So BIG!

Sonya will be 15 months old in a few days already. Time has gone by so fast. I keep seeing these teeny, tiny newborns and think to myself that Sonya was that small about a year ago. It's hard to imagine her that little anymore though.

I'm enjoying my time at home being able to watch my kids grow up and seeing them learn new things. Sonya has mastered walking. She's trying to figure out the best way to go down the stairs at our apartment. The railing is up a little too high and she insists on walking down the stairs instead of sliding down on her butt. It's so cute to watch her figure it all out.

Recently, Sonya's communication skills have been developing more. She's saying a few more words and being more consistent with hand signing. It's so nice to know what she wants. If she's hungry, she has us follow her to the pantry and then points at it. If she wants a drink, she'll sign "milk" and even say "maa, maa" while guiding us over to the refrigerator. Some of her words are just babbling, but she loves to talk! Her favorite thing to say lately has been "hi." She'll wave to strangers and shout out "hi." It's so funny how friendly my little girl is. I swear, she'll go by almost any woman. Who could resist a sweet face and outstretched arms?

Sonya has also been understanding a lot of what Tim, Caleb, and I say. If we ask her where her baby is, she'll go and look for it. She also started bringing her shoes to us when we ask and can take off her jacket with a little help from mom and dad. A few days ago, we began teaching Sonya the names of body parts. Since eye sounds close to "hi", she mastered saying the new word and is able point to mommy and daddy's eyes when we ask. She's so proud of herself! My little girl is growing up. I love you Sonya Rose.

Phone Calls and Paint Colors

So we started making phone calls to change our water, electric, and mail services over to the new address already. I think we just have to deal with AT&T for our internet now. Maybe I'll make Tim do it. haha... He doesn't like having to call them at all. Their rates are good, but their customer service experience is NOT! Anyway, it feels good to get those little things out of the way so I don't have to worry about our water being shut off while we're trying to move in or not having electricity to turn on lights. :-)

As for paint colors... haha.. poor Tim. I keep changing my mind on the exact shades of green and brown that I want to use. We went to Home Depot on Saturday so I could get the color cards vs. trying to use the Behr online colors. I think I have it narrowed down to grape leaves and mesa now. I'll compare the colors against the living and dining room walls when we do our walk through on Saturday. Hopefully I won't need to change my mind again. It's just so tough because the shade changes depending on the amount of light the wall gets throughout the day. If there's only a 5 minute period during the day where the walls look "ugly," I think I can deal with that. BUT... if it's for half the day, I'm thinking I'd need to paint over it.

Things are slowly coming together though. Tim just bought our washer and dryer from Sears so they'll deliver next week Friday. We'd been looking at prices and comparisons for a few weeks now and decided it was time to go ahead and order them. It sounds like we'll have a lawn mower to last us through the summer. Then maybe next year, we'll buy one unless the one we're getting really won't last all summer. lol... I'm just thankful we won't have to spend money on one for right now. One less thing to research and worry about, I guess.

I started putting the felt circles on the bottom of furniture. Although, I think I'll wait until the weekend to finish because otherwise I noticed that they come off easily if dragged on our carpet. Caleb likes to pull his chair over to the counter to help set the table and I can just see the felt coming off of our chairs.

I still have some boxes to pack. At this point, I'm feeling a little overwhelmed. It seems like there's not a lot to pack, but then I look around at our "mess" and feel like I have a long way to go. I'm just glad we have two weeks to move and clean everything. The cleaning part is not something I'm looking forward to, but I want to get our deposit back on the apartment! Anyway, as long as we can move all of our big furniture that won't fit in either of our cars, I'll still have another week to pack up those last few things and not feel so stressed out. Only one more week left until we close!!!!!

Counting down until closing!

