Moving

 

 

After months of searching we finally settled on a house we wanted to call home. Several inspections later, a new roof and a lot of stress we finally closed on our house. We couldn’t really move though until the following week when John had some help but we had to be out of our rental before the end of the month to avoid paying another month of rent. We would have loved to have taken that whole week off of work but we are just too busy to take time off so we juggled packing and moving in between work and sleep. Oh, and the kids daycare was closed that Friday and Monday for Easter and Staff training. Lovely timing K We did it though! I can’t say it was an easy week but at least it is all behind us now. And now comes the fun stuff! The house we bought is totally livable but we consider it a fixer-upper. It was build in 1950 so it needs a lot of upgrades. It was also infested with termites and had to be tented before we moved in so there is a lot of damage from that we need to repair as well. I’ll share before and after pictures as we complete projects around the house. It also has a pool which we’re pretty excited about especially as the summer months approach us. Except it has also turned out to be another project as it needs to be resurfaced. Ah, the joys of home ownership!

 

 

Endless number of boxes and 'stuff'

Our rental, just about empty

 

The kids hangin' by the pool, they love their new home!

 

 

Send me a message if you want our new address!

 

 

Addie's 2nd Birthday

 

Hello again….sorry for the lack of posts this past month. Hopefully I didn’t lose too many followers! To say we’ve been busy would be an understatement. If I wait until things calm down though you may never hear from me again. So my posts will have more pictures than words and I’ll just highlight on the big moments. I have so much to catch you up on! This post will be dedicated to Addie’s 2^nd birthday though. The poor girls’ birthday couldn’t have come at a worse time. We closed on our new house on March 22^nd and moving day was March 27^th and her birthday (March 26^th) fell right smack in the middle of complete chaos. So we didn’t have a party per se but we did have lots of mini celebrations! We took cupcakes and cookies to her class on her birthday and then had pizza and opened presents in our (empty) new house on her actual birthday. A couple of weekends later both sets of grandparents came to see the new house so we celebrated again then with more cupcakes J I know she had to be thinking ‘what the … where is MY party?’ though because she has been to more birthday parties than I can count in the last couple of months. Next year Addie, I promise, you will get a big birthday party!!! 

 

BeBe and Grandpa got her her own little kitchen for her new room and she absolutely loves it! Connor loves it too! She also got a lot of clothes, dishes, shopping cart, umbrella, purse, Tinkerbell towel and a few other kitchen accessories. She did pretty good considering she didn’t have a party! You can view all birthday related pictures here.

 

 

♥♥ Happy 2^nd Birthday to our sweet little princess!! ♥♥

 

Wordless Wednesday

 

 

 

 

 

Busch Gardens

 

We took the kids to Busch Gardens last weekend. We met up with our friends Sara, Mikey and their two girls, Ava and Madeleine. Ava is a few months older than Connor and Maddie is around 15 months. The kids had the best time together. And Addie loved playing with Ava. She followed her every footstep.

 

 

 

Afterwards we went to a cook out at Chris and Marti's to celebrate the first day of daylight savings. It's one of my favorite days, we love this time of year!

 

Addie has had fun looking at these pictures. She likes to point Ava out in each one :)



Wordless Wednesday

I have a few words this week ;)

 

We've been seeing (and hearing) jets fly over our house for weeks now.

The kids having fun in our 'packing' bins

 

An armadillo in our side yard this morning.

 

 



Happy Birthday, Grandma!

March is a busy birthday month for our families. We started the month celebrating Connor's birthday. Next was my cousin Jessica's birthday. And yesterday was Grandma's birthday! Later this week is my cousin's husband, Luke's birthday, followed by my cousin David's birthday. Then we have little Miss Addison's birthday to look forward to! In addition to birthdays we have an anniversary and lots of other friends with birthday's. Throw in moving later this month and we are one busy family.

 

Addie doing the hula :)

  

Aunt Nancy officially moved back to Tampa this past weekend and Grandma and Papa were here to help her move. So we took Grandma out Saturday night for her birthday. We went to dinner at Hula Bay and it was perfect. Perfect weather, perfect food, perfect company. We were just missing Uncle Mark and Uncle Andrew. We also surprised her with her very own Mary Champion cake! :) It's a Gumula family favorite, but Grandma is the one that makes it, so it was fun to make one for her for a change. She certainly wasn't expecting it.

