Older Smolder

At this age, we've stopped counting our birthdays, because who really wants to remember how old we're getting!? But, we had a really special birthday weekend, which began with a family birthday party over at Amy's Mom's place - complete with Aunt Louise and Niesha (Jeff was up in Canada, lucky duck!).  It is so nice to have Amy's Mom here so close to us, we were able to go over and have a really nice lunch and then bring Addison home still in time to go down for naps!  Not possible when she lived down south of town!

After naps, Karis and Jennifer had planned a small dinner with our close friends to celebrate our birthdays.  It was very low-key, but so nicely put together, and it was a fun time to visit with friends.  We had it over at our new house on the back deck, so it was an opportunity to have everyone come to the "under construction" house and see it for the first time.  The menu was Italian, and Jennifer's cheesecake for dessert.  The ladies made a fine art of chatting the whole evening, while the guys initiated the air hockey table and the pool table.  The whole day was a lovely way to mark getting one year older!

The next day, the whirlwind of activities continued with the males in the family heading off to the Adventurer year-end party at Gatorland and Amy heading off to Kelli's baby shower.  Completely different events, but thoroughly enjoyed by each!

So precious!



Chomp!

 

After rushing home, we then packed up again to head over to the Grodack's for Calleigh and Aubree's respective birthday parties (another family whose children are very close in birth dates - combined parties just make things so easy!).  It rained cats and dogs, but thankfully it let up a bit for the kids to head outside and play with water "crayons" (water shooters) and water balloons.  Everyone had a super fun time.

Grandpa Ron doing a magic show for the kids (with the bigger kids yelling out how the trick was done.....oh to be six and so intelligent! :))

Hanging out with Miss Jenn, using her iPhone as a teether!  Oh to be so pampered by Miss Jenn!

This week has been a big one for Miss Addison, as she has learned how to clap!  Not only has she learned to clap, but she has learned how to sit up after she is down in her army crawl position!  And just when you might think that is enough accomplishments for a little girl, she has also made the wondrous transition from the woombie swaddler (yes, it was due to go by the wayside a long time ago....) to just a regular sleep sack.  The transition was in truth being held up by Mommy, who was fearful that she wouldn't sleep through the night and make Mommy even more tired, but Daddy finally just ripped off the proverbial bandaid and she continued to sleep as well as ever!  Good girl!

This picture is a replica of a picture that we did with each of the boys and Karis around the same time - so we wanted to have one of Addison as well!  You can see the picture of the boys here.

Phrase of the week:  The boys were playing out in the pool this week, and apparently Zachary was not playing in the exact manner that Kaleb wanted.  So Kaleb shouted out "Zachary, if you do not play with me right now, you will no longer be my brother!"  Good old manipulation!

The house construction is going along well, so we thought that we'd pop some pictures on here to document the before and after!

Adding the walls and doorway to the existing dining room to make it into an office

Framing in the future "mud room" area in the hallway from the garage

Creating the double door archway from family room into new "toy alcove", and putting in drywall over where there used to be a window before the original owners put the addition on.  After the addition, the window just looked into the old playroom/craft room - so this is closing it up.  Also, moved the carpet back to install an in-floor electrical outlet

Removed the wall between the craft room and playroom (you can see where the wall used to delineate the two rooms by looking at the wall paint color.  This will become the 5th bedroom.  You can also see where the other side of the old window has now been closed in.

The beginnings of the 1/2 bath turning into a full bath - the tub is in, and the tile has now been chosen thankfully for the walls!

Creating the door frame for the arched doors that will close off the master bedroom from the bathroom, and changing the sliding mirror closet doors to a pocket door

Kindergarten Graduation

This week marks the completion of Zachary's first year of school, culminating in none other than a kindergarten graduation!  It was very sweet, and our friend Jennifer was very involved, down to the music and creating the graduating cake.  We started off the day with listening to each child read a book that they had written - complete with a dedication, a story, and then a "note about the author."  Zachary's story was "The Big Soccer Game" and it was dedicated to his Grandma.  She was in attendance, so it was a sweet surprise for all of us, and very sentimental.

About to read his story to the class and listening parents

The class, along with Mrs. Sitagata (teacher)

Showing off his book, along with the Zachary cookie that Miss Jennifer created for the kids

The fam...

Two best buds.

We started off the week with Kaleb getting over his strep throat, and Zachary then coming down with a very high fever.  We assumed it was strep as well, but he had (according to the Centra Care doctors) a double ear infection and lots of congestion.  He went onto antibiotics, but still had a fever for a full 6 days, so we're not sure if it was in fact something other than strep.  Thankfully, Addison and the Z-parents never came down with it.

In other news, Kaleb completed his second session of soccer at the JCC, receiving a very cool trophy complete with a soccer ball that turns!  He was very excited about this, and ever after there has been a lot of trophy comparisons going on in the house, with Zachary pulling out his old trophies as well.



Kieran and Kaleb showing off their trophies

Addison has started to do a full hand wave (instead of the nodding fist) this week, and her sixth tooth has shown its face.  She has become quite a good little eater now, which we're thankful for.  She started on kale this week, and didn't go into fake "seizures."  She is a whopping 9 months old now!  We continue to struggle with getting her out of the woombie though to "free" her arms - she may just go to college in a woombie!  Ha!

9 months old, with her new teeth peeking out.



Admiring the little girl in the mirror.

Phrase of the week:  Last week, there was a cute conversation with Grandma and Kaleb.  Just as a precursor to this story - we live in Apopka, and Grandma lives in Orlando - even though we live literally about 1 1/2 - 2 miles apart on the very same road.  This conversation occurred as they were discussing going to the Adventurer Investiture program for Zachary (although we didn't end up going with Zachary's fever) at the Apopka SDA church.

