This post is a few days late and hopefully I will attach a picture too. We have been very busy with the move and Sarah has been busy growing and changing.
Sarah was 7 months old on July 23. She weighed 17.5 lbs on July 6 and is 27 inches long (I will guess she is still about that size).
Sarah eats three meals a day and was down to 4 nursings a day. Since the move she is nursing at night again but doing great with the time change and all the changes in her little life.
Sarah can say Mama, Baba, Dada, Papa..and her favorite sound is "boba"! Sarah likes to get attention by coughing or clearing her throat. She will also try and make sounds you make to her.
Sarah took her first plane ride (from London to Raleigh NC). Sarah has met tons of family and took a road trip from North Carolina to South Carolina to house hunt (big job for a little girl!ha).
Sarah is all over the place with rolling and moving herself. She isn't crawling, but she does the tummy move to get places. She can sit up well but still falls over after a while. Sarah is trying to pull herself up into a sitting position while she is laying down.
Still no teeth but the bottom two look like they may show up soon.
Sarah is so much fun and still a very happy baby girl. So many changes in her little life and so happy we are living near family again so they can see her grow and change.
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Sunday, July 25, 2010
Adventures in rental house hunting
This is one adventure that I don't want to do very often. I think it would have been much more enjoyable if the heat of the summer wasn't on us and taking a baby around was hard to do. She did awesome, but we had to go a little slower because we had her with us.
We had a good game plan down and arrived in Easley later than expected because of a road closure and long detour. We stopped at the first hotel we arrived at...Hampton Inn and got a great rate on a room (military discount). After dinner we checked some of the house rentals online and headed to bed. The first full day of the hunt started with us driving to a few of the properties before we called the realtors and that saved them some time. The first house looked beautiful in the pictures and looked like it would be a great rental....wrong. The house was in a run down area and the yard was crazy. Crazy with the landscaping and a hill on the side that wouldn't be fun to push mow.
Next house we headed to was in Clemson and it too looked nice in the pictures.....but was needing a good bath in "person". We decided to call the realtor to look inside and that didn't help change our minds about it....it smelled and wasn't worth the rental money. The realtor was trying to tell us that one of Clemson's past football player's family lived in this house....like that was going to make us want the house....ummm nope:)
I am drawing a blank on how many more houses we looked at this day. We were looking at so many on the internet and in person that I lost count. We found a few we liked, but a 3 year lease was not an option and we have no plans to move during the middle of this tour. We ran across some super sweet people and one of the realtors reminded us of Grammy (Rob's grandma). Marjorie, the realtor, was a super sweet lady, going to make no money off us, but looked for houses for us and showed us some all three days we were there. She found us some beautiful homes in our price range, but they were not as family friendly as we wanted them.
We have seen dirty houses, messy houses (yes there is a difference in dirty and messy), old and new houses......lake front, hill side and finally found the house fit for our family. The hunt for our perfect house all started by Rob talking to an Army Major in Chickfila....the Major gave us his friend's number (a big time realtor in the area)....who talked to a property manager...who was about to list a house that fit our needs! We not only was able to see the house before it was listed, we were able to meet the owner. Super nice owner, who passed along his contact information, just in case we need to contact him.
We start all the paperwork this coming week and will hopefully be able to pass along the address to family and friends by the end of this week!!
We had a good game plan down and arrived in Easley later than expected because of a road closure and long detour. We stopped at the first hotel we arrived at...Hampton Inn and got a great rate on a room (military discount). After dinner we checked some of the house rentals online and headed to bed. The first full day of the hunt started with us driving to a few of the properties before we called the realtors and that saved them some time. The first house looked beautiful in the pictures and looked like it would be a great rental....wrong. The house was in a run down area and the yard was crazy. Crazy with the landscaping and a hill on the side that wouldn't be fun to push mow.
Next house we headed to was in Clemson and it too looked nice in the pictures.....but was needing a good bath in "person". We decided to call the realtor to look inside and that didn't help change our minds about it....it smelled and wasn't worth the rental money. The realtor was trying to tell us that one of Clemson's past football player's family lived in this house....like that was going to make us want the house....ummm nope:)
I am drawing a blank on how many more houses we looked at this day. We were looking at so many on the internet and in person that I lost count. We found a few we liked, but a 3 year lease was not an option and we have no plans to move during the middle of this tour. We ran across some super sweet people and one of the realtors reminded us of Grammy (Rob's grandma). Marjorie, the realtor, was a super sweet lady, going to make no money off us, but looked for houses for us and showed us some all three days we were there. She found us some beautiful homes in our price range, but they were not as family friendly as we wanted them.
We have seen dirty houses, messy houses (yes there is a difference in dirty and messy), old and new houses......lake front, hill side and finally found the house fit for our family. The hunt for our perfect house all started by Rob talking to an Army Major in Chickfila....the Major gave us his friend's number (a big time realtor in the area)....who talked to a property manager...who was about to list a house that fit our needs! We not only was able to see the house before it was listed, we were able to meet the owner. Super nice owner, who passed along his contact information, just in case we need to contact him.
We start all the paperwork this coming week and will hopefully be able to pass along the address to family and friends by the end of this week!!
