Snow!

I am a bit of a few days late in posting this~ as with most snows in NC, they only last a short day or two, and this one was no different (though in areas shaded from sun, snow remains). Coby woke up from his nap Saturday to a complete blanket of snow outside~ his response to the open front door~ "WHOA." While impressed with the sight, he wanted nothing to do with it. When Alain attempted to hand some to him, he kindly refused. It was beautiful though, and of course made me rethink "not doing" Christmas cards this year. Coby looked so cute in his Christmas outfit in the snow covered arborteum and with such an eventful 2010, we just might need to remember it with an adorable card~ we'll see!

Happy Halloween!

Coby is quickly recovering from his ER trips a couple of weeks back and had a great time this weekend trick-or-treating with friends and neighbors. He was the cutest little pumpkin ever. Mind you, he was a very INDEPENDENT pumpkin as well. Heaven-forbid you try to help him with his candy bucket or up or down any steps.

Watch Out~ Here comes Coby: basically, he was saying with his hands

Stay out of my Way

Coby and His Pumpkin Buddy, Bella

A whirlwind of a Quarter, and Fall is now Here

Summer came and went, and I've been meaning to update the blog for some time now, but life has a funny way of taking over. First quarter at my new school was amazing, busy, challenging, and busy, and busy, and busy. I am learning so much as a teacher and am loving it! I have times each day when I miss the familiarity and closeness that I had a Neal, but I love the professional friendships and learning that is happening for me at Rogers-Herr.

Coby is thriving with his new sitter! He loves her and loves her one year old daughter too. They have lots of fun going to museums, libraries, parks, and just hanging out! He had made some awesome artwork and learned lots of new words in his time there~ he can now say: mama, dada, all done, up, down, tries to say I love you and nods with great affirmation when he wants to say yes. He has also become a full-blown toddler with all of the fun and challenges that come with it. We are working on sharing, gentle touch, and making sure to keep our teeth to ourselves :) It has been so fun to watch him become more and more interactive as he grows and matures.

Two weekends ago, we went apple picking with some new friends from our new church. The weather was perfect north carolina fall: 70 degrees, not a cloud in the sky with a brisk, but not cold breeze! Coby picked apples from the backpack carrier and discovered he likes apples a lot better when he can take big bites out of the whole apple. Oh the joys of new discoveries.

And now for the traumatic news... we have survived our first trip to the ER with Coby. I have been assured that it likely will not be our last since Coby is unashamedly all boy :) Last evening, our dear friends' perfectly friendly dog, lost his cool for a split second and bit Coby multiple times on his face. Coby was definitely shielded by God's amazing grace because nothing serious was injured~ despite horrific gashes on his cheek less than 1.5 centimeters from his eye, no damage was done to his eye. We are so amazingly overwhelmed by God's love, grace, and care for our son. He is home with 17 stitches and is still the same-old, silly, happy, and cuddly Coby (of course, now he has a new nickname~ Rocky his boxing friend of course).

Off We Go...

So, tomorrow we are OFF! Alain, Coby, and I are headed south to pay a visit to Mickey and Shamu. Originally, we had planned to take a trip out to CA to visit Joy and the crew, but since they up and decided to move to Boston :) we had to make other plans! I had earned free Disney tickets by participating in Give a Day, Get a Day earlier in the year, so we decided to Orlando we would go! So, I have just one question...

Mickey Mouse or Shamu: Who will be Coby's Favorite?
	Mickey
	Shamu
pollcode.com free polls

The Day has Come and New Things

The dreaded day has come....

Coby has discovered how to remove his diaper if he is not wearing a onesie or shorts, and oh does he love to be sans clothes. There is something about boys I think that just longs for the freedom of no clothing. While it is sweet, it is not so sweet when it occurs during nap time, especially when there is poop involved (I'll spare you that picture). However, as you can see above, playtime couldn't be better than when doing it sans clothes :)

