An Update

It's been awhile since I've sat down to write a good post, rightly so. Things have been a bit chaotic in the Palmer household, but are finally starting to settle down. Two weeks ago, I drove Nate to Minneapolis to start his new job, just a day after putting our house on the market. I came home to our two wonderful kiddos, who I have parented for the past couple weeks while also getting our house ready for showing after showing after showing. Last time we sold a house, it was in the Oakley area, where the market was not as competitive. We sold our house in 22 hours. In Deerfield Township, there is a lot more competition, so it was a major stresser for me. Fortunately, after less than two weeks up, we got an offer we were both happy with and our house should go officially pending Monday. (Would have been sooner, but the relo company has slowed down the process a bit with lots of faxing signed papers here and there...)

Nate is home this weekend, and I am enjoying a few well-deserved minutes to myself. I have thoroughly enjoyed my time with them these last two weeks and am so glad to remove the house showing element out of my life. Now, we just need to find a place to live in Minnesota. Before April 4th. No pressure. At least these kiddos don't have anything to worry about:

Isn't Morgan starting to look less like a baby and more like a toddler? He is finally pulling up and everything. A mobile boy! I am loving it!
And we so enjoyed the warm weather. Please come back!!!

So all in all, it was a crazy two weeks, but a good two weeks. We're thrilled we found buyers for the house we love. We're thrilled Nate is enjoying his new job. And we're thrilled I get to be a stay at home mom next year! Lots of good things...

Day at the Spa

Thanks to my mom for a wonderful treat of a pedicure. We had five house showings yesterday so I had headed to their house to camp out with the kids and was surprised with a trip to the local nail salon with Grandma and Tessa while Morgan stayed home to play with Papa. Such a nice treat, and we all looked pretty in (various) pinks! Hopefully the warmer weather will continue. We have loved every minute of playing outside and going for walks this week!

Playing Together

These moments when they play together just make my heart melt...

Belle, Finger Food, and Crawling, Oh My!

Don't you just love when you find missing things? Tessa has been wanting to read the "Belle" book for weeks. And I couldn't find it ANYWHERE! While we have several other princess books with Belle stories, she wanted the one pictured below and none other. Well, fortunately, with the immaculate state of our house, I found it while cleaning. Hurray! This little girl was thrilled!

And I've been meaning to write about Morgan's new eating skills. He is eating quite a bit of solids these days. I rarely feed him baby food at all for breakfast anymore. Usually that meal consists of 1/3 a banana and a Nutri-grain bar. Lunch and dinner is usually a combo of finger foods and baby food. I must admit, this self-feeding think is nice. It is quite amazing how productive a mommy can be while a baby is not in arms. I usually manage to cram lunch-packing, dinner-making, disherwasher-emptying, and sometimes laundry folding into one meal.
And in the most exciting news...Morgan is FINALLY crawling. After a few weeks of army crawling, I showed up at our sitter's house Tuesday to an announcement that Morgan was doing the "real crawl." They say average is 6-10 months, so we just barely made it in. Way to go, Morgan! I must say, I do have to watch him a whole lot more now that he is mobile, but the look on his face of sheer excitement that he is finally moving is too cute for words. I'm so proud of him!

Aren't They Cute?

One of Morgan's new favorite things is "riding" on Tessa's shoulders. Though you can't tell from the picture, Tessa thinks it is pretty fun too!

And here they are "watching" a movie together. More Tessa watching and wanting Morgan sitting next to her trying to sit up. Too cute!
They like to spend a lot of time together, that is for sure! I am really looking forward to being a stay at home mom with them, and I know two other little ones who are looking forward to it too!

Big Sister, Big Girl

Every time I look at Tessa these days, I can't help but think that she is getting so big. She is doing big girl things that I sometimes think will be too hard, but they really aren't. She can do big girl princess puzzles (though still needs some help with the backgrounds).

She does big girl things like showing her brother how to play with different toys and telling him all about things. I LOVE the way she talks to him, especially in the car. Normally he is pretty easygoing in the car, but one day last week he was a bit whiny on our way to the doctor. And Tessa was being the good big sister and reassuring him the entire time: "It's okay Morgan. The doctor is nice. He won't hurt you. One time he gave me stitches and it only hurt a little bit. You will be okay, Morgan." Little moments like these just melt my heart.
Doesn't she just look bigger her? We got her three year pictures taken today and I am again just impressed with how old she looks. Gosh, what am I going to do when she goes to preschool next year?