Hello from Kentucky!!

Howdy, ya'll!!  :)

Wow, what a busy week for us!  We drove up to Georgia last Thursday to watch proudly as my oldest nephew graduated from Army Basic Training.  It was amazing!  We had such fun with my family and I will most definitely post pictures soon. 

From there, we rode up to Indiana to visit with BC's great-grandparents.  It was a nice visit - filled with lots of time outside in the sun and a couple of rainy days spent inside, just visiting and playing.  

We are now on our return trip home, but have stopped for the night in Franklin, KY.   We're in a nice, new hotel and are enjoying just relaxing and being out of the car!  Bear Cub has done SO well with our car travels ...he has blown us away with his good attitude!  Thank goodness for the laptop and all of his "shows" that we brought along....

Tomorrow it's on to Atlanta to visit with my cousin and her hubby for one night.  We always have a great time with them and we're looking forward to seeing their new home, too.  Should be fun.  

Home again for us on Saturday and I do believe BC is ready.  He keeps saying, out of the blue, "I want to go HOME!!"  I know he misses our usual routine and all of his toys.  Goes to show that traveling and visiting is great fun, but there really is no place like home!!

I'll post pictures once I get them uploaded.  Just a quick note to update you on our whereabouts.  Have a wonderful weekend ahead!!  :)

Please forgive me...

Listening to some music from Daddy's IPod.  

He collected his ladybugs in the back of his trike before taking them to find "a new home" in our bushes.  This kiddo is crazy about ladybugs! He even asks me to get my computer out to look them up on the web.  My little scientist...

Steady hands and deep concentration = the perfect ladybug catch!

Honing in on a ladybug...

He finally got the hang of his trike!  He rides slow, but very steady and is doing well with the steering!  Go, Bear Cub, go! 

...if I become an awful blogger here in the next couple of weeks!  

It feels as if my world has been set into SUPER SPEED all of a sudden and I'm feeling a bit like I'm spinning!  As of yesterday, our house is officially on the market.  We met and signed with an agent here in town and within 3 hours, we had the FOR SALE signs up.  It is so strange to look out and see that in the front yard!  Pulling into our driveway, I think, "Who put that thing in our yard?!?!"  Still not quite used to that.  It makes it all very real when you see those signs!  We're hoping that someone will come along quickly and snatch it up, but we'll see.  We started talking to Bear Cub a little about it last night at dinner, telling him we're going to get a new house, maybe a bit bigger, and that he can help decorate his new room.  He looked around and said, "No, I don't want that.  Our house IS big."  So I imagine it will be a little strange for him too when we do leave this house.  It has been his home since we returned from Russia, the only real home he has ever known.  

We have sort of found an area (at least via the Internet and with friends' recommendations) that we are interested in checking out some homes.  It is a planned community with lots of amenities - including ALL the schools that BC would ever attend!  I called up the preschool there (this is a big concern of mine...I want him to start up with all the other kids, if possible!) and they told me they have several spots open.  So, before our big ROAD TRIP this week, we'll go over there to check the school out, drive through the neighborhoods, and just get a feel for the area.  If it all looks good, we'll probably get him registered there for preschool.  So much to think about!

On top of this house stuff, we have TWO back-to-back trips, starting this week!  We'll be leaving on Thursday to head to Georgia to see my oldest nephew graduate from Army Basic Training.  My mom will be driving up with us and we'll spend 2 nights there.  I'm excited to see my sister, one niece, and my Atlanta cousins!  Kind of like a mini-family reunion PLUS graduation.  From there, we'll drive up to Indiana (with a stop in Nashville to drop my mom at the airport) to spend 5 nights with BC's GREAT-grandparents!  We always love our visits there and I'm sure everyone will be so surprised to see how much BC has grown since our last visit last July!  

We'll then head home, making 2 overnight stops along the way, getting home on a Saturday.  The very next Wednesday, BC and I, along with my mom, will fly to San Antonio for 4 days to see my oldest niece graduate from COLLEGE!!  Too hard to believe...didn't I just graduate from college??  It sure seems so at times.  

We have lots of fun times mixed in with this "business" of preparing to move, so it's nice to have these other things to look forward to.  I'm hoping the house gets shown a lot while we're gone because it will be spotless and people and dog-free, so it seems like the best opportunity for folks to come through!  I'll keep you posted on it all...

So, enjoy the photos of some tricycle riding and ladybug collecting from the weekend.  Bear Cub loves to be outside!  I'll update again once we return from our trip.  Until then...take care!  :)

The cutest boys ever...

Takin' a break from playing in the sandbox - just chillin' with a popsicle!  (It's nearly impossible to get 2 toddler boys to both look at the camera at the same time...)  

B flies the kite!  He did a great job!

2 boys, 2 rakes, lots of sand, and a dog... LOOK OUT!!  :)

Poor BC got a boo-boo on the sand and sweet B came to see if he was ok.  What a friend!  

Almost 6-month-old baby C....he is absolutely PRECIOUS!!  Such a cutie and so sweet too -- love those eyes of his...dreamy!  

Not quite playing "together" all the time yet, but always in the same vicinity...having fun, doing their own things!  (with the ever-present potty in the background)

Play-Doh fun!!  