Life has not skipped a beat since we moved into the new house. While we are finally feeling fairly settled, we still feel like we are moving a mile a minute. With a new house came something VERY unexpected~ a new job for me (jenn). Three weeks ago today, less than a week of being in the new house, I received a call from a friend who was a teacher at Rogers Herr Year Round Middle in Durham. She had called to let me know that she had accepted a teaching position in Chapel Hill and that she very much wanted me to have her job. Just a few problems... the no-transfer policy in durham schools for this year, teacher workdays were to start in just ten days, school would start a week later, and hold on a minute, I had a summer full of travel and time with Coby. While I immediately was tempted to want to go (I have longed to teach at RH for many reasons, mainly the year-round schedule), I truly believed it was not the right time~ just too many obstacles to overcome. Little did I know, it must have been meant to be. After a week of wrestling my feelings, I finally came to the decision (with Alain and Natalie's help), to talk to the principal at RH. Basically, I told her I was interested, but I couldn't start until Aug. 2. Long and short of it, last Thursday, I found out that all of the obstacles were clear, and I was now a teacher at Roger Herr~ what a big God we serve. My pastor growing up said once "finding God's will is not in our ability to follow, rather in God's ability to lead." How true- He kept prompting me throughout that week, and despite my reliance on obstacles to close doors, He opened them for me. It was fantastic! So, part of me is scared to death (I have never taught outside of Neal Middle), and part of me is excited beyond words (I have never taught anywhere outside of Neal Middle); however, all of me is incredibly grateful for the five years I have had teaching with the most amazing team of teachers I could dream of. Now it is time to move on. Let the new challenges begin! I start in just 11 days :)

So, Coby is pretty much on the go ALL THE TIME now. I was trying to get a good shot with him actually looking at the camera, and well... this is the best I got :)

Settling In, a Weekend of Fun, and Coby's Favorites

Settling In...
It has been just over a week now since we closed on the new house. We absolutely love it! It feels SOOOOOO big after spending the past two+ months in an apartment. We love having space and having all of our things in one place again. After a week, all except for the last few things in our bedroom have been unpacked and have a home (correction: most of our walls are still bare also). Alain has kept very busy with his many projects and I am sure we are keeping the south durham lowes in business. All in all, we are happily settling.

A Weekend of Fun...

For the 4th of July weekend, we had the Johnson fam stay with us for a few days of fun. We had so much fun~ a double date night complete with a babysitter, a cookout with family and friends, and lots of "hang time" while we finished unpacking and finding homes for everything. Jessica is a task-master and won't let you quit until the job is done.

Coby's Favorites...

Coby is also enjoying his new digs. His play room is a favorite room for all of us (thanks to the wonderfully comfortable IKEA chairs I got last month in charlotte). He loves to pull out all of the toy boxes and play with EVERYTHING! He has mastered the slide in every direction~ the normal way, climbing up the slide and down the steps, going down backwards, going down on his belly, rolling down sideways-head first of course, and any other possible way imaginable (thank God for foam tile flooring!). Possibly the best yet though was last night... Alain and I were cleaning up the kitchen and cleaning the floors in the kitchen while Coby was busy in his playroom. Alain went towards the front of the house to put some dirty towels on the steps to go up to the laundry room and caught Coby like this...

Coby's new favorite thing to do is to READ! He will bring you book after book to read to him, and as you can see, even when we are not looking, he is diving into reading! Hopefully we can continue to foster this love for books as he gets older!

What a Spring We are Having!

Wow, what an amazing month and more we have had. We travelled to Ohio, packed up our house into three separate places, closed on the sale of our first house, moved into an apartment, and have watched our house come into existence. It has been so fun and so busy all at once! However, life in the apartment yields a few major challenges: no internet, a kitchen where it is nearly physically impossible to have more than one person in it at once, and the constant question of “where did I pack ______?” Deep down, I know that this will just make me appreciate the gift of a new house even more come June 25th, yes- I did just say it aloud- June 25th- about three weeks earlier than we originally thought- and three fewer weeks of apartment living- and three additional weeks of summer break for me to unpack everything I am looking for and determine its perfect place. Isn’t God amazingly good to us?!?!?

Coby is growing into the most amazing toddler I could imagine. He is wonderfully fun, delightfully happy, passionate about all things~ good and bad, and the absolute apple of our eyes. This is not to say that he is “perfect” by any stretch. He is indeed a toddler- tantrums and hugs together. While there is nothing more frustrating than watching him throw an all-out tantrum in a store; there is nothing more perfectly wonderful than him wrapping his arms around you and laying his head on your shoulder~ toddlers- an amazing age! We are so very blessed. Picking out pictures to share from such a long period is a complete challenge, but below, I have picked out some good ones!

Well, the coming month will likely be one of limited posts again as we are living without internet at the apartment. However, we will try to get back up to the once a week or two weeks come July once we have settled in and start paying Time Warner again to stay in touch with the 21st Century. We are excited to see many of you over the summer and welcome any visitors to come see us once we are settled in the new house (sorry, the apartment is just too small for visitors).

Coby Pics First...

And now some house pics...

