because I'm ready to move on and begin the next chapter of our lives...in a house with a yard!  We have lots of great memories from 1209 Orleans ~ it was Aaron's and my first home together after we were married, both of our kids were brought home to that house, and while it certainly wasn't huge by any means, we filled it with family, friends, and lots of fun...often times all at the same time!  :)  We are thankful for the wonderful memories God allowed us to make there, but now we're looking forward to making more memories at our new house!

 We kind of hit the ground running since we sold our townhouse, and spent several days (and evenings) looking at houses with our realtor.  (who is amazing!)  We already have a contract on a ranch house in Crystal Lake, and as long as our financing comes through we should be moved in by the middle of September.  I'm hesitant to post any pictures at this point, because it's still not a done deal, but as soon as I know we're moving in, I'll get some pictures on our blog!  :)  For now, here are a few pictures of the packing process...

Micah had fun making a fort with the boxes we'd packed and stacked ~ 

And the boys had fun climbing the boxes too ~

As we were packing, I set up our computer on the floor of the kitchen and made a "bed" for Micah out of a blanket and some pillows.  He was more than content to lay there and watch Toy Story 3 while we packed.  :)

Aaron even took a break to watch a few minutes with Micah ~

 

So now we wait for God to open (or close) doors as He sees fit for our family. Our prayer is that He would continue to guide us to the house that is right for our family.  We hope we've already found it!  :)  but are trusting Him as this process continues.  We appreciate your prayers for us as well, as we close on a house and complete this transitional phase.  Please pray for our boys, as I can't even imagine what their young minds actually comprehend of all of this, and for all of us as we look forward to all that God has in store for our family! 

Jeremiah 29:11 ~ For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.