What we're up to....

 living at Papa T and Gigi's house....

Enjoying multiple fashion runway shows from Jenna and her new dresses



Looking at beautiful rainbows with Aunt Robin







We went to Pullen Park with our cousins. We weren't sure about the train the first time,  but the second time they loved it!

 

Jenna was fearless on the Carousel. Caden looked terrified the entire time...thus big mama had to climb up and ride with him.

Yum. Enjoying lots of good meals from Gigi

uh-oh. Things get crazy around here sometimes. Dont get used to this Caden. Not ok.

We somehow find ourselves without clothes alot around here! Here is Jenna whacking Caden with a balloon.

We are finding lots of treasures and toys to play with around the house. Here Jenna is sporting the Sailor look for Spring/Summer 2012.

We LOVE Papa T's office. We love it too much. uh-oh.

We went and enjoyed our free Krispe Kreme doughnuts and watched the doughnuts being made! Yum.

We sit outside and swing alot.

Having fun with Bubbles

No, we are not about to throw them in...just feeding the ducks at Pullen Park

Cheering for the Tarheels in the NCAA tournament!

Our second "new" train ride at the mall. They loved this one!

This is Caden's Carousel face. Not a fan.

The whole crew at Pullen Park!

Back in Papa T's office....this time playing with all of his magnets.



Yum...no wonder Papa T's drinks this stuff all of the time!



Being very chill with Aunt Robin.

But most of all, we are MISSING DADDY! :(

Erinsbrook: Before and After

So now that the end is in sight and VERY close, I've thought about our house alot. This was the 2nd house that Ryan and I bought...but our first real home. It had great times and also some of the hardest, saddest times of our marriage. Ryan and I both love house projects! We get very antsy if too much time goes by without doing something to fix up the place or yard. (Granted, our cravings for DIY projects was mysteriously quenched once the twins came along for a time....hmmm sleep deprivation? You can't hammer or paint anything with two infants in your arms??? :) )

Anyway, when we bought our house, it was in fine shape...just not our shape. We had so much fun working on this house together...as I was working on this post I realized just how much we have done! Unless some hormonal bug creeps up on me, I don't think you will find me upset about leaving. We had our time here and we both feel like its time to be in the next, settled house for our kids to grow up in.....after Ohio of course. So we are ready...good things ahead!

The living room...it was country cute. White carpet, green walls and that was it. We had big plans for this space and it made a huge difference! We put in Brazilian Cherry Hardwoods, replaced the ceiling fan, painted the walls my super-in-love, Pottery Barn brown.

Living Room BEFORE

Living Room AFTER

The Dining Room...well, for one it had white carpet (!!??) and the typical brass candelabra looking light fixture. This room also had its hue of green....it was a "greenish" khaki on top and a "greenish" brown below the chair rail. Ewwww to all! So, we kept the hardwoods going into the room, painted the top part of the wall a nice cream and a very delicious dark red below the chair rail. We also added a black light fixture. Much better!

Looking into the Dining Room BEFORE

Looking into the Dining Room AFTER

The Kitchen... oh my, the Kitchen. It had the original linoleum, the builder grade standard oak, woody cabinets, and very red walls. Too much red for me. It also sported the lovely brass kitchen overhead light. It had a circa 1990 oven vent over the stove but no microwave! Ummmm, nope. This is no gourmet girl so a microwave had to be had!
Sooooo, I took on the worst idea of my life. I took down every door and with the help of friends, painted the cabinets white. Horrible idea! I've done it once, will never do it again. Yes, I LOVE the finished product, but oh my...never again. We also added hardware to the cabinets. I got some awesome light fixtures off Craigstlist for the eat in area and over the sink. LOVE! We took the crusty oven hood down and put in a microwave. duh. And we replaced the flooring with some DuraCeramic Tile. Again, much better! I wanted a bright, airy kitchen since I already do not enjoy being in there...so anything to help!....but ever since we put this shade of green up, I haven't loved it. I don't feel that it goes with the other two rooms downstairs, but never got around to changing it so oh well!

