Thomas enjoys a good book

Home Alone...Kind Of

It's true, to some extent, that I have been "home alone" this week for the first time in quite a while.  Home alone refers to without Jeff, by the way.  Jeff started his new job on Monday, so it's now just me and the kiddos!  It has gone just fine...much better than I was expecting actually!  God definitely met me right where I needed this week and I could not be more thankful for that!  Jacob is a HUGE help with Thomas.  He will sit there and play with him for like 30 minutes at a time-for real!  Which means that I can get our stuff together to get out the door without the bay crying the whole time, or get lunch ready, or make a phone call,etc.  I am going to try to post a video of Jacob entertaining Thomas for a while the other day while I was fixing dinner.  In other news, Thomas can sit up--well I figured out he was pretty close in Pageland a couple weeks ago.  He could prop himself up with his hands and sit, but now he's all the way sitting straight up.

Here's what our week has ended up looking like:  playing, cleaning, cooking, grocery storing, CVSing, Hobby Lobbying (yay!!!!!!!!!  We're back in Hobster Lobster country!), going to the park, strawberry picking, picking new doctors, crafting and NAPPING!  Yes, it truly has been a productive week!  Here are a few photos to document the week:

 Being the most precious little cuddle bugs--I want to hug this picture--yes, I said it.

 Jacob scoring a goal at the park by our house.  We walked/rode a bike (Jacob) all around the trails and found 4 playgrounds there!  

 Our little strawberry picker

 Enjoying homemade strawberry ice cream at the patch

 Us at the strawberry patch

 At our strawberry party tonight!  Jacob set the table and made the table runner you see!  He was very particular about the whole thing and it was really fantastic!

 What we ended up with today

 Jacob making painting some clothespins to make into magnets to send to his buddy Big Jacob, who's on deployment

 Jacob's festive masterpiece--the table runner.  He saw the idea in his newest "HighFive" magazine (the Highlights magazine for the younger crowd) and recreated it here

And now....what you've all been waiting for...The start of new house photos:

Our bedroom (yes, the curtains got ridiculously short when we moved to a bigger/taller house:(  

Part of our bathroom

Our closet--yes you can walk in there!

We're Alive!! (and also Duck Derby pictures)

We made it to Cartersville 2 Fridays ago and have things in basic working order.  I'll do more posting on the house later...aka...I haven't taken any pictures of things to post.  So, for today, we'll try to be satisfied with some pictures of our outing to the "Duck Derby" this weekend in Cartersville.

It was one of those duck races on the river where they dump all the rubber duckies that people buy and then they meander as fast as the weak current can carry them down the river to the finish line!  It was all set up like a little festival in one of the parks around here, complete with bouncy house things, food, clogging and karate demonstrations (exciting!), clowns, and pony rides!  But, because fried pickles and festival hullabaloo only get you so far, there was an added bonus of a stunning river vista!  It really was pretty out there and I am psyched about our next trip out there to do a little hiking (because we all know that Jacob and I have a really great track record with hikes) and hopefully spinning around in a canoe (Jacob thought that he and I could probably paddle our own kayaks since he has his own life jacket, but I think a family sized canoe may be safer)!  Without further ado, here are some picture!

 Duck Quacker was an absolute necessity for the big race.  Jacob was excited to cheer on the ducks--but it was a slight let down that they were rubber ducks and not real ducks.

 Big yellow "Pod" looking thing is what dumped all the rubber duckies---and if you click on the picture to zoom in, you will see the man straddling the top of it.  We should have taken a video so you could see him bouncing all around on it to shake out the last few ducks.  

 Releasing the ducks!

 Exploring after the race

Now, onto some other pictures recently taken:

 The pool behind our house--not open until June 5?  I didn't sign up for that!

 On the playground at the pool

 Old Tom kept turning his head like this every time I tried to take a picture of him!

 Teaching little brother how to play with play-do.

And, here's one of my (many) big finds at the neighborhood yard sale the day after we moved in: 

Whoop, whoop!  Happy Father's Day Jeff!  This bad boy was only $30!  I also found a new bedside table, a wooden workbench for Jacob (toy), wooden spoon set, and an old fashioned school desk for Jacob.  Jeff also pounced on a boxspring for the guest bedroom!  

17 Layer Chocolate Cake--yes, it's true!

Not the most beautiful cake in the entire world, but certainly one of the tastiest!  We gave this recipe a try while in Pageland the other week...unfortunately, it was for Judy to take to work, so I didn't get to taste it, but we made a mini version (4 layer! HA!) to eat at home!  As if baking 17 individual layers of cake wasn't enough baking for a person, I also got the urge to have a strawberry cake--so we had a strawberry cake with strawberry icing.  Both were incredibly delicioso and, shockingly...made from scratch! EEK!!  Made from scratch also means we will not be enjoying it that often :(

Final Pageland Pictures

I should first begin by saying that our week in Pageland with me, the boys, Bryant and Judy and my Mom was really great!  We all had a lot of fun together and Mom got a taste of big city life!  Haha--no, but she got a taste of the country life and met lots of sweet people and ate lots of good (not necessarily healthy! haha!) food!  As always, we were so thankful to have Bryant and Judy "host" us for the week (if that's what you call it when it's family...).  Here are a few final shots from the week:

Thomas doing a little eating

Stopping Through Pageland...

Boy have we had a lot going on lately!  We didn't drive straight through to Georgia when we moved from Va Beach last week because of a lot of things, including the fact that we won't have furniture until this coming Friday.  We decided to spend the week with Grandma and Papa Williams in Pageland instead of living in a hotel!  Here are a few pictures from our time here: