Quick Summer Wrap Up

We spent the majority of July getting settled here in Florida so I really don't have too many pictures to show for it. We're really enjoying getting to see Roger on a nightly basis- sometimes I tear up at the thought that we are finally together. I don't think I fully realized the burden I was carrying being without him in TN. We've swam, gone to Orlando, played lots of games and worked on making this place home. We did get a chance to go to Illinois for our extended Family Weekend. After missing out last year, it was such a great weekend and a great reminder of what a blessing family is! 

Summer Illinois Trip:

The kids got to see all of their cousins and I got to see all of my cousins! It was the best time.  

My Grandma and her ten great grandchildren. 

After family weekend, we got to spend the day at the Morton Arboretum with Grandma, Linda, Uncle Randy & Aunt Nicole. The kids were so happy for lots of good Emmett time! 

 

 Stage Door Studios Company Try Outs: 

Coco attended two weeks of dance camp at a new studio here in Florida. She determined that she liked the kids and the teachers and wanted to try out for their competitive team. The studio sent out three dances (tap, jazz and ballet) for the dancers to learn. They were given a 10 minute audition slot to show them off. I am so so so incredibly proud of Cora. She worked so hard the past ten days to learn these three rather challenging dances. She was dedicated, motivated and independent. No matter where she ends up getting placed, I was impressed with her hard work. 

Rowan is a TEENAGER!

THIRTEEN!!! It's so crazy impossible that our Rowan Christian is a teenager! It truly seems like yesterday that we drove through McDonalds on our way home from the hospital, still in shock that they let us take this tiny human home with us! Rog and I have learned and practiced our parenting skills in all stages on this kiddo and we are so grateful that's he's been so easy to practice on! :)  

 

Rowan's birthday this year was so extra special because he has gotten to (or will get to) celebrate IN PERSON with all of his family members!! We kicked off the celebration with Grammy, Grammy and the O'Connors on Sunday the 25th. Rowan got to pick his favorite Portillos for dinner and Grammy made Oreo Cookie Dessert (a fav from when I was a kid). 

 

Rowan is such a good kid although he's slightly less willing to pose for pictures anymore! 

The kids have gotten special birthday letters from Grammy & Grampy this year. 

Sweet handmade cards from Jade and Jem.

 

Uncle Nate gave Rowan an extra $20 marked with a star. Uncle Nate told Rowan that if he could hold onto that same $20 for a whole year and bring it back when he turns 14, he could earn an extra $20. Better than that though, Rowan can wait until his 18th birthday, give Uncle Nate that same $20 and he'll earn $100 (an extra $20 for every year he held on to it). We'll see what happens. ;) 

On Monday the 26th, we met up with Grandma, Linda, Uncle Randy, Aunt Nicole and Emmett (more on that in another post) at the Morton Arboretum. Rowan got to open his card from UR, AN and Emmett. He put that cash towards a new Tampa Bay Rays hat. 

Rowan was also excited to open a new Cub's shirt and cash from Grandma. 

Another special treat was getting to open his birthday card from Linda in person! 

 

We finally got to celebrate with Grandpa and Deona a few weeks later! 

Rowan has the first birthday celebration in our new apartment. I had a system for decorations in our old house so without a fireplace and mantle, we had to get a little creative! ;) 

 

Birthday donuts started off the day. 

Rowan opened his gifts slowly throughout the day. He got to choose two gifts to open in the morning and then saved the other two for when Dad got home from work. 

 

New Scooter and Pandora Radio Subscription

We told Row that he could choose ANY restaurant and he chose Freddy's. 

Happiest of birthdays to my sweet, biggest boy. 

Rowan Christian: 

-At thirteen years old, Rowan is about 61 inches tall and weights 90 pounds. He wears a size 8 shoe. He has lost 19 of his 20 baby teeth and is gearing up for another phase at the orthodontist. 

-Rowan continues to love sports, especially baseball and soccer. He loves watching baseball and memorizing stats. 

-Rowan also loves playing and talking about various video games. 

-Rowan's love language is quality time and truly feels loved if you're willing to sit and listen to him talk or do an activity that he enjoys. 

-Rowan values his friendship with Cruz. I've never seen preteen/teen brothers as close as these two. I hope that never changes. 

-Rowan has a nurturing personality. He loves little kids and has a magic touch with animals. 

-Rowan comes and gives me a hug first thing in the morning and I hope he keeps that up for a long time.

