First bike ride

It's amazing how when you start taking more pictures of random things, those little moments get lost in the folders on the computer. This was one of those moments.

We were having a beautiful day in California and there were bikes and a bike trailer in the garage so we decided to hitch it up and take a ride. Nixon was in Heaven, and loved the whole thing. 

We started out in our circle and went around the neighborhood. Have I mentioned how much I loved it there? They had amazing sidewalks and paths to go on walks and bike rides. We took one of the paths that happened to go up this huge hill. Luckily, Ethan was the one with the trailer. I don't think I could have made it up if I would have had to pull him!

We finally made it to the top where there was this cute little park. We took a break to pushed Nixon in the swing, which he loved. After a while we headed back down, which was much easier than going up. We pulled back into our driveway, and both Ethan and I agreed this would not be our last ride.

39 Weeks

Nixon is 39 weeks and he's finally had his first tooth pop through! Not that he'll let me get a picture of it, but it's there. He's is also the LOUDEST kid I've ever heard in my life. We sit down for dinner and just... I don't even know if there's a word for what he does because it's not crying or yelling, he just talks/babbles SO loud. I'm beginning to wonder at what age it becomes discipline. I'm assuming not yet, so we'll just have to deal with his loud mouth for now. 

He is also pulling up! The first time it happened was on Sunday and since then, there's been no stopping him. His longest spurt of standing (while holding on to whatever he's pulled up on) is almost 15 minutes! While I was cleaning our room, I started hearing him whimper. I look over and he pulled himself into the laundry basket. Life is going to get a lot busier around here!

About time!

Moving to Charlotte, we decided that we were going to use a moving company. It was supposed to be about the same price as getting a moving truck and doing it ourselves. They would pack it up, ship it, and unload. It sounded ideal! You know when something seems too good to be true? Well in this case.. it was.

I flew out to Arizona the day they came to get the stuff. Ethan was there to direct. We had got a quote for moving our stuff for about $1,200. By the time they got all of the stuff loaded and on the truck, they raised the price $700! We bit the bullet, because we weren't about to take it all off and try and get a U-haul the day before they were getting ready to drive out. This was the 31st of December.

Fast forward to today. We have been patiently and anxiously waiting for our stuff to be delivered. We got a call yesterday (after we had called and inquired about where in the country our stuff was) saying that it was finally going to be delivered. Of course it was on the only day that Ethan has school ALL day. Luckily, we were able to work with the driver (who has nothing to do with the company) to get it delivered this morning at 7:30 (paying the rest of the cost in cash..sketchy). It was a huge relief to finally see our stuff again.

Nixon came outside and hung out with me while I got some of the boxes that would be staying here at the house out of the trucks.

*Side note-because we were making such a fast decision, we basically went with the cheapest place we could find. When it had been three weeks without hearing anything about where our stuff was, we started reading some reviews about the company we used. I read horror story after horror story! Never again will I use a company without doing a bit more research, and we will NEVER use Oasis Moving Company again. Lesson learned.

Bye, bye Woombie

We did it. We had our first night without the Woombie...

And it was a success!! We'll see if it continues, but I have high hopes. 

Well traveled

During the holidays, we all spent way too much time on a plane, but it was well worth it to get to see all of our family!

We traveled 6,278 miles and about 18.5 hours. We had no missed flights, but had about 5 minutes to get to our next flight before it took off. We only had 1 piece of lost luggage and 1 tantrum through all of our travels, so we feel like it was a huge success! Nixon was an absolutely champ and I couldn't have been more grateful for it. 

38 Weeks

This boy has officially crawled!! In my mind I kept wondering why he wasn't crawling, but I just have to remind myself every child is different and no two kids will ever be the same. And although he's not crawling all the time, he is climbing over everything! He'll climb over me and the other day I saw him climbing up the steps.

He still has no teeth, but he gums things that would, in theory, require teeth to chew. He had a little reaction to mangos, so we're staying away from those for a while. He's obnoxiously loud, but it's not a crying loud.. just loud. His sleeping schedule is still a little wonky, and he's waking up about an hours after he goes down for the night, but I just leave him in his room. I don't want him to get used to crying and having me come get him. Not gonna happen! Overall, he's still pretty happy, staring to get some chunk on his legs, and we still love him more than anything!

