Family Pictures

Almost six weeks ago, I found out that our time in the US had been extended to the end of June. At the time, I felt like we had an unlimited amount of time to see family and friends. I was so sure of this that I felt kind of ridiculous at our going away party my parents threw us just two days after finding out our move was postponed. Looking back, that really was the last time I have seen most of those who came to say goodbye. Now, we are literally counting down the days; 6 days to go. We have been spending lots of time with family and trying to make time for dinners with friends, but free nights are few and far between and now it is almost time to go.

When we scheduled our going away party, I also scheduled family pictures. I wanted to make sure that I had lots of updated pictures to hang around our new home. All of our siblings except for one (Brady's sister's husband had a work conflict that came up at the last minute). Luckily Ali Moore, find her website here, agreed to take our crazy family pictures for us. I have been thinking about how much I am going to miss our family and friends lately and wanted to post the pictures that will be hanging all over my walls in just a few short weeks.

LOVE this picture of Brady's aunt Janae!

Soooo.....after an hour and a half of shooting on the coldest day in May, P was not happy...

Parker and Kamden (Brady's brother, Scott's son)

Luckiest kid with the greatest grandparents in the world!

P and his cousins Kyler and Kamden with Papa and Grammy.

Brady's family

G-Dawg and Gram Gram

My family

Love the eyelashes!!

Uncle Courtney and Van

Uncle Landon

Ali was nice enough to paint the sign for us to use.

Awwww, can't wait to put these on my wall so that I can feel like our family is always around. We are so blessed!

Just for Parker

Time is going so fast...too, too fast. I feel like every day Parker does something new to completely astound me. I also feel like there is no time to enjoy it and that my memory is going to fail me. This was supposed to be what this blog was for, but as you can tell from my lack of regular postings, I am not very good at even remembering to post.

So...this post is for Parker and Mommy and Daddy. You are so amazing and we are so blessed to be your parents. Everyday we are awed by how complete you make our lives and how full you make our hearts. You are such a good baby (which I realize probably means that I am in for a doozie on the next one:), and I am so blessed to be your mommy!

Just so I don't forget here is what you are doing right now!!

You can count! Since around 13 months, you have been counting to two. Around 15 months you started counting like this..."one, twoooo, ten!" A month ago, you started counting like this, "one, twoooooo, wheeeee!" This was mainly due to the fact that on three we always said wheeee when we either picked you up or pushed or on the swing (we have since learned to count to three first and then say wheeee:). Saturday, you said, "one, twoooo, three!" Yay Parker!

New Animal Noises! From around 10 months you have been saying different animal noises. Your first was "quack quack" thanks to your yellow duck in the bathtub. Mommy and Daddy quickly learned how entertaining this was and began teaching you lots of others (cow, moo; horse, neigh; sheep, baaa; goat, maaa; goose, honk; bear or lion, roar--I really didn't know how to make them sound different...if he gets them confused when he is older, we'll all know why!) Your newest noises are turkey, gobble and perhaps my favorite; rooster...COCK-A-DOOOO!

Colors! Before you turned one (again, this would have been helpful to post about at the time because now I can't remember an exact date), we started asking you, "what color is this?" The first toy we tried this on was the yellow duck. Soon, you began to answer, "wewwo". Genius baby!!! Haha, actually, stupid parents. We soon realized that you always said yellow anytime we asked you what color something was. Hello Pavlovian dog! Recently, you have been labeling things by color..."boo shoe" "green block." We still get, "yellow" when we ask you what color, but at least I know you know your colors even if I am the idiot that taught you to say yellow.

Bieber Fever! You are an amazing singer:)! You have quite possibly the cutest impression of Justin Bieber I have ever seen. When you sing, "Bebe, bebe, bebe, ooooh" (while using your fist as a microphone) my heart just melts! You know that you can really get us laughing if you play the piano while you sing. Now, you also sing Lady Gaga (I know, I should probably adjust my radio in the morning). You sing, "rah, rah, rah, rah" (bad romance) and move your hands all at the same time. Thank you for always making us laugh; you are truly the best entertainment a mother could ask for.

Prayers! Talking about your prayers melts my heart. From the moment I found out I was pregnant with you, I prayed for the words and actions to teach you to love God. We have always said our prayers before bed and dinner. For the last couple of months, you have begun to be able to say them on your own. With eyes shut and hands folded (and many times during silent prayer time at church), you will say "mommy, daddy, parker, puppy, AMEN!" We go through the whole family at night, but I am just glad that you can remember at least part of the prayer!

I love you so much and am so proud to be your mommy!!

Welcome to Norwich

Welcome to Norwich! Here are some quick facts...

• Norwich has approximately 259,000 people within the city limits.
• In the 11th century, Norwich was the 2nd largest city in England. (I know, it is crazy to even think of anything being this old!)
• 98 homes were demolished to make way for the Norwich Castle (pictures below) after the Norman Conquest of 1066.
• The cathedral was commissioned by Herbert de Losinga, Bishop of Thetford, in 1096.
• Norwich is one of the top 10 most prosperous shopping destinations in the UK.

I could go on and on. I am so excited to live somewhere with so much history to explore!

Norwich Cathedral. The city is always bustling, but the area immediately surrounding the cathedral is wonderfully peaceful.

Above is a great view of the Norwich Castle.

The picture above is a picture of the sign for the Adam and Eve pub (picture of the pub below). This is the oldest pub in Norwich (one of the oldest in England) and first records of the pub are from workers building the Cathedral...around 1096!

I just had to take a picture of the cobblestone roads. I definitely learned my lesson about wearing flat flip-flops for hours at a time.

This is a picture of Elm Hill. It is an old mid evil street and the oldest in Norwich. Residents say it is haunted (they have ghost tours on Tuesdays and Thursdays).

