Absence Makes The Heart Grow Fonder?

Let's hope that saying is true, because we have long been absent from this blog! Life has not been boring though. Here's a brief update on what we've been up to.

After finishing up a wonderful Christmas season with family and friends Jeremy and I decided to dive right in to getting this house ready to sell.  It's something we'd been slowly working on for a while, but with the start of the new year we got motivated to really get moving!  So, that said, I've been spending all my kid-free time during the day painting, cleaning, organizing, and of course spending way too much time looking at houses online.  I haven't been the only one working though.  Jeremy has spent many an evening and weekend painting, sealing grout, and working on whatever other projects need to be done.  We finally feel like we're close to the finish line and should have our first little home on the market within the next month!

It hasn't been all work though...we have managed to have a lot of fun with these two great kids we have!

Our little "Baby Girl" has been growing by leaps and bounds.  About two weeks ago she mastered the art of rolling both directions and within a couple days had moved on to scooting across the room!  To fuel all that scooting we've moved to solid foods, her favorites so far being carrots and bananas.  Another big change for Elise has been getting rid of her swaddling blanket.  I was very concerned this transition might not go so well, but she took it like a champ and only struggled for a couple days.

Andrew is constantly changing too.  He is now our little parrot, repeating absolutely EVERYTHING we say.  There's no way I could keep count of all the words he knows.  He has recently been working on learning to share not only with his sister, but also with his friends.  I'm proud of how loving and caring he has become, especially toward Elise.  He is forever getting her toys, blankets, burp cloths, and her pacifier.  Andrew has also become my helper.  He is always willing to help with whatever I ask.  He will eagerly run to get things I ask for, help set the table when allowed, and I often find him picking up his toys without being asked.  We're proud of the big boy he's turning into.

I'll leave you with a few snapshots of our past weeks.

Andrew received a basketball goal for Christmas and has been having tons of fun shooting "two points!"

Reading together is still one of our favorite pastimes...I hope it always will be.

Here Andrew is reading his "snowball" book to Elise while she plays.

Our little Elise is a bit of a stinker.  Now that she is mobile she is quite interested in Andrew's toys.  I came out from our room one afternoon while Andrew was napping to find her like this.  Oh, if only knew what happened while he napped!

Just last night Elise wore herself out playing.  I was just finishing up giving Andrew his bedtime snack when I found these two snuggled up asleep on the floor.  I love how she's sleeping on top of a pile of stuffed animals.

Well, thanks for reading our little update.  Hopefully now that most of our big projects are done I'll have more time to update a little more regularly and hopefully our work will pay off and this house will sell quickly!