New Home!

After spending the afternoon running back and forth from the bank to the law office, we are officially homeowners!  So thankful Nana came to watch the kids while we took care of all of this.  Banks and law offices definitely aren't the place for children, especially loud ones like ours. We can't wait to get in and start painting, however the sellers won't be out until the end of June.  We take possession of the house on July 1st and then the chaos begins, well, really it just kicks into high gear.  Below is a picture of our new home. It is not that great since I just stole it from a real estate website but will do until we get in it.  Once we get the keys I'm going to try and take lots of pictures of the before so everyone can track our progress. I feel like a weight has been lifted, and we now have a place to call our own.  I hope the children and animals adjust easily once we move, I really don't want to be at a house with 4 animals and 2 babies that aren't happy campers. I feel confident that the cats will do just fine, they have survived all of our moves in the past.  And Neil is really too young to be affected too much by all of this, so really if Camden and the dogs are OK then we should be just fine.

Hopefully more pictures of the house to come soon!

Old Friends

Today Camden, Neil, and I loaded up and went to Indianola. We went to Indywood (an assisted living facility) where my oldest and dearest friend lives. I feel bad because this was her first meeting with Neil, but now that I know how easy the trip was we will definitely make it once a month. Mrs. Pinion loved visiting with the kids and Camden loved rearranging all of her nick-knacks and playing with her jewelry. Neil was content to lay on the bed and watch all of the excitement. After talking with her I found out that she has not been out to eat the entire eight months of her stay there! So we (being me, since she is ninety something) loaded the kids back up and headed to Pea Soups. She was so happy to be out of the place and into the world again that she cried all the way to the restaurant. The tears went away once they brought her a cheeseburger and she was lively and chatty once again. After lunch we went back to her room and visited a little while longer. I was so glad we got to see her and can't wait to go back once we get moved in and show her pictures of the new house. Below are a few pictures from today.

 Letting Camden play with her jewelry!

Loving on Neil

Counting Down & Up

Well, we were supposed to close on our new house yesterday but due to lawyers and paperwork it got pushed back to Thursday. Hopefully this will be it! I am not a patient person and really don't handle things well when people don't hold up their end of the deal or miss deadlines. So I'm guessing this is supposed to be a lesson in patience for me.

On a lighter note, Camden is now counting verbally! She was in the bed with me this morning and counted to two on her fingers. Last night she was able to recognize several of her numbers in the bathtub. I am so proud of her, she is talking more and more and trying to form sentences! She is so sweet although not the biggest help when it comes to packing. She likes to remove all the items I place in boxes before I get them taped up. Neil is still a great baby and sleeps much better than she did at his age. Overall I can't complain about much except for being a "single parent" right now. Marvin is working day and night and we aren't seeing much of him. I'm praying that things will slow down soon.

Camden loves to play in the dirt, below is a picture of her from Monday.

The Cat Came Back (not for those with a weak stomach)

Sheba is finally home! For those of you who don't know, a few days before Neil was born Sheba (our cat we have had since we first married) got attacked/skinned alive. Literally half of her skin was peeled off and had to be resown.  The problem was there wasn't adequate blood supply to the huge area and the skin kept dying and that's why she had to stay so long. She actually came home on Friday with a quarter size wound on her side and a huge sewn up place underneath. Once she was free to roam about our house again however she ripped the sewn place completely open, not something you want to have with a toddler running around the house.  So she went back and this time she got staples and stitches, poor thing looks like a barbed-wire fence. Surprisingly though she has been in great spirits and is back to her old self.  The only issues are our other cat Sandy, and Camden.  Camden thinks she can rough-house with Sheba like she does Sandy and I have to keep reminding her that Sheba has boo boo and we have to be gentle with her for a while.  Sandy apparently got used to being the only house pet and is very territorial right now, I'm sure in a few weeks they will be back to their usual selves though.  Below are pictures of her good side and her bad side. When you look at her from the right she looks completely normal, it's just the left side and her stomach that look so bad.

My Sweet Cat!

Great-grands

Last weekend we to visit Mama and my grandparents came over to meet Neil for the first time! It's hard to believe its been over 2 months since I have seen them. They got to watch Camden entertain them as well and Neil was very content in Gramps' arms and did not want to leave when they had to go. Here are a few pictures Mama took that day.