Pumpkins

Last week I decided it was time to get pumpkins and decorate our front porch. I told Will we could paint pumpkins and he really liked the idea, thus requested said activity several times. So I bought a large one for Daniel & I and 3 small ones for the kids. Even though Jake can't decorate his own, I wanted him represented in our pumpkin family. Maybe next year Daniel & I can each have our own, but he wasn't here so I decided decorating a joint pumpkin was good enough. Will and Maggie thoroughly enjoyed this activity! Maggie just painted and painted and requested more paint; you can barely see the orange through her many layers of paint. Will decorated two pumpkins and said his is a pirate and Jake's is Spiderman. I simply painted our initial, some dots and added a few jewels for some sparkle. Enjoy!

Our little pumpkin family 

Baby Jacob- 1 month

Well that went fast! Jacob turned one month old last Wednesday and is just growin' and growin'! I can't really tell, but I know he is and others can see it. Jake is such a sweet little baby and a good little traveler! Of course, he's had some practice this first month. House hunting has brought us to TN more than usual-- I think we'll take a break for a little bit. With Jake and Maggie I've tried really hard not to let the 2nd & 3rd child syndrome get to me, but this move is certainly making that extra difficult. Here's hoping things calm down a little once we finish the move and settle in.
Baby boy, here's a few things about you at 1 month:

• you love to look around when you're awake and are getting better at focusing- I'm pretty sure you were trying to grab the little elephant on your bouncy today
• you're smiling some. I know what "they" say about babies smiling this young and it being gas, but I've been skeptical about that since baby #1. Will was so excited yesterday or today when it appeared you were smiling at him :)
• you haven't peed or pooped on me in awhile and diaper changes are not the horrendous massacre they were just a few short weeks ago
• you're sleeping longer periods at night more often, but we haven't made it all night yet. No worries, we'll get there
• you are just my sweet angel baby and I love snuggling with your little tiny self

Happy one month baby boy, we love you!!!

Firsts

You  know I love 'em! Jacob hasn't reach a ton of big first milestones in his first five weeks but everything is new to him, so he's technically had a bunch. I can't catch everything on camera, but here's a few I can document.

first bath

first walk

first ride in the swing

first trip to the park

I know how quickly time flies with little ones, so I'm not rushing you, but I'm looking forward to watching many, many more of your "firsts" Jake! 

Jake's Baby Dedication

Sunday we had baby Jacob dedicated to the Lord and committed to raise Him according to God's word. You may be thinking, "why here, why now?" Well, we had Maggie dedicated in October and I liked doing so as a newborn compared with Will being around 9 months old. The next dedication service is not until February so it's just well since we won't live here anymore and I like that all my kids were dedicated at the same church. We love our church and are hoping God leads us to another gospel-driven church home.
In the meantime, we will miss Hunter Street. God really did a work in us using this church body as an instrument and made us better versions of ourselves, thus a couple and hopefully parents.
We love you Jake and are excited to teach you about God's kingdom!

look at sweet baby boy on the big screen! Ah, just precious :)

All God. All the time.

Have you ever experienced God's hand in your life directing your steps? Not just looking back on a situation/trial/moment you lived and reflecting on God's involvement, but to actually see it as it's happening? I believe in a sovereign God who is ultimately in control of all things but to see Him working in action first hand- that He is going before you, preparing the way is amazing! I've been blessed to have several of these experiences in the last couple years.

As you know, last month we announced our news about moving back to TN. Daniel accepted a new position in Nashville and since he can't very well wait to start the job until our house sells, we knew this scenario would have us living apart during the week for an undetermined amount of time. His new job does allow telecommuting two times/week so he planned to do so Monday and Friday after getting his feet wet the first couple weeks. You know how long-winded I can be, so I'll try to concise all this below to show how God has been working:

