Day 35 | Up and At 'Em

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Robbe bright eyed and full of smiles this morning.
Both boys were up early this morning (as in 7:30). Apparently they were just too excited about Chase's last day of playgroup to sleep any longer.

I'm so glad I stumbled upon this group. We met some very sweet people who we'll be sure to stay in touch with once we move off the Hill (Friday!) and have enjoyed having this relatively low cost and low key activity every week. We will miss our CHLG friends. 

Day 33 | Happy Baby

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Robbe: 3 months
Robbe full of smiles.
Robbe is three months old today. He's probably the smiliest baby you've ever come across. It's one of my favorite things about him.

One of my not-so-favorite things? The speed at which he's growing out of his clothes (more specifically, his perfectly timed brother's hand-me-downs). At three months he's already fitting comfortably in 6-9 months. That's no joke.

Day 31 | A Little Slice of the District

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We visited our new house this morning. I wish it would have been more of a permanent trip, but we'll take a couple hours there for now.

The house is perfect and we couldn't be happier or more excited about this next step in our lives. We're lucky to be able to afford such an amazing house, in a city we love, with room for our boys to grow and explore. 


Day 30 | Wisconsin Adventure: The trek home

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Well, we're back at the airport. Turns out a week goes by really fast.

The solo trip with two kiddos has gone smoothly thus far. We made the drive to the airport with less napping than I would have liked, but there was napping. We had no issues with security: one baby in the backpack, one baby in my arms. Robbe is enjoying our plane-viewing vantage point and both boys are having a quick snack while we watch our plane pull into the gate. Calm before the storm or a vision of how the rest of the trip will go? Only time will tell. Think happy thoughts! 

Thanks to all our family and friends for a lovely visit. We always leave wanting to stay longer and spend more time with all of you-just the way it should be!

Oh...and we're officially home owners!  Chris signed on the dotted lines this afternoon and we'll head to the house tomorrow to spend some time in our little slice of the District. Big day for our little family. 

Day 29 | Wisconsin Adventure: Cousins are the best

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Cousin time
Cousin time!
Chase and Robbe are amazingly lucky to have the world's best cousins. Even luckier? They got to spend time with almost all of them while we've been in Wisconsin.

Chase has been especially spoiled by the attention from Isabelle, Ann, and Lane. Those girls can make him giggle just by looking at him and constantly help him discover new ways to play. 

Lucky, lucky boys.  

Day 28 | Wisconsin Adventure: Exploring Strum

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This morning, we packed up the stroller, threw Chase in the backpack (didn't bring the double stroller on this trip), and headed out for a Strum adventure.

We played at the new playground (which consisted mostly of being entertained by the wood chips), waded in the water of Crystal Lake (ok, only one of us was willing to take our shoes off), walked down to admire the waterfall (ie the dam), and attempted to cross the rickety foot bridge before realizing it was a little unstable and turning around halfway across. The adventure wrapped up with a stop at the grocery store, of course. We needed to refuel after all that sightseeing!

Day 27 | Wisconsin Adventure: Grocery store shenanigans

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Fun at Robbe's
Who knew a grocery store could be so much fun?
Chase is in love with Grandpa Paul and Uncle Brian's grocery store.  He walked the whole way down to the store this morning (.5 miles) and kept repeating, "Chase go grocery store, Chase go grocery store." Think he was excited?
It might be the tiny shopping cart or all the attention he gets, but my bet is that it's because Grandpa Paul stuffs him full of all the fruit and snacks a little boy could dream of. He did pay for his samples by helping Grandpa put out produce. I'm just not sure he worked quite hard enough to overcome his debt.

Day 25 | Wisconsin Adventure: Robbe gets baptized

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Robbe gets baptized
Robbe gets baptized.
Big day for Robbe.  Huge day.  He was welcomed into God's family at church this morning.  The little guy did great.  Slept for the beginning part of the service, woke up just in time for the blessing, and smiled as the Pastor held him up for the congregation.  Cooperative boy, that one.

It was a lovely morning all in all.  The service went perfectly and our family picnic at the park overlooking the lake could not have been a better celebration.

Feeling very blessed.