A Small Birthday Party and A Ready House

I really did write this a week ago (today is 3/31), I just haven't had a chance until now to upload the pictures~ I know this is a must :)

What a wonderfully fun and eventful weekend we have had! Thursday night, Mom and Dad (Grandma and Grandpa) Heselton came into town for one of their long-weekend visits. They typically come down to NC at least 2-3 per year to spend some quality time with us. This time, it just happened to work out for them to come the same week Coby turned ONE, and just in time might I add...

About a week and a half ago, we received our repair request for our current home. It was a little more intense than we had planned for and showed us that we had had a rather poor inspector when we purchased the home. Long a short of it, we had to have a general contractor come and take apart much of the deck, replace a band joist, install flashing, and replace the deck, and this was just ONE of the repair requests. The rest of the list was fairly lengthy as well. Luckily, I have an amazingly handy husband and father who were able to tackle the list with much hard work, and now with just one repair remaining (new garage door to be installed tomorrowish), we are ready to pass the house along to the buyers in just a few short weeks! Yay for Dad and Alain!

Friday, Grandma helped me take Coby to get his haircut. I must say, while it was fun to watch someone else cut Coby's hair, I think I will be saving some $ in the future as his cut is no better than when I did it back before the holidays. He is still the cutest despite the new do!

Saturday, we had a few friends and family come over for a birthday celebration! Coby was adorned with many toys and gifts and what a fun time we had. I think our friend Coreen put it perfectly: Toys are not lost on Coby- he LOVES them and plays hard every moment he is awake! After his party and a nap, we all (Grandpa, Grandma, Alain, Coby, and I, Keith, Julie, and their 4 kids) grabbed some pizzas from our favorite local pizza place (Lilly's) and took it to a park to eat dinner and play. It was a wonderful day!

We are now looking forward to our trip up to Ohio to spend Easter with family and celebrate Coby's First Birthday once again with more of our families! We can't wait!

House Update

God is SOOOOOOO good! Monday evening we received word that Olde South Homes would build our house for the price we offered. We are of course ecstatic as we think about a home built just as we want it and even the little things we wished for: a SCREENED-IN PORCH! We are so excited. Hopefully it will be done sometime in July so we can move in. In the meantime, we are packing up for apartment life :)

ONE

Can you believe our BABY turned ONE yesterday?!?!? I think ONE might be one of those ages where pictures will be mostly "action" shots. I tried real hard to get a good shot of Coby in his birthday shirt (Thanks Aunti Joy), but he was just too busy for me. This is the story of my life and photography these days :) Oh well, it is a joy to watch him explore the world. We have lots planned over the next few weeks to celebrate our first baby's first birthday~ so of course we will have more pics to share soon. In the meantime: Happy Birthday Coby! We love you!

Waiting on Pins and Needles

So, it has been a crazy busy two and a half weeks living "under contract." We are so confident that God is good through it all though. Two weeks ago, we looked at 13 houses in one day and not one of them felt like the right choice. Then we looked at three more that monday and found what we thought for sure was going to be our next home. Long and short of it, the sellers wouldn't accept our contingency at "that time." Though they wanted us to re-submit our offer after a couple of weeks of being under contract so that our contract would be more solid. That being said, we were disappointed but hopeful. After a day or so, we were ready to hit the ground running again and see what else was on the market~ basically, we continued to have little interest in the houses coming onto the market. Anyhow, we decided since the sellers were providing us with extra time, we would speak with the builders in this neighborhood to see how much we could build the same exact house for (this neighborhood is not quite finished). So, after several meetings with our realtor and the builder's rep, we decided that perhaps we wanted to build instead. Basically, for quite a bit cheaper, we could build the same house and pick out all of the details. So, we are "waiting on pins and needles" going into this week. Yesterday, we spent two hours working with our realtor and the builder's rep to write up an offer. The owner will take a look at it tomorrow, and hopefully, we should hear by tomorrow or early Tuesday if we will call 4605 Lemongrass Lane "home" come late summer. Please pray!

Busy week of celebration ahead~ can you believe Coby is really turning one on Tuesday?!?!?! Promise to keep everyone updated in the process this week!

What a Month!

