Long time, no blog

July 2014, courtesy of Michelle Boyd Photography
Elise - almost 5 1/2, Jack - 3, Claire - 8 months

Wow, a lot has happened since I last posted.  The task of catching up on everything is overwhelming, but I'm going to document a few recent things about each of us.  At the end of May, we said goodbye to Baltimore and headed to Texas (via West Point to drop off Boss and a car).  The kids did really well with all the traveling.  We spent the month of June visiting our families in Texas.  The kids had a BLAST and can't wait to go back for Christmas.  On June 28, we flew to New York and continued living out of our suitcases while we waited for our on post house to be available.  We ended up renting a small house that was right on the Hudson River about 10 minutes from West Point.  The kids loved being able to watch for boats and trains all day long.  We survived the month with Legos, Magna Tiles, and trains... and a lot of trips to nearby parks!  On July 28, we moved our suitcases into the house on West Point and we finally got our household goods from the movers on August 1.  The kids were SO excited to get their beds and toys back.  It was definitely Christmas in August.  The girls had shared a room for the two months that we were in transit, and while that went extremely well, I know Elise was very excited to have her "big girl toys" (with small pieces) back in her own room.  Even though we have not quite been in our house for two months, we've already gotten to host visitors!  Mimi and Pop came for a week at the beginning of August and helped us start the organizing process.  Sarah, John, and Lila came right before school started for several days.  Gram, Grandpa, and Jennifer came for a week around Labor Day, and Mimi came back again mid-September.  We love having visitors!
  

Right after we moved in...

Side yard (look closely and you'll see the big playground across the street!)

The house is fabulous and we love the location.  It is on the main road that runs through West Point and is very close to the elementary school (we walk every day) and a lot of other fun things!  It is not uncommon for us to go a day or two without even getting in the van because we can walk so much.  Today, we biked (kids)/walked(me and Claire) to Starbucks, got a snack, biked/walked to a park, biked/walked to Subway to get lunch, and biked/walked home.  We can also walk to bible study, to Awanas, to Jack's gymnastics class, to the fire station, to many fun parks, to the hospital/doctor's appts, etc. The house is a former duplex that was renovated and converted to a single family home several years ago, so we have two front doors and two back doors, along with two doors that lead to storage rooms/basement.  On the first floor, there are four main rooms (large kitchen/breakfast area, dining room, play room, and living room) plus a hall bath and two 5x6 "mud rooms" (one is for Boss and the other is for toy storage).  Upstairs, there are four bedrooms, two bathrooms, a laundry room, and two walk-in closets that are large enough for a twin air mattress, crib, or pack 'n play.  So essentially we have six "bedrooms" available to use when guests come.  Perfect!)  There is a basement under the entire house, and our goal is to have half of it completely ready to go as a play area before winter arrives.  The other half will be for storage.  

Here's a brief update on everyone!

Mike:  While we are at West Point for the next 3 school years, Mike will be an instructor in the Math Department.  This semester he is teaching MA103, which is the first math course for most of the plebes (freshmen).  He is enjoying the teaching job and the fellow math instructors.  He especially loves that his boss encourages all of the faculty members to play intramurals over lunch!  They play ultimate frisbee in the fall, basketball in the winter, and volleyball in the spring.  We are about 1.5 miles from his office, so he rides his bike to work almost every day.  He looks forward to volunteering with the golf team, such a sacrifice :)  He also works with Awanas on Sunday evenings.

Steph:  Obviously, my day to day tasks haven't really changed with the move (playing/cooking/cleaning/laundry/errands/general taking care of the family), but I love it here.  I can think of at least three little reasons why the house is not perfectly set up yet, but we're getting there :)  We can already tell that we'll be sad when it's time for us to leave West Point.  Hopefully I can still say that at the end of every winter.  Since Elise has started school and I only have two at home, I've been running a lot with the jogging stroller.  We definitely go on Monday and Friday mornings right after school drop off (since I already have J and C in the stroller), and we usually sneak in an afternoon run right before we pick up Elise on a few of the other days.  Sometimes we meet friends to run and other times we go by ourselves. On Wednesday mornings after school drop off, we walk over to the post chapel for bible study.  We actually attend a church off post, but the PWOC (Protestant Women of the Chapel) bible studies are open to everyone.  Miss Claire isn't a fan of going to the nursery during her usual morning nap time, so I have yet to make it through the whole session, but I really enjoy it and hope that she will be more tolerant next semester when she's a little older.   Mike and I also get to play volleyball on Thursday during lunch.  The community is absolutely wonderful and it has been so easy to make new friends and get plugged in.    

First Day of Kindergarten

Elise:  Elise had a great time swimming this summer.  We did not swim very much in Baltimore but our summer trips to Texas always involve swimming.  There is not an indoor pool available for kids at West Point, but there are two ponds with great swimming and beach areas.  We did two weeks of lessons, which are only offered for kids ages 5 and up, at the pond in July.  They have a great set up for families because there is a smaller "pond" and plenty of sand for younger siblings to play in while the older siblings take lessons.  We plan to do it every summer.  In August, Elise learned to ride her bike without training wheels and we now spend a lot of time doing that on the weekends.  We're soaking up the gorgeous fall weather here and spending as much time outside as we can.  And for the big news... 

On August 21, Elise started kindergarten.  I still cannot believe that my baby is in kindergarten!  She LOVES it and had no issues at all with the transition.  It took Jack a little longer to get used to his main playmate being gone from 8:30-2:50 every day.  Elise attends West Point Elementary School, which is 0.3 miles from our house.  We load up the double stroller and walk every morning and afternoon with all the other families that live nearby.  Almost immediately after starting school, Elise came home and initiated coloring, writing, spelling, reading, etc... all things that she rarely ever wanted to do before.  She got to choose one extracurricular activity and has decided on gymnastics, which is held at the gym where the Army gymnastics team meets.  She also goes to Awanas on Sunday evenings.  It's fun to see her excitement over learning new things and making new friends :)
   

First Day of Preschool

Jack:  
Jack is still completely enthralled by fire trucks.  This obsession has lasted almost 1.5 years, which is surprising at this age.  He absolutely loves the fact that we see a fire station and/or fire truck almost every time we leave the house.  His very first day of preschool was on September 9.  He will go Tuesday and Thursday mornings from 9-12 at the CDC (child development center) on post.  He had been looking forward to it ever since Elise started school.  As we dropped him off on the first day, he said, "Sorry, Claire, you have to stay home with Mama while I am at preschool and Elise is at kindergarten!"  In addition to preschool, he also gets to take a little gymnastics class and go to Awanas.  He is loving the park scene and the fact that we see helicopters, trains, fire trucks, boats, buses, and even parachutists on a regular basis :)  Such a fun little boy!  

Claire:  Oh my, this baby is so much fun.  This has been the fastest 11 months of our lives.  She is the sweetest, busiest, cutest little thing and we have all had a blast with her.  She adores her siblings, adores Mommy and Daddy, and keeps us all on our toes.  I'll do a much more detailed post about her very soon (it's in draft mode), but at almost 11 months, she's busy crawling, pulling up on everything, laughing, cuddling, getting into everything, and just playing with anything and everything.  Her first word was "Mama" (9.5 months) and she also says "buh" (book) and "bah" (ball).  Her favorite food is Daddy's grilled chicken.  She's been a trooper about having to work her naps in around elementary school drop off and pick up.  What a perfect addition to our family :)     

Busy kids in the playroom

Here are some favorites from the July session in Austin.  Thanks, Aunt Michelle :)