Day 21 | Waking Up is Hard To Do

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Swaddle busting
Robbe manages to sneak his leg out of the swaddle every time.
Now that it's warm enough, I find it very sweet.
Can you believe I had to wake up both boys this morning? We had a 10:30am doctor appointment which I thought would be no problem but both boys slept until after 8:30am. What?!? I finally went in to stir Chase at around 8:35am and after he was up and dressed we rustled Robbe...at that point it was almost 9:00am!

Why can't they do that when we don't have somewhere to be (i.e. 90% of our mornings)? Don't get me wrong, these boys aren't typically early risers (thank goodness) but I wouldn't mind sleeping until 9:00am once and awhile. 

Day 20 | Making Progress

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Making progress
Swallowed up by boxes.
A peek at our back toy room-turned packing staging ground. My goal was to get most of the non-essentials packed before our trip to Wisconsin. I have to say, I've made some good progress and I can officially add Master Packer to my resume.  I've been so proud of some of the puzzle-piecing involved with these boxes that I've left them open solely to show off my accomplishments to Chris.  :)

Day 19 | Meet the Dish Washer

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Dish washer
Standard scene this week.
Not every day is a dream. 

I very strongly dislike doing dishes. Very strongly. So, it seems only appropriate for the best Mother's Day gift was for our dishwasher to break (please note the sarcastic tone). The beauty of being a renter for another few weeks is that we don't have to foot the bill. That doesn't make me feel much better, though, when I consider how I still have to be the one to coordinate the repair (it couldn't be fixed after last week's visit so they're coming back today) and do loads (and loads and loads) of dishes in my nonexistent free time. 

I will appreciate the dishwasher so much more after all this (as if it ever was a question).  To those of you who don't have a dishwasher and this is your every day life, I don't know how you do it. Seriously. 

Update: I received a phone call this morning and our life will remain sans dishwasher for another couple of days.  No repair today.  Urgh.

Day 18 | Banana Bread

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My baking buddy

I've been trying out a lot of sugar-free, whole wheat recipes since being pregnant with Chase.  This desire increased when I ended up with a toddler in need of healthy snacks. It has dawned on me that a lot of baked goods really don't need the added sugar especially if there's fruit in them.

It's possible that my taste preferences have changed but so far I've successfully taken sugar out of recipes for pancakes, banana bread (which Chase helped me make this weekend), pumpkin muffins, oatmeal balls, fruit muffins, and more. I'm sure I'll share all these recipes (and hopefully a few new ones) as the days go on. Hope you can start to enjoy a few more sugar-free snacks in your life. 

*Sugar-free, Whole Wheat Banana Bread

  • 2 1/4 cup whole-wheat flour

  • 3/4 teaspoon baking soda

  • 3 ripe bananas, mashed

  • 1/4 cup plain yogurt

  • 1/4 cup honey

  • 2 eggs

  • 1/3 cup unsweetened applesauce

  • 1 teaspoon vanilla

Directions:

  • Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and grease pan.

  • Whisk together the flour and baking soda.

  • Mix mashed bananas with yogurt, honey, eggs, applesauce, and vanilla.

  • Add flour mixture and stir until just blended. Do not overmix.

  • Pour batter into prepared pan.

  • Bake large loaf for 40 – 50 minutes or until it comes clean with a knife.

Recipe modified from this website.

Day 17 | The House: A blank slate

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Our new living room
Posing in our new living room!


































It seems likes it's been months in the making but really it's only been 3 weeks since we toured our amazing new house. Two and a half weeks of constant paperwork, negotiating, and waiting ensued. We're so close now! Just two weeks until closing and everything is falling into place. It feels like home already.

Can't wait to get the keys to our first house and start raising our family in this beautiful environment. 

Feeling very lucky. 

Day 16 | Nemo

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Smooches for Nemo
Smooches for "Nemo"
After yesterday's *fairly* excessive post, we'll go short and sweet today. 

We finished Chase's first movie this week. Finding Nemo was a pretty successful introduction to the world of film and it only took us four weeks. Haha! 

What's amazing, though, is how quickly Nemo imprinted on Chase. Now every clown fish we see (fairly prevalent, actually) is immediately Nemo. How does that happen? It's like Disney knows how to market to children or something.