February was quite a month. The biggest news: the house is UNDER CONTRACT. Yes, we hope that means it is officially SOLD. This was exciting and terrifying at the same time. The original contract asked for closing on or before MARCH 19th~ only three weeks! Our amazing realtor convinced the buyers to give us until April 16th. So, let the house hunt begin! We saw 13 homes yesterday with our other realtor (one to sell and one to buy)~ it was super exhausting and disappointing as we did not find what we were looking for. It seems we are going to have to choose house or location. We are going to see two more tomorrow; we'll see~ trying to take it one day at a time. Our agent is absolutely amazing and so patient with me. Not sure exactly when or exactly where, but the Aguilars are on their way to southwest durham.

Coby turns one in 16 days. I can hardly believe it! It seems like just yesterday, we were bringing him home for the first time. There is no doubt about it though, he is officially a toddler. It seems a little early to me, but he has become Mr. Independent- choosing to walk over crawl, refusing to eat anything he can't feed himself, and throwing tantrums when you try to help him do things. We are enjoying watching him grow, but boy is it tiring parenting a toddler. Today, we spent some quality time together as a family and did very little. After Coby's morning nap, we took a trip to the park to swing and slide. These seem to be two of Coby's favorite things. It was delightfully crisp outside (a breezy 50 degrees which felt good but crisp) so we didn't stay too long, but boy was it fun to watch Coby smile with excitement. These are some of my favorite times~ have to make sure we squeeze them in despite the craziness.

Well, I am hoping to keep this up to date as we move through march, the move, the birthday, and more. I'll do my best! Hope all is well with all of you!

Oh My Goodness!

Is it really FEBRUARY?!?!?!? Is my baby really turning ONE next month?!?!?!?! Do I really have ANOTHER snow day tomorrow after our five inches of snow on SATURDAY (update: we actually had mon, tues, wed, and a 2 hr. delay on Thurs~ and believe it or not, I actually believe all of them were needed based on the roads)?!?!?!? Has it really been over a month and a half since I last posted, and I missed Christmas, New Year's, Coby's first steps, Coby's first words (they came as a group of three so it is hard to pinpoint first word), and now Coby's first hike in the snow. Yes, Yes, Yes. The answers to all of the above questions are an overwhelming number of yeses (is that really a word- spell check is saying YES). So, I will start at the very beginning and give you the short list:

Coby had an amazing time in Columbus for Christmas and New Year's and definitely wore himself out~ he is such a social little guy and simply loved all the time with everyone. As we suspected, he was far more interested in wrapping paper and ribbon than he was gifts on Christmas morning.

New Year's Eve brought about his realization that he could move in the upright position. He took a few steps to get to grandpa and was filled with joy at this new discovery. It was nearly a full month of a few steps here and there before he became a little more confident and started walking in further distances. He can now walk from one side of the room to another, but he does it with both hands in the air for balance and moves rather slowly. If he is in a hurry, he will still drop to hands and knees and crawl with speed and excitement.

January was a busy month as Alain and I headed back to work! Auntie Coreen (Coby's sitter during the day) was on vacation in California for the first week and a half that Alain was back to work. Luckily for us, Lola Aireen made the trip down to spend the week with Coby so we could work without stress. Together, they made lots of memories! It was a super busy week for us as we took that time to meet with both of our realtors! Yes, REALTORS! We are moving forward with attempting to sell our home and move to southwest durham. With Alain's commute becoming more and more of a burden, and our hearts longing to be more involved with the community at UNC, we are ready to move so much closer. We are looking at homes that are less than a mile or two from where we lived when we first moved down to NC. We are praying for a quick sale on this home and the perfect next home to be on the market when we are ready. Our current home goes on the market sometime next week~ please PRAY!!!

Recently, Coby has started using a few words. They are all D words so I think he does best with the Duh sound. Currently, he says Dada (which Alain thinks came first, I might even agree), Duck, and Dog. Once in a while, he will say Ball (which sometimes sounds a little like doll when he says it). He is ever so smart and will search high and low in the house to find his rubber ducky if you ask for his duck. So cute!

This weekend brought a dumping of snow and a covering of sleet/ice on top leading to quite a dicey situation on the roads. Being a northerner, it is hard to believe that this much snow (less than five inches at our house) could shut down life for multiple days, but believe me, it does. It turned out to be not such a bad thing though as we really got a lot done on the house while we were snowed in. Yesterday, we packed Coby in the backpack carrier and took a hike to Target. Coby was mesmerized by the snow- I think he may have been blinded by it to as the sun was so bright and the snow as so white!

Well, that brings us to February. I was so excited to turn the page on my calendar today and see the pics of Coby that will grace us for this month. A few more pics for you... Thanks Karla! As always, family pics turned out amazing!

How Funny is this one... notice Coby is the only child that is HAPPY :)

What a handsome guy...