Hap(py) Birt(hday) Nat(han)!  The whole family enjoyed getting together the celebrate Nathan's 7 1/2 birthday today.  Our family's developed a tradition that on the kids' half birthdays we invite the whole family over for dinner and cake.  No singing though - that's reserved for their actual birth day celebrations!



I know it doesn't look like it, but Andrew had a great time and especially enjoyed his cake and ice cream.  He also was cracking us up with his sayings (especially Pawpaw), but all I can remember right now is when he repeated after Pawpaw "Dat's good cake Ka-dy".


And not to forget our Sarah-bear, whose 5 1/2 celebration is coming up in just two more weeks!  She really enjoyed spending quality time with Uncle David, whose been on the road lots so we hadn't seen him in quite a while. 


It was nice to get almost all of us (we missed you Aunt Bridget!) together to celebrate a special boy!

Yes, its been a long while since I've updated the blog, but we took our traditional Easter family picture so I decided I had to post it.  Plus here's a quick snapshot of life right now...

We are moving.  Brian starts a new job in Charlotte in May, then the kids and I will move over at the beginning of June after Nathan finishes school.  Which also means we've been spending the past weeks and months getting our house ready to sell.  It has been somewhat overwhelming, but the house looks great and we pray it will sell quickly when it goes on the market next week.

Nothing much new is going on with Nathan and Sarah.  They will play Legos together for hours sitting on the pool table in the bonus room and listening to books on CD.  Then they will be screaming at each other and crying about some little thing.  So pretty much like normal 7 and 5 year olds, I imagine.  They both love school and are both doing very well. 

Andrew, on the other hand, is still changing almost continuously.  Especially noteworthy is his language explosion in the past two months - we all just love listening to him talk!  He gets so excited to tell us what he's thinking that he gets stuck on his words sometimes, but almost everything he says is with great excitement and cheerfulness and lots of expression.  Nathan still tells me regularly "I don't want Andrew to grow up.  He is such a sweet baby right now!"  Here is a list of Andrew-isms that we don't want to forget:

• "Bap-bouie" and "bap-rumbo-tumbo" - two nonsense words that Brian would always try to get Andrew to repeat back to him right after Andrew started talking. 
• "My too-ah-tee" - For a while the kids would ask for their "T-R-E-A-T" after meals, but it wasn't long before Andrew caught on to what they were asking for and started asking for a treat as well.  Now we all call treats "too-ah-tees" sometimes.
• "Yesh" for "yes"
• "Ride M5 please Daddy", "Ride Oldsmobile please Daddy", "Ride lawn mower please Daddy".  Two things of note about this kid: he loves cars and anything with wheels, and he is super polite!
• "Please Mommy please"
• "Trailer itch" - the trailer is always referred to as a "trailer hitch"
• "No no no no no"
• His names for the family: "Nee-nee" for Nathan, "Ah-rah" then "Say-rah" for Sarah.  "Nana Da-Da" for Nana and Granddad.  "Nana Pawpaw" for Gran and Pawpaw.  "Dee-dee Nana" then "Nah-muh-mur" for Grandmother. 
• "Daddy new truck home" and "Daddy new truck work" and "Daddy orange truck home", etc.  It is always of vital importance to determine which vehicle Daddy took to work and which vehicles remain at home.
• "Nee-Nee bye-bye school" and "Ah-rah bye-bye school" also of great importance to Andrew is listing where the other family members were during the day.
• "Tiddy-tiddy tatty-tatty meow meow" - the long name he uses to refer to his favorite stuffed kitty cat.  

A Bonus List - Alternate Titles for This Blog Post

• Easter 2017 - Yay! I remembered I had a blog!
• Easter 2017 - But don't hold your breath for more.