Our New Home Part 2: January

Here is Part 1 if you missed it ;)

I am honestly amazed with how much can happen in 1 month! 

We got an email from the builder on 1/5 saying our plans had been approved, and they would break ground soon, and then things just started happening!

We live close by, so I take Jenna once a day to see the house

 so she can make a book when it is all done.

 Here are some of the pictures!

This was our "house" on January 5th 

And this is what our house looks like today 

January 31st :)

Our new home part 1: The story in a Nutshell :)

Well this is extremely delayed!

The story in a Nutshell :)

Our journey to a new house a long one coming. Mike and I decided a few years ago we wanted to move closer to family and Kade, but wanted to be debt free when we made the move. 

This October we had our AMAZING realtor Rex Tedeski start looking at homes with us. We couldn't find anything we were interested in, but were in no hurry. In November when we found out that Mike was going to deploy we decided we would put our house on the market asking way more than we wanted for it, so we could lower it when he got back... 

IT SOLD 4 DAYS LATER in a snow storm no less!!! 

We now needed to move out by the end of December, so we started looking a little more determined. We had a list of things that were really important to us though, and nothing quite met up to our demands. We decided one day to just look into building, and by the end of the next day were signing papers to buy a lot :)

All of the cards sort of fell into place for the sale and build, but we needed somewhere to live. That's when our sister Mandi played hero and let us stay in her spare rooms. I may just stay here when the house is finished ;)

Our amazing family really stepped up to help us move the weekend before Mike left! There really isn't words for how blessed we are with support!

The Nutshell had lots of steps though ;)

Just to sign with the builder:

• We had to pick out a lot. We found the perfect one in the school zone we wanted, in a cul-de-sac, that has a small island so Jenna is safer while playing basketball, and a big yard.  

• We had to pick the home design we wanted... then change it to meet our long list of wants. Like an extra room, a loft, an extended garage (2 car is too small and 3 car allows for too much stuff), and the downstairs bath location to name a few. 

• The fun part was going to pick out all the finishing touches like flooring, counters, and doors. 
• We decided to put away money for allot of thing like paint, lighting, molding, and kitchen/bath upgrade  so that we can build equity imminently instead of having the builder do the work. 
• There were things we wanted that can't be added later (as easy) like the best carpet pad, insulated bedrooms. and bigger windows. 

Then once the new house was waiting for approval by the city we had to:

• Tell big brother and big sister (James was along for the whole ride)

• Move our of our 1st home...so much harder than I thought! Mike and I picked this house out when we had been dating for a month! It was the 1st home for both of our older kids, it was where we brought our baby home to. Even just writing about it now makes me tear up and miss my husband more! 

• And now we wait...

   

Thing 3 is Five Months Old!

Our perfect monster is 5 Months old this week!!!! 

 Jimmy Jam loves his piggy toes, sticking out his tongue,

 and blowing bubbles :)

Height/Weight: James is now weighing in at 15.9lbs (14th percentile), 
is 26 3/4 inches long (75th percentile), 
and has a 43 inch head (38th percentile)

Routine: James is getting a new routine, but is doing great! He spends every morning with Auntie Mandi, so he doesn't have to get in the car while I take sister to school. The Wednesdays with Grandma while I work at Jenna's school. Other than that we don't have much set in stone yet other than I put him to sleep with sister at 8:30 every night :)
He prefers sleeping with his monkey, pacifier,  and one of my scarfs 

Sleeping:If anyone ever says babies don't know what is going on around them to me again I will laugh.. or punch them depending on my mood! James had a great nightly routine then one weekend we thought that moving and his daddy deploying all at once wouldn't effect him... we were wrong! We made sure that we did everything to make the transition easy for Jenna, but now looking back I could have done things differently for Jamie :( 
Every night for about a week after Mike left James looked for dad to put him to bed, and would fight sleep :( it wasn't until that next weekend when Mike was able to Facetime him to sleep a few nights in a row that I realized little man missed daddy too! So I recorded Mike talking to him before bed, and that is how baby goes to sleep at night! 

3 weeks in we are settling into our new home. and little man is back to sleeping 2 naps during the day and through the night (with an occasional 4am snack time) :)

Eating/Feeding: Other than his current stuffy nose making it hard to latch James is a great eater! He eats about every 3 hours. He isn't picky between nursing or his bottle (pumped of course) 
He eats about 5-6 oz when its a bottle and nurses for about 10-15 mins, so he is getting much more efficient lol :)

Sizes:  Baby boy can wear 6 month shirts, but Pj's and pants are 9 months. He is now in size 3 diapers, and seeing his hats are made by Auntie Sara they have custom measurements ;)

Milestones: 

The week before daddy deployed Jamie decided to surprise him with learning to say Dada :)

It is still his favorite sound, but he has added Yaya, Nono, and Googoo :)

He's definitely teething and drools a ton... to help he has learned to suck on his own drool :/

He has made friends with lots of fur babies in the last month!

He can roll all the way over now, and can get into crawl ready position, 

but just rocks back and forth lol

Sara and I did watch him move backwards trying to get to my phone in front of him, so he is going to be way to mobile way to soon :)

For his birthday our big boy got to take a bath with big sister!

It took him a few seconds of feeling and tasting the water to decide, but he loved it! 

The last picture is of him peeing though, so sister says he can take his own bathes from now on lol

Daddy even got to facetime for his bath :)

He is a sweet baby who brings smiles everywhere we go,

 and will let anyone who will talk to him hold him :)

 He is going to be such a people person I'm sure of it!

He does reach for people when he wants them which melts mama's heart 

especially when he is reaching for me! 

So far he only does it to Jenna and me, but his newest adorable act is pulling our faces in for kisses :)

He really has lived up to the nickname Sunshine!!