18 MONTHS OLD

"I found my bows and put one on all by myself..."
-little miss mischief

Little Miss Kate turned 18 months old 2 days ago.
What a little personality she has. She is a funny, and silly, and inquisitive, and she is also STUBBORN and soooo persistant... she'll stare you right in the eyes while doing something that you just told her not to do, and then when she's done it, she'll look at you and laugh... my naughty little girl.
She's really a little firecracker!

She is also such a girl... she LOVES shoes! She frequently gets a pair of her shoes and brings them to me to put on her feet. The other day I found an adorable little pair of white mary janes for her to wear to church. I tried them on her in the store, and she refused to take them off again. We eventually came to the compromise that she could hold them in her hand (out of the box) and take them to the checkout, where we could pay for them. lol
She loves trying clothes on, but she hates getting into her pajamas after bath each night.. I guess pjs aren't fun/stylish enough. haha

Yesterday was her first Sunday in the nursery at church...nursery kids are 18 months to 3 years old.
She did better than expected. We dropped her off in the nursery room, and left. I peeked in on her about an hour later and she was enjoying a snack on one of the leaders laps.
She fussed a little, on and off for the a little over an hour (nursery is just under 2hrs), and then she got pretty upset after that so came to hang out with me again. I honestly didn't think I'd get to leave her at all on her first Sunday.. let alone for over an hour, so I think she did great.

Today was her 18 month check up.
She's had a little height growth spurt, but she is still a skinny little thing.

Her 18 month stats are:

Height: 31.75 inches (50th percentile)
Weight: 19lb 7oz - 8.8kg (3rd percentile)

She fits into the length of most 12 month pants, but her little skinny waist and legs still fit comfortably in 6-9 month clothing. lol. I have a couple pairs of tights, that aren't so 'tight' on her, and fit more just like regular pants. :) She weighs at 18 months what Luke weighed at about 5 months, so it's been a very different experience having such a petite little girl.

She is so fun, and so silly. She's still a big daddy's girl, but I do seem to get a few more cuddles lately than I used to, so perhaps it's starting to even out a bit more.

I think we're going to be in for some interesting 'twos' with Kate and her fiesty little personality, but we just love her. She's such a little sweetheart.

THE BIG MOVE...AND SOME SNOW

My blog has been a bit neglected lately. With the 'cross country' move, things got a little busy.
We did the drive to NC over two days. My great friend, Julie drove with me and the kids in my car, while Jake drove the moving truck, and towed his car on a dolly on the back.
We stayed over night in the Hampton Inn, in Cambridge Ohio, and then in the morning Jake went on the MI, and Julie and I stopped with the kids to have breakfast with her parents in Akron, OH.

The first couple days in Michigan were CRAZY... we had boxes EVERYWHERE and I couldn't find anything. It's been 2 weeks now, and we're mostly settled in. There are still a few boxes stacked up in our bedroom that need to be sorted through and organized, but otherwise I think we have the apartment in pretty organized, liveable shape.
It's definitely been an adjustment downsizing back to an apartment, but I think so far we're making it work pretty well. The rooms are nice and big, so we've comfortably fit the kids and their toys into their room, and the living room is a good size too, so we still have room to move around and let the kids play. The kitchen is kinda outdated and small, but we're making it work.
Hopefully our house in NC sells in a reasonable time, so that we don't have to pay 'double' for rent/mortgage indefinitely... once it sells, we'll start getting ourselves ready to buy again.
I think despite the temporary not so great changes... like living back in an apartment, and the frustration with having to sell our house in this terrible market, we still feel really good about this move, and have actually settled in here in MI really well.

We haven't done too much since getting here.. mostly just been settling in.
Today however, the kids had a fun time playing in the snow. (I think spring is going to be very late. lol)
There was snow when we arrived in MI, but it melted after a few days, and then it was pretty much all gone over the last week. Then last night we got fresh snowfall, which the kids loved.
A couple weeks ago I ordered snow bibs and mittens etc, for the kids to wear next winter (love those end of season clearance sales)... so they were all bundled up this morning (in slightly big snow bibs), and went and played in the fresh white snow with Daddy for a while.
Luke calls snow, "Winter".. look mommy, the 'winter' is blowing, or look mommy, there is 'winter' on my boots. So cute! Love my cutie and his funny words. We've really been enjoying how much his speech has taken off over the last little while.

