august first half, before the move of 2012...

Ahhh.  I'm sitting in front of my desk top computer for the first time in weeks, and it feels so good. Like sitting by an old friend.  haha.  No, seriously, though.  It feels good.  If you happen to have a phone with internet capabilities, you know how convenient it is to have the world wide web available at your fingertips---but there's something comforting and convenient about being able to really TYPE with a TRUE keyboard and see a BIG screen for viewing pleasure.  

It's the little things, people.

Anyway, as I upload the 1,000+ pictures (seriously, no joke) from the past three weeks of life, I thought I'd finish the "catch up game" I started before our wee one was born.  

Enter: The first half of August (before the big move) 2012...

Let's talk about how I got to help in creating some dahhhling baby shower invites for my darling friend, Kemy.  She and her sisters were throwing a bash in honor of their super cute sis, Karalee.  Here's how the paper parts turned out.  I'm sure the party will be darling with all their creative juices.

::: Lately, I've been keeping an open eye for all things rugs.  I knew that we'd have much more hard flooring in this place, so why not take a little look see.  I found this delight at our local Tuesday Morning (if you've never been there, go.  It's like a cheaper/more unique version of Pier 1 + Home Goods + Ross.  Unfortunately, this rug is a lot more than what I want to spend ringing in at $499, but they heavily discount their inventory if it sits long enough... so I'm crossing my fingers no one will snatch it up and I can get it for $25 or there about.  :)  Jk.  That will never happen, but one can dream.

Love the color, pattern, and how it's neutral but makes a statement too.

Another beautiful rug measuring 8x10 (same as the one above) found at the same Tuesday Morning.  I am a sucker for all things this grey/blue color.  But, this one was $399.  Still not ready to pull the trigger, even though I'm told that is a super reasonable price for such big rugs.

Okay, another Tuesday Morning find.  Sheesh, they should pay me for advertising.  jk.

These were two coverlet/throw things... can't think of the official name of such a thing, but I'd lay it across the bottom of our bed.  Do you love the colors and stitching?  Me too.

I left these behind but keep thinking about them.  Perhaps I'll go back and make one of them my very own.

::: Because Aaron would be working on my birthday (Saturday) and that same evening we'd be attending a church luau, we opted to cash in a free birthday dinner at Mimi's on my sister's birthday (Shout out to you, Emily!!) two days prior to my birthday.
While we were waiting, I spied that Aaron and the kiddos were TRIPLETS!!  Plaid shorts and plain white t-shirts.  Nice planning, guys!  Here they are, posin' it up while we waited for our table:

of course, I wanted in on the action, even though I wasn't matching... (look how thrilled the kids are to take another few pictures.  sheesh!)

::: Late that evening, Aaron and Tillie decided to run a few errands.  Cal and I thought they'd be gone for an hour or so, but they ended up being gone for about 4 hours!  When I asked Aaron what they had been up to, he showed me these pictures from his phone:

They'd been weeding the grass in our new backyard.  Since the sod was so new, and there were several big patches of crab grass, Aaron wanted to get as much of it pulled out as soon as possible.  Turns out that Tillie is an excellent weed puller (Aaron has taught her well) and can even get the root.  So, this is what they spent the bulk of their time doing.  When they FINALLY got back home, the reunion was pretty sweet between Tillie and Calvin.  They both started hugging each other and yelling, "I missed you so much!!"  

We're in a for a rude awakening when Tillie goes to preschool!

::: Both kids caught a little cold from somewhere, so it was the perfect excuse to sit around and watch movies all day.  As a huge 9 month pregnant woman, I can't say that it cramped my style too much.  hA!  I had my place on the couch and they shared the recliner with a box of tissues.  It worked out nicely for everyone (minus the snotty nose/feeling crummy part).

(oh, and of course Tillie is never far from her costume jewelry.  What? You don't wear gold necklaces with your jammies?)

five pillows made my life complete on the sofa.  Calvin took this picture of me.  hA!

::: Since I was in freezer clean out mode, I decided to get off the couch (after much contemplation) and make yummy cinnamon swirl banana bread with all the frozen bananas I'd accumulated over the months.  This turned out to be a good decision and Calvin and I were big fans.  For some reason, Tillie and Aaron turned up their noses.  (sigh.)  Oh well!  More for us!  

::: The day of my birthday arrived and guess what went LIVE?  My brand-spankin'-new website!  Becca, my darling sister, created it from scratch with her computer savvy and I couldn't be more pleased with how it turned out.  If you still haven't seen the new place, feel free to go to melimba.com and check it out.  Here's what the landing page looked like on my phone. I'd squeal to myself every time I saw it.  Huge thanks to Becca for the ultimate birthday gift!!

::: Ahhh, my birthday.  The day I officially turned 28 (yes, I think I mentioned it before, but I had thought I already WAS 28 this past year.  whoops!).  Since Aaron was working that day, I decided to load the kids up in the car and create our own fun.  

Where does fun begin?  Obviously, the doughnut shop.  :)  It's a favorite of ours and conveniently located just minutes from our house.  

After the doughnut feast, I decided to get a few grocery essentials at the store, and a few NON-essentials in order to make my birthday a little more exciting.

What did I get?  Delicious fruit that I normally don't buy (big watermelons, and yummy peaches), fancy turkey from the deli, and Baked Cheetos.  What more could a birthday girl want?  Here's a picture I took of my lunch.  hA!  So fancy.  Again, it's the little things, people.

:::  Since we had done a lot of the shopping for things in advance (appliances, water softeners, garage door openers, and furniture), I knew I needed to start mapping out when things would be happening.  Also, since I was in freezer clean out mode, I knew I wanted to plan out some meals.  Add to the mix, last doctor visits, and other random important dates----this is where having a TRUE calendar would come in handy.  This is what I had on the fridge instead.  If you fail to plan, folks, you plan to fail.  

