Catching Up...

This certainly has been the longest blog hiatus that I have had since its creation.  I don't want to drift away from updating everyone who used to be in our lives daily before we moved.  It is my one sound way to feel like I am staying connected in between the phone calls and visits that seem much too brief and too far apart!

So here is what has been happening over the last couple of months.  I will warn you - it is a LOT (good grief, it has been TWO months, really!):

• The biggest news of the past two months is... we have a Toothless Wonder in our midst!  Andrew lost his first tooth on Sunday night (March 18th).  He and Mike had been wiggling and rocking that tooth back and forth and back and forth ALL weekend trying to get the little sucker to come out.  Mike was determined to make this momentous occasion happen before the boys and I left town to visit his parents for spring break.  So finally, after much wriggling and pulling, Andrew said he wanted to take over.  He began wiggling and with eyes wide said, "I can twist it!"  Mike and I said "Go for it!"  He kept twisting and on the fourth twist and eyes even wider Andrew was holding his tooth in his hand grinning, laughing and shrieking! 

Golly!  Doesn't he look SO old! (My heart is breaking! Boohoo!)

• During our great stay outside of Branson with Mike's parents, we were able to just relax and hang out with Grandma and Grandpa H.  We had a great time playing with cars and the super-duper snake track that used to be Mike's, getting beat by Andrew playing the game "Trouble" and checking on the dock as the lake kept rising and rising over the week.  On Thursday we ventured out and headed to Silver Dollar City.  I LOVE this place! It holds so many wonderful family vacation memories for me and I am so fortunate to have gracious in-laws who love treating us to a day there.  We had a great time even though the afternoon was cut short by more rain.  However, it did make me sad to know how fast my first baby boy is growing!  Andrew was measured for a wrist band to ride the "big" rides... and there is only ONE ride in the entire park he can't ride because of his height!!! 

It is so much fun riding with Grandma H.!

• I finally have all the trim painted white in our playroom!  It took 3 ridiculous coats of paint, but it is now time to move on to painting the walls and getting everything back in order.  I am embarrassed to show you this picture, but it is the reality of the progress at this point.  We'll get there... I have to keep reminding myself that the real fun will begin once I start working on the finishing touches!

(A MUCH bigger update is coming on the playroom... I mean, it's been two months since a real post here, friends!  You don't think that I have been sitting around eating bon-bons and folding laundry, do ya?  ...especially not the folding laundry part!)

• We have acquired several new pets on the transition to D-town!  A new doggie named Zoe (she was with us before the official move), a half-dollar sized turtle that Mike found on the golf course named Bob (or Bobbie for short, as Andrew reminds us!), and another loving addition...

By the way, this is not my doing (although I wish I had thought of this before)! 

I told Andrew to go lay down for a "rest" and then couldn't find him until... behold!

•  Easter was great fun this year.  We went to church and then had my parents, sisters, brother-in-law, a family friend who has not missed an Easter with us in seven years, and more family friends when lunch was over and games were gearing up!  A good ol-fashion Easter egg hunt, the indoor kind since it had been raining off and on, was the highlight of the afternoon.

Whew! Finally - this is posted after almost another month of hiatus! 

With a handful of love (and patience),

Melody