-Rowan has a strong faith and so much Bible knowledge. We pray as he enters his journey of teen hood, that he would grow daily closer to Jesus and fully trust him with his future. 

We love you so much, Row! 

Moving to Florida Road Trip!

We made it! We are unpacked! We are settling into our apartment. We didn't get to this point without a lot of stress, work and frustration though! :) I NEVER want to move again. At this point, I don't even want to move into our new house when it's built. I'll stay in this apartment forever if I don't have to deal with moving. ;) I'm kidding obviously... but only a little. 

The packers came on Monday 6/28 and packed up the entire house. I had spent weeks prior organizing the house. We had to denote what went to the apartment and what went to storage so I tried to move things around so entire rooms all went to the same place. After the packers left, we went through and marked everything with red tape (storage) or yellow tape (apartment) to make it easier for the movers. 

The movers came on Tuesday 6/29 in a tiny truck that had me nervous from the moment they showed up. I feel good about the amount of stuff we have as I'd also spent the last months purging and going through everything we own. Even so, I knew the truck they had brought was going to be too small. Sure enough, they finished loading around 5:00pm and still had a small load of things that wouldn't fit. We needed to be out of house by noon the next day as the new owners were moving in. After a long and stressful night and very little communication from the moving company, a truck showed up around 11:30 am. Thankfully the buyers were kind and understand and we pulled out of town around 2:00... only a couple of hours behind schedule. 

 

Wednesday 6/30:

 

I love this picture! We have loved living here so so much. We love the neighborhood, the trees, and the beautiful house itself. We took our very first front door pic when we closed on the house 6/30/17 and we took our very last exactly four years later.

Road tripping with cats is quite an adventure! 

Not sure if you can tell from their faces, but this picture in front of the Brotherton sign was all for me. ;) They were not thrilled.  

Since we pulled out of Franklin a couple of hours late, we were late to our first destination. We had tickets to a Tennessee Smokies game which the boys were VERY excited about. Our kids have been such troopers through this entire ordeal so I hated to start out the transition with disappointment. Cora and I dropped Roger, Rowan and Cruz off at 6:50 for a 7:00 game and then went to our hotel, got the cats settled and the car unloaded. We headed back to the game and made it by the 6th inning! 

 

Thursday 7/1:

The next morning we woke up bright and early and headed to Dollywood! This was our first visit and we loved it and had the best time. The crowds were low and the kids were able to ride all the rides they wanted to multiple times! 

Friday 7/2:

We were back on the road again Friday morning headed to Asheville, North Carolina. 

Asheville was such a cute town! We drove around a bit and had some lunch. 

We made it to South Carolina in the late afternoon

 

and Charleston by late evening. We loved walking around the downtown, enjoying the beautiful architecture.

 

A lot of the house numbers had 1/2 after them as many of them are in back alleys or off of the Main Street.

Saturday 7/3:

 

We spent a super fun morning visiting the U.S.S. Yorktown. This was all of our first experience on an aircraft carrier and it did not disappoint!! 

We had lunch at a cute little restaurant 

and finished off our time with ice cream! 

 

We headed back to the hotel, packed up the cats and were off to FLORIDA! 

We made our first stop at Buccee's, an ENORMOUS gas station/shopping experience. We loved it and could have spent a ton of time there.

 

Sunday 7/4:

 

Happy Fourth of July from Universal Studios! We surprised the kids with one last day of fun. It was the BEST time.

One of the ride attendants told Rowan that if he won at rock/paper/scissors, he'd give Rowan a set of fast passes for the whole family! Rowan won so we got to hop to the front of the line! This was a fun pick me up as we had waited quite a while for the previous ride only to have it break down as we got to the front!

Our cats were SO SO SO good. Spending hours in the car, sleeping in new hotels, and all around not knowing what was going on was stressful for them but they really did so great. 

Monday 7/5:

 

We finally made it to our apartment. The complex is new and we are the first ones to live in our unit. It's really very nice. It has three bedrooms and about 1250 square feet. We will be very comfortable here for as long as it takes to get a house built. After a crazy couple of years, we are excited for a break from home ownership and the maintenance that comes with it! 

Daddy in the shirt the kids got him for Father's Day! After arriving at the apartment, we spent one night there before we had an air mattress pop and Hurricane Elsa rolled in. Our moving truck was delayed due to the hurricane so we spent the next few nights in a nearby hotel to wait it out! I was never so happy as I was to see our things roll in on Thursday morning. 

We are thankful for safe travels and for plans that have fallen into place. We know that God has good things for us here and we can't wait to get started.