Kitchen BEFORE

Kitchen AFTER

Kitchen BEFORE

Kitchen AFTER

The Master Bedroom....was the brightest blue known to man. We called it "Pool Stick Chalk" Blue. We immediately changed this!!! I love our MB now. I love our Trey ceiling and the decision to give it a pop of color. Yum.

Master Bedroom BEFORE

Master Bedroom AFTER

The Master Bathroom was a build up make over. We saved up and redid this room in a major way! I'm so thankful to have a handy husband who knows how to build houses and do projects when we get the itch. Before, our bathroom had the odd mismatching mirrors?, a HUGE window with no blinds ??,  a tub the size of our bed and the typical tiny shower. We noticed that water was getting behind the tile and causing problems so that gave us the perfect excuse to dive right in! We put new tile down for flooring, tore out the mega tub, took out the peeping-tom window, put in a mega-shower with new tile work, glass shower doors, and corner Sheetrock shelving. We replaced the mirrors and the lighting in there too.  Ryan and his buddy did everything you see except the Sheetrock shelves, plumbing and the glass doors! So proud. I painted the walls a fun Terra Cotta color and stained the vanities a dark espresso. We had to change out those mirrors and ultra bright light accessories.

Master Bath BEFORE

Master Bath AFTER

Master Bath BEFORE

Master Bath AFTER

Master Bath AFTER

Outside....we love the outside! The front of the house had normal shrubbery and no flowers to enjoy looking at! boring! So Ryan did a major project on his own and built us a Retaining Wall so we would have a nice flower bed to plant some color! It took him a long time (maybe  b/c he can be a perfectionist!? ) but it was worth it! Our neighbors enjoyed watching the progress and final project.

Flower bed BEFORE

Flower bed AFTER

Flower bed BEFORE

Flower bed AFTER

Flower bed AFTER

And my favorite feature....no joke....our beautiful Weeping Willow tree out front. Every Spring, we almost have a major marital fight because Ryan goes out there with sheers and a saw to "trim" up the tree.  Ryan is not a huge fan of the tree because he has to mow underneath and through it...so he says. ;) I like it just the way it is...nice and full! Anyway, it has been the background to many precious, pictures, including one of the last pictures we have of me pregnant with the twins. Holy Moly I was a 2-ton willy! (I had them the next day by the way...).

Overall, great times in good ole Erinsbrook....many memories made!

Oh, Hi! Ohio!

I dont watch the show,  but always thought this was a clever little play on words in the sitcom, "Hot in Cleveland." I hope its not some horrible show now that I wrote it on the blog.....Anyway, I have stopped trying to keep track of who knows our big news and who doesn't. I had to look back on here to confirm we hadn't mentioned anything on here! (our life is so crazy right now.)

Anyway, here goes...we're moving to Columbus, Ohio....soon. In fact, Ryan is already there. He began a 5 week "trial" period last Monday and is commuting home on the weekends. We have all survivied week one of the cycle. Sometimes I think we are crazy, then God confirms something else for us. Somethimes I doubt whether all of this upside-down-ness is worth it ( it is a temporary assignment, initially signing a 1 yr contract, with the most being 2 years), then God opens another door and calms my questioning. Sometimes I've questioned the timing, then God does something BIG. Examples to follow of course....

