A Good-Bye of Sorts

Since the kids and I left TX in August and didn't know if we'd be back or not, I didn't have a chance to say goodbye to anyone there in person and I still feel really bad about that. So, I know it's not as personal as I would like it to be, but our church family there will always have a special place in our hearts and I want you all to know how wonderful they are and the impact they had on our lives for the almost two years that we were blessed to be there.

To the friends that reached out to us from the very beginning (you know who you are),

You instantly made us feel at home and gave us a connection to our church. You made us feel so welcome and at home and it made it much easier for me to be away from family knowing so early on that there were such hospitable people at our new home.

To the wonderful ladies at Ladies Bible Class,

I cannot even tell you how much I looked forward to each and every Tuesday morning to meet with you. Not only were you all a much needed break in my week, but you encouraged me and listened to me and helped me grow in my faith so much. I loved our discussions and getting to know all of you better. And to the two of you (again, you know who you are) who watched my daughter for me in the nursery so that I could go to class...you have no idea how grateful I am that you served in that way. She had such a good time, and I always felt so much better knowing that she was safe and happy and loved while she was there. I think LBC is the part of Mac that I will miss the most.

To the amazing preaching and teaching staff,

I cannot even tell you how much Brandon and I grew while we were there. In our faith, in our marriage, in our parenting, in our knowledge...you really know what your doing and it shows that you let God speak through you. You helped us through some very hard times and made it so much easier. Thank you for taking the time to explain scripture to us, to ask how we were doing each time we saw you, to remember little details about our lives that most ministers wouldn't, you made us feel like we belonged there and that made it easier for us to learn and grow and we're very grateful to you. And to those of you that taught our children, thank you thank you thank you!! For your patience and love and caring.

To the guys that played basketball and softball with my hubby,

*I'm writing this from my point of view, not Brandon's* Thanks for giving Brandon a place to go each week and have some "guy time". I think it's easier for girls to connect and become friends and because God blessed our family and let me stay at home, I had many more chances to meet the ladies at Mac, but Brandon's time with you was priceless, and I was very thankful he was able to make so many close friendships with you all. Thank you to those of you that came and helped him load the moving truck also, thanks for being there for him.

I don't know what we would have done without such a great church family and we will miss you all. Thank goodness for facebook and blogs so we can continue to keep in touch, even if we can't see each other every week. Love you all!!

Halfway

This past Saturday marked 20 weeks pregnant for our sweet Caroline. I can't believe it's already halfway over, I guess because I haven't really started showing until recently and I didn't feel her kick until recently, it was just kind of easy to forget about being pregnant with all the other things going on around here, but all that has changed now! Here's the first official update for baby Caroline:

You kick mommy a lot now, usually if I'm hungry or have just finished eating or when I'm going to sleep and just waking up. You have already kicked me hard in the bladder, so let's make that just a one time thing, OK?

Your big brother loves you so much already, he sings to you and talks to you and can't wait to feel you kick him. He loves to tickle you and he talks a lot about all the things he wants to teach you. He's very concerned about how you're going to come out of mommy's belly and he was pretty sure for a while that I was just going to spit you out of my mouth...don't worry, I quickly corrected him :)

You still make mommy feel sick sometimes, and thank goodness for medicine to help with that. You must be a very healthy little girl though, because it's very hard for mommy to eat a lot of sweets or fast food, I'll thank you later for that, trust me!

I would like it though, if you could remember that you're mommy is 28 and not a teenager and I don't enjoy my face breaking out like it did 10+ years ago.

Grammy and I have already been shopping for you and you already have quite a few cute little outfits, I can't wait to dress you up! Your big sister will be so excited to match you, and I'm sure she'll teach you how to twirl as soon as you can stand.

That's about all I can think of as far as pregnancy updates. Other than that, we're all doing well, the kids and I have caught a nice little cold, so we're all coughing and a little stuffy, but nothing too bad. Timothy has Grandparent's Day chapel at school tomorrow and I promise to take pictures. Since Brandon will be here THIS TIME NEXT WEEK, I will have my lap top and will upload all the pictures I've taken since August. And yes, please be praying for Brandon and my dad as they will be leaving on Friday to drive up here with all of our belongings. I'm so excited for Brandon to finally be here with us, but I always worry a bit when he's making the cross-country trip.

