It Takes Everything...

"It takes everything" pretty much sums up the past two months of our lives. It's been crazy busy and I can't believe it's only been a little over a month since we moved. I feel like it's been forever ago! What that fortune really means is a mystery, but this move sure took everything out of me. And PJ too. We decided to never EVER move again. We're going to retire in this home. Moving is a beast! It's a slooow process but we are finally settling in. I finally stopped missing our house on the street and turning into the right driveway. The bulk of the boxes is unpacked and we mainly just have to put up some home decor items and put books on the shelves. Pictures of our finished home will follow soon. The plan is to have everything done by Ophelia's third birthday. The party planning is in full force and Ophelia lets us know at least once a day that she is going to have Rapunzel cupcakes for her birthday. It's going to be a fun party!

Here is a digest of all the happenings of the past two months in pictures. Lots of pictures! Get ready.


Our sweet Emerson is our little sunshine. He is just such a sweet baby! So smiley, so calm, go-with-the-flow tiny guy. He loves to hear PJ play guitar. He gets really still and just watches and listens to his papa. Just a week ago he finally started sleeping though the night. I could not be happier! I could not believe it the first night...woke up with bricks on my chest and went to check on him, make sure he was still breathing. We got scared because we found some blood spots on the sheet next to Emerson's head. But it just turned out to be a scratch on his scalp. He still has cradle cap and scratches his head often, so that time at night he must have scratched more than normal and it bled a bit. Nothing serious, but scared us a lot! We ended up waking him up and checking all over his body. That night he slept for 12 hours straight until we woke him!!! It was a miracle considering that for the first 5 months of his life he woke up every 3-4 hours to feed. It's been so nice to get the kids down in bed by 8pm and have the whole night to sleep until 5 or 6 am. I love babies and I love my chunky-thighs baby boy, but the whole sleep deprivation stage is just hard on me, my physical and emotional being. I was dreading it when I was pregnant. I knew I am going to lack sleep for a while, and it ended up being five whole months... Now I am just happy as can be to finally be past that stage and enjoy life to its fullest :)

Emerson has been a trooper during the whole move thing. There were so many times when he just had to sit in his bouncy chair and watch me pack, unpack, move boxes and so on. He was absolutely content with that and enjoyed watching the many people that were helping us. Ophelia has been a little harder to have around, because she is just curious to know what's going on and what everyone is doing. Of course, she wants to help too. Here is a picture of her watching TV. Whenever she is scared of something, she has been plugging her ears. Not closing her eyes or hiding, just plugging her ears :)

Ophelia continues to love being a big sister. She developed a loud, high pitched tone of voice whenever she talks to Emerson: "Hi, my sweet boy! Hi, my sweet boy! What are you doing?" It's funny and the little man seems to enjoy it too. He loves it when Ophelia plays with him. I squint in anticipation of her hurting him whenever she gets close to her brother, but Emerson actually loves the rough-housing and laughs out loud at a good head-butt from his big sister.

Our last days in Fort Worth we got an incredible amount of help from all of our Fort Worth friends. They have come to help us pack, invited us for dinner, gave us boxes and supplies, watched our kids, hosted a good-bye party for us, and loaded our truck. I feel so blessed to have such awesome friends that were there for us in time of need. We miss them a lot! Here are some pictures of Ophelia with her friends a week before our move. She misses Raine and Carter a lot and can't wait for them to come visit us for her birthday weekend.

For the month of June I decided to sign Ophelia up for a tumbling class at the Hurst Rec Center. This time it was a no-mommies class. She loved it so much. I am in the process of looking for something similar here in Cedar Park now.

