Lucy

The Background:
Back in February or so we were down in Houston visiting my brother and his family. We had a great trip and somehow ended up bring back their dog to dog-sit for what we thought was a few weeks. They were trying to put their house up for sale since they would be moving back to Utah in the coming months. They were planning on coming up to Dallas a few weeks later and the plan was to take the dog back home then. Well, their trip got canceled and two weeks ended up turning into almost 3 months. We had some fun adventures with their cute and lovable dog Lucy.

Lucy became part of the family while she stayed with us. We had a lot of fun and Andrew LOVES dog now that we had a little one in our home for a few months. I will be honest it was a great distraction during his tantrums. She brought many laughs, kept my kitchen floor clean and she was always at my feet to kept me company during the day. She was a great dog and I think this was a good trial run....maybe someday when we are not renters...we'll have a dog of our own.

 Andrew was way too smart and figured out how to unlatch her kennel. After that, they became good friends really quick.

After a tantrum of some-kind Andrew and I were cuddling on the couch. Lucy just had to come be apart of the cuddling.

She was so good and patient around Andrew. Lucy would always come up and give him kisses with her tongue right in his face. Andrew would just giggle and laugh. He LOVED it!

Because my brother never made it up to Dallas and we couldn't coordinate our crazy schedules with both of us moving at the same time....we ended up shipping the dog straight to Utah  to meet up with them. It was quite the crazy process to ship a dog. I certainly DON'T recommend it unless you absolutely have to.

Andrew was quite sad the day we had to say goodbye to the doggie and sent her on the airplane.....okay, okay well maybe he was more upset that mommy was trying to get one last picture and wouldn't walk with him. But poor Lucy knew something was up. 

March For Babies 2013

We can't thank people enough for the overwhelming response of support for us and our boys in our March of Dimes fundraising and the March for Babies walk. This year we were able to participate in the Dallas walk. I didn't really know what to expect, but was very humbled and overwhelmed at the number of people who walked for many babies who were born too early. It was a beautiful morning and we walked around the scenic White Rock Lake near downtown Dallas. I would venture to guess there was probably 30,000 or so people there...seriously I have never seen so many people in one place. CRAZY!!! We had a fun time though and couldn't have asked for more gorgeous weather. It was a five mile walk, but at every mile marker there was a turn around, because of all the little kids...you just never know how long you'll last. We made it to the 2 mile marker and then turned around. Andrew was a bit anxious to get out of the stroller and do some walking himself. Pretty much nobody ran....there was way too many people, strollers and wagons.

It was a mass of people for at least a mile. I tried to take pictures to show how just incredible of a sight it was, but they certainly don't capture it.

Starting out the walk

This was the only thing that kept Andrew happy! He LOVES to eat from a whole apple and gnawed on it for almost the whole race. 

They had tons of family festivities and lunch! We found the March for Babies Fed Ex car. Which was pretty cool.

I would have to say, that I didn't expect to be such an emotional basketcase. Okay...so I've decide, I'm weird like that. It brought to surface many of the hard emotions of our time in the NICU with our boys. And since then, I've thought so much of our little Ethan and missed him more in the last few weeks, than I have in a long time. Maybe because it's that time of year...the time between his birthday and when we had to say goodbye. ahhhh well....such is life, I guess. 

Another Move & Pictures

Life has been a whirlwind the past month or so. It's kind of been a blur to be honest.

We knew that when we moved to Texas and chose to live in Stephen's Grandma's old home, it would be a temporary thing. The family wanted to sell the house and close up the estate this spring. Which meant we'd be there for about a year.  We just didn't realize that once they put the house up for sale,  they'd have a contract and a closing date in under two weeks! Which meant the last three weeks, we had to quickly find a place, pack our entire house and move. 

{{Sigh}} 

Looking back it all worked out and we made it in one piece. To be honest, it went way better than I had expected.  (I tend to over-stress sometimes) We had some great help from friends & family who watched Andrew so I could focus on packing during the day and especially when the big moving day came. One would think that by moving three times in three years, I'd have the packing and moving thing down to a science. I don't, but this time I didn't have any choice but to dive in and just throw everything into a box.

We are enjoying the new house! Andrew seems to like exploring all the different rooms and has done awesome at keeping himself entertained so mommy could get some things unpacked. He wasn't quite sure for a few days, but after being here a week we've gotten a lot done and it's feeling much more like home.

We moved about an hour away to the northeast side of Dallas. At the beginning of April, Stephen found out his last rotation for work would be in the Dallas area, but on the other side of the city. So we figured this was actually good timing to move closer to his work and cut the hour plus commute down to 15 minutes. 

Andrew's favorite thing about the new place are the stairs. Yes...he is obsessed with them and says "weeee" in a high pitched voice everytime we go up or down them. We've had to teach some stair-climbing skills and he's catching on, but still quite wobbly. Plus he figured out how to get around our boxes at the bottom of the stairs, which makes me nervous.

So amidst all the craziness around our household, I decided to take a minute this afternoon and stop unpacking and blog a bit....it's a stress reliever to me. So watch out! I'll be doing some catch up blogging over the next little while, but until then. You can enjoy some of Andrew's 2 year old pictures. I had a darling friend take them in the Texas bluebonnets. Ohhh yes....I now have a new favorite time of the year in Texas....bluebonnet time. It's absolutely beautiful and they are everywhere! Too bad they only last a few weeks.