 

Happy Birthday, Grandma!!!



Happy Birthday, Connor!!!

Connor's birthday officially started on February 28th when John picked him up from school to treat him to lunch. It was Connor's choice and he chose McDonald's :) Later that evening Connor helped me decorate cake pops that we made to bring to his class the following day. His school greeted him Friday morning with a crown to wear so that everyone would know it was his birthday and his classmates all welcomed him in singing "Happy Birthday." What a great start to a birthday weekend! John and I brought in the cake pops later that afternoon for Connor to share with his new classmates (he transitioned into the prekindergarten class earlier that week).

We went ahead and brought the kids home after cake pops and since it was earlier than normal we took them to the playground before dinner. Connor was still proudly wearing his birthday crown. After dinner we let Connor go ahead and open our gifts to him. He had been asking for a Hess helicopter for months now, ever since a buddy of his brought his in for show and tell. Needless to say he was excited about his gift :) 

 

 

 

Little Addie came out of her room at one point with an old birthday hat of her own asking "where Addie's birthday presents?" I felt so bad as she obviously didn't quite understand what was going on. At least her birthday is right around the corner so she won't have to wait long for her own presents.

 

Connor got to stay up a little later than normal playing with his new toys. After he went to bed John and I blew up a million balloons (not really but it felt like it) and decorated his door with streamers so he would wake up to a birthday surprise. He was thrilled when he came into our bedroom the following morning...at 6 am. Ugh. So much for my hopes of him sleeping in. So he went to bed late and got up extra early. Not good as we knew he wouldn't nap before his party.

 

Connor's Power Ranger party was scheduled for 3:30 pm at the park. BeBe, Grandpa, Uncle Chris, Grandma and Papa came to our house prior to the party. Connor opened their gifts and we all enjoyed each other's company before we had to leave for the park. All morning long we watched the weather as it was cold, overcast and had been sprinkling on and off. Luckily the sun came out prior to the party but it was still COLD! We packed up and headed out...

 

 

On our way to the party Connor realized he didn't have his birthday crown. I asked him if he really needed it. His response was "Yes! How else will everyone know who the birthday boy is?" Precious. So we hightailed it back to the house for his crown. I was supposed to pick up a Box of Joe on the way from Dunkin Donuts to help keep the adults warm. But as we were heading that way we noticed some friends of ours in the car ahead of us. I casually mentioned it to Connor and he freaked. "No, they can't beat us to my party!" So I stepped on it and completely forgot about the coffee. I was determined to get my birthday boy to his party first! Grandpa was following behind me. He must have thought I was crazy the way I was driving. The things we do for our kids ;)

 

 

Connor had a blast at his party. He had most of his buddies from school and the weather didn't seem to bother them a bit. The adults, on the other hand, were freezing. I definitely did not prepare accordingly. For myself or the kids. They both had runny noses by the end of it...we were doomed.

After the party we said our goodbye's to BeBe, Grandpa and Uncle Chris, ordered take-out from Beef O'Brady's and relaxed the rest of the evening with Grandma, Papa and Aunt Nancy. We were supposed to go to Beef's, at Connor's request, but he was too worn out. He didn't even eat dinner (another warning sign of what was to come). Grandma and Papa were staying overnight and after a cozy evening in front of our fire, we called it a night. Around 4 am Connor started crying and when we brought him to our bed he felt a little on the warm side. Turns out he had a fever and after a couple of restless hours he fell asleep. My poor baby :(

We went ahead and went out for breakfast the following morning. We were all hungry and I hadn't really planned on cooking us all breakfast. Connor loves going to breakfast. I'm pretty sure it's his favorite meal. Chocolate chip pancakes. With Syrup. Can't forget the syrup. Other than having a fever he seemed fine though so we were hopeful it wouldn't stick around or get too high. We're still over cautious with him as we are afraid he could have another seizure. He ended up staying home from school Monday and Tuesday but never developed anymore symptoms. All and all he had a great birthday though. Thanks to everyone that were able to help him celebrate!

You can view all of his birthday pictures here.

Happy 4th Birthday, Connor!!! We ♥ you!