I can't believe how quickly time is flying by. We close on the house in a week and a half! Am I done packing yet? Not quite.... There are still toys, books, games, and movies that are still out. A few posters are still up on the walls in addition to a few wall hangings. All of our pictures are down though and packed and most of our little knick knacks. I went through a lot of papers and notebooks that I saved from high school and college. Since it's been 5 years since I graduated from college, it was time to let go of some of those things. Was I really going to need my calculus and biology notes anymore? They might come in handy some day, but by then, I don't think I'll be able to decipher any of it. haha

There are still lots of little putzy things to pack, but I've been trying to wait until I'm absolutely sure I won't need it anymore -- like clothes, kitchen items, bedding, our computer, and toiletries. We have quite a few boxes packed up already though so I'm slowly getting there. I can't believe how many boxes of kids' clothes that I have though! There's over 12 boxes of boys' clothes ranging from newborn all the way up to 7 years old. (I just got two big garbage bags of clothes from my aunt during Easter so that adds to it). At least Sonya only has 3 or 4 boxes of clothes. Most of them are too small on her, but I have to save them in case we ever decide on baby #3.

Anyway, this post is just a rambling of all my thoughts and trying to not go crazy. I want to have everything all planned out ahead of time so the transition of painting and moving goes smoothly. Then I can enjoy my house right away instead of spending all my free time trying to finish cleaning the apartment during the last week of the month.

We do our final walk-through on May 14th. I don't know what time yet, but probably in the morning since that was our preference. Then I can make sure of the color choices I have for painting the dining room/living room and hallway. It's narrowed down to a combination of tate olive and desert camel for right now, but the shades of green and brown might change yet. :-) So after we walk through the house, we'll probably go and get paint samples and most of the painting supplies.

Tuesday, May 17th is the magical day that we close on the house! I'm looking forward to it, but am a little nervous too. I had a break down the other night as I realized that I'm not in control and that God is. I'm always trying to be in control and have everything happen just perfectly. So I needed that reminder that everything will work out in the end even if it doesn't go exactly to plan. It's just so hard for me if I don't have some sort of schedule. Now, I have a loose schedule of what is going to happen so that we can try and figure out how to coordinate painting and moving with some of our volunteer helpers. We're so thankful for all the offers to help. It's almost overwhelming. I just hope we have enough muscles to do the big move on May 21st. (I'm a weakling so I don't help with the big lifting).

I'm hoping to do some cleaning of the new house on the day we close. Then I can get the walls prepped for painting. Worse case scenario, I get them ready the next morning. I'm thinking it'll be a two-day painting project since we'll need two coats. (That's my guess anyway). So painting day #1 will be May 18th. I'm looking forward to our Mom's Group dinner that night at the Cheesecake Factory. It'll be a nice break. Then the following day, May 19th, I'm hoping to finish painting during the day and then start moving some smaller boxes over already after dinner. We'll see how that works out. Friday, May 20th will be a day to tie up any loose ends before the BIG move on Saturday. We're getting a U-haul to make things easier. Then we'll only need one or maybe two trips. I think Tim's plan was to start loading up around 10am that day, then do pizza for lunch, and finish unloading after that.

This post is getting long, but I needed to write it all out. I could probably write more, but I need to go finish some laundry and maybe pack a few more boxes while I'm at it. Or I should see if we have the felt circles and such to start sticking to the bottom of the furniture that'll go in the living room and dining room. We're going to have hardwood floors! There's a few scratches in the floors already, but I'd kind of like to hold off on refinishing for now since they aren't in too bad of condition.

I'm so excited!!!

A Chocolate Connoisseur....

A week ago at our Moments for Moms night, we had the owner from the Chocolate Chisel give us some tips on tasting chocolate. She discussed the process of harvesting and grinding the cocoa beans before they actually become that delicious, magical chocolate that most women crave. We were able to do some tasting of milk, white, and dark chocolate along with a few other special darks. (I can't remember which countries they were from anymore). So, there are a couple of steps in getting the most taste out of the chocolate and in determining how expensive it really is.

1) Break the chocolate in half. A nice, crisp snap indicates a good one.
2) Smell the chocolate. If needed, rub it between your fingers a little to warm it up so the smell is stronger.
3) Take a small bite and let it melt on your tongue.
4) Close your eyes and enjoy!

Well, I might've tweaked the steps a little bit, but you get the general idea. Anyway, there were some extra samples after the tasting, so I brought them home for Tim and Caleb to try. I thought this would be right up Caleb's alley since he's been obsessed with watching "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory" and "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory." Plus, what kid doesn't love chocolate? I went over the steps with Caleb while he tried a few chocolates. It took him about 5 minutes to eat a piece the size of a quarter. Talk about success! Meanwhile, Tim didn't realize I wanted him to take his time trying the chocolate too so he just tossed a piece in his mouth and gulped it down without even savoring the exotic flavors as they melded together.

