Welcome to our Home!

The time has come to give everyone a tour of our new home here in North Carolina. We are loving it and it is so perfect for us right now. Rocky officially has a back yard, Lily officially has her own room and we have peace and quiet each night. Even more exciting is that we no longer have an enormous street light right outside of our window that seriously rivals the sun in brightness. It is wonderful!

Our new digs sit on a cul-de-sac lot surrounded by huge trees. In fact, our house stays so wonderfully cool because the trees are so thick. The trees do create a fantastic breeding ground for bugs of all sorts, but the shade and foliage is wonderful. The Lord has really blessed us with this place.

The house is perfect for our two families because it is a split floorplan. The Jessups have taken up residence in the lower level and the three of us have inhabited the top. We all share one kitchen, but have separate living areas and bedrooms. We have a fantastic and cozy living room at the top of the stairs which leads to the dining room.




I love the brown color on the walls, it's so homey! The kitchen is light and bright and really functional. We have two pantries and two fridges so it really works well.


The hallway leads to our three rooms all clustered together and we have one bathroom.



I was a little concerned that one bathroom wouldn't be enough and somewhat of an inconvenience. Then the Lord opened my eyes to the fact that billions of people don't have running water or indoor plumbing, let alone an entire bathroom. We have so much. So instead of it being an “inconvenience,” it has become a blessing. Plus having only one bathroom is easier to clean!

Bob and My bedroom is still a work in progress, but is mostly done.


We love the new paint color and the space is perfect. The closets are so small so in order to finish the room I am in the market for a cheap dresser. Once that is in place I will finish it off.

Lily LOVES her room. It is wonderful for her to have her own space and a special Lily only area. It has worked wonders for her sleeping and routine constancy. I am anxiously awaiting the day when I can paint her room, but for now I think it turned out pretty cute.



Lastly is the guest bedroom. The space is very small and just fits the double bed and night stand, but is ready and waiting for any visitors wanting to come visit the little one.


It is nice to know that we can now have company without having to put them in the hallway to keep the baby asleep.

Our home is truly a God send and we are so humbled to have it. Living with the Jessup's is also a joy. We love that God has made a reality out of an idea and pray without ceasing that our year is bright and blessed.


Welcome to Our Home

P.S. If you want to see the Jessup's home check out their blog www.3rdof8.blogspot.com.

Marmalade Skies

I know, I know, you are sitting there going, "Seriously, Bethany, when do we get to see the finished house." Soon, my friends, soon! It is somewhat tricky to get pictures of all of the rooms because 1) the baby is sleeping so I don't dare go near her room 2) I forget to take a picture of the baby room while she is awake or 3) keeping rooms clean enough to take a picture is harder than you would think. Getting the "finished" product on film has been a project to say the least. Once I capture the baby's room, I will end the suspense and give you all a tour.

The past week has definitely felt like somewhat of a whirlwind. Between finishing the unpacking, cleaning out the remaining odds and ends in the apartment, getting Lily back into routine and playing single parent for a couple of nights it was Monday one minute and Friday the next.

Friday was our official move out date for our apartment so Lily and I headed over to get checked out. The empty apartment was the perfect place to put the mobile little one, safety in all directions.


Although I am happy to see it go, the process of turning in our keys was somewhat bittersweet to say the least. After all, it was Lily Grace's first home. I suppose it will always have a special place in my heart.

After turning in the keys we picked up Bob from work and headed over to Marmalade Skies to celebrate another chapter closed in the Longmire Story.


Marmalade Skies is the best place ever! It is a frozen yogurt parlor that is all self serve yogurt and toppings. They have new flavors every week and a multitude of yummy toppings. The frozen yogurt is all sugar free, nonfat or low fat yada yada yada. So you don't feel too terrible when you add hot butterscotch, cheesecake bites, whip cream and chocolate chips to the top. After all, its yogurt, it has to be good for you! We sat down and enjoyed our sugar free sugar with Lily (who LOVES the stuff). She was so squirmy that Bob thought the best parenting choice at the time was to put her on the floor and let her crawl around.



