Thank God for Justin!

Not Mr. Justin Cline (although I do thank God for him most of the time)...our neighbor Justin. We haven't actually met him yet but over the phone he agreed to take care of Maggie and Oreo for us while we're gone. He'll come over tonight to meet the animals. He's a friend of the other neighbor who tried to help us out. They kindly hooked us up with this Justin. I will be making some toffee (a Mama Arey special) this afternoon to give him as a gift of gratitude when he comes over. 24 hours to go until we leave the house. Yikes!

Chaos is king

Not exactly an expression of holiday spirit but it's how I feel. I've had some pretty terrible headaches the last few days. Justin thinks it's due to the stress of leaving for a week. We STILL haven't found anyone to watch Maggie and Oreo for us...all of my leads fell through so we're waiting to hear from the neighbor today to see if her friend who's watching her dog and cat will watch ours too. I'm praying she says "yes." And then there's packing. That requires doing lots of laundry, making lots of lists, not losing those lists, all while still functioning under normal family-life circumstances. The negative temperatures and still falling snow haven't helped our stress levels as we think about frozen pipes and cars not being driven for 8 days. But all will be well, as long as we don't have to pay to board Maggie somewhere. Hopefully we'll get good news tonight.

If Parker were peanut butter...

No, he wouldn't be organic. He'd be chunky! This is one big boy! Today he weighed in at 13lbs. 10oz. (90%) and was 25in. long (off the chart). Madeleine was only ever in the 50% for weight until recently so I'm not used to seeing rolls on my own child. In fact, Parker is so big he's wearing a 3/6 month outfit right now; his two-month birthday was this past Sunday. It's really hard to get cute pictures of him too as he's always doing the frog kick and flailing his arms around. The world is a very exciting (albeit cold) place for him!

Oh so cold

The radio says it's currently -13 outside, without the wind chill being factored in. I tried to help Justin get ready for work this morning by going out and starting the Jeep. It wouldn't turn over at all. So I got the Subaru keys and it reluctantly decided to start. Inside the car it was -7. I hope this passes soon because we have a lot of winter ahead of us!

Santa's early visit

Here's the "before" picture:



And here's "after":



Since we don't have a chimney for him to slide down, Santa sent two of his little elves to bring this in our house. We went out shopping last night and filled our Christmas wish by finding a set of leather furniture on closeout so we were able to get a couch and loveseat for less than the original cost of the couch. I was sold on the idea of getting leather after reading an article in a magazine about how well it holds up to kids and pets and how easy it is to clean. Now all we have left to buy is a tv console, end tables, kitchen table and chairs, and a hutch. It will be really nice once everything is purchased and in place but for now we're joyously sitting on the first non-baby furniture that we've purchased since getting married!

Exercise 101

Madeleine got her first workout lesson this week. It took some effort but Justin finally got through to her, sort of.

Who says pink is only for girls?

Parker here just wanting to make a public service announcement: guys look good in pink. You see, I'm a swaddle baby and my mom only had one blanket that could wrap me burrito-style to prevent me from waving my wiley appendages. And seeing as I like to spit up on everything, she needed to find another blanket capable of containing my excitement. Being the thrifty shopper she is, she found this swaddle blanket at TJ Maxx on clearance but only bought it after getting the okey-dokey from me. I told her I'm confident in my masculinity and pink isn't just for girls; after all, my daddy looks stunning in a pink shirt of his own. So if some of you see me this Christmas season sporting my trendy pink and brown blanket, give me a high-5 (only after I get my arm out of the burrito) and comment on how the pink brings out the color of my eyes.

Settling in

There's not much to show for moving in but at least there aren't boxes everywhere. It will take us a while to get furniture appropriate for our space...not to mention enough seating for more than two people (and that's only if we can chase Maggie out of her chair). But I've got my eye on Craigslist. And carpet is great for the kiddos! Notice Parker getting some tummy time in the middle of the room.

I believe

Dear Santa,

All I want for Christmas are hugs, kisses, and lots of smiles.

Love,

Parker

One expensive kitty

Culprit:

Not including her adoption fee, spaying, food and litter, this little kitty has cost us $75. And that's just for the "damage fee" from our last rental. The landlord had a hissy fit over some carpet that she scratched and he's charging us $75 for it to be patched. I can't really blame him because they're trying to sell the house and we're partially to blame because we didn't clip her claws (her clippers got misplaced during packing); nevertheless, I'm not happy. At least she doesn't urinate all over the house like my parents' cat did (before she became an outdoor cat). Depending on her behavior, Oreo may have a similar future ahead of her.

Thanksgiving catch-up

We've finally moved into our new house. It took ALL weekend and then some but it's finally finished. I've managed to shuffle boxes into their respective rooms and begin the unpacking process. Madeleine and Parker have transitioned beautifully. Maggie was pretty nervous until she was able to hop onto our bed last night to sleep (we slept on the air mattress the first two nights as some skanky water leaked onto our mattress in the moving truck but it dried out by yesterday). Oreo is in heaven. She loves chaos, especially when it means boxes to play in.

We spent our Thanksgiving waiting for Justin to come home from hunting all morning. He didn't manage to get anything which is both good and bad: good because we wouldn't have had any time or energy to deal with it but bad because I'm running out of meat from last year's bounty and I'm too cheap to buy meat at the grocery store. To entertain ourselves while he was out, Parker, Madeleine, Maggie and I went for a Thanksgiving day walk. Madeleine picked out her own outfit:

She is in love with a bear Justin's mom brought out for her. I dressed it up in Parker's to-be Christmas outfit. Madeleine uses Mr. Bear to mimic the way I take care of Parker. She'll swaddle the bear, lay him in the boppy, burp the bear, put him in the bouncer and car seat, etc. Yesterday for the first time she told me Mr. Bear went poo-poo and she wiped his bottom with a diaper wipe. Getting a potty-seat for her is next on the to-do list.

I have tons more I could share but seeing as I just got the computer hooked up and I'm still surrounded by boxes in the kitchen I'll leave it at that. Hopefully I'll get some pictures of the house up soon. Thanks for all of your prayers over the weekend. We are so thankful for all of you supporting us and caring for us. Give us a few weekends to get things settled and we'll start taking reservations for the 2009 vacation season!