To be honest, I have no idea how to use this. I need my good pal Kari to help me :) But, here's an update-
Last summer Coy and I decided we would move to FL and start our lives with our family of four down in FL. We moved down Christmas week of Dec 2012. Levi was ONE MONTH old! Twice now ya'll, we have moved with our babies being one month old. (Kayleigh was born April 2011 in KY and we moved to GA May 2011. Levi was born Nov 2012 in GA and we moved to FL Dec 2012). Twice now, we have moved in with in-laws with newborn babies. It's been a blessing. It has it's challenges, but I will choose to enjoy the blessings of being able to raise my babies and pay off debt and share a room with our kids for the past 9 months rather than think about what it would be like to have our own place this whole time. Because the reality is - if we were living on our own I would have had to work full time and put our two children in daycare while coy worked. We wouldn't have nearly any family time, and we would not have had the opportunity to pay off debt and save up some money for a house. We would be renting vs purchasing. We would be super stressed and we would not have the opportunity to get to know Coy's siblings as well as we have from living with them for so long now. It truly has been a blessing and we couldn't be more thankful for loving families to support us throughout this transitional time in our lives.
So where are we now? We have a beautiful 4/2 home under contract! We will know hopefully within the next 72hrs if the underwriters for the home loan approve the loan. We are nervous, but are just going with the flow because we cannot control the banks decision. The buying process has been a pro-cess. We've had offers on multiple homes that keep getting denied because of cash buyers. *Note: If you are a cash buyer, AKA - INVESTOR, you have made buying a home one heck of a long process. Who knows, maybe it's just because it is in FL and not too too far from the beach, but these cash buyers don't mess around and they like to buy homes left and right. So, we are thankful for the fact that we are under contract, now we just have to seal the deal with the bank.
Levi wants to walk. He crawls like a maniac and runs in the walker. Last night he reached his hand out to Kelly like he was going to transfer from the coffee table to her and once he realized he had to walk a step or two before getting to her hand he sat down. I feel like he may be walking very soon! He just turned 9 months so this is about the time that Kayleigh started to get pretty mobile. Kayleigh is almost 2 1/2. She talks in full sentences and has recently been obsessed with boogers. Gross.
I feel like the #1 question I receive since moving down here is, 'How is it to live with so many people?' On a good day with everyone home and including us, that would mean 26 people. That number decreases or increases based on if people are at school or work, or if its a weekend and the kids have their friends over. It's taught me a lot. It's taught me that I can have a basic routine but not a schedule. With that many people you can never know what the noise level will be like so I have become less scheduled as a mom, but kept the structure that I was used to. It's hard to let go of the control that I seemed to have with being able to know when my kids would nap and wake up, and when they would eat, and what they would eat, but, I have been able to have the blessing of being with them 24/7 and meeting their needs. They nap when they're tired, and they wake up when they're woken up or wake up on their own. It's that simple of a schedule :) They eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and a ton in between. They're fed, they're happy, and they're healthy, I cannot complain. Kayleigh had a lot of allergies or issues with food from the beginning. So, going from living on our own and knowing exactly what was being fed to my girl to living with others, I had to recognize that Kayliegh is growing up and she is going to explore new foods and she will be okay! This is temporary for us and I know that when we do move back to our family of four that she will have a more predictable schedule with sleeping since she will have her own room and won't have Levi, Dixie, Coy, or I to accidentally wake her up. She won't constantly ask to eat what she sees the other people snacking on so she will be more hungry for her main meals. There are so many things that will get back to "my" normal with our toddler once we are on our own, but for now she is exploring such an experience of living with others and learning so much. She hasn't mastered the sense of sharing, she is very territorial. She has an incredible imagination and loves to play make believe. She started talking full sentences almost immediately once we moved there, so by 2yrs old she was able to communicate her needs. She loves her Aunties and loves to play dress up with them. Her little uncles are 3 and 1 and are two of her best friends. Like all toddlers, sharing is hard, but other than that, they get along great. When the older kids are at school the little kids play play play. They love to play on their little tractor power wheels and play in the dirt. It's so much fun to watch them play and to relax with them, I will miss that once we are on our own. Kayleigh is loving the fact that Levi is more mobile. She has recently began to love to hold him and "help" him walk/crawl. He will often face plant with her, so mommy and daddy need to help :) Something I have also learned to let go of is my kids cleanliness. We're living with 20+ people, there's a ton of sand and dirt throughout the yard, and 4 big dogs. What can anyone expect??? I love that I have to give my babes baths at the end of the day and not just because it is routine. Yes, they can go to bed without baths, but their sheets would become very dirty very quickly. Kayleigh is not a fan of shoes and runs around in the yard barefoot with the other kids. Their feet are so dirty, but it's because they're playing hard. Their nails have dirt under them constantly, but it's because they're playing. Kayleigh loves to play outside, so she will get dirty, and she is growing up to have a great imagination. This mom right here - I love that she knows how to play in the dirt! I didn't grow up by the beach, I only had two other siblings, and there was plenty of grass around wherever we lived. For me, this whole experience has taught me to enjoy the outdoors more for what it is and not trying to keep my child's clothes clean. God blessed us with soap and water so I've become a bigger fan of that lately as well.
There's so much that I could update this blog with, but I don't know that any of it is as important as a phone call. So, here is a general update dedicated to my lovely Kari who asked me to keep up with my blog. I'll try! We can't wait for our own home to be able to finally settle down, and once we do, perhaps I will update with stuff about that :) K BYE!!!