We did hear that our offer on the house we want was accepted by the Army program, so we're waiting to hear this week when to schedule the inspection and our realtor is estimating we'll be in by early November (as early as the 3rd, as late as the 18th). I'm so ready to move in, it's crazy!! I've been mentally planning out each room, what colors to paint, how to decorate and I'm just so ready to get in there and start getting it all done!! Pray that it will go by quickly and we can get settled long before Thanksgiving!

That's it for now, much more to come, and I really promise this time, by the end of next week, there will be pictures...lots of pictures...

It's Official!!

The newest addition to the York family, due in February, will be Caroline Paige York!! Thankfully, sweet little baby girl cooperated during the ultrasound this morning and we were able to find what we were looking for!! And when I say cooperated...I mean, mommy laying on her back, on her left and right sides, being tipped backwards on the table twice and breaking twice to stand up and do some toe touches so that Caroline would move and the ultrasound tech could get a better angle...yep, she's definitely a girl!!

It was a little funny to me though, it was the same guy that did the ultrasound for Charlotte and Caroline was laying exactly the same way that Charlotte had been. Her heartbeat was 155 and he said she weighed about 9 ounces which put her in the 51st percentile. She measured about 18 weeks 3 days which is only one day off from my due date so not too bad at all!! All in all, he said everything looked perfectly normal and healthy and she's doing great!!

Meanwhile, I'm going crazy sitting still here at home and not leaving to go to the mall and buy up their entire stock of baby girl clothes and matching outfits for my little girls! Oh my goodness will these girls rock the matching outfits!! Timothy is very excited to have a baby sister and spent quite a bit of time telling me about all the things he's going to teach her, including how to play Wii and Mario and how to wink and ride her scooter and he did tell me that he would help change diapers, we'll see how that goes!!

We are so blessed and so excited to meet our precious little Caroline. I have ultrasound pictures that I will scan as soon as I can. I just laid there and cried watching her move around and wave and kick her little feet, can't wait to see all those little fingers and toes! Only 21 (ish) more weeks to go!!!!!!

Worst Thing Ever (at least for tonight)...

Hands down, has got to be watching your daughter fall backwards down a flight of 10 hardwood stairs...yep, that's what happened tonight. Charlotte was coming up the stairs, turned to laugh at something, lost her grip and there she went. Head over feet, all the way down the stairs, screaming as loud as she could. I was at the top of the stairs and was running down after her trying to catch her and trying not to cry myself. It was pretty bad. She cried for a while, I gave her some Motrin, she calmed down after a bit and now has a lovely big black bumpy bruise over her right eye. Poor girl, thankfully she seemed to be doing fine by bed time, playing and talking and eating and drinking like normal, so I'm just hoping she's not in too much pain tomorrow!

I Know it's not Facebook...

But I'm taking a break from posting personal updates on facebook. So many funny, silly, probably unimportant things have been happening that I want to record and remember though, so I compiled a list of them to post on here since this is probably what I'll use to remember family memories anyway, at least more so than facebook. So anyway, here is my list of random happenings from our lives...



I told Timothy the story of the little boy who cried wolf and his first response was "Did that boy have on a shirt and pants, or just underwear"...I guess that stuff is important to him.



I asked Charlotte to give me a high five and she looked at me and smiled and said "too slow"!!



I'm so sick of signing my name on loan paperwork, and it's not even a final deal yet! Hopefully we'll hear back soon!

I love how much Charlotte loves her bed time routine, I love listening to her read her book to me and sing songs with me, so precious!! I also love how easily she goes to sleep!! We added in a blanket to her crib this week to get her used to sleeping covered up, hopefully the move to the big girl bed will go easier...

Timothy is scared to sleep alone in his room, I feel bad leaving him in there because I was terrified to sleep by myself all the way through college!! I still tell Brandon that's the only reason I married him, just so I didn't have to sleep by myself anymore :)

Does anyone have suggestions on how to teach a two year old to pedal her trike? She can reach the pedals fine, just won't pedal them.

I can't even tell you how excited I am for the new fall shows, it's a little sad how much my life revolves around primetime TV :)

I'm amazed at how much better Charlotte is talking over the past month, she's picked up quite a few new phrases. The other day she wanted a snack and I asked her to go sit at the table and she replied, "no, I sit on the couch"...let the girly attitude begin.