BIG CHANGES

To say that things have been crazy lately would be the understatement of the year.
There are a lot of changes going on in the Geddes household right now...

Shortly before our trip to South Africa in December, Jake flew to Michigan for a day, for a job interview. Weeks went by and we didn't hear much, so we presumed that nothing had come of it.
Then at the end of January, we found out that Jake got the job and that we had 4 weeks to pack up and move back to Michigan.
This job came out of nowhere. It was just a random job listing I saw one day last October, where they were looking for a Japanese-English bilingual engineer. Jake decided to apply and well the rest just kinda happened.
We however were totally unprepared for this big move (We honestly didn't think anything would ever come of the job application), and with our trip to South Africa, we didn't have a whole lot of time to get anything in order.
So it's been 12 days since we officially accepted the job and decided to make the move.
And we leave in 2.5 weeks, on March 1st.

Our house here in North Carolina isn't on the market yet, and we have LOTS that needs to be done to get it ready to be listed. Our list of projects that need to happen in the next 2 weeks is so long.. we will likely have to try find some help, because we are in over our heads right now.

The move is bittersweet.
North Carolina has been our home for the longest period of time since we got married, and both of our children have so far only known this place as home (Luke was only 6 months old when we moved here from Michigan)
We have friends, the kids have friends, I have a fun gym buddy set up with my friend Rachel (first time in my life that I've actually almost enjoyed running and working out), we have great Drs here, and a great church family. All of these things are hard to say goodbye to. Relocating is never easy.
Another not so great part, is that initially we are going to have to downsize quite a lot.
Until our house sells, we will be renting a much smaller 2 bedroom apartment in Michigan. It will be a big change from our almost 4 bedroom home with our large property that we currently enjoy.
Hopefully our house will sell quickly, and by the time our 12 month lease is up at the new apartment, we will be able to move to somewhere bigger again. We are currently doing a lot of cleaning out. We will be losing all of our extra storage space, so we are having to pick only the necessities and things that we cannot part with to take with us. The rest is being sold, thrown out, or donated.

We are excited for Jakes new job, and the new opportunities we will have once we settle in, in Michigan, but leaving our comfort zone here is definitely difficult.
We feel though, that it'll be an easier move now, when the kids are still young, our family is still small, and nobody is in school yet. I hope that a year from now I will be able to blog about all the great changes that are happening for our family in Michigan.
It'll take time for us to get completely back on our feet after our home sells etc, but I'm excited for the prospects that the future holds.

Wish us luck... in 2.5 weeks we will be on our way to Michigan, with our entire life packed up in a 24ft truck... exciting but scary times.

5 GREAT YEARS

Yesterday, Jake and I celebrated our 5th anniversary. We had a wonderful dinner date together to celebrate.
It's been 5 great years. We've had a few hiccups along the way, but for the most part, we really couldn't have asked for anything better than the blessings we've received since we were married.

In our first 5 years together, we overcame 8 months of 'long distance living' while I waited for my visa. We started our lives together in Michigan once I was finally able to immigrate. We moved apartments in preparation for the arrival of our first baby. We were blessed to become the parents of our sweet little Luke. 7 weeks after Luke was born, Jake lost his job, and we were both 'stay at home parents' for 4 months while he hunted for a new job. We made a big move to North Carolina, where Jake started a new job (on his 30th birthday), and we bought our first house. We took multiple trips to see family in both Utah and South Africa, and Jake had multiple international trips to China and Japan for work.  Grandma and Grandpa Geddes were able to visit us in our new home. Luke reached all of his first milestones like crawling, and walking, but had a speech delay and has since started speech therapy (He's come A LONG way in the past 6 months). Luke got tubes in his first year after back to back ear infections for months. We survived through Luke's terrible twos in mostly one piece, and are now enjoying the much more pleasant 3's with him (He's such a SWEET, funny boy)
We got pregnant with baby number two, and were blessed with our beautiful little Kate. My mom (Gogga) was able to visit with us for 2 months and be at Kates birth and a BIG help while we adjusted to life with two children. We celebrated lots of birthdays... Jakes 29th, 30th, 31st, 32nd and most recently his 33rd... My 23rd-27th birthdays... Lukes 1st-3rd birthdays and little miss Kates 1st birthday...Kate reached all of her milestones, and continues to grow and develop more and more each day... she's a little fire cracker.