 It was so stressful to have PJ being gone and me having to do all the packing. Grandma and Grandpa came a couple days before the move and helped to get the house ready for the move. At this point it feels like it was such a long time ago. PJ took a bus up to Fort Worth on Friday before the move, so that we didn't have to haul a car behind the moving truck On the day of the move, we got a 20 ft truck early in the morning and the guys started to get everything out of the house. As soon as our dearly loved sectional couch went into the truck, we sensed that we should have gotten a bigger truck. The uhaul website promised that a 20 ft truck should be plenty big for a 3-bedroom house, so I was sure it will be more than enough for our 2-bedroom home... Not so! We were fortunate that Chuch and Nancy's friends from Bertram were up in Fort Worth with their trailer and let us borrow it for the move at the last minute. I don't know what we would have done otherwise! By 2 pm PJ and his Dad took off with the moving truck, Chuck's truck, and the trailer, all three of them packed to the rim. Hard to believe we fit so much stuff in a 1100 sq feet home! There was a little sidestory of PJ thinking he lost the keys to our new house 20 minutes after they left, but upon closer look in his backpack, the keys were found and catastrophe averted... Nancy and I cleaned the house as much as we could and by 4 pm we had our car packed full with the kiddos and other last minute things :) My friend Rashae watched Ophelia that whole day on our moving, Saturday, so, unfortunately (or fortunately), Ophelia did not get to help pack the truck. Since she missed the whole move thing, she still thinks that we have another home with all our usual things in it. She told me the other day that she wants to go to our old home. What can I say, we are still getting used to our new home. We love it though. Here are some pictures of it, when I first went down to see it.

Once we have everything in order and where we want it, I'll have to post some new pictures of the inside of the home.

It was Father's day weekend when I packed up the car with kids and took off down to Austin to give my stamp of approval on our new home. Here are some great pictures from our Father's day celebration in Oatmeal. I love this picture of Emerson. Don't you just want to take a bite of those puffy cheeks?

Three fathers

Cousin love

Cozy cuzzies

Happy Father's Day 2012

Our try at taking some family pictures... Good times :)

Grandma with the babies:

All three grandkiddos with Grandma and Grandpa:

Our last days at the old home. I was excited to move and be with PJ again, and in a new, bigger home, but I was also sad to leave our old home. That was our first home together. And the home where we took both of our newborn babies. Lots of good memories there!
Love these pictures of the kids:

Notice that Ophelia is actually wearing panties. Towards the end of May, Ophelia got to the point of asking us to change her diaper every time she peed or pooped. It was ridiculous! Tons of diapers and tons of diaper changing. I got tired of it and finally decided to try potty training again, despite the fact of the move in a month. The first day we had two accidents and then...it clicked! She pooped and peed in her potty. There was a matter of money bribes involved, but hey! it worked! One diapered kid is MUCH better than two. She got a coin after each potty-going and then we made a trip to the dollar store to get a lollipop. One day and she was potty trained! It was such a struggle only half a year ago and look at her now. It's true what they say that "when they're ready, they'll do it". We did have some accidents once in a while, but for the past two weeks, not a single one! She does sleep with a diaper on, but it's dry 80% of the time. YAY!

In the mix of the move, Emerson continued to grow and develop. He mastered turning onto his tummy and back. By 4.5 months I stopped swaddling him completely and he started sleeping on his side. He has found his thumb and is totally a thumb-sucker now. He refuses to take bottles or pacifiers. Now, looking back, I remember that he loved to suck on my pinky while being rocked to sleep when he was just days old, he may have been a thumb-sucker in the womb.  By 5 months, he got really good at grabbing anything within his reach and putting it into his mouth. He has grabbed Ophelia's hair a couple of times when she was snuggling up to him, which caused a lot of tears and explanations that babies don't mean to hurt. We have started solids already and he has a good tongue motion with practically no spills overboard. He enjoys eating solids a lot! Emerson is a light sleeper, but has no trouble falling asleep in his own crib, with his noisemakers on. He falls asleep in the car too. He takes 3-4 naps a day. Trouble sleeping comes when we are at church or anywhere else but home. I guess I can't have it all!

This is an action shot to the right. Emerson is scratching his head and sucking his thumb at the same time. Sleepy baby!

These pictures were taken by Ophelia. She wanted to take pictures of me and Emerson. Pretty good, don't you think?

