september summed up

I guess with the shift back to "normal life" here in Minnesota, comes my inevitable forgetfulness about keeping a blog.  None the less, here's to playing catch up over the past month or so.

September can be mainly summed up by 2 words: potty training.

Well, sort of potty training.  It's been a long road...one I thought would last a week and then we'd be good to go.  Nope, not with these two little guys.  They're doing great, but we've changed countless wet undies, poopy pants, puddles on the floor, cleaned up lots potty time with poor aim.  Anyway, potty training is not for the faint of heart.  I'm thankful for Andrew who has helped in so many ways and has as always been there in the trenches too.  Many, many hilarious, pathetic, and ridiculous stories to tell here often with an angle of grossness and a few ending with me crying, pregnant on the floor.  Really though!  ...just ask! :)

Aside from that major theme, we've also been thrown back into classes starting and our normal schedule restarting.  Andrew's time has shifted some what in preparation for us potentially moving to England next year as that has taken a lot of attention.  His schedule has incredibly been more flexible which has been such a huge blessing.

We've also been grateful to host Andrew's mom and my parents for quick visits! Oh how the boys love grandparent trips too!

On top of all that, I entered my third trimester of being pregnant with our third baby boy.  We are very excited and feel incredibly blessed to be having another child.  He's very active and overall has been less aching on my body than the previous two!  We feel a little anxious about how the heck to add in another little human into the mix of our sometimes chaotic lives, but we're trusting the Lord for lots of extra grace!

 

Here's a picture of us from our staff training in August.  

One of our good friends is a photographer here and she napped these last week (October)! 

Our next photos will be as a family of 5!

last days of summer

Since returning from the beach, we've spent time trying to enjoy the Minnesota summer and family time.

some highlights:

• Staff Training with a Biblical counselor
• Staff Retreat up north on a lake

 

• Made lots of ice cream with Daddy

• Going to a few weddings! And G + J were ring bearers in one!
  
  
  
  
  
  hanging out with the flower girl at the rehearsal!
• Going to parks

• Twins game

  

• MN State Fair

• Lots of playing outside

• Potty Training

started with lots of coffee and enthusiasm!

so did these cuties!

• First Georgia game of the season

(still potty training during the game!)

beachin' it part 2

After four days with my family in Amelia Island, we drove a few hours north to Hilton Head Island to spend time with A's family.  As soon as we got there we headed to dinner with the in laws. It was so beautiful out!

beautiful view!

Me and A after dinner

The next morning we hit the beach!  It actually felt great since it was a little overcast.  And we know it helped our sweet fair skinned boys too! :)

J carrying water

Grandma burying their feet in the sand!

Gray's favorite: "runnin'"

Jacks splashing as he walked

His parents rented bikes for the week for all of us and it was so nice to bike! The boys did great in the kid carrier that Andrew pulled around.  They even were lulled to sleep once...they were slumped over on each other sleeping when we got to the pool one afternoon.

Grandma Knight pushing them on a tire swing at a playground. 

The next day we headed to a petting zoo.  It was great! The boys loved touching the horses and seeing pigs, goats, llamas, chickens, etc.  But the pinnacle was a pony ride! I was skeptical at first that they would ride the pony, but J jumped on right away.  After G saw his brother on the pony, he finally got on the horse.They looked so stoic, but LOVED it! They didn't want to leave or take their helmets off! So cute!  I thought they looked like little bobble head boys in their "ho-se hewmets."

Before G worked up the courage to get on a pony

G riding with Daddy by his side!

Brave Jacks looked unenthused, but was giddy inside:)

One day the men went fishing and me and the boys and Grandma ventured back to the beach.  It was hot but sand, open space, and water made these boys happy (except for a few toddler meltdowns!).

Papa caught a shark!

The women (me and Grandma) and G and J

Gray loved making turtles in the sand with a little mold.  He wanted them all lined up and didn't want to destroy any of them.  Jacks on the other hand lived up to his "bulldozer" nickname and loved crushing them. I love being a mom to boys!

After the men got home, the kiddie pool was christened! It was great to have it especially with the shade!

One afternoon, these little princes were eating snack in their towels :)

After logging in some beach hours, we decided we all needed some pool time as well.  Oh, the boys LOVED it! They were jumping in from the side of the pool after Andrew coaxed them toward him.  It became such a hit that Papa and Andrew were just catching jumping boys for quite a while!

Papa, Jacks, Daddy, Gray, and Grandma

Oh, and Andrew and I had the first real date night we'd had since June! It was such a treat! 