Next week, we will be making our second trip back to South Africa to visit my family (most of which have never met Kate), and then we're on to a new year, and the next years of our life together. We have such a wonderful little family, and we've so enjoyed all the milestones that we've reached together. We're at a great stage in our lives and enjoying our growing family.

Happy Anniversary my love. I love you xxx

MY GREATEST BLESSINGS

Today is Thanksgiving.
As is tradition, we spent the day eating far to much delicious food, and pie, and lazing around with friends. A great day really but, Thanksgiving isn't about the food, or the lazy day.
Its an opportunity to reflect on our many blessings, and the things we have to be thankful for.
Although I love the spirit of gratitude that comes with this holiday, I think it's so important to try and recognize our blessings daily, and not just once a year.

I have so much to be grateful for. I honestly feel like its recognizing these things...even the little ones, that allows me to feel the great joy I feel for the life I lead. When we can recognize and be thankful for the things we do have, then we don't so much dwell on the things we don't have...and from experience, I have learned that usually, what we 'DO' have is enough.

Although my list of 'blessings' is long, I have spent much of today thinking about my 3 greatest blessings... Jake, Luke and Kate.
If I had nothing else but those 3 individuals in my life, I would still be 'Rich'.
Nothing can replace the love and joy of a family.
And to me, my little family is perfect...

Luke was very willing to stand by us for a picture... as long as he didn't have to smile. LOL

Good looking couple or what? haha

These are just a few more pictures that I thought were too cute not to share.
They're from Jakes birthday last month. I love these 3 angels!

ROBIN RUN 5K... FIRST PR

Yesterday, I ran my 2nd official 5K (Color me Rad doesn't count. lol)
Back in May, I ran my first 5K...I posted about that one back then..
Since then I had a goal to beat my time (I finished it in 28:07)
Summer in NC stinks (hot, humid and too many gnats), so I didn't get out as much as I'd have liked, but I started running more often again when the weather started cooling down, to train a bit for the 5K I did yesterday. My goal - finish in under 27 minutes

The morning was PERFECT weather... 50's, blue skies, sunny, light breeze... couldn't really ask for better weather for a run.
The race was pretty old school.. no chip timing, just a clock at the finish line, so I used my RunKeeper app to time myself, and it correlated perfectly with the clock, so I guess that worked out well despite the lack of chip timing.
I didn't know the area that we ran in, so I wasn't sure what to expect.. I just followed the signs.
The course wasn't the greatest... LOTS of corners, and about 4 decent size hills. Those were a killer.
My first mile (1.6km) went pretty well... 7:30 minutes (I've never run a mile that fast before... I'm just not a fast runner)... when my runkeeper told me that, I got my hopes up for an even better time than my goal... and then I hit the first hill...
I slowed down after the first mile again, and wasn't able to get back to that pace. The hills were killing me. Bleh.. oh well.
I ended up finishing in 26:42 (8:28 average pace/mile) (5:16 minutes/Km)
01:25 improvement from May... not much, but a PR (personal record) is a PR right?
I'm thrilled that I met my goal, but that first mile had me 'dreaming' of an AWESOME time...maybe next time, with a flatter course.
The next 5K I'm shooting for is February...so I have a few months to train (between LOTS of holiday eating, and a vacation trip. lol)