I had to take these pictures for Dedushka, who keeps telling me that it never rains in Dublin :) Here is proof that it does! And daily too! Dublin summer vs. Fort Worth summer.

Ophelia is honing her coloring skills. A year ago she randomly colored the whole piece of paper. Now she colors sections of same thing with multiple colors. It turns out pretty cool! I never taught her that either. Her own little imagination at work.

This picture is the first picture in the new house. Emerson started loving to sleep on his tummy. Face down :) Wakes up with a smooshed, red face, but happy as can be! 

The kids hanging out on the couch. It's a huge piece of furniture, but we love it! So happy that we safely moved it.

New places for Emerson to hang out: exersaucer and the high chair. We got out the exersaucer finally and he enjoys checking out all of the toys in it. We still have to tuck in a blanket around his body, so that he is snug in there.

Got this high chair on craigslist. Still a bit too big, no? Without the tray it works well for his mealtimes.

Ophelia and I have been exploring lots of places to go and things to do here in Cedar Park. We are starting to make some new friends too. I try to do something fun with the kids every morning. We've been to a bounce house, the library, splash parks, a kiddie amusement park, and just park playgrounds. I love our location! There are just a ton of things to do with kids. The is baby Emerson at one of our outings:

Our bathtub is much more fun to play in! Here is the first bath together. Emerson does not sit up yet on his own, so he slipped and slid a lot. I am sure in a couple of months though the kids will have a blast in there.

Here are the kids cracking up at each other. It is hilarious and they do it all the time. Videos to follow!

Ophelia drives her car from the living room to her bedroom...we do have a bigger house now, so now we need transportation :) Papa snuck in the camera while I was playing with dochka.

Another box unpacked! Wait a minute! It's packed with kids now! Perfect! Now where should I ship them? To Dublin for Babushka and Dedushka or to Colorado for Grandma and Grandpa? Some bubble wrap and it will be good to go :)

We have been loving being close to family down here. Dinners together are awesome! Also Grandma and Grandpa took Ophelia camping with them to Blanco. She had a blast! With floaties on her arms and a floatie swimsuit, turns out she is a great swimmer!

One ophelia-ism before I go: I love how she calls breakfast "breaFKast" and napkin "makin". 

Long time between posts means longer posts. Phew!

May Matters

It was a busy-busy yet fun month for us here in Texas. The awesome news of the past few days is that PJ got a job at UT...a REAL job...as in with benefits and a yearly salary...and most importantly one that he really wanted and that we prayed for so so hard. We have a little prayer "cheat sheet" for Ophelia, so that when she says her prayers at night she remembers what things she can say "thank you" for and what things she can ask for. All of it is depicted in pictures, like our house, our car, our family, etc. The "ask for" part is tricky to depict in pictures, but I did find a clip art of a guy behind a work desk, so in her prayers she would always remember to ask for papa to get a job. Well, it worked! We are so excited that this waiting-for-job-offer period is over and we have some kind of stability and focus to our life. But at the same time we are anxious about finding a new house and moving...I guess these are good changes though and I shouldn't sweat the small stuff and just be grateful for Heavenly Father blessing us with the big things. 

So, PJ found out about the job Friday afternoon and he is starting Monday, which is tomorrow! It's totally crazy! The tough part is that until we find a house, the kids and I will be on our own Monday through Friday.  We'll see how it goes, but it was hard to say good-bye to PJ today...

The prayer "cheat sheet" also has a picture of a boy at a doctor's office smiling and showing thumbs up, which supposed to represent health. The funny part is that Ophelia in her prayers instead of asking for us to be healthy, now asks for this boy to be healthy :) We have been having some struggles with getting her to say a prayer lately, but when she does, they are really sweet. When blessing food she makes it a point to mention each and every item on her plate, so it goes something like this "thank you for this chicken and potatoes and dressing and broccoli...". PJ and I often silently chuckle during these special little prayers!

The first part of May, PJ got done with his TCC job, which freed up his Tuesdays and Thursdays, so he was able to go on this Cinco de Mayo celebration with Ophelia's preschool. Here is the whole class and their teacher, Ms Jeannie.

