Happy 1st Birthday Caroline

Where has the year gone? Has momma's always say, our children's time as babies flies by. And so goes Caroline's 1st year. My youngest, and last child, our baby girl, Caroline Golden turned 1 on the 14th of May. We celebrated with presents, a wonderful visit with grandparents and of course, Cake! My father and his lovely wife, Cheryl drove all the way up from Louisiana.

Our sweet Caroline the day she was born.

I had no idea what I was in for with two babies 10 months apart. This picture makes me laugh compared to the pictures of them together now.

Our Birthday Girl!!!

"Seriously, do we have to keep doing this, I just want to play!"

A present from Grandma and Grandpa in Atlanta.

Will loved playing on the slide they sent.

And there is the official "momma look" for Will, formerly known as my "teacher look". You know, the "you better behave yourself!" look that all mommy's can give.

Will had fun playing with everything that was opened up.

More presents! Caroline kept our little post office busy this week.

"I really don't want to wear this hat mommy!" Ahhh, the things we do to our kids for the sake of pictures.

Getting ready for cake!

I made Caroline a giant pink gerber daisy birthday cake. She just wants to eat it! And so does Will!

Here we all are! Everyone tells us with kids this close in age that we are going to be miserable until they are both 3 years old. Well, Mike and I have survived the 1st year. How many more to go?

Caroline cleaned her plate.

And then, she had a fit, when she couldn't have more.

And, Will put all of his ice cream in his mouth at one time, he then realized it was way too cold and uncomfortable, so I let him spit it out.

Playtime

Heeelllloooooo! (That's me yelling across a cornfield!) Anyhoo, another fun week of watching them develop. I finally joined Facebook this week. It is amazing and wonderful to see people coming out of the woodwork. It's like a flashback of my life. I have connected with people from my childhood, college, First Baptist Atl, and people I have taught with. Amazing! I have even found people that I thought I would never see again after Hurricane Katrina. Up here in Illinois, it's been a little lonely. It's been so great to reconnect with people I have loved and missed. So, for everyone who's been bugging me, we are now on Facebook. No fanfare or applause, please. Tee hee hee.

I am going to upload short videos more often at the request of grandparents. So this post has 2. One video here and one at the end.

This is video of the kids swinging together for the 1st time. We got Caroline a matching swing and Mike put them up earlier in the day. They loved it. Make sure your volume is on.

So funny, it was nap time and Will was trying to pick up Caroline. She screamed and had the look of "Don't touch me!" Love it! So much drama, they get it honestly.

Caroline is proving more and more that she's not a baby anymore. Now she has a regular snack, just like her big brother. They both eat snack and watch the Backyardigans. Except, they steal snack from each other!

Caroline has passed this box for a week and every time, she stops to look at it and try to get into it. It's a little shopping cart for her birthday that I need to put together. She's just asking, "mommy, please let me have it now!" She knows it's something for her.

" I just can't wait to have it!"

This is video of the kids playing in the front yard. Caroline still hates the grass and Will loves to run everywhere. Her expressions are so funny!

Adjusting to Ilinois

Mike, the children and I are finally getting settled in. Last week, I took the kids outside to play in the grass. This was Caroline's first experience with grass, so I was camera ready. Caroline is so prissy. She was not sure about the grass. She was so funny. For about 15 - 20 minutes, she would NOT move and kept her hands up in the air. She didn't want to touch it. Normally Caroline crawls with lightening speed all over the place, but she was not budging in the grass. Meanwhile, her brother Will, was quite happy running around and playing in the rocks. The pictures below really say it all. Even though she wouldn't move, she certainly looked beautiful with her pink bow in the green, green grass.

Looking very concerned about the stuff she was sitting in.

Finally, an attempt at touching the grass.

Ahhh, not so bad, still not moving!

Will agreed to sit for about 2 seconds.

Very curious about the strange tree in the front yard.

Oh, goodness, a little boy's heaven. So many rocks to choose from! Mommy's rules, no throwing at your sister and they have to stay outside. Other than that, have a ball, my sweet Will!

In the playroom in their red truck. Certainly headed somewhere.

Bath time! Their favorite time of day. They both just love the big deep tub. We have the hardest time keeping Caroline seated. She wants to stand up all the time. It takes both Mike and I to wash Will and keep a hand on her. Look at Will's face, he's so animated! Every bath time, I come out of it completely soaked. They both splash like crazy.

Mike and I took the babies for a walk around town. Here are some pictures of our little "village" as they call it. This is Main Street.

The old, still used, coliseum.

Our tiny post office. I walk here a few times a week for our mail. It's a little strange not having a normal mailbox at our house.

The water tower. Notice the boy and girl holding hands.

One of the grainery train stops. Several trains go through here everyday, and night, just one block from our house. Everytime, Will hollers and points in that direction. He's facinated by them. But aren't all little boys. Oh, there goes one now. Toot toot!

Another view of Main Street. Only 3 businesses left, 2 bars and the post office.

Okay, I tried this for the 1st time, it's a short video of Will doing the Nestea plunge on a blow up mattress in the playroom during the first days. Hope it works .

Our move to IL

Well, this is not the south, but it is home now. We are officially in Illinois. We are in a small town just 1 1/2 hours south of Chicago. We are renting a giant 100 year old farmhouse that is really beautiful. Stained glass windows and tons of storage. Aside from a few electrical limitations and some old, floral wallpaper, we love it. I'm so proud of my sweetheart, Mike. He did a great job picking it out. I saw the house for the first time when the trucks, yes trucks, (2 large ones) pulled up. Needless to say, my days have been super busy unpacking, taking care of my little ones, and getting ready for Caroline's 1st birthday!

