Week 29

We are in lovely McAllen, Texas now after a long week of driving and a fun trip to Seaworld. More on that later. Anyway, we're here and we're alive and G is 29 weeks old. End of story. We hope the next 12 weeks treat us well!

Kindergarten Graduation

It seems like whenever Brighton has a big day we always plan our adventures immediately after. Last year for her preschool graduation, we were in the car an hour after it ended to get to Arizona. This year we kept with tradition and left a few hours after she graduated from Kindergarten. It made for a very emotional trip. Rightafter saying goodbye to all her friends and teacher, we had to head out for new adventures. She has been pretty strong throughout this ordeal but I think it won't hit her fully until we're in Texas and she can't call her friends for a playdate. Anyway, graduation was great and I'm so glad we stayed for it instead of leaving early. I'm so proud of my little graduate. She has excelled and matured so much this year and I owe a lot of that to her amazing teacher Mrs. Brown.Wecouldn't have asked for a better school experience and I know that was one of the reasons we were supposed to be here in AZ. There were so many reasons for us to be in Arizona. We made great friends, our family was tested and strengthened,and Brighton needed to meet Mrs. Brown. She is an inspiring teacher and I found myself getting emotional when saying goodbye to her. Brighton lost it as well when saying goodbye. She turned to me, broke down, and said "Mom, I just love Mrs. Brown so much." After consoling and saying one last extra goodbye, Mrs. Brown promised to be pen pals, which eased Brighton's mind a little. Anyway, it was a long, emotionally and physically draining day (remember we had to finish packing our car up for our long journey) and I just can't believe Brighton is going to be a first grader next year. We love her and all she's accomplished. Here's to the next year of adventures!

The refreshments that followed the graduation ceremony. It was so sweet of Mrs. Brown to plan such an event.

The big girl walking up to receive her diploma.

The proud family (you can tell Porter's really proud).

Brighton and her 2 best friends in kindergarten, Susie and Madilyn. These 2 girls were so sweet and Brighton will really miss them.

I seriously couldn't have survived these past few months if it weren't for this girl. Amy(Susie's mom) has been such a great friend during these trying times. Packing and handling the kids has been a difficult task for me lately and she's the type of friend that will take your kids without question and bend over backwards for you in order to help out when she sees you struggling. Thanks so much Amy for everything!

Week 28

We are in the final stages of packing and moving. Graham is showing his continual love for the bubble wrap as we are getting everything in order on his 28th week. We ship out for Texas on Thursday so wish us luck!

Week 27

This is what our house looks like right now. Nothing but boxes and babies. Graham has been a trooper through it all and at week 27, his favorite toy is bubble wrap. Don't judge.

Mother's Day Love

As my kids have been getting older, I have loved Mother's Day more and more. They have actually started putting a little thought into things and I love getting the homemade gifts. This year (with the help of Dad) they made me candy necklaces with saran wrap and ribbon. They were so excited that they made me wear them to church. After about 10 minutes of my kids' constant begging to break open my necklace in the middle of sacrament and the fact that the chocolates were getting a little melted on my neck, I decided to slip them into my bag and save them for home. But it was the thought that counts and I enjoyed gobbling them up snuggled with my little ones next to me on the couch post-church. It made my Mother's Day. Sadly, I do have 3 kids but for the first 6 months of Graham's life, he won't be in any pictures due to nap time conflicts. Sorry little buddy. I'm still glad to be your mom too!

Adventure Awaits

So here's the skinny. I've been alluding to the fact that we're moving for quite sometime now. I'll fill everyone in with the details now. Kyle's in Nurse Anesthesia school. That much you should know by now. It's a 2 year program and he is finishing up his first year (woo too!) which the didactic part. Nothing but book work and test. Needless to say, we're a little relieved to be closing up that part of the process. The second year is his clinical rotation year. Then he gets to be a full-fledged CRNA (after passing his boards but one step at a time). We're about to start step 2: clinical rotations. If you didn't already gather from the word 'rotations' Kyle has to move around (or rotate) to new sites all over the country and we are joining him for the adventure. First, we're on to Edinburg, Texas which is a town about 10 miles north of the Mexican border. About as far south as America gets. So we've got that going for us. Oh and did I mention each rotation only lasts 3 months? Yeah, we'll be unpacking and packing quite a bit, but we only filled our 2 cars with the necessities. Oh right, that's another thing: we're living out of our cars. Although we rented an apartment, we only have air mattresses to sleep on and a card table to eat from. To say we are living the simple life would be a gross understatement. But I think it might help us to step back and reevaluate the important things in life. We have all our needs and that's all, but really the only things I truly need are sitting by me in the picture above.

