We have the keys!

We closed on Thursday and have been moving in some of our stuff.  The movers are coming on Wednesday to handle all the boxes and big stuff.  We are excited!

Tortellini? Why, yes please!

This is awesome!

Yummmmmmmmm...he is a very loud eater and makes you feel like you have cooked the most amazing meal ever.

Fist pump for meal time!

Happy Father's Day!

I did a quick interview with MB about her daddy and her answers were a total surprise.  Dan and I have gotten a good laugh out of her responses about some of his favorite things.  She was so serious too.  Happy Father's Day to an amazing dad who is adored a million times over by his little girl!

Hamming it up

MB and Ben put on a little show for yaga, grandaddy and queenkie before they left this past weekend.  Such hams!  Ben appears to be in awe through the entire song and MB worked the crowd.

Moving On

It's official!  We are moving to Cartersville in two weeks.  Crazy!  Just when we didn't think we were going to find a house and were going to have to rent, we found one that we love!  We saw it on the Friday night before Memorial Day, put an offer on it bright and early the next morning before we drove to Hilton Head for a mini vacation and we close a week from Wednesday.  We looked at over 30 houses in both Cobb county and Cartersville. The house had been on the market for one day before we went to see it and we jumped on it.  I had been stalking the listings for months and I knew everything that was on the market in all of Cobb and Bartow county so I was excited when this one popped up at the last minute.  We were a little nervous about putting an offer in after we had only been in the house a short time but we needed to get the show on the road and we really loved it.  Dan's commute will be cut in half and we will be in the same town as mimi, papa and all of Dan's extended family and we are looking forward to that.  The downside is that we are 26 miles further from my family and hometown and a little bit further from our Atlanta friends.  We can't wait to get to our new (for me and the kids) town and get settled in.  We are so very thankful for how things are falling into place.

Life is hectic and crazy but I have lots of other posts to get caught up on besides moving.  Many thanks to my awesome parents and sis for driving up to help us pack.  My stress level would be over the top frantically high if it were not for them.  They put a huge dent in the packing and we are so thankful!

We will definitely miss our current house.  We have so many memories here and we will always love this house as it was our first and where our babies were born and got their start.  We are a little sad to let it go but know that it is time to move on.

No turning back now!  :-)

Home sweet home.  This picture was swiped from the listing so it isn't very clear.  It's in a great neighborhood and we are super close to the pool which will be fun.

I spy a swing set.  This and the tree house is what sealed the deal for MB.  We didn't have child care for all of our house searches and this night we had the kids with us when we looked at four houses.  This one definitely was their favorite too.

Oh, Buffalo

A month or so ago, Dan and I took a 5th Anniversary trip to Buffalo, NY to go to Niagara Falls.  We had planned a trip to Niagara the first year we were married but ended up not being able to make it so we thought this would be a fun year to go.  We also thought we would take Ben along since he was only eight months old and he's pretty easy to be around.  Well, it ended up being one of the most hectic weekends and was anything but a relaxing getaway!  The day before we left, we decided we better get online and look up some fun things to do besides going to the falls.  Naturally, this meant looking for places to eat.  We found a couple of places that were featured on some of the Food Network shows and thought those were a safe bet.  We attempted to go to Mulberry Italian Ristorante but we didn't make reservations and the wait was over two hours.  Not happening!  The place was in the middle of an old neighborhood and had a great atmosphere.  Maybe next time.  We also decided to go on a tour of one of Frank Lloyd Wright's homes.  I should also mention that we received the offer on our house the night before we were planning to go out of town.  We spent most of the weekend driving our rental car all over Buffalo trying to find a place to fax/scan the offers back and forth.  It was crazy!  Ben enjoyed his first flight and he ate about a pound of puffs between the flight there and back and jumped in our laps for the entire time.  We felt like we had been in an exhausting wrestling match by the time we landed.  More details on the weekend can be found below.

Ben was worn out from jumping the entire flight so he missed our first stop at Charlie The Butcher's.

It was a great local restaurant and a fun way to start the trip.  Two Beef on Wecks, onion rings and our own jar of horseradish.  Yum!

Old fashion sundae with Spanish peanuts.  We licked it clean.

Dan and Ben had plenty of bonding time on our trip and it was really good for them.  This also is the trip when Ben started crawling.  He chased the remote, just like his sister did when she was learning to crawl.

The day before our trip, we decided to go on a tour of one of Frank Lloyd Wright's homes that was located in downtown Buffalo.  The weather when we arrived on Friday was gorgeous and in the 70's.  By Saturday morning, it had dropped to the 40's and was raining.  We persevered though and really enjoyed the tour.

Dan was texting with our buyer's real estate agent trying to buy us more time since we had such a hard time finding a place to send in our counter offer.  Our tour was about to start at this point.  Stressful!

This may surprise you but people going on tours of architectural homes are not necessarily "baby friendly" folks.  Ben was a perfect gentleman but he occasionally talked out of turn and caused some nasty looks to fly our way.  We didn't care though, we were just glad to be inside where it wasn't raining.

After our tour, we headed over to Anchor Bar, the place that founded chicken wings (Dan was so excited), and helped ourselves to a greasy meal.  It was delicious!

Our little cutie getting bundled up in our rental car before we went to the falls.  He was such a trooper and had to take short naps in between stops.

It was freezing and we tried to keep the little guy warm!

We took turns keeping him warm in the kangaroo pouch.

I love this one of my boys!  You can see the spray from the Canadian side of the falls behind them.

We felt like terrible parents dragging our baby out into the freezing cold, rainy weather.  The advantage to going in this weather is that we had the place to ourselves.  The deck behind us is located at the bottom of the American Falls and is rebuilt every year due to the ice and rough conditions it goes through.  They were almost finished with the deck but we were not allowed to go up to the top but you can see the spray from the falls.

I would love to go back in the summer some time.

American falls from the top.

This little gem of a picture was taken in the middle of the night on Saturday.  If our trip wasn't stressful and hectic enough, the fire alarm went off in the middle of the night and a loud voice came over the intercom demanding everyone to evacuate.  We were on the top floor, naturally, and had to wake up a sleeping baby which we all know is a huge no no!  By this point, it was raining and in the 30's.  I was really glad that I had packed his bunny suit and warm blankets.  People felt so sorry for us and I appreciated the sympathy.

Once again though, this little guy was a trooper and he went right back to sleep in the hotel room.  I was amazed!  I however was up the rest of the night with all of the excitement.  Oh Buffalo, you did not disappoint!

Last day of school

Well that went fast!  Her first year of "school" was such a great experience.  We loved her teachers and she has so much fun going on Monday mornings.

First Day of School - August 2011

Last Day of School - May 2012

Saying good-bye to Ms. Amy.  We are sad that we won't be able to go next year since we are moving.