Harpin is 6 months!

My sweet baby is 6 months old! Wowzers!  We go in for her 6 month appointment next week.  Hoping we like the pediatrician here as we don't really know anyone yet to get too many recommendations.  

What you are up to lately...

• Still in size 2 diapers.
• You have cut both of your bottom teeth.
• You are still nursing every 4 hours during the day.
• Your sleeping habits at night are still the same...waking up atleast once in the middle of the night, usually between 2 and 4am.
• You nap in the morning for about 2 hours and then thankfully have adapted to your brothers naptime and sleep with him from about 1pm - 4pm! I'm so thankful for that time;)
• You are so interactive and we just love your giggles and playing with you.
• You love bath time.
• You adore your big brother.
• You still like the Ergo carrier and we use that alot when we are out and about (especially when its your morning nap and we have errands to run)
• You suck your two middle fingers.
• You prefer to just be put down when you are tired and you go directly to your belly and your fingers.
• We have not started any solids yet and plan to do so after we see the doctor next week.
• You have started making consonant sounds and it sounds like you are saying "mama mama"
• We love how you kick and wave your arms when you get excited.
• You are a great car rider and I am so thankful for that.

You are such a joy and blessing to us sweet girl!

Halloween 2013

We moved to Alabama the week before halloween and dug out our costumes and bought some candy just in time for trick-or-treat time!  It was a quick evening, but Riggs had fun and we ended up having more candy left over from lack of visitors than he actually got from going door to door himself.  Which is good, because we DO NOT need that candy! 

 So, here is my cute farmer and his little cow!

Harpin is 5 months!

In the midst of moving my baby girl turned 5 months old and is now pushing 6 months as I took these pictures and finally get to posting it all!:(  They grow up TOO QUICKLY!

Some things you are up to sweet girl...

• You are still wearing size 2 diapers
• You wear 6-9 month clothes
• You go down for the night about 7:30pm and lately have woken up and sometimes I feed you b/w 12:30-1:30 am and then wake up again anywhere from 4-5am and then you will sleep until 8.  I sure do wish you would sleep all night but thankful that you go right back to sleep and I don't dislike it enough to make you cry it out yet!
• You nap pretty well and usually you are up for 2 hrs and then nap for 2 hrs.  Although, your morning nap is usually broken up b/c we are on the go so you nap for a long time when your big bro naps in the afternoon which mama loves:).
• Speaking of big bro...you ADORE him and he ADORES you!  You laugh at him and he will talk and talk and sing and act super silly to get your attention.
• You are still nursing, although a lot of times during the day its a pumped bottle because you don't want to cooperate and "eat" a full meal!
• You love all toys, your jumper and excersaucer.
• You love bath time and it is usually what calms you down for the night and helps us through your most fussy time of day.
• You are such a joy to us and so laid back and easy going.

It's been a month

It's been almost a month since I last blogged and alot has happened!  We are now in Alabama.  We had a whirlwind two weeks of me flying home with the kids, Andrew in WI waiting for the packers to pack our house, mom and Andrew driving our cars from WI to GA, spending a week in GA, unloading our things in AL and spending another weekend in GA!  WHEW!

We are thankful to be here.  I feel like I was so excited to be close to home and now that I'm here I am hit with the reality that we are still starting over.  It's still a lot of unpacking, learning our way around, finding a church "home", a grocery store "home",  a gym "home", friends, etc.  Slowly but surely we will get there!

All this to say, I am behind on several blog posts and hope to do one every few days this week to catch up. 

 I'm hoping to get to...

-Harpin is 5 months!...well now almost 6:(

-Our time in GA

-Halloween

See you again soon!

The Faces and Places of Wisconsin

 Monday we say fairwell to Wisconsin!  I get on a plane with our babies and head to Georgia while they pack up our home and get us ready for our new journey and home in "Alabama house," as Riggs calls it.  

I have alot of emotions, mostly excitement, but sadness lurks in as well.  This is the place we have called home for a little over a year, experienced alot of fun times, brought home our second child and first daughter, and much more!  

I told Andrew yesterday that as we walked through this year I had ALOT of moments of WHY me?, alot of times of lonliness and periods of just wanting it to be over.  But, now that it is over I just look back and see the good times and memories and most importantly, God's faithfulness to us.

I spent some time this past week taking Riggs back to some of our favorite places!  I wanted to have them documented so we could look back on this year and talk about it with him as I know he won't remember it.

Our little home as been good to our growing family!  Lots of times playing in the driveway, too many times shoveling snow and hauling babies in and out, in and out:)

Riggs calls all the parks by a certain name, this was just "Jennerjohn park."  We found Jennerjohn about halfway through our stay here and it became one of our favorite parks!  Riggs loved the fountain and the tunnel. 

We met these sweet girls randomly at the mall and would meet up to play a good bit. Autumn is a little older than Riggs and Elise is about 1 1/2.

I guess most 21/2 to 3 yr olds think alike:)...I told them to put their arms around one another and this is what I got!

The fire truck and sand box at Jennerjohn

"Lion Park"

This is the first park that we went to pretty often.  It's beautiful there.  On the opposite side is a huge field that is really pretty when the corn field is full.

"Rocket ship park" is Riverside park for a reason.  It is right on the river with a beautiful Riverwalk.  This is certainly one of the things we will miss most about Wisconsin!  There are so many parks and family friends things to do so close to home.

I'm sure I have many more pictures of Riggs on this playground as we frequented it maybe 2-3 times a week during the winter...which was long if I must remind you:)  This is the playplace in our mall!  If you asked Riggs back in the cold days what he wanted to do today, his most likely reply would be, "go to grocery store, get groceries. Go to mall, play!" 

I worked as a float nurse and went between two hospitals in their ICU's. Thedaclark was one of the two and is a level 2 trauma center.  It was probably my favorite of the twos because of the patient population being that of trauma and more head injuries which I am more comfortable with opposed to....

Appleton Medical Center, which is an open heart hospital and therefore had more cardiac patients in their ICU, along with a good mix of other things!  I will say that this year of working was not easy as I worked rotating schedules(day and night shifts), and never really formed close relationships with any coworkers because of working between two places. But, I made it!  

This is Ms. Amy and the daycare that Harpin went to starting way too early, just 10 weeks old, until now(4.5 months).  They took great care of her though!

 Some of our neighbors!  This is Mac, Mac lives two houses over and  Riggs obviously wants to do everything he does.  I will see him do something and he says, "Mac do this!"

This is Corbin...

and Rose (or "Rosie").  They live next door and have become quite the friends in the past few warm months where we could all be outside together!

This is "Miss Mewissa."  She has taken care of and loved Riggs in her home on the days that I have had to work!  She has a little boy Riggs age and also kept two little girls near the same ages.

Riggs and Riley (or "Ri")

Shannon is Melissa's husband.  Riggs really grew to love him and many times would be found wrestling and playing with the boys when Andrew went to pick him up.

I am so thankful for people that really loved my little boy.

Sweet boys

Hilarious that they gave each other kisses when we said goodbye.  Afterwards, Riggs covered his face and just giggled:)

So, We have had many memories here but these are the faces and places that I most want us to remember from our time here!