Farewell to Our Tonaquint House...and Excitement for Our New Home!

Well, it's official! We closed on the sale of our home on Tuesday! It was such a quick deal that we have barely had time to catch our breath. We got a cash offer on the home December 1 and the people wanted to be in by Dec 17. It was such an amazing blessing to sell our home and to receive what we feel like was an excellent offer. We are now thrilled to move forward in building our new home in The Knolls in the Little Valley area, but I have definitely been very nostalgic thinking about all the people in our ward that we will miss! We have made so many wonderful friends in our neighborhood! (Southgate 2nd friends, we will still be going to our ward for 5 or 6 more months, though.)

I was also very nostalgic about leaving our home itself.  Here are some things that I will always remember. (I apologize for the low image quality. I've been begging our realtor to send us higher quality photos.)

The kitchen where I learned to really cook.

The office where I taught piano lessons and Shaye edited videos and composed music.

Our spare bedroom turned craft room where I  really learned how to sew.

Our bedroom, in which lots of late-night discussions took place. Lots of thoughtful prayer and lots of decision-making happened in this room.

Our great room where we watched (way too much) TV and I sat and graded seemingly endless papers on that couch. I went into labor with Emme in this room on Election Night. :)

These hallways where I stumbled around like a zombie to go get Emme in the night.

Emme's room...this has to be the most special room in the house for me. One Mother's Day during our 5 year battle with infertility, my mom challenged me to set up a nursery. She bought the furniture for me for my next few years of birthday and Christmas, and I went to decorating it. It became a symbol of hope for me, even though it remained empty for 3 years after I set it up.  I would often go and just sit in there to remind myself that there would be a happy ending to our struggle. Later, during my pregnancy with Emme, I found great joy in finishing every detail. It has truly been miraculous for me to here her laughter fill this room. I hope to recreate the joyfulness and peace of this room in our new home.

Now we have moved into a rental in Bloomington for awhile. (Not gonna lie, the move itself was a pretty rough for me! Thank goodness to our family and friends who stepped in to help after my brain was fried!) We haven't even broken ground for our house yet, so we'll definitely be here for awhile.  Here is a sneak peak of the elevation drawing for our home. We are so excited we can hardly stand it!

We are hoping that the final look is a lot like this:

So much to be thankful for! In the last year or so since the birth of Emme, we honestly haven't had enough room to receive the blessings the Lord has bestowed on us. We are hoping that our home will be completed in May or June.Wish us luck during this crazy process!! I'll definitely be keeping you posted!

Emme is ONE!

This first year with Emme has really been more magical and sweet than I could have ever hoped. She has truly changed so much, I sometimes can’t believe it. She is talking a little and often understands what I’m saying to her. She says “Dada,” “Mama,” “doggie,” “bye bye,” “pretty,” “honey,” “baby,” “hi,” “what’s that?” “yeah,” and “Nana”.

This kid has got spunk, man! Church has started to become totally hilarious. We don’t get a thing out of it! She runs around and screams and bulldozes other kids over. She’s also taken to throwing tantrums lately when she doesn’t get her way. I’m not sure how to respond to that yet. It’s been a different phase. Even though she is still so darn cute, she does do kind of bratty toddler things sometimes. Just part of the deal, I guess.

Emme has this big cheesy grin that she gives to strangers. It’s easy to see that it’s not the most sincere of expressions, but people really get a kick out of her. In fact, when she cheeses at someone and they don’t notice, she looks at them like they’re ridiculous.

Emmeline is adorable when she entertains herself. Sometimes she walks around the house, playing with random stuff. She can also be terrifyingly destructive! She makes so many messes. She throws her sippy cup, feeds the dogs, pulls all kind of stuff out of cabinets and drawers. You name it!

Emme also does adorable things like sing along to songs and give kisses. When she sees her dad or my parents in a public place, she gets so excited. It’s like she is thrilled that we can all get together outside of our houses.

Sleeping has gotten marginally better lately. Emme seems to be sleeping through the night-ish. She basically wakes up once or twice most nights. She is still going strong with nursing. I probably nurse her 3 times a day. I am just dreading weaning her. We’ve got a system down. I also know that we need to transition, though...especially now that she tries to rip my shirt off when she's hungry. Not exactly socially acceptable in a public place!

Nursing has been a tremendous blessing as it has kept my endometriosis at bay and has been a good natural birth control. Obviously we want to have baby #2 at some point, though, so weaning will need to commence here in the next few months.

Emme’s birthday party was such a crack up. We had just a few family members over and had dinner and cake (Homemade Vanilla Cake with Pomegranate Frosting and Blackberry Cream Filling). Emme loved it and then she stayed up late playing with her presents.

Life is really just too magical and wonderful to put into words. Couldn’t be more grateful!