Our Marathon....

Today was an absolute marathon for us--understandingly so since we CLOSE on our house tomorrow morning. FINALLY! The morning started with my usual early Sunday wake up (whoever said that Sunday was a day of rest? HA!) which got me off to work about 7:30. There I ran around like usual and as soon as the 11:00 mass was over, I did a little tidying up from children's church and preschool class and headed (more like rat-raced) back to Portsmouth for our final walk through. The walk through went well, we definitely have our work cut out for us as far as cleaning and painting this week though. No big problem. After the walk through, we raced right back to Norfolk for the parish picnic. It was great to spend a carefree afternoon with everyone--a much needed break from all of our running around. After the picnic we headed home for a bit and then ran out to Lowe's to buy our refrigerator and arrange delivery for Tuesday so that the kitchen will have been thoroughly scrubbed down prior to it arriving. Since then, we have been doing some light packing and trying to relax after our marathon of the day. Updates to come tomorrow after we CLOSE!

We did have time for a quick picture at the picnic!

From Picture to Painting....

Right after Trevor was born, you may recall that we debuted him to everyone online with this picture:

To this day, it is still my favorite picture of he and I from the hospital.

Well, my friend Melissa, who is extremely talented at painting asked if she could take the picture and re-create it as a painting for her final project for her art class at ODU. I figured sure, why not. This evening her mom dropped off the painting to us and all we can say is WOW. It is absolutely amazing and we can't wait to have it up in the new house. Like I said, the original picture is my favorite picture of Trevor and I from when we were in the hospital and to see it brought to life like this is just amazing. Thank you Melissa, you have no idea how much the painting means to us!

Many Milestones

In the past month or so Trevor has hit several milestones! He started eating solid foods and *thank goodness* is not picky about what he eats. He of course prefers fruits to vegetables, but he will definitley gobble up whatever he is given which is good. At about 5 months and 1 week, Trevor started sitting up on his own. Of course he was a little wobbly at first, but now he has it down to a science and LOVES having this new perspective on the world. He has rolled over a few times, but he still won't do it all the time and definitley not when we are sitting there coaxing him to do it. Here is a picture of our little man. I can't believe he will be six months next week!

The Fourteen Days Till Closing

If you have noticed on Facebook, I have been running through these last 14 days before we close on the house with a reason for every day as to why I am soooo happy to get out of the townhouse rental and into a house. It is kind of like the twelve days of Christmas, but better. For those who can't check my day-by-day recap on FB, I will post them all together once we have gotten to the Night Before Closing. See, it is like Santa is getting ready to come!

In the meantime, I promise to post more updates of the big milestones that Trevor has been achieving....with pictures too if everyone is lucky!

Nuestra Casa Nueva

ah! its been 9 years since i took those spanish classes and i still have it! (and if I don't please don't tell me, let me relish in my excitement...)

So as many of you know, or have heard, Shane and I are going to be homeowners very soon! I have been hesitating to put pictures up so that I do not jinx myself, but after many people have asked, I figure one or two can't hurt. That, and it is 98% of a done deal. Why only 98%, you ask? Well, you see, God has a sense of humor....and more often than not, I am the butt of his jokes. 98%--we'll go with that.

Jumperoo!

This past Friday, Shane, Trevor and I braved the never-ending rain to go out to Babies R Us in Greenbrier to get him a Jumparoo. Trevor started playing in an exersaucer while at work with me earlier in the week, so we wanted to get him something similar to have at home. We set it up that evening and he has been having a blast in it ever since.

Kure Beach

The first week of August, we packed up and headed to North Carolina for our first family vacation in Kure Beach. Shane and I went last year and had a decent time (correction: Shane had a great time, I was miserable being newly pregnant/sick....together that evens out to decent). This year, we got a different condo for the week which made a lot more available to us with the rental and had a great time.

Saturday we drove down and arrived at our condo at about 5:30 p.m. After checking out our awesome accomodations, we ran to the grocery store to get food for the week and then spent the evening settling in and relaxing from being in the car. Here are some pictures of the place:

Sunday morning we all woke by nine, had breakfast and then headed out for a walk. We went to see the indoor recreation center that was in the condo complex and then went across the street to one of the complex's beach access boardwalks. We walked down the beach, enjoying the view and then walked in the water for a bit. Trevor even put his toes in! He wasn't bothered at all by the sound of the waves! After our walk, we headed inside and put our swimsuits on and headed to the pool for the rest of the morning. We headed in for lunch and for Trevor to take his afternoon nap. During his nap it ended up pouring so we spent the evening there at the condo playing and reading books as a family.

The rest of the week followed the same daily schedule, which was nice--we didn't expect Trevor to stick to such a schedule being in a different environment, but he did wonderfully! The daily schedule was something like this:
Wake Up/Breakfast
Beach for 1.5-2 hours
Pool until 12:30ish
Lunch/Trevor's Afternoon Nap 1-3ish
Family Outing Activity
Pool (depending on timing of the outing)
Dinner
Playtime/Reading
Bedtime
......tons of time to relax and just enjoy being a family together!!

Monday we spent the afternoon in downtown Wilmington. We walked along the riverwalk and then through some of the different shops that downtown had to offer. It was so nice to be outside and to just walk around.

Tuesday afternoon we went to the Fort Fisher Air Force Recreation Area. It isn't a base or anything fancy, but they have rentals and campsites available to military members and their families to vacation at the beach as well as a fishing pier on the Cape Fear River, a restaraunt and a military history museum. We just walked around and saw all that it had to offer. After the Recreation Area, we went to the Carolina Beach pier and enjoyed the view for a bit.


Wednesday we visited the North Carolina Aquarium at Fort Fisher. Not much has changed since we went last year, but it was a nice way to spend the afternoon. Trevor of course had no idea what he was looking at, but he was fascinated by the bright colors and movement of the fish in the tanks. That evening we went out to dinner at Jack Mackerels and then walked on the Kure Beach pier at sunset. Trevor loved the pier! He laughed and squealed with the wind blowing in his face and tried to talk to the pelican that was hanging out on the pier.



Thursday it rained for most of the afternoon, but did clear up by evening time. That evening, we drove up to Carolina Beach to watch the fireworks. Trevor had a good time watching all of the bright colors and we were far enough away that it wasn't too bright or loud for him.

Friday was our last day and we spent it as usual, at the beach and pool and then made another visit to the Kure Beach pier since Trevor had such a great time on Wednesday night.


We had a great week and can't wait to go back next year. On our way out of town we reserved our same condo for the same week next summer. Let the countdown begin!