Sold our house and moved to a duplex
Haelyn's 2nd Christmas
Hope was born
Broke ground
It snowed a terrible snow
Babies grew
Babies ate
Babies played
Moved again
Mark turned old...I mean 30
Haelyn turned 2
Well, in the past 7 months we have had quite an adventure. It really has been much easier than it sounds. At least that's the perspective we have now. Maybe in 10 years we will look back and realize the insanity, but for now it's all we know. And, we happen to like it.
We found out I was pregnant with Hope when Haelyn was 10 months old. It was a surprise for sure! It was the best surprise I have ever ever gotten...yes, it was better than my 30th birthday surprise (even though that was really great). God is miraculous and knows just how to keep us on our toes. He proves to us everyday that he is in control and bigger than we are. He knows the plans he has for us and for our family. It is really amazing to watch his works unfold. Sometimes it's trying and confusing, and sometimes it's just down right breath taking.
We put our house on the market in March of 2009 and it sold in December 2010 (same month my surprise was born...of course). I threatened to paint the guest room green, bought the bedding, picked the paint swatches, and next thing you know we have a buyer. Why couldn't I have threatened that 9 months ago??!! We were super blessed in that process and found a cute little duplex to call home for 5 months. "5 months of transition" is what I like to call that time. Mark started working for ACU in October, we moved mid-December and I had a baby 2 days after Christmas...all the while we were trying our best to keep up with H Bug. She was ever growing and ever changing. She started eating all by herself, working the iPad, talking and more talking, brushing her own teeth, she got the Flu (not fun just ask Mark who also got it), doing puzzles, reading books, climbing, saying "Mama" (took her 19 months to say my name...she knew how she just didn't want to...can we say STRONG WILLED) AND she became a big sister at just under 18 months old! Whew!!
I think back to the days we spent in that duplex, all the growing my sweet girls did, and I get teary eyed. That place got on my nerves after a while, but it was a place that special memories were made. It was smallish and had yucky carpet, but who cares about all that when you are watching God's creation unfold before your very eyes. I brought my sweet Hope home to that duplex. I nursed her in the wee hours of the night. She got her first ear infection there. She smiled for the first time there. She sat up in the Bumbo for the first time there. She took her first bath there. We got snowed in for four days and had good ole fashioned family fun there. It's just a lot of good good memories for this Mama. I would have been perfectly content, truly, to live there forever and fix my eyes on these girls. I just happen to be able to do that in a newer house a few streets away.
We moved into our house at the beginning of May and 2 weeks later my summer began! I LOVE summer. I LOVE spending all day with my girls...it's a luxury I have in my career. I LOVE my career, but I also LOVE and treasure the times I get to regroup and refocus. If I have learned anything in life it's that I have FOREVER to become the best teacher in the world, but I only have a minute to watch my babies grow. Fortunately, I get to spend a good amount of time with them AND fulfill my desires and gift of teaching. I have my feet evenly planted in the working world and the mommy world. It's a good feeling of equilibrium. Being a Mommy is good for my soul and fulfilling my calling to teach is also good for my soul. I am a firm believer that we are not guaranteed happiness in life, and we spend way too much time trying to attain it. We can however attain purpose, but we must not be misinformed that it will always come with happiness. This is my personal philosophy of life. Based on that philosophy, I feel it is truly important to fulfill my purposes in life. They are in no particular order; to be wife, to be a mother, and to be a teacher. Sometimes I am doing one of those things better than the other, but I try with all my might to do each of those honorably each day. I cannot predict what those roles will look like in a couple of days or years, but today they look like this.
Okay...off my soapbox.
What have we been doing with our summer? (Click on the links for proof)
Well...swimming, swinging, going to the park, having play dates with our friend Gavin, welcoming baby Carlee, super clubbing, pulling weeds, WATERING, reading books, doing puzzles, watching Dora "ora", dancing and singing, laughing and playing in boxes, learning shapes and colors, learning some letters, patterns, learning A LOT of new words, learning more sign language, learning how to say prayers and recalling names of family members, learning to crawl, learning to sit up, learning to go from tummy/back/side to sitting up, learning to pull up, trying new baby foods, vacuuming, killing Scorpions, killing huge spiders, killing a MILLION crickets (thanks to the drought and the open fields behind and beside our new house), Nana camp, watching a July 4th parade and fireworks from our driveway, planning birthday parties (Mark -30 and Haelyn -2), somewhat organizing, doing laundry, making homemade popsicles, watching our shed blow away in the ONE storm we've had all summer, using sunscreen, taking naps, going to weddings, and THE. LIST. GOES. ON. We don't miss a beat in the Rogers house but we do love our naps and down time.
We will have some down time as a family in a couple of weeks when we go to Great Wolf Lodge. We have never been, and have only heard really great things. I can't wait to post pictures and let you know of our adventures.
Thursday we go for 2 year and 6 month shots...that should be fun...not really. I am anxious to see how these girls have grown, but not anxious to hold them down for doom. :(
I'm glad to be back on the blog wagon!
As Dr. Jean Feldman would say, "bye bye butterfly".
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