Per requests...pics of the house.

Thank you!!!

I've been awful at getting thank you's out over the last few months. You know I usually send them, but I just couldn't seem to get to it. So, I want to give a huge "Thank you" to everyone for all the gifts for Kade's b-day, Easter, housewarming, and congratulations on the pregnancy! It is such a treat to get mail from our family. Being so far away, the kids just light up when they "see" that you are thinking of us. Thank you, thank you!!!

Happy Memorial Day!

Hope everyone had a great holdiay weekend! We had the best time we've had in a long time! We went camping at Lake Jordan Friday night with six other families. There were about 30 kids and eleven adults. Sounds crazy, but it wasn't! The weather was perfect, the campsite beautiful and everyone was great. There was fishing, swimming, a bonfire, silly stuff, great conversation and the best...s'mores! Mark and I were unsure what to expect. But since we both love to camp, we thought this would be a perfect time to start. The kids had the best time! The first words out of Cora's mouth on Saturday morning were, "I love camping!" Kade loves sticks, so he was in his glory and Colette was born to camp. Over the years Mark and I have been buying things here and there and he bought a tent for last Christmas. So, we were ready and comfortable!

Saturday, was filled with more of the same from Friday. Then we went home, rested and went to our church festival. Sunday we had friends over for lunch that turned into also having dinner and then a movie.

Today, Memorial Day, we rested! Mark and I took turns with naps and we tried to get everything ready to start the new week.

We miss everyone and think of you all the time!

Easter

Here's a family photo on Easter. It was our first holiday in the new home. We still had many boxes to be unpacked, but we were able to pull off a nice day with Mass, an easter egg hunt in the backyard and a delicious dinner. Meme and Pa were here to help and celebrate!

Cora and Colette update

I just realized that these posts are not going to be in order as I wanted them to be. I'm writing several today and didn't realize the last post will be on top. So, being a bloggin newbe, the last post, Sold house, bought house and pregnant...oh my! was meant to be read first and so on......

Now, I thought I would just give little updates on Cora and Colette since I talk about Kade in the following post.

Cora
She is doing great. She has grown both physically and maturly a lot over the last few months. She still keeps us on our toes, but she is doing amazing things. She is a red belt in TKD and only two belts away from becoming a black belt. Her goal is to help teach classes, which she does a little now. She loves to help others learn TKD and still loves that she is taking the class with her dad!

There are some girls her age in the neighborhood that she rides bikes with and plays with sometimes. But, her closest friends are some girls from her Little Flowers group. This is her fourth year and a new girl joined that she has become close with. It's been nice seeing her make these friendships.

As for schooling, she's doing well. She will take her first standardized test the first week of June. She still loves to read and insisted on learning cursive. I wasn't surprised since she loves "fancy" writing. She's been taking free classes at the library and will be taking a cooking class with fellow homeschoolers based on a geography lesson once a month. I'm really proud of her!

Colette
She is two in every way! She thinks she's at least 5 and tries to be 10. She hangs out while we do our school work and tries to do it all, too. She just learned how to ride her tricycle to keep up with the kids in the neighborhood and thinks everything is "MINE!" She's tough at times, but also gentle and sweet. She is absolutly funny and is talking more and more every day. She loves to play with the kids and really likes to play with Kade's dinosours and stuff! This can cause some problems at times, but for the most part, they play excellent together. She holds her own in this family! We love her!

Kade is 5

Kade's birthday was a great! Dinosaurs are his thing. And let me tell you, he can tell you a thing or two about them. We are amazed at how much he knows about many kinds of dinosaurs. It's very funny and if you ever want to talk dinosaurs, he's available!

After daily Mass, we went strawberry picking where we picked many of them and played at the playgound. Then we had his party. Two days later we took a friend of his and one of Cora's friends to the NC Museum of Natural Science. They had a wonderful time! Thank you to everyone who called and/or sent a gift! He is one lucky boy!

Kade is doing wonderful! He is a gentle soul, funny, and happy. He LOVES having his own bedroom and organizes it every night before he goes to bed. He told me one day that he wanted to start homeschooling on our new school room. So, off we went to get his first printing book! He's been learning a new letter every day for two weeks now and is an absolute joy!

Sold house, bought house, and pregnant...oh my!

You can say, alot has happened since my last post!!! Due to being sick and not having access to the computer during the move, I couldn't keep the blog updated. So.....we'll start with the selling of our house. We decided to put it back on the market once Mark had completed working at his new job with GE for a few months. We LOVE Holly Springs and now, that he was working close to home, we hoped we could sell and buy ASAP. Well, we put it on the market in January and sold it in March! We got an offer on a Thursday night then the kids and I started the new home search on Friday. We were expecting to be living in an apartment for a little while because we had to close in three weeks. But, thanks be to God, we were led to our new home just in time! So, after some wheeling and dealing with the buidler over three days, we got an excellent deal and were able to have back-to-back closeings! It was absolutly crazy! I was little help because I was so sick. Mark handled the move with co-workers who took off half a days work to help empty the old house. Then we had five other friends show up at different times to help load the house. It was unplanned, yet it worked out perfectly! We have felt so blessed for Mark to have a great job, to be surrounded by a great group of friends, and to now have a beautiful home that we hope to grow VERY old in!!! As for our old house, a lovely couple live their with their 2yo son. It was nice to pass it on to them.

Now for the other wonderful and best news.....we're expecting a baby girl around September 7th! We are so excited, it's just great! This pregnancy has taken a toll on all of us, but as of 4 weeks ago (who's counting) I finally started to feel better. For the first time, we found out what we are having, though I knew it was a girl because of how I felt! She's kicking a lot and the kids just think it's so funny when they feel her. Thank you for all your prayers, support, phone calls and checking in during the difficult first months. Now we're looking forward to getting the house in order and preparing for our newest little one. We can't be happier to be expecting another baby!