I think that's about it for now, I'll try to think of more, I know this is probably the most random and pointless post ever, but it's all stuff I wanted to share anyway, now you all know how boring and random my life is right now :)

One More Month

Not too much has changed since the last post except that MY SISTER GOT MARRIED SATURDAY!!! It was such a beautiful wedding and we're all so happy for her and happy to have Mike in our family and I will post pictures as soon as I get some. The kids did great, Timothy was sad that he didn't get to stand up during the ceremony with Tyler and Hadley, and Charlotte got stage fright and wouldn't walk down the aisle, but other than that, it was perfect. And whoever taught my kids how to dance, please let me know who you are because Timothy had some moves that I've never seen before. They LOVED the band and dancing, I couldn't even get them to eat cake, all they wanted to do was dance, it was hilarious! I think we're all finally rested and recovered from being up most of the weekend and I promised them that we're not doing anything today, just being lazy.

In other news, I go in for my ultrasound a week from tomorrow, so pray for a cooperative baby!! I wanted to wait and go when Brandon gets back out here, but the scheduling girl said that was too late so I asked for the first available date instead. It's going to be really weird going without him though. And next Friday, Timothy goes to see the specialist to see if we can get him off of some of these asthma meds. Busy as usual. He is loving preschool though, especially the days that he gets to play outside. Charlotte and I are loving the extra time to shop and hang out since it's too far to drive back to the house right now.

We got an email last night from our mortgage broker with more paperwork to sign to get our loan started, so it's looking more and more like this "buying a house" thing is happening!! He estimates that we'll be closing November 15th which is fine by me!! I just wanted to be in before Christmas, so that works.

I think that's about it as far as our lives go lately...the kids and I are moving back to my parents house this weekend and we'll be there till we move into the house. Brandon's last day of work is October 7th so he and my dad will be driving the moving truck up here sometime soon after then. And I have I mentioned how much I love my hubby for packing up all of our stuff and handling everything down there while we're gone? He's the best. I'll be sure to post next week when I (hopefully) know what our next little blessing is to let you all know!!!

Life is Crazy

OK, so after the birthday celebrations, we found out we were moving back to WA. I immediately had a million things to do (or at least it felt that way), so I got on the ball calling to schedule doctor's appointments up here and cancel appointments down there, getting Timothy signed up and registered for preschool here and then Brandon and I decided that we wanted to buy a house this time around, so I started looking into that as well.

Since then, Charlotte and I have both been to the doctor for check ups. She came in at 27 pounds, 14 ounces, and 36.25 inches (puts her in 60% for weight and 95% for height), she's perfectly normal and happy. I measured right on track and baby's heartbeat was 150. I got the next two appointments scheduled and have to call and schedule the ultrasound. Timothy got a stomach bug last weekend and ended up at the doctor this week and we now have a referral to a pediatric pulmonologist for a follow up to see if we can take him off the asthma meds.

Timothy had his first day of preschool on Wednesday and his teacher said he did great. He was very excited that they got to play outside and he loves his teacher. Of course, it's hard not to love her, we've known Mrs. Russell for a long time and she was actually his first babysitter when I had to go back to work when he was only 7 weeks old. She has a very special place in our family and I'm very excited that he gets to be in her preschool class now too!!

And I found a great house, called Brandon, he checked it out online and loved it, so I went a couple of weeks ago to look at it and it's wonderful so we decided to go ahead and put an offer down. The seller's accepted the offer, but we have to wait for the DOD to accept it as well since the seller's are in some special Army housing assistance program thing, so they have until October 6th to accept. I'm hoping they will let us know sooner than that, we can get our financing ready and be ready to move in by the time Brandon gets here in mid-October.

On top of all of that, we have a wedding next weekend!! My little sister is getting married and we've all been busy getting ready and working out how we're going to get everything done by then. Brandon flies back up here Wednesday night for the wedding and he'll leave Sunday afternoon so we're all excited to see him again, I really really miss him. Anyway, lots of busy times and stress, but I'm so thankful to be here with family that are more than willing to help out when we need them.

More updates to come....