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!

It's about time!

If you are around my son for any amount of time you realize that he doesn't exactly have a very wide spread diet!  Eating has been one of our biggest battles with him.  Don't get me wrong, he eats.  We just can't get him to eat any veggies and he pretty much eats the same things all the time.  His diet could just consist of fruit and dairy and he would be happy, oh and snacks of course.  His diet mainly consists of these two food groups with veggie corn dogs, veggie burgers and chicken nuggets added in.  It used to be that if we tried to introduce something new he would just sit and scream and then go to bed hungry because he would not even touch it!  That got old QUICK!

Thankfully, over the past month or so he has improved ALOT.  We started out convincing him to just lick something:)  then gradually we told him to just put it in his mouth and he coulds spit it out if he didn't like it and that is usually what he did.  And then, lately, he has been cooperative when we tell him to just taste something and a few things he is actually like..imagine that?!

A few new things (and I know these are not neccessarily that big of a deal, but they are to us) he has tried lately include: grilled chicken, brocoli, pizza with mushrooms and tomoatoes, and spaghetti!

WAHOO...It's about time our 21/2 year old started eating what we eat!

Sweet Home Alabama

Andrew got a final offer for a Staff Psychologist position at Talladega Federal Prison last Friday and we found out that he will start on November 4th!  Obviously, that put us into overdrive and so I worked Monday and flew to Atlanta where my mother-in-law picked me up and we headed to Alabama for 2 days to find us a place to live!

To make a long story really short...God is GOOD!  We were really disappointed and I was starting to get really anxious after seeing 3 out of the 5 houses that I had researched for us to look at possibly renting online. 

Mrs. Susan and I went to Ruby Tuesdays for lunch and started talking to our waiter who told us some areas to possibly look.  There was a man sitting at a big table waiting on others to arrive and he walked up.  He apologized for eaves dropping and went on to tell us that he was a music minister at a church nearby and directed us to look in a neighborhood where alot of those young couples live.

After lunch, we headed out to try and find McIntosh Trails.  We never found that particular neighborhood but we drove through a nice neighborhood and happened upon this house that was for sale by owner.  We asked the neighbors that were outside if anyone lives in the house and they said no!  I called the number to randomly ask if they would want to rent it out.

It turns out that this couple is only a few years older than us and their youngest child is a week older than Harpin.  They just put in new hardwoods, carpet and painted to try and sell it but they would be willing to meet me!

Mrs. Susan and I met the husband on Thursday morning and he was so nice!  He said he would talk to his wife and get back to us.  An hour or so later as we walked through another horrible rental home, she called and said they would rent it out!

Most people could care less about all these details, so I write for my memory only and another reminder to me of God's faithfulness in providing for our family.  I would have liked a larger house with more room for guests, and I still look forward to a place to call our own again but boy is this a huge relief for us right now!

Harpin is 4 months!

Harpin was 4 months old on the 15th!  Boy is her personality blooming:)  

Here are some things you are up to...

• You are 14 lbs 2 oz (46th%) and 25 inches long (58th %)
• You are wearing size 2 diapers.
• You are in size 3-6 and 6 month clothing.
• You are making eye contact more and more and smiling and laughing at us.
• You love your hands and prefer your fingers to your paci.
• You sleep on your belly.
• You get excited and kick your chubby little legs.
• You sat in the bumbo for the first time this month and you like to sit and watch us cook dinner, or sit on the table and watch us all eat together.
• You love your brother and like to watch him play or eat up his kisses that he gives you freely and often.
• You have finally changed your schedule up and you take the evening "catnap" and then eat around 7-7:30 and have been doing better sleeping all night just in the past week.
• You do well riding in the baby bjorn or the ergo.
• You are MUCH better than your brother ever was riding in the car.
• You went to the church nursery for the first time.
• You love taking a bath and enjoy it even more when your big bro joins.

Quarry Quest

Last Saturday we went to Quarry Quest here in Neenah.  I'm still amazed at all the family friendly, budget friendly things that there is to do here! With that said, we found out this is the largest event every year in Neenah.  To make it even better, all the equipment and people are donated and volunteers and the proceeds are given to a local charity (I can't remember which one).  

Riggs operated the track hoe, we made concrete, dug for gold, watched the dump trucks and much more! 

A little boys heaven!

(I put these onto blogger from my phone and they will NOT center:( )