Sunday, July 18, 2010
Stateside
We are happy to say we landed after a fun two days of travel!
We started our journey on friday with a taxi ride from Mildenhall into London. I really enjoy hearing stories and our taxi driver had a few to tell because he was in the military in GB. He was actually a good driver and no one got sick in the car and he even knew the back roads so we weren't stuck on the M25 for too long. The hotel was nice and the food was very pricey....an exchange rate not in our favor always made that the case. We all five actually slept well the night before our flight and that made for easier traveling.
My only problem with the flight was some of the attendants were not as friendly as they could have been. I have to laugh when someone works in services and acts like they are doing you a favor when you ask for something. They were all friendly at the beginning of the flight and a few stayed that way the whole flight but two were a bit grouchy by the end of the flight.
Our flight took off about 40 minutes late and that probably worked out best because we landed at RDU in between storms. If we had arrived a little earlier we would have been diverted to Charlotte and then had to wait out the storm then fly back to RDU.
We got through the airport with no delays and was greeted by Mom and Dad (Memom and Papa) as soon as we left the baggage area! We had three very happy little girls (and Rob and I)and two very happy grandparents. Sarah let Papa hold her on the way to the car and Memom held her at dinner. We were all surprised because she is in the stranger stage and normally cries when someone she is not use to holds her. (Talking to them on the phone must have helped her)
When we arrived at Memom and Papa's house we were greeted by a happy old dog, Sissy! Sissy is looking much older than we expected she would (but she is 11). Sissy is currently trying to make up for 6 months of Sissy kisses on Sarah:)
I will try and post some pictures and more updates as we get adjusted to life in the states.
We started our journey on friday with a taxi ride from Mildenhall into London. I really enjoy hearing stories and our taxi driver had a few to tell because he was in the military in GB. He was actually a good driver and no one got sick in the car and he even knew the back roads so we weren't stuck on the M25 for too long. The hotel was nice and the food was very pricey....an exchange rate not in our favor always made that the case. We all five actually slept well the night before our flight and that made for easier traveling.
My only problem with the flight was some of the attendants were not as friendly as they could have been. I have to laugh when someone works in services and acts like they are doing you a favor when you ask for something. They were all friendly at the beginning of the flight and a few stayed that way the whole flight but two were a bit grouchy by the end of the flight.
Our flight took off about 40 minutes late and that probably worked out best because we landed at RDU in between storms. If we had arrived a little earlier we would have been diverted to Charlotte and then had to wait out the storm then fly back to RDU.
We got through the airport with no delays and was greeted by Mom and Dad (Memom and Papa) as soon as we left the baggage area! We had three very happy little girls (and Rob and I)and two very happy grandparents. Sarah let Papa hold her on the way to the car and Memom held her at dinner. We were all surprised because she is in the stranger stage and normally cries when someone she is not use to holds her. (Talking to them on the phone must have helped her)
When we arrived at Memom and Papa's house we were greeted by a happy old dog, Sissy! Sissy is looking much older than we expected she would (but she is 11). Sissy is currently trying to make up for 6 months of Sissy kisses on Sarah:)
I will try and post some pictures and more updates as we get adjusted to life in the states.
Monday, July 12, 2010
Rear view mirror
The end of this week we will be seeing this sign in the rear view mirror! So excited to be heading to our next adventure and so thankful for all the awesome places and experiences we have had since August 2007.
I never thought I would be moving back to the states as a Mom to three...and I have to say that is the best thing that happened while we were over here!
I have enjoyed showing Mom, Dad and Tracy some of this area and teaching my girls all the history. Meghan and Jenna will miss going to castles and seeing the ice cream truck in the neighborhood.
We have enjoyed seeing part of Europe......England, Scotland, Ireland, France, Belgium, Wales and Germany.
Friday, July 9, 2010
cleaning and moving
We have moved out of Sycamore Drive and are currently staying in the base temporary housing...aka base hotel. We have a very nice suite with two bedrooms, living room and nice large kitchen. But the best part is....Air Conditioning!!! The temps are reaching close to 90 today and tomorrow, so I am so thankful we decided to get out of the house early and get settled in TLF (Temp lodging facility).
Rob and I have cleaned, cleaned and did more cleaning and passed our house inspection earlier today. I think we could have passed it with just our normal cleaning, but we wanted to make sure we passed, so we did a deep cleaning and came out smelling like simple green and clorox!
Our last week in the UK will still be a busy week, but not as busy as this week was. The girls have been great with all the moving, cleaning, packing and changes happening. I actually think they like staying in TLF more than the house because the park is nicer over here:)
Well, I just wanted to check in and pass along an update. I'm exhausted and think I will get some much needed rest this afternoon (and a little laundry washed).
See some of you soon:)
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
view from the car
Top two pictures are going to Feltwell for the 4th of July party
and the bottom two are going home.
Monday, July 5, 2010
4th of July fun
Our last Independence Day in the UK.
We spent the day at RAF Feltwell for a day of rides, junk food and spending money.
The girls seem to think it is easy to win a stuffed animal....but we only walked away with one big bear.
We all had a fun day out and hope you all had a happy 4th too.
Sunday, July 4, 2010
Thursday, July 1, 2010
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