Catch All

Believe it or not, October is almost over. We've been very busy this past month.
Andrew turned 9, and we celebrated both at school and with friends and family. I took donuts to his school on his birthday, and he was very excited about that.

We've also been playing a lot of soccer. This soccer season has been over the top intense. I think it may be our last one as we love soccer, but we're not in love with the idea of any sport dictating our lives. At least not until, Andrew is a little older.

Miss Anna has been very busy being ... well, busy. She's learned to say "banana" and requests about three per day. But we can't really complain as she's a great eater overall. She's still growing. At this point she's averaging about a pound and half an inch of growth each month. She no longer looks like a baby. She's also decided that naps are not for her. This can make for a very long afternoon and evening with a grumpy toddler, but the trade off is she's usually asleep by 7:45 at the latest. As far as therapy, well insurance doesn't want to pay for it any longer. Her diagnoses do not warrant therapy according to them. We have filed multiple appeals and are still in the process of fighting it. In the meantime, I have her scheduled for therapy evaluations through the school system. We do not want her attending school at this point, but are open to therapy through the district. So we'll see how that goes. Thankfully, her language is still developing and progressing albeit slowly. I'll leave you with a few recent pics of our sassy girl. She keeps us on our toes. That's for sure.

New Blog Address

FYI: New domain name. Same old blog.

My original domain name was hosted through google. Google has so convoluted the whole renewal process that I just don't want to deal with it anymore. I also thought about transferring my domain name, but that seems like a lot of trouble for just a blog. My new domain name is davisfamilylifeandtimes.blogspot.com, and this really only matters if you're one of the two people that link up to my blog or if you follow my blog with the original lifeandtimesofme.com domain name. Otherwise, keep clicking fb links for updates. Hope everyone is having a good Sunday.

Nine Years

On October 6, 2007 at 3:51 a.m. this guy made his debut on this earth.

I have trouble wrapping my head around the fact that it has been 9 years. Andrew has grown into such an amazing young man. It's incredible to see his love for Jesus continue to grow with each passing year. He has such a tender heart toward God, and I know God has big things for him. He also loves school, superheroes, his friends, soccer, his pets, and his family (not necessarily in that order). Part of me is sad to know he's entering his last year in single digits. But more of me is excited to see what God has in store for this amazing kiddo! I know the next 9 years will be just as awesome (and then he'll be 18 ... if you'll need me, I'll be crying in the corner). 

Happy 9th birthday buddy!

10 Month Update

Today marks 10 months since "Gotcha Day". It's hard to believe our sassy little girl has been with us that long, but at the same time, I can't remember life without her.

Miss Anna is really growing up. She's trying more and more to talk. We're currently fighting insurance on occupational and speech therapy. Because Anna doesn't have any real major medical diagnoses (and for that we're thankful), it's often hard to figure out the magic words to get her therapy. But we're (meaning us, the pediatrician, and the therapy center) working on it so any and all prayers would be appreciated.

As I said, she is full of sass. Her personality has really started to emerge. She has preferences and opinions, both of which are great, but she's also learning that you don't always get your way. No fun! For the most part, her fits are short lived, and she's on to the next thing. She has gotten to where she likes to go places and will tell me, "Shoes. Bye bye." It's been a lot of fun to watch her grow into her own person. She's smart and funny and silly and cuddly and loves pretty much all food now. So many of the things that stressed me out in the beginning are no longer an issue. Of course, I can always find something to stress about. ;)

As you can see from the picture below, our little girl is definitely a little girl now. There's no evidence of the baby we brought home. I know I'm biased, but I think she's pretty beautiful inside and out.

On Moving (Again)

I hate moving. I hate packing and unpacking. I hate hauling furniture, and the stress involved, and living in chaos. Because whether you move 1 mile or 100 miles, it will be chaotic. In my lifetime, including all the moving I did in college, I figure I've lived 15 different places. So when we moved into this house, I said we'd be here for a while, and I meant it. I really did. I love this house (except don't put your kids' bedrooms right off the living room ... you can't watch t.v. at night if you do that ... that's free advice right there).

And yet, I find myself looking at the very real possibility of moving once again. As much as I hate moving, I'm 100% on board with this move. When we bought our first house in this neighborhood (just around the block from where we are now) it was pretty undeveloped. We had neighbors join us on both sides, but for the most part, our little subdivision stayed quiet and relatively undeveloped. When we built the house where we currently live, on the backside of the subdivision, there was no one around us. However, within a year, a new construction company came in and started buying lots, and more houses were built. Still, it was all pretty okay. Things have stayed relatively quiet.

But our little town is growing quickly, and before long, it looks like there will be multiple subdivisions being built around us. While I don't mind living in town, I've always appreciated the "rural-ness" of where we live. I love that when I go running, I run past pastures full of cows and farmland planted with corn, cotton, and maize. Soon all of that will be gone. There will be more traffic, more people, just more. And that's all great for our little town. Progress and growth are important and necessary, but I want and need just a little space to breathe. So when we were given the opportunity to buy a few acres of land a little ways out of town (and slightly closer to Andrew's school), it was hard to pass that up.

But of course that means moving and building ... again. If you've moved, you know that's stressful. If you've built and moved, you know that's even more stressful. Right now we are in the house planning phase. We are trying to figure out how to build what we want without going overboard. Without going into numbers, because tmi, we want to put a good chunk down on the new house, and we don't want to finance more than a certain amount. Which leaves us with some choices to make. We either have to cut some things (which we're definitely looking at), or we wait longer and save more which is also fine except right now we live in a seller's market. If you're going to sell your house, now is the time. Will our house lose value if we wait? Not a ton, but it might lose enough that it cancels out the benefits of waiting.

But enough of all that boring stuff . . . that's where we are right now. Moving, building, buying, selling . . . I guess I should be grateful I'm married to a realtor. At least that relieves about .000001% of the stress factor.