Home Sweet Homes 2017

2017 was the year of the move that we never planned to make, but the move made in faith as God opened doors for us.  The transitions have been hard for everyone in the family (and extended family), but I am confident that it was the right decision for our family long term.  However I still have a twinge of nostalgia and sadness as I look at these pre-move house pictures.

We moved to Charlotte back in June 2017 and it took us until December to get a family photo in front of the house. Then it took another month for it to make it to the blog. Since we are renting and hope to to buy a house this year, I'm predicting right now that this will be our one and only photo in front of this house. :)

And since Granddad and Nana happened to be here when I finally gathered my equipment and the troops, we thought we'd better take the opportunity to get a grandparent's picture as well. 

 Here are previous house pictures: 2016 (check out the changes to the Knoxville exterior!!), 2015 here and here, 2014, and 2013). 

Andrew's 3rd Birthday!

Andrew has been SO SO looking forward to his birthday.  The refrain in our house is "Nathan's birthday in October, Sarah's birthday in November, Mommy's birthday in December, and Andrew's birthday in January!"  So Andrew knew that his birthday came after mine, but we hadn't even finished celebrating on December 1st before he was asking when his birthday was going to be!  We had to break the news that he'd have to wait until after Christmas, but then we could finally get to a real count-down for him.  Since he refers to any time that's not today as "last weekend" or "next weekend", his birthday was "next weekend" for quite a while until we got to numbers he could actually grasp (2 days and tomorrow). 

The grandparents helped to extend the celebration by flanking Andrew's actual birthday day with visits - Pawpaw and Gran came on Thursday to stay for two nights (leaving right after the birthday cake was eaten Saturday evening), and Granddad and Nana came Saturday morning and stayed until Monday morning.

Andrew knows his birthday is "in January" and has been practicing getting his fingers to make a "three", so he was all ready for the big day when it came.

I have tons more pictures, but I thought that first I'd just get the classic cake pictures posted.  I love how excited Nathan and Sarah were for Andrew!!  Both of him were really eager to give him the presents they had made/selected for him.  I thought this kiss was super sweet as we got ready to sing to Andrew!

My favorite part of the whole celebration is watching the birthday child's face glow with excitement and happiness as they are surrounded by the family singing "Happy Birthday" to them!  The smiles on Andrew's face just made my week!

Andrew was clapping for himself by the end of the song.  Too cute!

Andrew had actually opened most of his presents earlier so he could enjoy the new toys on his birthday.  But this is Andrew's intense face as he was trying to tear open the card from Aunt Karen.

I thought this was funny... it wasn't too long ago when Nathan would put on a grumpy face whenever I would pull the camera out, now he likes to photo-bomb me!

Sweet brothers!

It was such a great day, especially thanks to the grandparents who all made the drive from Knoxville to be with us!  Andrew (with help from me) picked spaghetti and meatballs for his dinner, with sides of broccoli salad, pineapple and bread.  As we had been talking about what cake he wanted for a while he said been saying for a while he wanted chocolate/chocolate but the weekend before his birthday he said chocolate/chocolate AND strawberry/strawberry!  So I asked if I could put strawberries in his chocolate/chocolate cake and he agreed, so I made a lightly-sweetened strawberry "jam" to put between the two layers which turned out yummy!  It was another memorable birthday, and we are looking forward to seeing how Andrew continues to grow and change as a three year old!