July?!

This promises to be the most random post in a long time.

-My brothers are the same age for two weeks, starting yesterday (Happy 24th Ofan!)

-Renae and I went to check out some shopping this morning and nearly hit a deer on the way home. SLAMMED on the brakes and thankfully Bambi hopped just out of reach. Yikes!

-A couple weeks ago Josh went swimming with our car keys in his pocket. After several minutes we saw them on the bottom of the pool, and after determining that it wasn't a snake or any live creature, he went down to get them. Power lock buttons still work! Yeah Pontiac!

-I got on and off the phone with AT&T this afternoon in 15 minutes. I'm pretty sure that is a world record. They have the worst waits for customer service. The shortest we've ever waited was 35 minutes...any longer and we usually hang up.

-I made baby food yesterday under the direction of Marth. I made sweet potatoes, acorn squash. Carrots coming soon! Renae ate acorn squash yesterday, it was her first non-rice cereal baby food. She really liked it! She was really messy afterwards.

-Renae had to get some hip x-rays done last week, to make sure that she is developing correctly after being breach for the entire pregnancy. She was hilarious- watching the light on her tummy. Josh and I had to hold her still and she thought that was awesome with mommy and daddy entertaining her.

-We got to see our friends Reid and Scarlett before they flew off to Germany! We had a great time, eating good food and hanging out! :)

-Here are so me pictures from recently you might enjoy!






-This video is Renae enjoying her jumpy seat. :)

If this doesn't make you laugh....

Don't you feel bad for the girl who can only scoot backwards?



We are totally unpacked! :) Here we are today...I am so excited that Renae finally fits in this dress, it's my favorite.

Hello from Atlanta!

We have been here for 1 week! Our house is probably 75% unpacked. We're getting there. Josh goes back to work on Friday so our deadline is fast approaching. We have a lot of catching up to do!

Todd and Liz and Olivia visited from June 6th-10th. You've seen some pictures from their visit. We had a great time hanging out, we went to the 'spray' park (one singular spray), to a playground next to the river, to the Boll Weevil (delish!), walked, played Book It!, the boys went running, ate smoothies, went shopping, and laughed at Olivia and Renae playing together. Olivia was hilarious with Renae...she gave her some really great hugs!

Will came in to town on the 11th and thus commenced the packing/loading/driving/unloading/unpacking extravaganza. :) Will has helped us during multiple moves, we seriously couldn't have done it without him! Will and Renae have lots of fun together as well, so it was super fun to have him here. Highlights include: Will flying into Augusta on the same plane as Kirk Cameron. Erin's improvised watch-your-head device duct taped to the garage ensuring no one got a brick-print tattoo. Lots of Dairy Queen. Lots of Scrabble. Triple digits temps the whole time...Loading the truck was hot, but UNLOADING was worse. We all sweat through all our clothes, had tomato faces, and drank about 10 liters of water each afterward...it was HOT. The picture below is about 45-60 minutes AFTER we were done. Still wet. Sick. Thankfully our new shower exfoliates about 5 layers of skin, so after we showered we all felt grime and sweat free...it was wonderful. I bet he was glad to leave by the 16th...even though it was hard to say goodbye! (Will was informed numerous times that we are indeed moving again next summer...)





Ashley, Josiah, Holly, Miranda, and Nader (friends from summer project 6 (WOW) years ago) came to visit June 15th-18th. Highlights include, BOOK IT!, Glee, babies, swimming, playing in the yard, climbing trees, taking a TON of pictures, watching Josiah and Josh play...it was basically like camping in our house because everything was still in boxes, but we had fun!






Renae has been growing like a weed! We had her 6 month appointment while Will was here, she was a champ through her shots, barely even a peep! Here's the stats: 17.4 lbs, 25 inches. That's about 20th percentile for height, and 75th percentile for weight. Atta girl! That's about a 50 percentile weight gain in two months. :) Renae is also loving her jumpy-seat Aunt Martha and Uncle Ryan got her at the twins club garage sale. She is dominating rice cereal from a spoon (finally!). She can spin in circles, scoot backwards, and is really really close to sitting on her own. So much fun!

A Visit from the Arasmiths!

I have a BAZillion boxes needing to be packed...so for now, photo blog style:

For Your Enjoyment

This video I've been waiting to share for MONTHS! But I got the go-ahead....this is when Renae was 1 month old. Look how thrilled she is! :) Sorry for the bouncing camera, the operator was crying she was laughing so hard.



And this video is from last week. So much fun with Daddy! :)

Race Crashing

Ok, so Erin and I have this thing where I try to run a race on every Army installation that I've been assigned to. As we are moving to Atlanta next week, time was not on our side for keeping the tradition alive. Last week, I find out there is a 10K/5K race on Fort Gordon...TODAY! Thank you God!! Unfortunately, I have become lazy in my old age and fail to register for the race during the week. No worries, right? The flyer says I can register on race day. The race begins at 8am; Erin, Renae, and I arrive around 7:30am. Cool beans. Except not. I walk up to the registration table and am turned away?!?! Are you serious? They are not taking anymore registrations. I have my $20 check IN MY HAND...and they deny me. Ouch.

So, what to do? Do we head back home, dejected and humiliated? OR...do I run the race anyway?? I mean, we're already there...why not just run it for fun? It's not like I'm going to win, right? Well...maybe not win, but I did finish 4th overall in the 5K. Take that registration table!! To top it off, my race t-shirt was free b/c my buddy Patrick was working the race as a volunteer. I was willing to pay for it, but he managed to finagle one for me. Sooooo, I show up to a race that I didn't even register for, dominate it, and then come away with a free t-shirt. In some circles that is known as race crashing. Boo yaaaa! And now, some photos for your viewing pleasure...




Then...we begin packing our house for next week's move. Went pretty well, I'd say. Tricia showed up for a few hours in the morning; Patrick and Leslie followed suit in the afternoon. As a break with Patrick and Leslie, we enjoyed a nice game of Book-It (or Hand & Foot if your prefer). Now, some time ago, the Thomases, the Arasmiths, and the Barricklows made a pretty bold amendment to this game. It went like this: If a player acquires a "book" of RED 3s, the red 3s become +300 points each, rather than the default -300 points each. Also, the "book" must be clean, meaning no wild cards can be used. This earns the team an additional 500 points for having a clean book. Must be all RED 3s. Period. In all my years of playing this game, I have yet to see anyone with enough stones to attempt a "book" of RED 3s. Until today...


Way to go, Patrick! You have done what the three families could not do for so many years. Of course, it looks like you had some help...



And, just for kicks, here's a photo of the two smokin' hot women in my life!!

In the thick of it

Well, I am quickly running out of days to get all that I need done...the move is 10 days away! Yikes! It definitely gets harder to pull everything off with a 5 1/2 month old. BUT, we did find a house, we will be renting this little GEM for the next year or so:


We've been able to meet up with a bunch of friends for the last time despite the busyness. We got to go out to a fabulous restaurant in Augusta called "The Boll Weevil" with the Curee's. We took a nice walk along the river after we ate and ended up getting rained on...but it was still really fun.



Over Memorial Weekend we all went to the pool with Patrick and Leslie, Patrick even let Renae wear his sunnies. :)




And last but not least, Renae has been seeing more and more that her dad is even more weird/entertaining than she ever imagined.