She managed to scoot herself all around the store meeting patrons as she went. I am sure there are some raised eyebrows, but in our defense, I did take her pacifier off before she drug it around!

I have also succumbed to the pressure and have officially gotten myself a "Mom's Purse." You know the bag that has an endless supply of whatever you need at the right time. Think Mary Poppins and that will clear it up. Between the sippy cups, Cheerio container, extra toys, extra pacis, phone, wallet etc. etc., my little purse wasn't cutting it. I needed something with more square footage and frankly carrying around a diaper bag and a purse is highly impractical. So, here we are, I could even fit the baby should the occasion call for it.

My Dream Job

There are times as a Mom that life can feel overwhelming. It think that it is mostly due to the fact that you are always working. Sure you have nap time and time after bed time, but when the little one isn't in your presence you are constantly thinking about her. At least this is how I find myself being with Lily. Right now Lily is dealing with a major life change (moving), teething, crawling, and worst of all Mosquitos. She has no less than 10 bites on her little body. With all of this going on, lets just say she is less than happy all the time and more than a little bit clingy to me. With all of the changes and newness, I feel like I can get very little done when she is awake. It is truly an overwhelming feeling and yet I am absolutely the happiest I have ever been. I love Mommyhood! It satisfies me and I wouldn't want to be doing anything else.


Amidst the move and housing changes, the Lord has been blessing Bob's work efforts. He was just promoted to the Director of Client Relations position with his company. I am so proud of him and cannot believe how successful he has become. I just know there are great things in his future and alternately ours. When he was sharing with me his exciting news I told him that I would probably be jealous if I didn't have the best most wonderful-fulfilling-exciting-beautiful-challenging out of this world job! I Love being a Mommy.

BEST. JOB. EVER.

Let the Unpacking Begin!

Once the unpacking began we all worked our little tail feathers off. Of course, when the babies were awake we did take some time to snuggle and we usually started the day with a run and a latte, but all of the other hours were spent working our way through the sea of boxes. In an effort to feel like I was actually accomplishing something instead of creating more messes, Lily and I hung up our Colorado pictures. Ah, a little bit of home.


The living room area is painted a rustic brown. Although it makes the room look darker, it is so cozy and the pictures looked great! After day one things were still piled everywhere, but I was feeling like things were heading in the right direction.



On our second morning in our new casa, Grandma Jill headed down to the Lake for a run and Lily and I had some quality Mommy and Me time. We started the morning by heading downstairs to help our new roomies build Jancsi's crib.


Lily munched on her Baby Mum-Mums (current favorite snack, cheerios are a close second) and hung out with her new BFF Jancsi. Grace and I are just sure that they are going to be fast friends. It is so precious to watch them interact. Jancsi is mesmerized just watching Miss Lily and Lily enjoys patting him, talking to him and just staring at him. On a side note: it is wonderful having another new mom in the house. Middle of the night feedings are so much more tolerable when you know you are not alone.

For the rest of the week we worked and worked to get our house in order. By Thursday we started to see some progress and we were starting to see the floor.


Grandma Jill took some time from all of the work to enjoy playing with Lily in her new room. We opened a set of shakers and Lily instantly took to them. She and Grandma started a rockin' band.


Thankfully Bob found the attic which opened up a world of storage space for all of us. We were a little worried come Wednesday night that we would have to live surrounded by suitcases, old baby clothes, extra linens, camping gear and Christmas boxes. Whew.

Over the weekend Bob worked on getting all of our technology set up. I am so thankful to have a man who understands all of the wires and stuff. One less thing I have to worry about. As you can see, Lily loves helping her Daddy.

All My Bags Are Packed....I'm Ready to GO!

Moving day finally arrived and I was up bright and early thinking of all I needed to do. While I took many weeks to pack boxes, it still felt like we had so much to do. So 5:45 rolled around and I was rarin' to go! Lily wasn't getting left, thats for sure!


Our lease technically didn't start until the 18th which was a Monday so I was worried about having help. Our landlord was awesome and let us move all of our stuff in a day early, Praise the Lord! We had Bob and Steve around to help get us moved. We were also quadruply blessed because our neighbor Eric Fichtner offered to help and he brought with him a posse of teenagers. The phrase, "Many hands make for light work" is so true! What a blessing to have so much help!

