Wordless Wednesday: So Ready For Summer

Homeless No Longer!

Well, we finally found an apartment! Lots of searching, lots of appointments, and even one apartment we liked that got taken before we could put in an application (I wanted to cry!)- but thankfully we found another one we liked! And we jumped on that puppy as soon as we could! It has a lot to offer that we don't have now, like more space, a lawn that is mostly fenced in (hurray!), laundry that is exclusively ours in the basement, tons of basement storage, and in an area we have never lived in before, and still walkable to places. Including 2 great parks, the water, different shops/restaurants than we are used to, and a cool, yummy deli and convenience store (seriously, I love this, how many times have I run out of milk or paper towels?!? Now I can walk to get those things!). It's a two-story house, so it only has 1 other unit in it, rented by another young couple. (I can still say I'm young, ya??) Plus, it's very homey. I am not a fan of the huge Victorian style Newport houses. But I do love a cute little home with lots of charm and character. Give me small and cute rather than huge and formal any day. It's not perfect, but hey, that's what IKEA is for, right?? :) Just gives me an excuse to shop there! Oh ok, twist my arm! John has to reign me in there. I will send out a new address email, don't expect it soon or anything because I'm not the queen of promptness lately, but it will get there! Move in start date is May 15th. Looking forward to our new digs!

A Birthday And A Baby!

Happy Birthday to Papa! Look, we brought you a Sadie!

Here is Sadie and Papa taking a drive on the John Deere!

This past weekend we drove to NJ to visit family, celebrate Papa's birthday, and meet our new nephew, baby Gio! It was so great to see everyone and was such a fun visit. Gio is pretty much the cutest baby on the planet, I soaked up my baby time with him! He even took a snooze on me, ahhh, so sweet! He is such a good baby, always so calm (ha ha, ok, maybe not at 3 am, right, Panadda?!) and just very sweet natured. Sadie had a wonderful time playing with her cousin, Luke, I love seeing them interact together. Time is going by so fast, I can barely remember them as babies. And of course, she had a blast playing and chatting with Papa, Grandma, Uncle Charlie, Aunt Panadda, and Uncle Paul. She is so much more comfortable now with people. She seemed very much at home there. I love seeing her build relationships with people, and family in particular. I think our visit is best told in photographs though, so I'm going to let the pictures finish this story.

Turns out, Sadie is very handy around the yard. Papa put her to work.

Sadie meeting Gio for the first time, as he was snuggled up on John's shoulder. Now she calls any baby we see, Gio. :)

Uncle Paul having fun with Sadie.

Aunt Panadda giving pushes to the two little munchkins.

Luke and Sadie being pulled in the wagon by Papa. Too cute for words!

Jamming out on the piano together! (I have a video of this I should post, it's pretty funny!)

And about 10 minutes into the trip home.....

Wordless Wednesday: SMILE!!

More Birthdays!

Sadie, our little jumping bean having fun at Skylar's party.

This weekend Sadie's friend, Skylar, turned 2. Yep, they are just 8 days apart. I met her mom in birthing class and we became friends, then at 3 weeks old, our little babies had their first play date. Kind of mind blowing that two years later...... they really are close friends who play, laugh, and giggle with each other. Skylar had her party at the Beach Bounce- a place where there were these big inflatable bouncy machines you could go crazy in and jump all around. So much fun- for both the kids and adults! I think next year we'll have her party here, it was such a hit. Sadie was shy when we first got there, and wouldn't go in the bouncy things, but after a little coaxing, I got her to go in with me, then by the end of the party, you couldn't get her out of the bouncers! Of course, she insisted I go with her every time, but to be honest, I didn't mind, it was kind of fun. :)

General shot of the party. One of the bouncers. My camera died before I got a pic of the birthday girl! :(

You should have seen the little kid-sized hole I had to crawl through in order to get in here!

Other than that, the weekend was a lot of the normal things- errands, cleaning, etc. We did get to look at a few apartments too. Nothing wonderful yet. We will be moving somewhere by the end of May. We decided not to renew our lease to our apartment, even though we love it here, because we simply have grown out of it. It was perfect for John and I, but as Sadie has gotten older and taken up more space with toys and needing space to play, the place has gotten cramped and too small for our needs. So..... we've been going through the tedious and oh-so-not fun job of looking for a suitable and reasonably priced apartment in Newport. Which is no easy feat. Unless you are looking to spend a good deal on rent, you aren't going to find the perfect place. You have to give up something to live in a desirable area. Usually parking. Or a yard. Or laundry. You get the point. You ain't gonna get it all. And it gets harder every year to find that apartment that you really like. It's always a gamble — like not knowing who would be living in the house with you or how much hot water the place really has (like we learned here!!). So can everyone send us good apartment hunting vibes and maybe we'll get lucky?!

Sadie helping me prep the sweet potatoes. My sous chef in training.

And lastly, since Spring has sprung, I thought this would be a good weekend to use up the pork tenderloin in the freezer and cook one of our last "winter" meals for awhile. So I made roast pork with crumbled bacon and served with roasted sweet potatoes and steamed broccoli. Mmmm! One of my favorite meals. Oddly enough, I had never bought or cooked bacon in my life. I love it, but never cook with it. I used my new cast iron pan for the first time (Christmas present from my Mom) and cooked it up, then used the same pan to sear the tenderloins, then just stuck the whole thing in the oven to cook, I love it! It was just like what the people on Food Network do! It cooked perfectly and the sweet potatoes were very yum, roasted with butter and brown sugar, my absolute favorite way to eat them.

Onto the week ahead, more apartments to look at tomorrow...

Birthday and Easter Photo Essay

My baby is 2 years old! Don't ask me how that happened. But in these two years, she has turned into an honest-to-goodness little girl. This is her new thing. If you ask her to smile, this is the face you get! It cracks me up!! She has so much personality, I don't know how it all fits in that little body! Love you, my spunky little free spirit!

We had a lot of visitors this weekend. My mom (aka Nana), my sister Kelley (aka Auntie Cahkey) and my brother Paul (aka Uncle Pawl) came to visit and Sadie got to spend some great quality time with all of them. Here we are opening up some presents early. Sadie loved having them visit, it's always so nice for me to see her bonding with family.

Papa (John's Dad) also came to visit Sadie for her birthday. We all know how Sadie loves her Papa, so you can guess how happy she was to see him! Papa is a good sport and wore his Elmo hat with a smile!

For her birthday, Papa brought her a train set table that he made for her! It was quite the hit with the birthday girl and her best girlfriends, Skylar and Amelia. We are completely impressed, it's better than the one at Barnes and Noble, seriously! We were joking that rainy days will now be spent at our place, instead of visiting that book store!

The three amigos! I am not sure how the jumping in the crib happened, but for them, I do believe it was the highlight of the party! I love these girls, they are so sweet to each other and love each other so much! It is very evident that they are growing up, as they are now picking their friends. There are definitely kids Sadie prefers to be with over others. Personalities are really coming through.

And of course, there was Easter! It was a busy weekend! Here is Sadie actually wearing and enjoying her bunny ears and having fun opening her Easter basket from the Easter Bunny. She got some new bangle bracelets as you can see!

Sadie got to take an Easter morning stroll with Nana, Kelley, and Papa down to the water and she held hands the entire time. Not an easy feat with Sadie! With me, it's "no! Sadie walk!" Meaning, let go of my hand, Mom, I can do this myself! But she loved walking with them, and jumping with them, and throwing rocks in the water with them!

Just a sweet moment captured. Sadie looking up at her Papa.