After we did this taste test, my funny little son remembered the steps when he was eating chocolate a few days after the fact. Just picture him telling Tim that he needs to smell the chocolate, bite it, close your eyes, and enjoy it. haha... makes me laugh. He's going to be my little chocolate connoisseur someday. Love that Caleb-boy. :-)

A beautiful day in the neighborhood

After a week of being cooped up in the house with the kids, it was so nice to have a beautiful, sunny day. So on Saturday, we all got up early so Caleb could join in the Easter egg hunt at Pick 'N' Save. Then later in the morning, we walked over to Hill School Park. Caleb rode his bike while Sonya rode in the stroller. We even brought a few basketballs along to play with. The weather was so nice that Tim and Caleb even took off their jackets for a while at the park. I haven't been very good at taking pictures lately and since it was so bright outside, I could actually take some decent ones on my camera for once!

Sonya liked picking up the ball and carrying it around.

Here's a good one of daddy and Sonya

Caleb is getting ready to dunk!

Hanging on the rim!

Mommy and Sonya

Daddy with the kids

Just monkeying around :-)

I found a stick!

Daddy and Caleb (gotta love Caleb's facial expressions)

Later in the afternoon, we walked along Lake Michigan by the new canoe launch area. The waves were crashing along the beach and the shells crunched under our footsteps. Sonya absolutely loved walking on the wet sand (and eating a little off the rocks she found along the way). It was a nice leisurely family walk. Unfortunately, my camera kind of died earlier in the day so I didn't get any pictures. But... we'll definitely be going back again. 

Un adventura en Port Washington

Anoche, fuimos al Sauk Creek Nature Preserve para ir de caminata. Era la primera vez para Sonya. Caminos por el bosque y miramos a los arboles. Caleb le gustó lanzar piedras en el río y encontró muchos bastones. Había hojas y ramas adelante de la senda. Sonya no supo como caminar por las ramas y caminó debajo algunos muy pequeños como bailando el “limbo”.. jaja. Fue muy chistoso. Me gusta la primavera y el tiempo calor. También me gusta la naturaleza porque es un buen oportunidad compartir la belleza de Dios con mi familia. No puedo esperar hasta la próxima vez cuando podemos explorer el parque de Lion’s Den o otro parque.

Si no entiendes eso, aquí es un clave:

caminar = to walk
mirar = to look at

bailar = to dance

esperar = wait

el bosque = the woods

las ramas = branches 

un baston = a walking stick

el río = the river

hojas = leaves

piedras = rocks

naturaleza = nature

primavera = spring

** Translation**

Last night, we went to Sauk Creek Nature Preserve to go hiking. It was the first time for Sonya. We walked through the woods and looked at trees. Caleb liked throwing rocks in the river and he found many walking sticks. There were leaves and branches along the trail. Sonya didn't know how to walk through the branches and walked under some small ones like dancing the "limbo".. haha. It was very funny. I like the spring and the warm weather. I also like nature because it is a good opportunity to share God's beauty with my family. I can't wait until next time when we can explore Lion's Den Park or another park. 

Writing again!

Seems like life has gotten so busy lately. I had kind of lost my passion for writing. Now it's slowly coming back and I feel a little happier too. :-)

I finally got around to posting the next part of "my story" in Grace Like Rain. So for those of you readers that have been anxiously waiting to hear more, I just posted today. Sorry it took me so long, but it was tough to write about and that was what was holding me back from writing much of anything. I kind of dreaded having to walk down memory lane and relive some feelings that I thought I ditched a while ago.

Anyway, today was a good day. I surprised Caleb by having a picnic lunch at the park after school today. Then, I got a call from Tim and he asked where we were. I thought it was strange that he was asking because he was at work anyway. He had actually gone home to surprise us for lunch since he had to head to Denmark and make a few stops along the way this afternoon. So he came to the park and ate lunch with us. It was nice :-)

Well, it's a beautiful day out so we're going to enjoy it by playing some soccer. Catch ya'll later.