Advent, 1/2 year, NJ and Mum mums!

Yep, Anneliese is 6 months old whether I'm ready or not! Yesterday she started "talking"...Andrew swore she said "Dadada" first...She had her first mum mum last night and we'll do the traditional mashed banana and then rice cereal sometime soon when things slow down. Why are things a bit crazy you ask? Well, we found out Wednesday that we're moving to the East Coast! Andrew's being moved to the Goethals Bridge project connecting Staten Island to Elizabeth, New Jersey. It's far from family and friends (I'm still shedding tears) but we're excited for this new adventure for our little family.

We fly out Monday, will spend next week getting to know the area, look at some places and then fly back Friday to spend two weeks in Oregon for Christmas. But even with all the chaos I'm trying to do something extra for Advent, I'm reading Joy to the World by Scott Hahn....would highly recommend it to anyone wanting do learn more about the nativity story!

Happy Advent!

 

I don't think I could have gotten a more genuine smile from Malachi, guess he's excited to visit Carlo's Bakery! I know I am

 



5 Months

Here's our little girl....5 months old. Wearing 9 month clothes, rolling and scooting all over the place. Yesterday I heard Malachi telling her "no," she was starting to grab his train. Heaven forbid anyone touch his trains...haha. By the way, little under 2 weeks till Malachi's 2nd birthday, of course it'll be train themed! Until then, watch your lego's, Anneliese is coming after them!

Smiling at Daddy

These photoshoots can be tiring, I guess

Garden Update

So here are some of our garden pics...we produced much more food than I would have thought. I had major doubts about the zucchini...didn't think they'd have enough sun, well they had plenty of sun and almost took over the whole yard!! Thanks to Andrew's optimism for the plants we were able to enjoy everything from grilled and fried zucchini to zucchini brownies, muffins, bread and even pancakes. 

Our tomatoes were okay; the cherry tomatoes were the best but the roma's weren't as good. Many started but then died or Malachi picked them too soon. We did get a couple of beefsteak though. 

Strawberries were a treat! SO sweet....I mean I have a sweet tooth but they were almost too sweet!

Our herbs didn't do as well, basil died right away...oregano hung on a little longer and parsley is still going a bit...but we didn't harvest it much. 

It was great to have home grown lettuce, but while we were out of town in the summer they started to sprout or something, I can't completely explain it....got really tall without producing anything.

Anyway, it was fun and we're hoping to be in a place next year that has more space for a bigger garden! There may be some repeat pictures below from previous posts but I wanted to be able to compare the pictures next to eachother.

Our box when we started: basin and tomatoes

Tomato plants half as big as they got.

Beefsteak tomatoes

Zuchinni when they were nice and small

Starting to take over....never got a picture when they were the biggest they got

Beginning of lettuce...

...end of the lettuce.

Thought I'd share a zucchini my parents grew...it's a monster!

Dumping Debt: Exciting Quick update

I know I'm WAY behind on our Dumping Debt Series...I apologize for that. I keep reminding myself to write a post but just can't seem to sit down and get it done. However, I don't want to miss this milestone in our Total Money Makeover (TMM), so I'm writing a quick post to tell you last night we made a payment that bumped us over the halfway mark!!! AND we have paid off all of our Army Career starter loan, so we only have Andrews student loan left!
 I still intend to update you on the rest of our TMM from the past couple of months.

Happy Halloween!

$25,031.25 paid off

$20.702.45 left

Celebrating with some Halloween cupcakes that Malachi and I made at a playdate.

First Haircut & Vancouver Aquariam

All right, I'm actually posting besides Anneliese's monthly pictures!

Last weekend was a fun one. Saturday night we decided to give Malachi his first haircut...the curls above his ears sure were cute but they were a little out of control. We didn't know exactly what we were doing but Andrew did the finishing touches and it looks great....our little man looks so much older!

Then after mass Sunday we spontaneously decided to visit the Vancouver Aquarium...it was quite awesome. I would highly recommend it to anyone who finds themselves in Vancouver BC. This Aquarium is ranked #8 out of the top 25 in the world, that is, on TripAdvisor, at least. My favorite were the jellyfish....the beluga was cool and of course we really liked the dolphin show. We got some pictures but not tons. Then we ended the day with a very nice Salmon (how appropriate since we spent the day with fish) BBQ at church.

BEFORE

DURING

AFTER

Vancouver Aquarium

SHARK

Beluga

Frog Tank

4 months: Anneliese

Ok time is moving too fast. Can't believe it's been another month already....and I haven't posted anything else on the blog since last months pictures. Oh well...one day I'll get caught up.

Poor girl has had a bit of a cough and we thought she had pink eye but it cleared up. The other night she slept 13 hours and only nursed once....and that's only cause I woke her up to give me some relief! We've been home for the past 5 weeks and it's been really nice to just stay put and take it easy.

Here's our little girl:

3 Months!!!

Can't believe it already but Anneliese is 3 months!

Malachi wanted to be a part of things too

This is what was going on behind me...I think he wanted to take the pictures himself.

And one taken the other day...so cute; "Big Bro" and "Little Sister"!

Siblings

I finally got a cute pic of my two cuties. Malachi is now showing much more interest in Anneliese; he offers her his pacifier when she cries, waves hi right in her face and today gave her a couple of books to read....aaand poked her in the eye when he was showing me her "eyes" but she didn't' seem to mind, surprisingly. It's fun to see them developing the sibling love already. 

Love this pic!

He's tickling her feet

I have no idea what he's doing here..

I kept pulling her jacket down so he thought he'd help me by messing with her too.

Too cute! (almost 3 months!!!! and busting out of 3 month clothes)