It was so nice to be surrounded by such a rustic beach setting! All the Spanish moss made me a little nostalgic.  It reminded me of living in and visiting Louisiana.  It felt like home and made me think of spending time in the summer with family and a hot, humid childhood!

We so loved the time we got to spend with family.  It was such a blessing after being away from familiar things for several months.

hittin' the beach

After a week of readjusting to the US, we got on another plane with our family.  But this time it was a 3 hour flight to Jacksonville to see our families.  We spent 4 days with my parents and sister and her family down in Amelia Island.  It was wonderful! Hot weather, the ocean, the smell of sunscreen, it was so comforting!

The boys also LOVED seeing their Gram and Grandpa.  They loved riding in Uncle Scott's truck, spending time with my sister, Aunt Courtney, and meeting our niece, Robyn for the first time.  She is an adorable, chunky girl! We reminisced about how our boys had wrinkles initially and needed to grow into their bodies, but Robyn...this girl can eat and has the cute rolls to prove it!   She's over 2 months old and doing well.

There's so much we loved about our time together!  Mom's cooking was as usual the best! Shrimp and grits, Dad's smoked brisket and pork, crawfish bread...yum!  We missed this cajun cooking while away this summer.  I love how my parents grandparent our boys too!  Mom had pool floats and brought toys from their house to keep G and J busy.  Giant coloring pads were a hit, beach shovels and pails, and the blow up race car and rocket ship floats were a blast.  We loved the relaxed time on the beach and catching up with everyone.  Thankfully the weather was great too.  Thankful for this trip!

Andrew with the boys!

Jackson post sand slinging

Destroying sandcastles!

Gram and her boys!

Pool time!

Andrew and sweet Robyn

The whole fam in the shade

The Link cousins

back in the usa

After packing up 3 months of clothes and toys and life things, we headed back to the US.  We drove to London last Sunday to avoid the unpredictable yet generally horrific traffic.  After a semi-eventful time in the airport (changed baggage weight limits on us, increased security for US flights, etc), we made it to our gate at mid-boarding.  Whew.  The 9 hour day flight was no where near the comical terror of flying back from Lebanon but was not the breeze of our night flight heading to England.  Overall though, it was fine.  We were thankful for kids movies on board!

It's been a few days since getting back to the States and we're adjusting pretty easily.  Our last few days in Sheffield were such a mix of emotion though.  We felt so sad to leave friends and what felt like the life we had made there.  We were comfortable with our pace of life and had figured out the basics of navigating this very different English culture.  We really really loved the church there and miss our church family in Sheffield already.

most of our small group in Sheffield the day we left for London to fly back

Jacks sleeping in my arms on the flight...thankful for these moments!

We made it back to MSP and were so thankful for this kids area after the flight!

That evening we came back to a cleaned and fresh house thanks to some good friends who scrubbed our house, cleaned up after renters, and even left us some dinner in the fridge! Wow, that was such a blessing...especially when it felt like midnight UK time!  Gray and Jacks did well though and managed to stay up until their "new" bedtime at 8 (felt like 2 a.m. for them!).  Jackson was asking to go "night night" and kept wanting us to put him to bed, poor boy! They slept through the night and have adjusted pretty well.  Last night was the first night for me that I slept through the night, so on the whole we're all through the jet lag now. 

There are several things that feel different despite their familiarity though.  We know we're having some reverse culture shock: driving everywhere, huge stores, warm, sunny and humid weather, things open 24 hours, not seeing our UK friends, having a bigger house with so much space!, finding exactly what you need at the grocery store and not having to figure out of to make some things, not constantly converting money, oven temperatures and the weather.  I could go on, but every day there are a few things that I just notice about life that seemed so normal before and were completely unconscious.  It does just seem easier to live life here.  I forgot how easy it was! And I don't mean that anyone or myself should feel guilty about having more or bigger things.  It's just that American culture has been engrained in me for nearly 30 years so of course it will be easier and so many things will be unconscious.  Being in a new culture can be overwhelming in part just because you have to think or learn and be conscious how how you do everything!

the boys finding "new" toys (and boots) they hadn't seen for 3 months!

Enjoying our spacious back yard with our neighbors Zoe and Violet

Going on a walk and then meeting up with Daddy after his bike ride. He's been dying to get cycling all summer.

our local MN park! The boys were needing help even climbing stairs before we left and today they were on their own completely going up and down and trying out all the slides!

Gray and I had a some one-on-one time while Daddy and Jacks hung out.  We wanted to restart getting special individual time with our little guys since it's been a while!