Steve started by taking apart all of the beds and of course Lily helped Daddy with his wires and technology.



Once all of the workers arrived we worked out a great system where we hauled down everything, Jill watched the baby amidst the chaos and Bob stayed in the truck as the official stacker-sorter-puzzle solver. It worked great and we were all packed up within 2 hours. WOW.



Now our new home is adorable, but it is not enormous by any stretch. It is spacious, but everything is smaller and of course having two families was going to put every nook and cranny to good use. I told Bob that our house is a metaphor for what has happened to America. Seriously, we have super sized everything including closets, door frames, hallway sizes and ceilings. It is really eye opening to live in an actual normal size house. We LOVE it. Albeit we have had a hard time finding a place for everything. The Goodwill has gotten much of our stuff over the past week or so. It has really shown me how utterly blessed we are! Thank you Lord.

Well, Jill and my first mission upon arriving in the new home was to paint the master bedroom.



I am so grateful too because it was a questionable yellow mustard color which was not going to work with my decor. So we secluded ourselves in the room and painted away. I think we took it from drab to fab. What do you think?

Before



After



The guys brought in the rest of the stuff and literally filled the dining and living areas.


Oh my. Since our lease didn't start until Monday we all headed back over to the apartment again to sleep on air mattresses.


Lily had a blast rolling around on the expanse of the living room and without TV we had a party on the floor and turned in early with the baby. Unpacking boxes would start tomorrow.

The Calm before the Storm

The week leading up to the big moving day brought in Grandma and Grandpa Hill from Illinois. Grandma Jill helped us move last year and she decided that she had so much fun she wanted to come out and help us again. We were all eternally grateful because the prospect of moving everything with a little Lily in our midst was somewhat overwhelming.


So we enjoyed all the best things of Summer complete with a run and latte every morning, nap times, swimming in the pool, reading lots of books (Pat the Bunny is her current fav!)


and play, play, play. Jill brought the little one this awesome new toy that has little things that pop up when you do stuff (I know, not a very technical definition, but you get the point). Lily loved it!


It was actually really challenging all things considered. There was a nob to turn, one to flip, one to move side to side and one to push. Poor Rocky was just about beside himself with the toy because the push button had a squeak in it which drove him bonkers. No Rocky, you can't eat the baby toy. It was almost as if Lily knew it bugged him because she would push it and then watch him with a big smile. Poor Neurotic Rocky!

Grandpa Steve was awesome with Lily and kept her thoroughly entertained. She especially loved playing with him in the laundry basket and swimming with him in the big pool. What fun.




A couple of days before the big move we all piled in our car. Yes, Me, Bob, Lily, Jill, Steve and Rocky along with our luggage including a pack and play for Lily squished inside our little Nissan and headed down to Charlotte for a visit with Aunt Darcie and Uncle Brent. Darcie scooped up the little one for some quality Auntie time right away.





Lily gets bigger and bigger with every visit. When Grandma, Aunt D or Daddy wasn't snuggling with her she was on the floor motoring about. She is officially on the way to crawling right now.


It is so cute because she does the whole army crawl on her elbows while pushing with her feet. Let me tell you she can motor about quickly when she wants to! Lily watched Brent cook our wonderful meal and Darcie and Bob fed the hungry bear cub.



Lily is such a great eater. She eats anything and everything these days. Darcie learned really quickly though that you should give the veggies first because after a serving of fruits, the veggies don't go down as easily. They do go down, but its harder to keep Miss Lily focused.

The next morning all of us (Baby included) headed down into Charlotte for a morning run. Bob pushed the baby and all of us headed on our 8 mile jaunt around town. Darcie and her running buddy move fast so all of us finished our 8 miles in around an hour and 13 minutes. What a run. We all felt great and finished strong.

After a much needed breakfast and a Starbucks run, we packed all of us back in our Nissan and toodled back to Raleigh, went to bed early and prepared ourselves for moving.