February Changes

I have several updates for the blog:

1. Squirms is now a four year old.
2. I have gained too much weight to be labeled a Trophy Wife, and, therefore, (is that too many commas?) have begun a full time job.
3. The Great experienced his first day of school (aka preschool/daycare).
4. We have a contract to buy a home.
5. Items 1 - 4 happened within a time span of 7 days.

Yes. Valentines Day, our clever, stubborn, affectionate "tiny girl" turned four. Grandpa, Gran, Auntie H and her significant other traveled north (I just love saying that, we are north of people now!) to celebrate with us. We visited a children's museum, at which our children really only wanted to play trains, enjoyed lunch at a cafe several feet from an in use train track, and ate a Doc McStuffins themed cake.

Auntie H loves me.

Presents before cake.

Little Lady with her new tea set (Auntie C and Uncle T) and new table (Grandpa and Gran)

How delicately she drinks....

The Friday before Valentines Day was my first official day at my new job and new company. This fall, when the Great turned two, I began praying about the possibility of returning to the work force. R was supportive and also began praying about it. I uploaded my resume to several interesting job descriptions and began the interview process for two different positions. The position I accepted felt like a gift and we have felt at peace about me working in this job. Plus, the end item of the project I'm on is a rocket. And that's just cool (technically, I think it's one of the coolest things I could have possibly worked on, and it's just fun to tell Squirms that's what mommy is working). Disclaimer: I'm not super cool and working design or actually torquing bolts, but I do get to be part of the project.

With this change came full time care for our angels. We are hopeful that full time care, or school as we are calling it, will be beneficial: providing structure, play time, and hands on learning opportunity. Squirms LOVES it. The Great is adjusting, but does tell us that "I played" when we picked him up and ask how his day was. The Great's teachers tell us that he has great verbal skills and knows his colors. I will admit that I was so concerned with buying work clothes, registration paperwork, house hunting, and R being on work travel that I almost forgot to take pictures on his first day of school. But I did remember, and while the shutter is still having issues, you can tell how handsome he looked. And how unimpressed with this development he was. 

We're really doing this?

Can I go home and play trains now?

An online software tool that we use to track our budget sent me an email this week. It told me that we have spent $870 dollars on childcare/babysitting in the past month. And that we normally spend $5. And then the email message said "Might want to look into that".

We close on our new home at the end of March. I'm hoping that we will be able to see stars at night (even though we will only be ten minutes from the downtown church we've been visiting). We will have a guest room, hint hint Central Florida friends. We are looking forward to settling in and I'm especially looking forward to buying an address stamp. 

Other updates include R going to a choir practice at a church we've been visiting, cheering Auntie C as she took the bar exam, a visit from Auntie L that included getting a manicure (helping me through the Great's first day of school), and lots of shopping from Ann Taylor clearance. Oh, and the Great has been using his nebulizer to vibe test his trains. Thomas the Train handles vibration well, and this method of test has shown a decisive difference in Thomas the Train official wooden trains and the Toys R Us brand wooden trains. 

Treats

I mentioned that my in-laws visited us and brought treats. And by treats I mean the best pears and almonds I've ever tasted, and more cocoa that I will try not to share. To best explain, I've included a list:

• White Chocolate Covered Pecans. From Alabama's favorite pecan place, Priester's. We have been allowing the children one pecan per day.
• Pecans fresh from The Farm. The Farm is what we're calling the land in North Florida that R's dad and uncle have been playing at working recently. It's land their parents owned and farmed. They have now harvested hay, field peas, pecans, and cabbage. 
• Cabbage fresh from The Farm. I put this on a ham sandwich because I thought it was lettuce. It turns out that Squirms really likes raw cabbage.
• Creme Brûlée Almonds. Wow. Wow. The brand is Squirrel's, and according to the can has been around since 1888. 
• Dunkin Donuts cake donuts. I only ate them in small segments. One can't just leave leftover donuts on the counter. I can only walk by them so many times.
• Pumpkin Marshmallows. Squirms adored these at Thanksgiving so Mamé brought the remainder for Squirms and the Great to share. They've been super helpful for bribing happily rewarding the children this week.
• Harry and David Pears. Juiciest pears ever. I didn't understand why this seemed to be a very special box of pears and it seemed very important to wait until they were ripe. It's a pear. But. It's not just a pear. If we buy you a Christmas gift next year, it might be pears. And you will probably be like, oh, great, a fruit I can get at Publix. And then you will take one bite. And we will become your favorite gift-givers.
• Spiced Pumpkin and Pecan Quickbread Mix and Pecan Pumpkin Butter. I'm going to make this for the moms' group I attend on Mondays. So I can seem fancy.
• Silly Cow Cocoa mix: Chocolate-Chocolate and Chocolate Moo-use. We all know who this is for. Me. Tonight the kids asked for hot cocoa and marshmallows. I offered them marshmallows only.

It's time to make some cocoa and keep watching the PBS show Chasing Shackleton on Netflix.

Shutter Problems

Our shutter is slowly dying on our camera. And I realized today how much I missed wearing my hair down. Living in a hot, humid climate, working in a clean room, and holding tiny babies who like to pull hair has equaled a lot of bun and pony tail styles. The Great and I were running errands today in feels-like 29 degrees temperatures and were a swirl of big coats and curls. Curls are warm.

Here are some Christmas celebration photos. Our Christmas day included reading from the book of Luke, Squirms being excited about stockings, a visit to my grandparents' home, flash flooding, hiding in a closet because of tornado sirens, power and water outages, and ear infections. It was memorable.

Christmas Eve at Great-Granny's house.

Christmas morning tree, and wagon!

Girl loves stockings.

They can both open their own gifts now!

Lunch crew. 

We are ready to start house hunting. I am addicted to Zillow. The Great is becoming such a little boy, and he loves to have iPad time (he loves it so much we have to restrict it so he will play with toys). Squirms really enjoyed Christmas decorating and all the celebrating this year. I am slowly coming to terms with her turning four next month. Four!!!! It seems so much bigger than three.

And R's parents came to visit us last weekend. They had to listen to me talk about prospective houses and look at pictures on Zillow, but we also let them play trains with the kids a bit too. They brought the kids even more trains and tracks so downstairs now is basically just train tracks. I'll probably need to do a full blog post on the different foods they brought us.

Time to go. Squirms started back to preschool today.