The good news is that we now have super high-speed internet. We have rejoined the rest of the world. So, for everyone who says, "when are you going to update the blog!?!" I hope to update once or twice a week.

We were so lucky and blessed to have a ton of help during the move. Jim, one of Mike's dearest and oldest friends, flew into GA all the way from Colorado to help for a whole week. I don't know what we would have done without him. We will always be grateful for his time and sacrifice. A sweet angel from NC, Elizabeth, came from out of the blue, sort of, and helped me with the kids for the last 4 days so that I could finish up the final packing. She was a true Godsend. Many other folks came, Ashley, people from the church, and Mike's best man, Michael all came to help. Jim drove one truck, Mike drove the other and I drove the 2 babies in the car between them. It took us 2 days to get here. But, with God, great friends and a little luck, we made it in one (or two) pieces.

In other big news, Michelle, had her beautiful baby girl a few weeks early at end of March. Her name is Brooklyn Lee. She is gorgeous and healthy and I got to see her before we left. I was thrilled and sad about it, all at the same time because we were moving. Thank goodness for phones and email. We are also planning to be on Skype very, very soon.

Will and Caroline are adjusting to the house just fine. At first, Will loved opening the fifty or so cabinets and doors. Then, after a couple of days, he seemed ready to leave and go back "home." After a couple of cranky days, he was back to being himself. The babies have a huge playroom in the front of the house with 4 very large windows all around. They like having their own place to play and watching the cars go by. Mike and I love not tripping over toys all the time.

A quick, funny story. The first day we were here, around lunchtime, a loud siren went off in town. I panicked and ran into the living room yelling, "What's that!." I didn't know what it was, but I knew it wasn't good. I almost grabbed the kids and ran to the basement. Jim calmly looked at his watch and said, "well, it must be noon." He explained that they test the tornado siren every couple of days at noon. Being a southerner, I don't know these things. I only know hurricanes and we usually get a couple days warning for those. Now, whenever it goes off, it gets my attention, but no panicking.

Here are some pictures of Brooklyn and the last couple of weeks.

Michelle, Chris and their precious baby girl, Brooklyn.


Brooklyn, wide eyed and ready to go. Just beautiful!

Our final visit before the move.

On the road, Mike is driving the truck ahead of me, with the Mini Cooper in-tow.

A pitstop, to stretch our legs. Jim had fun walking around with Will. Will had fun testing Jim.

This is the front of the house. 100 years old, this year.

The view of the back. There is an attached garage and another extra large 2-car garage. Mike is in heaven.

If you walk 2 blocks down the street, you run straight into these corn fields. They surround this tiny town.

Our first look at the house. Jim is in part of the playroom. Will is in the living room.

Oh, how badly Will wants to help. He loved watching Daddy and Jim unload the truck.

Caroline thought the baseboard heaters were great for learning to stand.

We decided to put both babies in the same room. They love it! Naptime is interesting, though. They like throwing toys back and forth and seeing who can fall down on the mattress the fastest.

I always hear lots of giggles and chattering coming from their room.

Jim and the kids. Time to say goodbye.

Caroline and Jim. They were quite smitten with each other!

More to come, I promise!

A Time for Change All in One Day!

This past week, Tuesday was an eventful and sad day. Most of you know, our dearest Lab, Tess has been sick with renal failure since July. On the weekend, she got much sicker, quickly. On Tuesday, her breathing was labored and she was suffering, so we made the very difficult decision to let her go. She was put to sleep peacefully Tuesday night. She is being cremated and we will spread her ashes at the lake in front of our home. We had some precious time with her during her final days. She slept on the daybed overlooking the lake and gave kisses to our children.

I have had Tess since 8 wks of age. She was such a cutie!

Tess loved my mom and the feeling was mutual. Mom would feed her salad from a fork! She was spoiled rotten.

Like all Labs, she loved sticks. The bigger the better!

Even sick, she tried to comfort Will when he fell down.

The sweetest thing ever. Nose to nose with Caroline. We will forever miss her.

Also on Tuesday morning, we got the news that Mike was offered a new job. We are moving about 45 minutes south of Chicago, IL in the next few weeks. Mike has gotten a wonderful job with a college. He will be the general manager of the college's radio station. It will be a big change in many, many ways for us. I am not looking forward to the snow. Remember, I am a southern girl from New Orleans! While I am not necessarily thrilled about moving up north, we will, at least, be in a city with stores, doctors, restaurants and all of the things we need and love. No more 2 hour drives to the pediatrician. There is even a children's museum in the area, not to mention the great places just a short drive away in Chicago. Note the positive outlook...while I am sad about leaving the south, I am trying to embrace our awaiting new life. In these hard times for so many in our country, we are really blessed and fortunate to have such a great opportunity. We have prayed that God would provide for our needs and faithfully he has done so. Therefore, with a cheerful smile (most of the time) and missing our sweet Tess, we have begun the process of packing our life and moving forward.

Mike will head up to Chicago on April 1st to start work and find a home for us. The babies and I will stay behind to finish packing. We will spend some time at his parents house, say goodbye to friends and then load the truck when Mike comes back to pick us up. April 15 is our official last day here. We will keep you posted as we know more. This is a bittersweet time for our family. We love and thank you for all of the support that has been sent our way.