We had such fun with my very best friend and her 2 boys yesterday and today!  BC and her B are starting to play more with each other and it is really cute to see!  New baby C is absolutely adorable, so cuddly and such a lil' bundle.  It was SO great to have them here!  Best of all (for me), was to have my friend here.  She and I go way back and we always fall right back into place with one another.  I wish we lived closer, but I am so thankful that we are at least only 2 1/2 hours away from one another.  We stayed up until close to midnight, just talking and being girls.  We were college roomies, so we spent a lot of time like this together in the past, and of course, we can't forget the COUNTLESS sleepovers we had when we were young.  In the midst of some boys crying, trying to get them ready for bed, and just a bit of chaos, I thought to myself, "Wow...I remember when all we worried about was what we were going to wear the next day to school."  And there we were, getting our sons ready for bed, all grown-up with separate lives, yet still so close.  What a friend and how awesome to have grown up together and now be sharing these experiences with one another too.  She is my forever friend and not too many people find someone like that in life.  All I can say about that is... LUCKY ME.  :)  Enjoy the photos of our handsome boys.  

Finally...pictures!

Best buds...

Having fun on the golf course!

The boy and his pup...

Lil man lifts BIG flag...

Trying out his new golf set from the Easter Bunny...not too interested yet, but willing to try!  He later discovered it was MUCH more fun to try and get things off our walls with the golf clubs.  (sigh)  Maybe Tiger W. did things like that too as a youngster?? ;)

Searching for eggs that the Easter Bunny left for him.  And yes, those are Christmas pjs he's wearing...should have planned that a bit better the night before!  Oops!

Oooooh!  A cool lion!  Thanks Mimi!

Zoe is ALWAYS interested in new gifts!  

The Easter Bunny just had to give him a car...despite the bazillion we already have! 

Howdy from hot and sunny Florida!

I hope you all had a fantastic Easter!  We had a really nice weekend at home -- relaxing some and getting things accomplished too around the house.  Bear Cub had a fun Easter...although I was a bit worried leading up to it because I really think that BC thought Easter was like Christmas...with lots and lots of gifts!  I kept telling him that the Easter Bunny just brings little things and he kept seeing commercials for BIG toys and saying, "The Easter Bunny MIGHT bring me that!"  Oh my.  But much to our happiness, he was completely satisfied with his Easter basket, the candy and the new little golf set he got!  I will post pictures soon, I promise!  

We have been really busy with our usual weekly routine.  But on top of all that, Daddy Bear has been traveling for work, leaving just BC and me during the week.  It's an extra full-time job for me when he is not around.   Daddy is a HUGE help and we do miss him (for all reasons) when he's not around.  

The work travels will eventually come to an end this coming Fall, which leads me into the next series of "busy, busy!" times ahead.  He will be the account manager for a new account that is opening up here in Florida.  This means a move is in our very near future.  Since the news has settled in, I am very excited about it!  We will be only an hour away from our families now (inching closer to the west coast) and in an area that seems to be very new and up-and-coming.  Now comes the hard part....selling our current house!  We spent some time this weekend doing the beginnings of clean up for the sell.  Our home is only 5 years old and is really in great shape.  We're just working on making a few things look fresher and brighter for when the house does go up on the market.  So please send us some good selling vibes!  This is not the best time to sell, but we are hopeful that our home will be as sweet to someone else as it has been for us.  If you know anyone interested in a great home in Central Florida, email me!!  :) 

Bear Cub continues to do well and we've had about 2 weeks of GREAT potty training!  He has started pooping on his little potty...yippee!!  My tactic:  undress him from the waist down following breakfast. He plays, sits on the potty, then plays some more until he can't hold things any longer and then rushes to the potty!  It seems to be working and he doesn't have that fear he had before.  He's doing really great!  We are hopeful that he'll be potty trained by the time he's 3...or at least soon after!  

I promise to post pictures soon!  We have a fun and busy week ahead with an overnight visit from my best friend and her 2 boys from Jacksonville on Wednesday!  My school friends are now on Spring Break too, so we have some play dates planned with some other friends as well. 

 Next week we will be embarking on our first ROAD TRIP with Bear Cub.  Oh my!  We'll be heading to Ft. Benning, GA, to watch proudly as my oldest nephew graduates from Army Basic Training.  From there, we'll head to Indiana for BC to visit his great-grandparents for the rest of the week.  I'm excited to get away, slightly nervous about how BC will do in the car, and then happy to be seeing most ALL of my family along the way!  It should be fun.  

Have a wonderful week ahead!  :)

Happy Easter!!

Here's wishing you all a very happy Easter tomorrow!  I've been a bad blogger (again!) and I'm sorry about that!  I'm sure we'll get some pictures tomorrow for me to post and I'll fill you in on what we've been up to around here.  Busy times, as usual!  Until then, here's Bear Cub's most recent picture that we had taken at the photographer's.  He was not too happy about being there that day, but somehow we managed to leave with this ADORABLE photo!  One friend told me that he looks like he's praying for something naughty.  Hmmmm...she might not be too far off there!  I think it is SO sweet!  :)

Happy Easter everyone!!  

Ladybug talk

Enjoy some Bear Cub talk of ladybugs and bug hunts!  You must think he's always strapped into his high chair seat...I swear, he's not!  It's just so much easier to film him when he's in there!  :)  

(Sorry for the sideways viewing...I was holding my camera the wrong way...oops!  Just close your eyes and listen if it makes you seasick!)