Goodbye, Baby's Second Home.

Yesterday, we said goodbye to our house.... a place where, in just less than two short years, we witnessed first steps, first tastes of homemade momma food, a big first year birthday party, handfuls of gatherings with family and friends, and a million other memories and special moments. It was never going to be our forever home and we are more than happy that, even with the shape of our housing market, we are able to move, but I couldn't help but feel a tinge of sadness when we pulled away from the house. Combined that with the fact that moving is an entirely stressful experience, moving at six-and-a-half months pregnant is even more stressful, and that we've had a sick little one on our hands for the past four days and the emotions really started flowing. On top of that big mess, momma forgot to bring the camera on goodbye-house day. And it's not that images of us in a big empty house is that exciting, but you can imagine how I felt when I reached into the back seat to grab it and realized that I had left in at the new location.

So instead... I leave you with the last memories of baby's second home....

Finger painting on our deck.



I love how curious little ones are. The look that he gives me right before he wants to attempt something, waiting to see if I will react with the go-ahead look or the don't-you-dare-even-think-about-that one. Painting yourself? Why not.



Painting in your undies? Much less messy.



With your toes? Absolutely.



Leaping over your paints? If you must.







Water play in the front yard.



Observe how excited this little one when he is planning his water attack on daddy.



Until daddy attacks him unexpectedly.





He's become quite the fan of the golf ladder game made especially for him from his Papa (one of his great-grandfathers). And the crazy thing is? He's actually quite good at it.





And late night summer ice cream treats. I went from being the momma that rarely allowed anything sweet to enter this child's mouth to making time for these special treats every evening. Besides, it is summer. And he really likes it.



Always insisting to say "cheers" with a fellow ice cream cone.







And if you thought I was stressed out from moving and packing up all the many, many boxes we had, I wasn't. My job was really to take care of the clothes, the organization of where everything was going, and the little one. I can't possibly give enough credit to my husband for packing up and getting us moved out in a timely fashion. {and a BIG thank you to our family members and friends that helped us out during the past few weeks... you all ROCK!}





And now, while we adjust the little one back into our normal day-to-day activities, continue our search for baby's third home, and try to remember where in the world all of our belongings are stored, we will always the remember the house that did become a home to us for a few short years.



Not that we think we will have any problems creating new memories, a new place of love and good things, in the ones to come....



Happy Weekend to you. We're taking a week off and couldn't be more excited about the empty schedule of relaxation and family time we have in front of us....