• Mid-late July a recruiter from Deloitte finds Daniel's profile on LinkedIn and asks Daniel to apply 
• On Friday, 8/14, Daniel took his 3rd phone interview. No more than 2 hours later the recruiter receives a verbal offer for the position while he's on the phone with Daniel and said this never happens
• Monday, 8/17 Daniel receives official written offer and accepts
• 9/1 we announce the news to our family
• 9/4 stager views home, we receive her list of recommendations on 9/7 and get to work packing
• 9/10 Daniel starts work- first orientation in Atlanta for 2 days then to Nashville rest of week
• 9/15 we move furniture and boxes into storage unit and clean house to prepare it for sale
• 9/17 Jacob is born and D's 3 week paid paternity leave starts (this was one of the perks they offered him at hire to entice his acceptance)
• 10/2 the photographer takes shots for the listing
• Friday, 10/5 we officially list our house on the market
• Saturday, 10/6 I cry to Daniel about living apart 
• Sunday, 10/7 Daniel was skyping with his sister and showed her the house I had been stalking online but were concerned about school zone. 
  • Daniel's first day back to work is Monday and he leaves for Nashville
• Monday 10/8 Buffy texts me about the specific schools we'd be zoned for. 
  • That evening she calls after speaking with her principal and gave us a thumbs up for the elementary and middle schools (we'll want to make arrangements by high school if it stays the same). 
  • I immediately call Daniel with the news and we decide to go ahead and view the house we liked
• Tuesday 10/9 I arrive in Nashville sometime that evening even though I was still waiting on the viewing to be scheduled 
• Wednesday 10/10 we get confirmation that morning we can view the house from 11-12
  • About 10:30 Tami (selling agent for our home) calls requesting to show our house at noon the following day-Thursday
  • We view the home, love it and talk about putting in a contract. On our way out, we ran into the homeowner who was hanging out at the neighbor's while we walked through. She told us someone had just put in an offer that morning but they countered 
  • We get to work making sure finance/approval letters were in order but I wasn't ready to put in a contract until I walked through again
  • We arranged to view this home again the next day along with two others on our list. This way we could make the best of our time since I drove into town and in case the other offer was accepted
• Thursday 10/11 looked at all three houses and knew this was the one, told our buying agent we wanted to make an offer and parted ways until the paperwork was ready to sign
  • No more than 30 minutes after leaving the house with this decision, Tami calls with news: they are headed back to our house for the second time and she anticipates an offer from the couple!
  • That evening our offer is accepted by the homeowner's and Tami calls with confirmation about the offer on our home
• Friday 10/12 we received written offer on our house. That's right, only one week after putting it on the market
  

You see, things like this don't just happen! Daniel told me in the beginning God was all over this but I was cautious about "expecting" this process to be easy, despite his feeling. Simply put, I lacked faith. But who gets a job they didn't seek out, thus moving their family "back home" AND buys & sells their home in one day? Not to mention the house has 95% of what we both wanted in our next home and was in our price range. It doesn't just happen. It's a God thing. And He clearly has big plans for us in Nashville, I hope we're ready for them! But...not to sound cliche...if he brings us to it, he'll bring us through it. We're so very blessed!!! Thank you to all our prayer warriors- please continue to pray this transition continues to go smoothly. 

And, sorry, my attempt to be concise majorly failed!

Adjustments

There's always an adjustment when you bring a new person into your home. I mean, it's a new, additional person, even though Jacob is a pretty good baby. The kids have adjusted pretty well to having Jake in the house but Maggie has taken an interest in baby things. She has taken a ride in the swing a few times since we put it up, sat in the bouncy chair and finds binkys around the house and puts them in her mouth. Fortunately, she's very sweet to the baby so this curiosity is better than her trying to push him off a couch or something crazy like that. I can't be sure if this interest is genuine curiosity about baby things or Maggie's way of trying to be a baby because he gets lots of mama's attention. Either way, it's manageable and cute-- at long as it doesn't last too long. :)

Maggie has also been walking in her gait trainer- this is the one on loan, we're still waiting for the ordered one. Daniel had the idea to go outside one day and Maggie loved it! Will sat on top of the car and cheered her on as she went down the street- super sweet.

Brothers

I've mentioned in at least one post how much Jake looks like Will did as a baby. Since we're preparing to move, my desktop and computer desk have been taken down and I'm temporarily using a laptop Daniel setup for me. We didn't copy over all the data from my desktop because that would be silly and time consuming but I needed some information from my files so Daniel plugged it up and grabbed Will's baby photos while he was in there. We were satisfied that our memories did serve us correctly in their similar appearance and still blown away by how much they look alike and now I get to show you! It was difficult to find two good pictures from a similar angle, but I did the best I could.

Top photo is Will, bottom Jake...I know this photo is on my side rail, but it's my favorite newborn shot of him, so I had to use it. When I offload more pics from my camera, I may be able to change-up. Do they not look almost just alike? A few slight differences, of course, but still crazy similar. Will Will still loves his little brother. He always wants to kiss and hug on him and likes to tell people about his little brother, he's so proud of him! It's really sweet. I love both my boys and am so blessed to have you two in my life!