New Year's in Arizona

When we were trying to figure out the details of our move, it was decided that having an 8 month old in the car for 35 hours was not going to be ideal. I decided since it was going to take Ethan and his dad (who flew out to drive back with him), some time to drive back, I'd make a stop in Arizona to see Kara and her family.

I flew out on New Year's Eve to celebrate with the Pothiers. Poor Steve, was sick with the flu, so Kara and I waited until her two youngest were down for the night and we went out to celebrate at her sister-in-law's house.

We played Wits and Wagers, which was a super fun game, had some good snacks, and brought in the New Year with Martinelli's and fireworks! 

After the festivities were done with, we gathered up the kids and headed home. Kara had just mentioned how she hated driving on New Year's Eve because of the crazies that are out. And wouldn't you know it? Some driver started driving like a complete idiot, compelling us to call the cops. I hope nothing bad happened to them, but I do home they finally got caught before they could hurt someone else!

The next morning all of Pothier women got together for Kara's birthday breakfast. It was a little place called T.C. Eggington's. It was delicious!! I got the strawberry smoothie with a bran muffin and it was SO good. I seriously wish they would consider franchising and opening one out here!

The rest of the week was fairly low-key because the next day Kara came down with the flu as well. I was kind of glad I was there to help, because if I'm being honest, they looked/were a little pathetic. I spent some time relaxing and basking in the beautiful Arizona sun, jumping on the trampoline with the kids and teaching Bennett about vitamin D (there was a song and everything)!

My favorite part of the entire trip was the night before we left. Everyone had gone to bed and we were sitting in her office. I won't go into details, but we spent a good amount of time laughing, creating commentary and ducking!

We packed up the next morning, did a little photo op, and then said goodbye to beautiful, sunny Arizona, and the west.. for now.

37 Weeks

Nixon is 27 weeks and is all over the place. We're constantly having to keep him from getting into things that he's not supposed to be in. He's also gotten into this hissy fit stage where if there's no more food he throws a tantrum. It's super cute.. oh wait.. 

He also had a rough night this past week. We're trying our hardest to get him on a schedule for this timezone, but man alive! Talk about hard! He hadn't gotten a nap, so I thought, "This is perfect! I'll just put him to bed a little earlier, than he'll wake up earlier and we'll be set!" That was until 11:00pm came around. I snuggled him for about 20 minutes and then he was down again. I was sure he would be good for the night. Cue 5:00am. Ethan and I heard him crying. Ethan went and got him to bring him back into our bed to see if he would go to sleep. Not a chance! For two hours he was up rolling, head butting us, kicking us, picking our noses, playing peek-a-boo, grunting, etc. It was exhausting. We finally changed him and put him back down and he went down without another sound. When Ethan and I were talking about it the next day, we couldn't help but laugh (obviously not at the time), and think it's a good thing he's so darn cute!

36 Weeks

Nixon may be crying but at least he's not sucking his toes right? This guys has sure been a trooper through this whole move and I think we're all ready to just sit tight for a bit! You probably can't tell, but he also got his first shiner on the outside corner of his right eye! Cousin Cannon thought it would be fun to chuck an Altoid tin at his head and hit him right in the corner of his eye. Nixon cried, then Cannon started crying, and Hunter (Kara's second oldest) just rolled his eyes at both of them.

Matching outfits

While we were in North Carolina, Ethan's Aunt Debbie and Uncle Jim came into town from Tennessee as well as his Grandma Thomas from South Carolina, bearing Christmas gifts for all! One of the gifts were matching outfits for all of the grandsons. What do you do when everyone has matching outfits? You take pictures so you can embarrass them years down the road of course!

Colton, Mason, Owen, Emmett, Deacon, Nixon

Great Grandma Nuni (Thomas) with the boys

 Uncle Jim and Aunt Debbie

 Aunt Debbie matching all of the boys