As a stay at home Mom, there are days where I genuinely have no idea of the date.  Throw in the fact that it was close to sixty degrees today and I'm shocked that I didn't write April on my checks.  Honestly, it made absolutely no sense that today was January 31st!  But you'd better believe we were outside in full force.  We had two different repairs done on the house today, including a duct cleaning that took close to five hours, so we were relegated to our front and back yards.  The kids had a blast swinging, digging in the garden, playing golf, soccer and tag.  Check out little dockie doodle hanging out in his big brothers truck.  If only every winter could be like this..........

Sorry winter, but I really only like the cold and snow for about a day.  Then I'm ready to move onto spring.     

Confession

Confession time - I really like my husband.  Shocking, I know.  But what I mean is that I genuinely enjoy being with him.  I hate all this time we are spending apart instead of as a family.  He really is my best friend, and when he isn't here our world is off.  It's hard to explain, but when he left today all of us felt really upset.  Carter insisted that he was going to dig a cable with pipes that would go to Daddy's hell-tel room (seriously both of the older kids call it a hell-tel.)  Then we could go through the cables and pipes and visit him every day.  Whenever Ava is upset she has a tendency to have accidents and act out to get attention, which she definetely did this afternoon.  That leaves poor, poor baby Doc.  When he saw Daddy bringing his suitcases down he just erupted.  After Daddy left I was able to calm him down.  But every so often he would crawl over to the door and just start sobbing.  WE MISS YOU DADDY!

By the way, single moms are now my heroes.  Today while I was putting the baby to bed, Ava put Hello Kitty stickers all over the television downstairs.  Don't worry Mike, they all came off with no ill effects to the television.  We are all anxious to be together as a family again!

Moving Update

Since the beginning of January we have been living out of a suitcase, visiting various grandparents.  The purpose of this was two fold: we needed close proximity to Akron to aid in the house search and allow for a "show ready" house.  We have been SO incredibly lucky because not only have we found our dream home, but our house is now under contract!  We were on the market for four days, and it sold to the very first person who saw the it!  We are beyond happy!  At this point we have had a satisfactory inspection so fall through protection has been enacted.  Our new home has had an appraisal and as soon as it has been approved by our moving company, we will be able to move in.  We are hoping to be in our new home (with furniture) in the next two weeks!

Believe me, I know how incredibly lucky we are.  We couldn't have asked for this move to proceed any smoother and we are so thankful.

Funny Kid Stories:

When we were at Meme and Grandpap Bob's house, Ava loved to put Eddie to bed. She would turn on the sound machine, cover him in blankets and shhh everyone who walked by.   

I think Eddie appreciated the use of pinky for the week.

Ya'll I'm totally slipping.  Here is Carter enjoying his very first corn dog.  As you can imagine it was very well recieved.  (By the way, the hair band is for keeping his hair down.  He really hates "up hair."  He was also sporting an Ava hair tie as a bracelet and a homemade pony bead necklace.) 

I'm so glad that we will be able to be together during the week again.  We miss Daddy so much during the week and I know staying at a hotel is wearing on Mike.  We are nearing the end of our journey, luckily it has been a short one.  

 

Milestones

Take a look at this kid!

Today was the day!  He spent most of the day walking (running) away from me.

We visited Jumpy's today with Meme.  Carter loved playing with the air guns.  Ava loved to jump and Dawson just loved running around.  The kids had a blast and got out a lot of energy.  Usually I try to do educational things during the day, but while we are homeless I'm giving myself a free pass.

Yet another milestone:  reading.  Carter has known his letter/letter sounds for awhile and also has some sight words.  I decided to start a more structured route of teaching him to read.  He is doing wonderfully!  Today he even sounded out and independently read his first sentence:  See me eat.  I'm so proud of my boy!

What's New?

• We had a wonderful weekend with Daddy, we really really miss him during the week.  Dawson was very upset today when he left.  The older two were sad also, but it was very pathetic to hear him yelling "Dada."  Luckily things are coming together very fast and we should be moving into our new home in the next week and having our furniture delivered in two weeks! 
• The kids are LOVING having a dog in the house.  The other day I heard a loud thump and poor Eddie howled and then came sprinting out of the bedroom.  I checked on the kids and they told me "we were sledding and we landed on Eddie."  Sure enough they were taking a pillow and "sledding" off the bed!  Eddie is such a good dog.  He even gets upset with Grandpap Bob when he wrestles with Carter.  However it does remind me how I really don't want a dog right now.  HAIR, more responsibility, HAIR, something else to clean, HAIR, something else to feed and of course HAIR.  
• This happened awhile ago, but it was too funny to forget.  At the library Ava walked up to the librarian and said "I'm Ava, that's my Mom Tracey Elizabeth."  Well, thanks for the introduction!
• Dawson is working really hard at walking!  Many times he choose to independently walk instead of crawl, and was taking between 5 - 10 steps.  Any day now, he'll give up crawling, I'm sure!  Oh, and the third tooth on top has broken through.
• Then there is my Carter boy.  I must say I'm so proud of this little four year old.  He is so sweet and loving to his siblings.  The other day he told Meme he didn't want Ava to watch the television show because it had guns on it and it might scare her.  He has adjusted quickly to our temporary period of homelessness.  Of course all the root beer barrels from Nana and ice cream from Bo and Meme has helped greatly!

Play Time

At our house, the kids love to play dress up, grocery store and kitchen.

At Bo and Grandma's house the kids love to go on hikes, play in the basement and play with legos.

At Meme and Grandpap Bob's house they like to play

Bartender.

I only thought it might be a problem when I started asking Ava to identify letters on the stir sticks.

Snow Baby

Dawson's first time in the snow.  Cold, wet.  Eh, he could take it or leave it!