Fun with water balloons:

Here is a video of Ophelia relay racing :)

Pinata was a huge hit of course! Ophelia said she wants a pinata for her next birthday.

The loot:

By mid-May PJ was done with the UTA job as well and we got to spend a lot of time at home together. We had some good times, but each of the kids had a cold, so we had to deal with a lot of sneezing and coughing and sniffling. Ophelia gets super cranky when she is sick, so it was tantrums galore at our house for a week or so, but it's been better now. It was Emerson's first cold of his life here, but he did well too. He was less smiley than normal for a couple days, but that was it. It is so hard when babies get sick, because there is nothing out there you can give them to relieve their struggles, like a decongestant. We got a warm-air humidifier for him, which seemed to help, but it was hard to hear his terrible cough and being able to do anything about it. I suspect he may have had an ear infection too just because of him pulling his ears and fussing, but he never had a fever, so I am happy that he didn't have to start his life with a course of antibiotics...

I have been spoiled by PJ waking up when Ophelia wakes up, which has been around 7 am, and letting me sleep in till 9 or so with Emerson. He still wakes up every 3 hours at night, and every 2 hours when he had a cold. Also PJ would wake up at night with Ophelia when she woke up screaming. She has been having nightmares apparently, which is also so sad that we, as parents, can do nothing about that...I was also spoiled with catching a few naps here and there while PJ took Ophelia out to a park or playground. It's been 5 hours and I miss him so much already! I asked him to quit his new job and just stay home with me :) I wish, right?

We went down to Oatmeal for mother's day weekend. Jana and Daniel were there too, so it was good to catch up with them and for them to meet our kids.

Unkie Mark with his hands full..hehe..check out those double chins going on! So cute!

Oh, Emerson! We almost had a picture with everyone looking at the camera!

 May in Texas means welcome back, heat. So, to cool off, and also to be productive, PJ and Ophelia washed his car one afternoon. She had a blast! Such a little water person!

Speaking of heat... here is The Snowman song to cool you guys off :)

I love how sweet Ophelia is to her brother. Sincerely sweet. Whenever she seed him for the first time in the morning, she always goes up to him, from whatever she is doing, and hugs and kisses him and says: "Hi, my sweet boy! Hi!" over and over again :) She likes to tickle him and help me out with whatever he needs. The other day I laid Emerson in the bathroom before his bath to go get a clean diaper for him. When I got back, Ophelia had already pulled off his socks and took off his diaper for me without even being asked. Of course, everything she does is kind of rough and abrupt for the most part, but it seems that Emerson doesn't mind that, he even enjoys it, I think. He always smiles at his big sister and loves watching her do whatever. Here they are holding hands:

Caught Emerson laughing on tape (finally!):

At the end of May Ophelia had a little graduation from her preschool. It's hard to believe that she cried and didn't want to go at first, because now it's her favorite, most anticipated thing to do. She is sure going to miss Ms Jeannie and going to school! Hopefully we can find something similar down in Austin. Here she is waiting  for the ceremony to start:

Walking in to her seat:

She was such a good, brave girl. There were older boys who just were too shy to sit up front and sing songs. Well, not our little girl! She was right there and ready to do whatever!

Getting her certificate:

This little preschool was one of the best things that we've done for her. She excelled in her social skills tremendously, not mentioning learning concepts, letters, numbers, colors, and getting used to a school-type environment. I am so happy we did it, despite the 25 minute commute each way!

Here is our happy little fellow:

And our beautiful little girl:

My best friend growing up came for a surprise 2-hour visit, while she was in Dallas on business. It was so awesome to see her, and in some ways surreal. So glad she got to meet the kiddos. Ophelia kept calling her "tyotya" (meaning "lady") despite me telling her that her name is Nastya. After the visit, Nastya said she does not feel ready to have kids yet...which gives you an idea that our kids are kind of a handful :) Welcome to my world! But I wouldn't want them any other way! Sure keeps my life interesting :)

Here is hoping that I survive being outnumbered two to one this week!