breathing again (and clean breathing)

We're getting settled into our 2nd house in 2 months. Actually our 3rd house in 3 months if you count our naples house. Long story short, we left our beloved home in naples to a beautiful house on the east coast and got all settled in making into a home as soon as possible because we were so excited about being back together under one roof after David had been traveling back and forth for 4 months leaving this little one broken hearted.

and u know when your kids are hurting, then your heart breaks 100 fold for them.


so we lived in this house and turned it into a home and had a great time for a few weeks...


here

went new places, explored our new town and chased grady all over creation...



signed lily up for ballet where she flourished

discovered monkey joes and things started to fall into place.







or so we thought.

Suddenly, the kids starting getting sick and we thought it was just the common cold, but it didn't seem to go away even though we seemed to be at the dr every other week.






and seemed to live in this waiting room

and then out of nowhere, Lily was diagnosed with asthma. She'd never even had allergies in her almost 4 years on earth so we were perplexed. And stressed.

and scratching our heads wondering what was going on

and broken hearted we couldn't fix it all.

then we had the bright idea of vacuuming our ac vents to rid it of dust and dander thinking it might help with all the coughing, sneezing, watery eyes, and discomfort from everyone. Well, that was the best thing we ever did bc we realized the ac units were infested with mold causing all of the health problems.

Yes, those are mushrooms in our AC system!!!

Needless to say, we couldn't get out of there fast enough because the owners didn't seem to care that the problem wasn't resolved fully so we were forced to leave because the house was inhabitable and dangerous for our babies.

We quickly found another house which we LOVED, but it wasn't going to be ready for us for another 3-4 weeks so the chaos continued because we had nowhere to go. No forwarding address. As we packed up all of our belongings, put it in storage, packed a few suitcases and did the house hopping between moms, molly's, dad's, and a hotel to break up the hutcheson invasion and not overstay our welcome at any one place.

Living out of our suitcases with our stuff everywhere, taking me 10 minutes to find a pair of socks for Grady was stressful beyond belief. Lily was sleeping on pull out couches, grace's bed, daybed, blow up beds while grady slept in his pack n play in bathrooms and closets due to limited space. David and I bed hopped around town as well. Everyone was so accommodating and wonderful reinforcing the importance of family and how they're there for you during the good times and the bad stressful times catching you, propping you up and supporting us through the rocky, yucky times.

Through it all, the kids were such troopers and all they cared about was that we were together. It was so stressful for David and I, but the kids helped us put everything in perspective how basic their needs were and they went with the flow just as long as were together.

so we tried to follow their lead and keep things as normal as possible
here




eating dinners on the go along the way.

bathing in different bathtubs almost nightly it felt like...

here

and I think the cousins secretly liked the adventure.

and danced their way through it all


here

and of course lenny was there to help us with the 4 moves in 3 months. (from naples-to moldy house-from moldy house-to new house)


and the kids never lost their sense of humor through it all barely realizing what was happening. I know it'll be a blip on their radar if even that which blows me away.



so that's the VERY short version of the hell and back we've been through in the last month or 2. I have just scratched the surface of it all and it could've been a reality show, but we are hoping and praying things will settle down now and we'll have the normal day to day stressors to deal with like trying to keep wild Grady in his stroller or a highchair for meals.

so now trying to catch up on life, on pictures, on mail, on bills, on Facebook, on emails, on texts, and get back to normal daily grind living which has started to form back again which is refreshing and makes us appreciate the little things like having our own beds, family dinners, family wagon walks, sidewalk chalk and actually enjoying doing laundry and putting it away into drawers vs the suitcases or duffel bags we lived out of for so many weeks. ahhhhhh

breathing again. clean breathing. for the 2nd time this year.

life is good (again)

their giggles melt me

when u have a second baby, it's as if another heart grows within your chest and then both of them are happy and healthy and giggling together, it's pure perfection. this was a few weeks ago on a particular tough day dealing with our issues at the old house (still hard to articulate all that happened there) and had to get them out of the house asap; a quick trip to taco bell seemed to do the trick and my puffy eyes that were hiding behind sunglasses began to soften as they taught me and continue to teach me about perspective. You can tell we rushed out of the house based on lily's hair and her attempt to groom grady.

click here

slidin' home

the playground is a whole new ball game now that grady has mastered the slide. Climbing is in his DNA like basketball is in Michael Jordan's genes so he loves to climb then slide about 432 times in a row. Rinse. Repeat.

Lily is very protective of her little bro who she treats with kid gloves and loves to catch him at the end to keep him safe.

weeeee

I got ya...

somehow the grown ups always get suckered into going too...

some afternoon play doh fun in the old house (more on that later-still can't process all that's happened)

followed by a haircut

lily went on a little preschool tour when we first got here. It took us a long while to find just the right place, but she got lots of snacks while shopping.

most preschools here want the child to stay with the class for an hour or so to get them acclimated while the mom sits on the sidelines trying to find a match

and then there's always that tricky preschool homework. I don't know who was more stumped.

and this one who keeps us on our toes constantly and makes us laugh incessantly and a total party animal.

life is (getting) good!

checking in...

You wouldn't believe what the last few weeks have brought us if I told you so I won't be accused of lying on my blog and will just post a cute video of the kids who make all this craziness around us worth it, they center us, keep everything in perspective about being happy and when you're knee deep in the thick of a big mess, just hold hands super tight, laugh a lot and dance....

and remember to dance....(lily teaching david a "ballet run"

more to come from the saga we're enduring right now. words escape me when I try to articulate it all. Good news is the family is healthy and the kids are happy so in the end that's all that matters! At least that's what I keep telling myself!