Kaleb: What is in Apo-ka?? Is there animals there?

Gma: I'm quite sure there are animals but you are going to the Apopka church and they don't have animals there.

Kaleb: Oh, what is the Apo-ka church?

Gma: Where Zach went for Adventurers.
Kaleb: Oh. We live in Apo-ka Grandma, do you?

Gma: No, I live in Orlando

Kaleb: Orlando? Guess you live in Orlando because you are old!!!

Gma: stifling a hearty laugh! Well, there are a lot of old people in Apopka also

Kaleb: How do you know? (standard line with him)

Gma: Because I have several friends that live in Apopka that are old!

Kaleb: Do they have animals and fun things in Orlando?? Like water slides?

Gma: Yes, they have water slides, SeaWorld and lots of fun things besides old people!!

Camp Kulaqua

Last weekend was the Forest Lake church retreat at Camp Kulaqua.  We went last year for the first time, and were looking forward to the notion of going again.  Unfortunately, the weather was not so "fair" this year, and rained cats and dogs the entire week prior to the point where we wondered if we would start to float away!

Then, on Thursday Kaleb came down with a 103 degree fever, and would not resurface until Monday when we took him to the doctor - after thinking it would surely break any day, and discovered that he had strep throat.  No complaints other than a fever, so we couldn't believe it.

With Kaleb getting sick, that nixed the idea of the whole family outing, so we sent Karis and Zachary up just for a day on Saturday.  The day drizzled all day, but he had a fantastic time while Kaleb, Mommy and Addison laid low back at home.  Kaleb was sad to miss it, but was feeling poorly enough that he didn't put up too much of a stink thankfully.

Addison's new is that two weeks ago she started to army crawl!  She is quite adept at getting around now, and is starting to get up on all fours and rock back and forth, so it won't be long before she gets the hang of that and is truly off to the races!  She is eating yams, sweet potatoes, cauliflour, broccoli, asparagus, green beans, peas (not her favorite!), butternut squash, spinach, pears, mangos, peaches, kiwi, bananas, and grapes.  We're going to start her on millet now that she's 9 months old.  So far, she's got to have her food at just the right warm temperature (nothing cold please, or fake body seizures begin!!).  She's drinking about 24.5 ounces of milk right now, but we're having to coax her to eat it all - and three meals of food a day.

Phrase of the week:  When Zachary realized that he would not be able to go that Friday night, he began to cry saying 'I've been waiting for a whole year to sleep in the cabin, and now it'll be a year and one night!"  It is hard to be 7 and exercise patience!

Kaleb's conversation came as he continues to wonder about all the things that will move with us from this house to the new house when we actually get ready to move (on that note, re-modeling construction begins this week!).  He asked "Are we taking the walls?"  Amy replied "No" to which he then matter-of-factly states "Well, of course not, they're very tall and how would we get them down, and they're all connected sticky at the top!"  It gave Amy an image of a lincoln log cabin, that you could take it all down and put it back up together again in a new place!

Zachary, Blake and Calleigh coloring during the church retreat worship time.



Trying out the "tight rope" that had been set up outside of the chalets.



Best buds - Blake, Luke and Zachary



As Miss Jennifer says "Beefcake!"

One of the assignments during Sabbath school at the church retreat was to draw the journey to heaven.  Below is what his life is going to look like - starting on the left hand side with church, then becoming a soccer player,  then getting "maryed', working, grandpa and then heaven!  We love it!



Poor Kaleb convalescing



The Big Reveal

We bought a new house!!!  After continuing to look for other homes, both in person and online, and continuing to pray about what was the right thing for our family, we decided to go back to the original house that we tried to buy in the Fall.  We were able to get the house, and we closed last Thursday!  We weren't sure that it would go through again, so we decided this time just to be quiet about it until we knew for sure. 

It is a little overwhelming to think about moving now, and having 2.2 acres to mow and weed, as well as doing some construction in the house.  But, we're trying to stay calm and take it one day at a time.  Thankfully Karis' ankle is much better, so he's able to at least be mobile around the property.

We won't be moving in until about another 4-6 weeks, as we're having the carpets replaced with wood floors, and doing some other construction etc.  Then we'll put our house on the market, so we won't have to be doing that all at the same time thankfully.

The kids were super excited when we went there with them for the first time, running around the place yelling "Look mommy, there is a fountain!  Look Daddy, how big it is!"  but as we knew, all exploration immediately came to a halt when they finally made it back into the bonus room where the air hockey table was.  From that point forward, who cared about the house?  They only wanted to play air hockey! :)    We'll post more pictures in the weeks to come.

Our new home sweet home

Addison has 5 teeth all popped through now - two center ones on the bottom, the center one on the top, the cuspid beside it, and the other cuspid.  We're waiting on the other center top tooth, and then she'll have a mouthfull!  She is grinding her teeth, which is the CREEPIEST sound ever - as back as nails on a chalkboard!  Hopefully she gets over that fast!  Her appetite has waned tremendously over the last few weeks as well with the teeth coming in, so it'll be interesting to see if it comes back.

Phrase of the week: Kaleb was putting on a pair and shouted "I am a rockstar!" with his hands up in the air! Not sure where he picked up that phrase, but it was fitting! Amy was cleaning up the other day, and found a note that Zachary had left for Karis after he broke his ankle "To Daddy: Daddy, I hope that you are feeling great." So sweet and caring for his Daddy!

Doting big brother!

Big helper!