While I was planning, these kids were climbing into boxes.  I joked that maybe I could pack them up along with the kitchen?  I kid. I kid.

Disclaimer about picture below... this is NOT packing tape wrapped around them.  It's like SaranWrap---used to pack up plates, small furniture, etc.  My mom thought it was packing tape and wondered if their little arms died when I ripped off the tape.  Hello! I'm not THAT mean of a mom!! 

I thought this picture of Calvin was funny as he tickled the ivory among all the boxes.  Notice his fancy feet, too.

::: The week before we moved in, our new neighborhood hosted a little block party.  Turns out this new subdivision is pretty tight knit and SUPER welcoming.  What a pleasant surprise!  We've never lived in a neighborhood like that since we've been in Texas.  We pitched in a few bucks, along with the rest of the neighborhood, and were fed a lovely little bbq and they even put up a bounce house!  They pitched it right in front of our house and we snapped this shot.

It was so nice to get to know more of our neighbors and we're looking forward to more fun events like this in the future.

::: I got an unexpected call one night from my friend in the Young Women's presidency and she told me that the MiaMaid group (14-15 yr olds) were wanting to do a service project and wanted to come and help us pack!  Hello! So nice of them! I guess moving as a 9 month pregnant woman has it's perks! 

They were darling.  Here are a few pictures I snapped.  

::: I came out of the shower one morning to find that Calvin had decided to help himself to some Cheerios.  Tillie soon helped herself too.  Way to be independent, children.

::: Tillie, always coloring, surprised us one morning when she asked Aaron "what are these little lines on people's hands?" (you know, where the knuckles bend) We didn't know what the proper terminology was, but we were super impressed at how observant she was.  Check out her little drawing!  Notice the little lines she drew in?  Too funny.

::: Another house progress picture.  They had finally taken off all the cardboard protective covering on the floors so we could see it in all it's DARK glory.  Also, they finished off the fire place.  I asked them to put legs on the mantle and they put some really skinny dinky ones on.  hA!  One day we might beef them up to look more proportionate, but I guess they did deliver "legs".

A shot of the breakfast nook.

Other side of the kitchen with the ovens installed.

view of the front entry hall way.

::: I asked Aaron to help me find a few more cardboard boxes---so we went around from recycling container to the next looking.  And when I say "we" I mean, the kids and I sat in the air conditioned car, while Aaron did the manual labor.  ha!  What a good sport he is!  And, yes, we are cheap.

While poking around behind our local Albertson's, Tillie and I saw this bird perched back here!  I took an Appreciation of Nature class in college (yes, that counted instead of me taking chemistry---funny that Aaron took like 3 billion science classes) and I just happened to be exclusively dating Aaron at the time.  We had to identify something like 75 different birds in nature during the semester, so we'd take out the binoculars and go bird watching each weekend.  It was great to have him there with me and we got pretty into it.  Unfortunately, we have forgotten MANY different bird names, and couldn't recall what this type of bird might be.  FAIL.  But, we appreciated it's beauty.  Does that count for something?

::: Before I packed up my printers and paper, I decided to whip up a few wedding presents from the invites I'd had on my fridge for the past while. hA!  Better late than never, right?

Also, my cute friend, Whit, had won the giveaway I'd hosted on my blog for the birthday website, so I added some stationery for her family too.  

::: The kids nap much better when I am right there with them, laying down (pun intended) the law.  

It's a rough job, but someone has to do it.  hA!  

They are too cute.

Here I am one week away from delivering our third child.  Let's see... that would make me 38 weeks here.

::: The morning before our move, Tillie had climbed into our bed (she does that pretty frequently around 5:45a.m. or so) and quickly proceeds to fall back asleep.  Because it was the last real morning we'd be in that house, Aaron and I were pretty sentimental.  We hadn't really talked about all the big changes that were forthcoming and it was nice to sit there in the quiet morning and whisper to each other about it all.  Among the many things we talked about, one of them was this little girl of ours---who was turning into such a BIG kid!  We took a bunch of pictures of her sleeping perfectly and admired what a dolly she was.  

Good times.  Good times.

::: The next morning was CLOSING day AND MOVING day!  Aaron and I went to meet with the builder one last time to do the final walk through at 10:30a.m. (It was so nice that my mom and Lizzy had just arrived in town to be with the kids!).  After that, we decided to go to the title office about an hour earlier than our appointment, just to see if they could get us in early.  Boo yah!  They could! So, we got in, signed a billion papers, and were out of there in just under 30 minutes.  Amazing.  

Since we had the minivan full of boxes and random things, we decided to grab those new keys of ours and make our first drop off to our new home.

Aaron took this shot of me. I love that my first load into the house are these essentials.  Oh wait...

But, that is a happy lady, for sure.

The rest of the morning was filled with several trips back and forth to the house with full car loads.  My mom, the expert organizer, opted to do the kitchen first (she had just packed it all up the day before and knew where everything was! Awesome!).

She is the best!  And Lizzy (my 16 year old sister) was a dreamboat to entertain the kids too!

Party in the kitchen!!

At one point in the afternoon, all the able bodied workers (mom, lizzy, & aaron) went to pack up the cars again and left us to our own devices.  We found Newsies on my mom's ipad and Tillie, especially, was enthralled.  I found the floor.  Calvin?  Found my phone and recorded it all for our viewing pleasure.

Here's a shot of us that first night in the house!  

We decided that the kids would sleep here with my mom and lizzy, while Aaron and I slept at the old house to be ready for the LEGIT movers would would greet us at 6:30 a.m. the next morning.  (that was a great decision, by the way.)

Exciting times at the NEW Wood house!

Woot! Woot!