Need advice

Bad news--the house is not ready, so we have to move into an apartment for a time until the electricity is in. (To clarify the problem, the whole street is new and has no electricity at all. There are ten houses all built and ready to go that don't have electricity.)

I'm concerned about how Rebekah will respond. She is excited about her new house and has seen it a few times, but we will have to live somewhere unfamiliar to her and then move her again to the house she's been looking forward to. How can I explain this to her in terms that she will understand? What can I do to make the transition easier for her? I have some ideas myself, but I would also like to hear any suggestions you might have.

Thanks. And pray for us--this is stressful and we're trying hard not to let it worry the kids.

Bekah-isms

According to Bekah, in the day time the sun is in, not out. At night the sun goes out and the moon comes in.

Also, she uses word ol' as an adverb to amplify her chosen adjective, as in, big ol' bug. She also repeats adjectives to amplify them, as in, big big bug. Separately, those are not that funny or unusual. But it was pretty funny when she saw a "big big big ol' ol' ol' ol' wasp" outside.

fussy girls

It has been loud in this house. The formerly pleasant and content Annabelle has lately become Miss Fussypants. She fits right in with her big sister, Miss Sassypants. Between the fuss and the sass, Mommy is tired. But now that they are asleep, the house should be peaceful until about 5:00 a.m. That's when I can expect Rebekah--that's right! the three-year-old!--to wake me up to start the day. The three-month-old will not awaken until 8:00. I put Annabelle to bed and she stays there happily for eleven, even twelve hours. I put Rebekah to bed and she wakes up three times before midnight. What's that all about? I'm hoping the fussiness and the early waking are phases that will pass in the next few days. The sassiness? That is here to stay.

moving update

The progress on the house is still stalled by the utility companies, and we don't have a move-in date yet. The good news is that we can stay in our rent house for a few more weeks, so hopefully that will give us enough time to get into the new house. The problem is the rain, and it's not letting up any time soon.

Thanks to our good friends Courtney and Tom, who babysat the girls, we were able to go out for our anniversary dinner on Thursday. We both appreciated the chance to enjoy being together and to get our minds off the stress of moving for a while.

babytalk

Annabelle has something to say.

Five Year Anniversary

We haven't done anything to celebrate yet, but Shannon brought me some flowers last night. Since we've been married, we've had two kids and moved five times. I'd say it's been a busy five years!

Matching dresses

Here are the girls in the matching dresses that G.G. and Great-Papaw Evans sent them.

Rebekah is 3!

Happy Birthday Rebekah!
She had her three-year-old check-up yesterday. She weighs 40.5 pounds and is three feet three and a half inches tall. She's still in the 95th percentile for both height and weight. She got one shot, and she didn't cry or even day "ouch"--she seemed almost happy about it, especially when she got a brightly colored band-aid. She finally got the Dora birthday cake she's been talking about for months, and she also brought some cookies to school today to celebrate with her friends. Shannon was happy to be able to make it home from work in time to cook hamburgers, in the Peters tradition. When he told her he was making her a special birthday burger she asked if it was going to have cake on it. We have one more special day planned for her on Sunday when we will take her to Build-a-Bear Workshop.

The Singing Bee

That last post calls for a happier story. I mentioned this on my other blog, but I'll elaborate here. The Singing Bee is the best game show ever! We were all stressed out last night over the many things happening in our lives, and then this show came on.

It was about half an hour past Rebekah's bedtime, but she was still up because she had just finished calling all of her grandparents so she could spell her name for them--that's right! Rebekah can spell her name--accurately and consistently! I didn't even know it. I picked her up from school and her teacher told me that she had told her how to spell her name when the teacher was writing it on her art project for the day. Rebekah was so proud of herself and we laughingly bragged that she could spell her name at two years old--she won't be three until tomorrow!

So, we were all still up and started watching the show and singing along and jumping around and dancing. Rebekah thought it was the funniest thing ever to see Mommy and Daddy dancing and singing, and she got all riled up, too. I can't imagine what Annabelle thought of the whole thing! Rebekah didn't get to sleep until almost 11:00 last night, but it was worth it to have an unplanned evening of fun. We've been so stressed out lately that we all needed to relax and be silly. I recommend watching it and playing along--adults and kids.

After Rebekah went to bed, Shannon and I stayed up making and coloring icing for Rebekah's birthday cake. Shannon remembered learning how to make roses when he was a little boy watching his mom decorate cakes, so he tried his hand at that last night. They weren't half bad. I won't be making any roses, but I think the cake will turn out nice. I'll post a picture after I finish it.

Stalled

Bad news on the house--it may not be done by the end of the month. The builders have done everything they can do, but they are waiting on the utility companies to come and put in the meters and whatever else has to be done to a new house. The builders can't finish until the utilities are in, and they can test to be sure that everything works. So everybody's just sitting around waiting. We are in a rent house now, so we have no leeway--someone is moving in here on August 1. So we have quite a pickle. We will literally be homeless. Everything will work out, but it's going to take lots of planning and lots of money that we really needed for other purposes. But moving is always expensive (believe me, I'm an expert on this topic). The best possible scenario is that it will all come together at the last minute and we can move right into our house. We're exploring our other options and trying to keep our heads on straight in the process. Pray for us!

Hello Annabelle!

In the past week, Annabelle has really opened up and shown us her personality. She's so expressive now, and she smiles and coos all the time. I brought her up to the office today, and someone said she's like a little kitten who has just opened her eyes. I took a ton of pictures yesterday (trying to capture a smile--haven't gotten it yet) and I played them on a slideshow on the computer. Annabelle loved watching the pictures and started cooing and reaching out like she was talking to the baby on the screen. We may be biased, but we're pretty sure she's the cutest baby ever. Or at least the cutest baby since Rebekah!

Surprise visit

Between our two trips last month, we got a surprise visit from even more cousins! Mikka and Chris (yet another Uncle Chris) stopped by on their way home from a trip to Houston, and the kids were excited to play together. Here's a picture of Kade, Kyra, Rebekah, and Annabelle. You can definitely tell which ones are siblings--Kade and Kyra look as much alike as Rebekah and Annabelle do.

More cousins!

Sarah and the girls went up to visit the Evans side of the family last week, and in addition to lots of attention from Granmommy and Papaw and Uncle Chris (one of them), the girls got to play with even more cousins. Rebekah and James played on the slides while Annabelle and Lily...well, pretty much just stared at each other. Rebekah got an early birthday cake and a new bicycle with training wheels. We have big birthday plans for next week, too, so she's going to think her birthday is supposed to last for weeks!

house progress

We all visited the house- in-progress a couple of weeks ago, and it's looking good. Shannon stopped by again this week, and the paint and tile are in now. We should be moving at the end of the month.

Edited: Sorry if you missed the picture. It occured to me that it might not be a good idea to publish our house number for the whole internet to see. Maybe I'll put up another one later with our house numbers edited out.