Birthday Festivities 2017

Our birthday was today!  It's the 10th time Jimmy and I have celebrated together and I am finally getting used to it.  As usually we've been taking full advantage of free birthday food.  My parents took the kids last night and we went out to Red Robin.

I normally don't splurge for appetizers, but make an exception when we are both getting free meals.  The onion ring tower is the best!

I downed the Royal Red Robin and Jimmy gobbled up the Bleu Ribbon.

 Here is the other free grub I've had so far this month.

 I volunteered to work this morning since they were short a couple people.  It was a pretty easy day and one of my co-workers got me a huge Texas Donut!  This is way better than a card and the whole family got to share it.

I spent the rest of the day doing house projects that I will share later.  Hazard of moving right before your birthday I suppose.  Until next year!

Esme June - 16 Months Old

Esme is 16 months old today.  It's her first monthly picture in the new house.  I really like the backdrop of our front garden and will try to use it as long as weather permits.  She looks like such a big girl in this one.  She is now rarely crawling and is getting very fast and agile on her feet.  She is also becoming quite the climber (and subsequent faller.)  There is a video below of her climbing up the slide at the old house.  She really loves crawling all over Parker and getting in his face.  It is really cute watching them interact each day.

She is become a bit of a pickier eater.  Combine that with a love of throwing food off her high chair and we end of with a mess after every meal.  She is babbling and talking a ton.  She will try to say just about anything we ask her to.  Jimmy was gently scolding her about playing in the toilet, saying "out."  She waddled out going "ow, ow, ow."  She can get in to just about everything now so we have to keep a close eye on her.  Still in 18 month clothing and size 4 diapers.

Some of her favorite toys are the Fisher Price piggy bank, Nemo couch, mom's phone, mom's purse, and anything Parker is currently playing with.  She seems to really love the new house, which makes me happy.  Welcome home baby bear, we can't wait to celebrate many more milestones here!

Visitors from Nebraska

The cousins we stayed with over the Fourth of July came to Minnesota for a visit; Ramsy, Angie, Presley, Lydia, and Rogan Robertson. .  We went to the beach on Saturday afternoon.  For some reason I thought it was Esme's first time, but we went once last summer when she was really little.  It took some encouragement for her to get in the water.  It was chilly at first, but nice once we got in.  The weather was hit or miss and it got cold when the sun was behind the clouds for a while.

Nothing like Fruit on the Foot to take off the chill.

The kids started jumping off the dock so my dad had to show of his skills.

 We went back to my parents for dinner and to hang out.

 The girls loved doting on Esme again.  Ramsy was up for our wedding, but it was the first visit for the rest.  Hopefully we will get to see them again soon.

The First Week

The first week was a bit of a whirlwind.  Lots of hoping we could finalize the sale and trying to settle in without settling too much in case it fell through.  My parents took the kids overnight Saturday after the move in since things were still a bit messy.  Since we still owned the old house we stopped by to watch the Frolics fireworks.  I was kinda bummed we were moving right before so it was a fun final fireworks show.

We got our first neighborhood breakfast the next morning.  The diner was way too busy, so we settled for Bruegger's.

Sunday was the first night we all slept at home.  It was also Esme's first night in a real crib! She had no problem transitioning to her own room.

On Wednesday our closings were rescheduled for Friday and the final walk through was Thursday night.  We stopped by one last time after that to say goodbye.

I thought I would be a lot more emotional with the move, but I think the drama helped to mute the sadness.  I did get a little misty as we pulled away.  It's the house we moved in to when we got married, where we brought our kids home and built our family.  A lot of blood, sweat, and tears went in to making it beautiful.  We are immensely grateful that all our work and good timing helped us get in to our forever home.

Things went through as planned on Friday and it was legally ours!  We were already in Bloomington, so we headed to IKEA to grab some furniture we really needed!

Welcome Home Herrmanns!