Catching Up

To be honest, I would really rather be laying on the couch, watching some ridiculous show on tv, wasting both my time and my braincells. I'm worn out and feeling way too scatterbrained to try and put two thoughts together let alone try and update our blog on the happenings of the DeBoer life for the past 2 months. But, alas, I know that if I don't force myself to get back in the habit of blogging I will regret it. I am already hearing Elin's future comments about my lack of blogging (my version of a baby book) for her. So here I am trying to figure out where to begin...

To say that the past two months have been insane would be putting it lightly. Since my last post we moved, again. This time we moved into our new house in Redlands, CA! The move went about as well as could be expected. We leaned heavily on the support of our amazing friends who were willing to help us move for the second time in 3 weeks ~ a lot to ask of friends who also have jobs, families and lives to get on with. We continue to be EXTREMELY grateful for all the help! We spent our first night on Wednesday, June 22 and had 4 crazy days of unpacking and attempting to get somewhat settled in.

Bye-Bye Beaumont. Thank you for the memories!

First dinner in our new house = a picnic consisting of McDonald's dollar menu items eaten off napkins on the unwashed kitchen floor. We're classy like that.

Unpacking, hopefully for the last time in a long time!

Thank goodness for the Baby K'tan! I'm not sure I would have gotten much done without it.

Thank goodness for Disney DVDs! I'm not sure I would have gotten much done without them!

(judge all you want... Luke watched hours and hours of Disney and Pixar movies while we cleaned and unpacked and packed up for our trips. It's how we stayed semi sane.)

I can't remember all of what I have already posted about our new house...have I mentioned it's a "fixer-upper"? Yeah, this house was in dire need of some love and attention (not to mention time, money and blood, sweat, and tears) We got right to work fixing/replacing the things we could, especially the things that needed to be done before we took off for 3+ weeks. Changing the locks was at the top of the list.

Matt is quickly becoming more and more of a Mr. Fix-it. I guess the 'do-it-yourself or pay to have someone else do it' mindset is good motivation... at least when the budget only stretches so far :)

Luke follows Daddy's lead and gets right to work on all the other doorknobs throughout the house.

And there's Elin also hard at work. Growing so quickly is hard work!

Knowing that our trips on the wedding circuit would be hectic we decided to see how Elin would do with a bottle before leaving CA. She was a total champ, chugging down a good 5 oz our first attempt, with me in the room to boot! I must say, I was relieved that she took the bottle so well. I do enjoy nursing, for the most part, but it is so nice that Matt can get in on the feeding action now and then. :)

The 4 days in our new house blew by and June 26th was here before we knew it. Thus, we headed to Chicago for part one of the wedding extravaganza! I was more than a little anxious about how both kids would do while traveling but they exceeded my expectations in a big way! Elin slept in the Baby K'tan pretty much the entire time we were in the airport (Again, major props to the baby K'tan ~ not sure what I would have done without it). Luke was also a total stud. It definitely helped that my mom had thought ahead and mailed us some traveling gifts for Luke to unwrap at various points during our trip. (Major props to Nee-Nee and the dollar store!)

DeBoer family of four Chicago bound!

Luke was so excited to ride on a big airplane! He sat in his seat like such a big boy, looking around, taking it all in. By the time the pilot turned off the Fasten Seat Belts light, Luke simply put his head down on Matt's lap and went right to sleep! He slept for more than half the flight. To say that was awesome would be a bit of an understatement.

Elin was as happy as can be after getting some good sleep in the K'tan. She and I had a grand ol' time making faces at each other. She's all smiles lately!

Her little smile, especially when you can see her dimples, just makes me melt!

There's plenty more to come, believe me! But I'm calling it a night. Stay Tuned.