But the gist is that Ryan's company has a wonderful opportunity to diversify its product and develop new relationships with companies in this new product. The first time we heard of this opportunity was October...but it came and went, then nothing happened. Oh well, good to know something is coming down the road, right? In this economy, we were glad to hear the company would have more work soon! Then, January comes and things go hay-wire. They start talking to Ryan...my Ryan!....about being the main lead in this exciting time! We were both stunned they chose Ryan to begin negotiations with. He would kill me for writing this, but it is a BIG deal, a huge honor for him and speaks volumes to me about his work ethic and character amongst his peers. Anyway, Jan 9th was the date to be exact...he sends me an email that he has big news we need to discuss. Well, turns out this is the day I found out I was pregnant.....in my mind I was saying..."I'm the one with the big news!!!" I knew that they wanted Ryan to move up to Ohio so that was no surprise that night, but my little news was! We began to wonder if this was a door closing to uprooting our family with soon-to-be 3 kids under 2 away from everyone we knew! Now, I'm not saying that our questioning is why God allowed me to miscarry that baby...maybe I am...I dont know, but I'm trusting that it was part of our life plan either way and THAT is why God allowed it. Anyway, that very big elephant in the room was taken out of the equation.

They initially wanted Ryan to do a 2 month trial period up there, not flying home every weekend. oh my, I did not like this at all. Two months is a loooong time with toddler twins (with any kids or no kids for that matter!). Then, they shortened it to 5 weeks, flying home every weekend. ahh much better.

We wondered about finances and how this would affect our family - God more than enough took care of that. We prayed for God to take care of the housing situation, He has done so. We prayed we would find a really good area and that it would be clear what part of Columbus, Ohio we should make our home...He has done that! We are looking to make our home in the New Albany or Gahanna area (east side of Columbus...soooo if you have connections, let us know!) We wondered how I would get our housed packed with Ryan away and 2 toddlers. God is spoiling us here by having the company pay for us to be moved there and back. Trivial to some, a major game changer for us!

So we find ourselves in a crazy day to day life here. My parents were gracious enough to allow me and the twins to move in with them. I would already be a crazy lunatic if not for them. They are so much help with the twins and it has been fun making fun memories with them and being close to Ryan's parents on this side of town. So we currently live partly in our home, partly in my parents home, partly in Ryan's carry on suitcase, and partly in my SUV. This is all happening so fast, I dont have time to think about how I feel about it most days. I'm at perfect peace this is what we are supposed to do and I'm choosing to look at it as a fun adventure for our family. We will be right back to Raleigh for Ryan to work out of the Corporate office in 2 years max and I know that will fly by.

We have some major prayer requests we would ask you to lift up on our behalf....

1- Please pray us to find a Gospel centered church that we can begin to form relationships within. This community has been so very vital to our marriage and parenthood journey, we know the importance this has in our lives.
2- Please pray for our moving logistics. Right now we are in a tough, uncertain situation that looks like I will handle the complete move from here on my own last week in March, Ryan will handle the complete move-in up there on his own, and then at some point the beginning of April, he can come down and make the road trip up with the twins and I. All uncertain so just pray for God to continue opening and closing the doors in this specific situation. Oh...I failed to mention we have nowhere to move TO yet ;)
3. Which brings me to point #3...please pray for God to direct Ryan to the house he has for us. Poor Ryan is working all day, then going househunting for hours each night. Since we are only going to be up there 2 years max, we are going to rent. The rental market up there has turned out to be crazy! So we will need God to work on our behalf big time here which we know He can do.
4- Pray for us (alright, ME) as we are away from family. Never done that before! Just pray we take advantage of our family time and dont wish 2 years away.
5- Pray for my babies to adjust ok and that they will not be negatively affected in any way. Since moving in with my parents, Caden has gone nuts with tantrums...could totally just be an age-thing, random in timing or due to the change and back and forth in his life right now. Either way, I just want to pray against negative influence on the twins.

Ok so there is a long post to tell you alot of info! We are here 2 more weeks as it stands now so please pray for us in them! The twins and I live with my parents (still in Raleigh) so if we can see you in the meantime, lets make it happen! On to the next adventure.......

Then and Now

Oh the difference a year can make! I snapped a picture of Jenna the other day and my mind immediately went to their First Valentines Day last year and this picture......



4 months old

16 months old

We went from dark blue eyes to light green hazel eyes. Yes, that is the same headband and yes, we have grown into our eyes a bit more :)