What a week it's been

I have not posted for awhile. These past few weeks have been crazy once again, with this last week being especially nuts. Last week my back went out and Jackson got sick, then this week Baron has been throwing up and pooping 10's a day sometimes. On top of all that, this past weekend we FINALLY got keys and signed all the paperwork for the managing apartment at our complex. They didn't finish cleaning it until Saturday night though, making it available to move-in starting Sunday. I was suppose to start working as the new manager on Monday, meaning we needed most of our stuff over at the new place before Monday so I could manage from the office and take care of the kids because John still has to go to work, especially since he is a tax accountant. Not the best time of year for all of this. Great. So since we don't have much family around that can ever help out and we couldn't really ask the EQ to help out on Sunday, we ended up moving by ourselves most of our stuff with the help of our new recent and very worth it purchase of a dolly. (Why did we not buy one 4 years ago since we have moved a million times?? It made it SOOO much easier and faster!) We worked hard though and got most of our stuff moved over so I could start work.

So far, managing here is about 1000 x's better than the last place and company!! It is WAY more organized, plus it is always nice to have a separate room for the office complete with company computer (we don't have to use our own for work!!!), a nice big desk, filing cabinets, a fax machine and line, a copier/printer/scanner, internet and phone line and plenty of supplies. AND our apartment is bigger, located on the corner (no neighbors/shared walls with our bedrooms!! Baron- you can cry all night if you'd like now :)) and most importantly, IT'S ON THE 1ST FLOOR!! No more making my knee worse by climbing 3 flights of stairs with 2 kids multiple times a day like I was doing at the last complex! Wahoo! Now I am working on getting my knee back in shape so I can finally start running again and so I can finally loose the weight from having #2... more than a year and a surgery later!

SO, things have been going very smoothly with managing for the first week and we are looking forward to paying off some debt and getting ahead! We still have lots to unpack and decorate, plus Baron is still sick and John still busy at work and studying for hopefully what will be his last CPA test on April 17th. So life will continue to be a little hectic for a few more weeks, but after that, we want visitors and to hang out with friends again!!! We really miss normalcy. So tired of all this insane craziness. I just hope everyone didn't give up on us out there!! I guess time will tell :) Sorry, no pictures today... gotta get back to work! Just thought it would be nice to give an update/explanation of our where-abouts (sp?)!

Baby Bear did indeed turn 1....

...way back in December that is. AND, even though life was at its craziest the week he turned 1 (we were moving our stuff to a storage unit in a week, getting ready for a long vacation, the temperature outside was in the teens, and we were still managing and dealing with a broken pipe and apartments getting flooded- that happened on his actual birthday), we did indeed still celebrate his birthday.... a few weeks later while on vacation at Eagle Crest with John's family. Grandma Sue and Aunt Heather went out and found a cute little cake, a candle, some ice cream of course, and some decorations and we sang happy birthday to our little Bear and let him have his way with the cake. He wasn't really into grabbing for it with his hands, but then he somehow got a hold of a fork and started going crazy making a mess of it! I think Jackson was more into the whole eating the actual cake & ice cream (he is our sugar-aholic, just like his mom), but Baron liked making a mess and being sang to! The whole reason I bring his birthday back up though, is because the other day I was looking through pictures figuring out what I haven't blogged about yet from our trip and I came across a few birthday party pictures. So here they are!

The Cake

Singing Happy Birthday to Baron

Attempting to blow out the candle

trying to persuade him to dig into the cake... he was a little hesitant,

So I tried offering him a cupcake instead (while Jackson snuck in some frosting). He looked at the cupcake while deciding what he wanted to do,

looked back up at the cake,

and looked back at the cupcake again (with an idea formulating in his head),

and decided it would be fun to smash the cupcake into the cake. (it's the brown mound on the cake). Then he discovered the forks next to the cake...

and that is when the fun started!

So proud of himself! Love this little guy!!

This whole post is just to let Baron know that he is not the forgotten middle child... we still celebrated your birthday, even if I didn't post about it until 3 months later!!