This is some of the shopping area. In the background you can see a glimpse of the Norwich market. I will probably be making daily trips here to pick up fresh produce because my refrigerator will not be able to hold much more than that!

This is one of the 52 churches (they have turned some of them into other city uses). I am kind of morbid and couldn't help but think the old gravestones leaning up against the churches were kind of neat. All of the churches are built with flint which is mined locally.
Yes, they still have these...funny, huh?

Another view of the city centre.

Another church that is now a community center.

Another view of the Castle.
One of the bridges from the Riverfront to the city centre.

It really is a great city and, if I only think about day to day life, I am so excited for a new adventure in a new place!

Our New Home!

We're back! Last week we went to England to look for a house. We spent one day looking at six different options. Honestly, those were the only options available that met our requirements. It is so hard to look for a place to rent because you can't do a whole lot to it to make it your own. I know that a house doesn't make a home, but we are moving across the world from family and friends and I just wanted to at least feel like I could make it into our home. We finally found one that just felt right. There is one catch...no closets. We are going to have to invest in some serious wardrobes!!

Here are some pictures of our new home!

Our door is through the little opening.
Our home is on the back side of the blue house.
A view of our new street.
The realtor standing in front of our one closet. This is the view as you walk into the house.
This is the half bath on the first floor. There is literally only room for a toilet and a sink.

No, your eyes are not playing tricks on you. The oven is really as small as it looks.

Same thing here. I guess we will be going down to the market more often...

The dining and living area of the kitchen.
The kitchen. Small, but at least it is new and neutral!! Oh and the farthest cabinet on the left in the back? That is our washer-dryer combo...seriously...not kidding...

The one, full bathroom. At least it has a separate bath and shower.


The landing on the second floor.
Three floors...lots of walking!

This is the smallest room. I can literally almost touch both walls at the same time!

The upstairs living area. I actually really love this room. Large, tray ceilings, this molding and wide-plank wood floors!

This is the outside area. Brady is thrilled that there is no yard to keep up, but I definitely think we will need some type of live foliage back here!

Norwich is definitely not Wichita, but it will be home for the next 3 to 5 years!!

so little space, so much to think about!

Okay Sam, reality check...this is England. You are not going to have a master bathroom, walk-in closets (okay, any closets), 2 bathrooms or storage space. You are not moving here for an upgrade in living conditions (those of you who know where we live now know that these houses must be really small:). You are moving here for the experience. This will be an amazing time for your family and awesome adventure.

Okay, now that I have given myself a pep talk, I'm fine. The house that we are going to see again tomorrow is small, with no storage, but it is charming with a new kitchen and within walking distance of everything we need. Norwich is a beautiful little town, I mean city (apparently in England, it is considered a city if you have a cathedral--stick that in your "just in case I get on jeopardy" pocket). Norwich actually has a over 200,000 people, but it feels small because everything is centrally located. The city centre is super cute with lots of old buildings and stores. And, much to Brady's worry, Norwich is apparently the place to shop for the region...:)! Oh, and there is a castle--cool, right?

This is going to be a great place to call home for a few years. I have taken a lot of pictures, but I can't put them all up right now. I can't wait to show you all our new home (mainly so you will want to visit:)!

This is really happening

I'm pretty sure it is 3:00 AM and I can't sleep. In three hours we are driving back to Wichita to leave for England to look for a house. Seriously?!?! This is crazy! I think that I have kind of been in denial for a long time and I think this is about to become very real in the next 24 hours.

I am also struggling with the thought of leaving Parker for 6 whole days. I have never been away from him for more than 48 hours and that seemed like an eternity. It's funny. When you know you are going to have to leave someone for an extended period of time, you try to spend as much time as possible with them like it will somehow make up for the time you are going to lose. I know I am being a little melodramatic, but how can you blame me with a face like this?

"I Poddy"

Can we really be ready for this? Surely not...but, Parker is 18 months...oh no, I'm not ready for this. I haven't read enough, and I have no idea what I am doing!! Is it really time to potty train already?!? Parker has been very interested in "poddy" for a couple of weeks now. He plays with his diaper when he is going and now says, "I poddy" when he has gone. We progressed on Thursday in the car. Here is what our conversation looked like... Parker says, "I poddy, I poddy" SoI say, "do you have to potty?" Parker says, "yes." I say, "well, just go in your diaper." Parker says, "I pee, I pee...I done...bye bye." This conversation caused me to get out his little potty chair and set it in the bathroom. On Friday, he said, "I poddy" so I asked him if he wanted to go on his little chair and he said yes, I sat him on the chair. One problem...little willie (yes, this is what we have named him) is sticking out over the splash guard and I don't know how to pop it in. (Seriously, he is going to have issues). So we give up on this chair and I put a diaper on him. Saturday, we were at a hotel and again he said he had to go and I asked him if he wanted to sit on the big chair, he said yes! So, I sit him on the chair and...he potties!!!! Yay!! I ended the story there because seriously, now what? I am completely out of my element and I don't know if I should just go hard core and try to teach him or to just ease into it. My other dilemma is that we move to England in less than two months. I kind of feel like I should either do it now or wait entirely until we move. This lead me to a search for the 3-day method. In this method, you let your child run around without pants for three days. Ok, I can do this, we have wood floors so the mess won't be terrible. Now, I was thinking that I would be done after three days. Oh no, you then have to try to stay close to home for THREE MONTHS while you continue to let them run around without pants. If you do leave the house, you are supposed to put them in loose-fitting pants and buy a cover for your car seat in case of accidents...AHHHH! Holy cow, this is crazy. I know, I know, potty-training your child in three days was a bold thought, but a girl can dream. I am still searching for an answer to my question. Until then, I guess I will just let P-Man "poddy" in the big boy chair anytime he wants!