Walks

John LOVES going on walks. He stands at the front door pounding it and yelling until we go sometimes! Here's some really fun pictures from our walk this morning. This one was special because daddy got to come, and Johnny was so excited to share everything with him and tell him all about the bugs, birds, and trees! He's one special boy to us...

My funny boy

Today we hung out all day and packed. Meredith came over with Aubrielle and helped me pack the kitchen and some other miscellaneous stuff (of which there is a TON!). I never knew how hard packing could be with all sorts of weird shaped stuff and not enough big boxes. I'm working on getting more boxes soon, but we're making good progress. Isaac is in Charlotte today through Sunday at a home show so I have lots of free time to pack and spend with John. Today he walked over to a basket I had out and climbed inside. It was so cute and he was so proud of himself for sitting in it. Can't you tell he loves kisses from mommy? haha, hope you like the pictures!

SOLD!

We sold the house!!! What a tremendous relief and proof of God's amazing and perfect timing. The woman who bought it wants the deal to close on September 28th (yes, THIS MONTH!), so we're in an amazing hurry now to get packed and wrap up loose ends in Augusta. As of this evening we have 2 1/2 weeks, or 18 days, or 432 hours, or 25,920 minutes, or 1,555,200 seconds to pack and sign papers and leave town. WOW. I don't really even know where to start, except that just this minute I realized I forgot to go pick up boxes earlier this evening from a lady downtown. I'm a putz.
What else, you might ask? Well we were planning on driving out to Washington all together starting on the 28th but Isaac's dad Jim has offered to fly here and drive one of our vehicles so that I can fly there with John. We are currently working out all the kinks of this plan, but the cats will probably travel by car with Isaac, and me and John will stay here with friends after they leave and fly out about a week later. We have secured an apartment in University Place in a great location and can move in on the 5th. So far, that's all we've worked out, but I'll post more plans as they materialize.
We are so excited to get back to the west coast near family and old friends, yet I am having a really hard time with the prospect of leaving my friends here. Please keep me in your prayers regarding friendships and staying close to the Lord during this stressful time, and remember Isaac as he is preparing to move not just a family and a home, but a business all the way across the country. Hope you are all well, and I'll try to post some good Johnny footage soon!

Shoes, Suckers, and Slime

Well it's been uneventful here the last few days but here's some cute pictures of John. He discovered daddy's shoes by the door and commenced to try them on and walk in them. A frustrating little boy came out of this discovery because he couldn't keep the shoes on and would cry every time his foot came out of the shoe! Pretty cute, he wanted daddy's shoes, not his!
John has his first sucker yesterday, from the nice lady at the bank. He put it in his mouth and it didn't come out again until it was gone! Pretty cute, and his eyes kept watering because it was sour, haha!

And about the slime...it wasn't really slime, just gel. We styled his hair for the first time last night for our going away party at church. It was sooo cute!! He's definitely the most adorable toddler on the planet right now. As for other non-baby things, Isaac is out of town this weekend, but only for 2 days this time. Hopefully the home show goes well and he's having a good time. I'll get to talk to him tonight after it ends. Today I am also babysitting another little girl named Emily (18 months) all day and night. She got here at 10am and her mom works 24 hours at the hospital as a resident so she'll be here until about 9 Sunday morning. It's been really laid back so far, and they both took good morning naps, so we'll see about the rest of the day. It's almost naptime again!

We had another offer on the house and are waiting to hear back about our counteroffer. She's taking forever! It's hard to wait, but if this contract goes through, we will all be moving out to Tacoma together in less than 3 weeks! I can't wait to find out if we're going soon! As always, pray for our patience and waiting on God to show us what will happen.

More Walking

He's doing so great! This isn't a great video but it give you an idea of how well he's walking. It's so exciting at this stage, everything is so new for him down at that level. Enjoy!

Fun Portraits

Here's some low-resolution copies of the pictures I had taken of John early last week, they're so cute

Catching up...

Seems like we've been busy but we really haven't, we've just been having lots of fun! John is a walking pro these days and does much more walking than crawling. He thinks he's hot stuff when he does walk, and goes all over the house cracking up and grinning. It's pretty cute and really funny to see him so proud of himself, and I'm pretty proud of him too! We show everyone we come across that he can walk now. Lately, the fun thing has been to walk around the house brushing his hair with his new dollar-store hairbrush. He has to stop to brush, then keep walking. Hasn't quite figured out doing 2 things at once...I hope he will be able to chew gum and walk at the same time later ;)

I (collectively, meaning me and John) took a trip to sunny Melbourne Florida on Wed. night to visit my aunt Jeanine (dad's sister). We had such an amazing trip, filled with doggies, sun, big water (the ocean), yucky sand, swimming, shopping, Mary Poppins, good food at home, eating out, poop (that one's for you Jeanine), and special times hanging out with family. I was sooo blessed by Jeanine, Bill, and Warren and left begrudgingly on Sunday. Isaac couldn't come because of work and that was no fun, but it was such a great time! John did amazing during both car rides, a total of 15 hours driving, with no meltdowns of any kind. He watched Mary Poppins and napped a little, but mostly just listened to music with his mommy and looked out the window for 7 hours each trip! I am not so terrified to drive across the country anymore, after this great driving experience!

Monday was our 2 year anniversary also! Isaac took most of the day off and we hung out at home with the munchkin. During the evening we dropped him off with Meredith, Nathan, and Aubrielle, and went to dinner at Augusta's finest Japanese steakhouse (note the exxageration). We LOVE Fujiyamas because it's fairly cheap (as compared with the really ritzy ones) and the food is sooo good. We had the leftovers for lunch the next day and they tasted just as good!! After dinner we had coffee at parused a bookstore together, which is one of our favorite things to do. Pretty laid back and nice to be alone. Since Monday, these last couple days have been spend relaxing and spending time with friends. John is still recuperating from our long trip and practising his walking skills. I can't believe how fast time flies these days, we're having so much fun with our little one! He gets more and more personality every day, and teaches me something new every day as well.

As for the house, we have yet to get another offer and are waiting patiently on the Lord to provide a buyer. It does look like Isaac will be moving out to WA ahead of us, however, so pray for our family to stay strong and have some good times before he leaves. It is bittersweet though. I am not looking forward to being husbandless, but I am looking forward to spending a little while longer with my friends here in Augusta. I find myself waking up in the morning already looking forward to calling up Lauren or Meredith and getting together to watch our little ones play. I hope you all enjoy the pictures, please keep us in your prayers!