Broken teeth

When I shared the good news with the kids this morning that Graham's first tooth had broken through, Porter was really concerned about it. He looked up with those big, brown eyes and said, "Mom! Graham has broken teeth!? How do we fix them?" I guess I need to work on my phrasing when we have such literal kids.

Week 26

He is 6 months. Half a year. I can't believe how quickly that went. 26 weeks down, 26 more to go. Here are his stats:

Height: 26.5 Inches- 46%

Weight: 15.1 lbs- 9 %

Head Circumference:42 cm-15%

I honestly feel like he should be bigger but the numbers don't lie. He's still my chunkiest little babe and I love every squishy bit of him!

More Fun Visitors

I think everyone wanted to fit in some time to see us before we leave so shortly after my mom left, Kyle's parents, brother, and sister all came to see us. It was a lot of fun and we appreciate that they traveled here to spend the time with us. They rented a house with a pool in Phoenix so we were able to stay at the house and spend as much time as possible hang in out, swimming, and playing games. Kyle's stepmom and dad absolutely love games so we got our fair share of game time in. They even started Brighton young and taught her Uno. Unfortunately, this is the only picture we got of Grandma and Grandpa with the kids, but it was a perfect one to show how much B loved spending time with them. She was Grandma's little shadow and wanted to do everything that Grandma did, including playing games.

Out back there was an open fireplace so one night we roasted marshmallows. My kids are still talking about it.

And for about 70% of the time they were in the pool. Luckily it was super heated so it wasn't too bad to get into in the Arizona spring weather. Kyle was even able to break away from school for a few hours to play with us.

It was fun to see Casey, Kohen, and Will as well. Kohen made my kids laugh and go crazy which is always a good thing.

Anyway, we had a great time with them and just wanted to say thanks so much for making the effort to come out and visit us! We love you guys!

Freckles

Brighton has been super interested in insects lately. I think it stemmed from when they got to pet worms during a science unit in school. Anywho, she has definitely gotten over her fear of bugs. In fact, whenever we go out to the pool, she loves 'investigating nature' as she puts it. This always ends with her collecting these ladybug-looking insects and letting them walk all over her. I must admit, I am not a fan of this new infatuation. One day she begged me to take one home with us and I told she could walk it to our house but had to let it go free after that. In my book, bugs are NOT indoor pets. So on our little walk home, her and Freckles (she decided to name her after seeing the two dots on her back that reminded Brighton of her own freckles) became best buds. When it was time to say goodbye, she let Freckles crawl around on our porch. This bug didn't have any wings and had nowhere else to be so Brighton and her played out there together for what seemed like hours. Disclaimer: Don't think I'm a bad mom for letting my kid play with bugs. We knew it wasn't poisonous and wouldn't bite long before Brighton became friends with Freckles. Finally when it was dinnertime, she had to come inside and leave Freckles to her own volition. She hoped that Freckles would be outside waiting for her in the morning but I told her not to count on it. The next morning, the first thing Brighton did was run outside to look for Freckles. The forlorn face that came back inside told me that Freckles didn't stick around. I told her that Freckles probably just wanted to find some of her friends again and go back to her home. Brighton seemed better after that and said, "I guess I would want to go home to if I were that far away, but she was my friend." After I reminded her that she had human friends too that she would see that day, all was right with the world again. Before she went off to play she said to me, "Maybe I can just look in the mirror and whenever I see my freckles on my face, I can think of my buggy friend." I thought that was a pretty okay idea.