Visit to Raleigh

A few weeks ago we took a little whirlwind trip to Raleigh for Aunt Jenny's baby shower (her baby boy is due a few weeks after baby Veeck). We were only able to stay for the weekend, but packed a lot of fun and hugs into that short time.

Visiting with Grandpa - had a yummy breakfast, watched a little football and played with a few new toys/books (that he still says, "Grandpa" when he plays with here at home because he knows they came from Grandpa)

Grandma has lots of pets - dogs, cats, ducks, bunnies (and I'm sure I left something out). Here is Ethan petting the little bunny. Ethan also got some yummy chocolate from Aunt Jenny and is still eating a few pieces every night. He gets so excited when I bring them out and says, "from Aunt Jenny!"

We wished it could have been a longer trip, but know that we'll see everyone again in a few weeks when baby Veeck arrives!

Last Hurrah

Tim, Ethan and I went on a little mini vacation last weekend - the last vacation before Baby Veeck arrives. We thought it would be good for all of us to have a little time to relax and enjoy each other before our family grows to four. We're very excited about our newest addition, but also know that the next few months will be a change for all of us.

We stayed in a little cabin in the NC mountains - about 30 minutes from Boone. Spent most of the time relaxing around the cabin - there was a little river on the property and Ethan enjoyed throwing rocks with Daddy, splashing in the water, swinging in the hammock and rocking on the porch.

E's New Home

Whenever we’re headed back to our house and get a few miles away, Ethan starts to recognize his surroundings and says, “E’s new home.” I wonder how long he will call our house “new.” I’ve been promising everyone pictures of our house for quite a while now, but life has been pretty busy for us this summer and I never got a chance to post them. I actually took these pictures a few weeks after we moved in. So, the inside looks a little different now that we’ve gotten pictures on the walls and the rest of our furniture moved into the house. So, if you want to see what it looks like now, I guess you’ll just have to come for a visit!

So, this is one of my favorite rooms in the house - Ethan’s therapy/playroom. There’s tons of built-in storage, which we use for Ethan’s toys and therapy items. We also have a huge built-in bookcase, which, for those of you who know us well can agree is a huge plus (although we did weed out hundreds of books last month right before our yard sale and those that we’re sold went straight to Goodwill). The bench seat is a wonderful place for us to work with Ethan in a standing position and practice cruising. We actually have a contractor coming next week to install a beam across the ceiling with lots of eye-hooks where we will be able to put Ethan’s lycra swing as well as a few new therapy items we plan to purchase this year. We are very excited about this - it’s something we’ve talked about doing for a long time and will make swinging him much easier as he gets heavier.

The kitchen is my other favorite space in the house - mostly because of the little eat-in area. The kitchen is actually about the same size as our kitchen in Kentucky, but because of the way it is arranged, we are able to put a kitchen table in there. The other thing I love about the kitchen are the countertops and kitchen sink - it’s nice and deep with lots of room to stack dirty dishes!

Dining Room - I also love this big window in our dining room, which looks very different now that we have our table in here. We brought these curtains that my mom made for our house in Kentucky with the hopes that we’d have a place to use them in another home and they fit perfectly!

Living Room

Baby Veeck’s Room - As you can see, this room is a dumping ground for things that don’t go anywhere else. I still have a month and a half to get it in order. We’ll see if that actually happens.

Ethan’s room - Yes, that is a blanket over his window. Ethan is a little extra sensitive to light and sleeps much better in a dark room, so we finally found his curtains in a box about a month ago and my mom is working on doing something to make them a little more colorful. Until then, the blanket will do.

Boy’s bathroom - Thanks, Margaret, for the cute shower curtain! I love it and so does Ethan. He points out all the animals on there and we’re working on the letters! It’s perfect for a little boy’s bathroom.

Our bedroom and bathroom - I think this is one of the only times I’ve made the bed since we’ve been in the house! Another thing I love about our house - all the closet space! We actually have two closets in our bedroom!

I also love our pocket doors! We have 4 of them in the house and we use them all the time. Ethan is a very light sleeper, so when he’s taking a nap and at night I can close these doors and it helps with keeping the sound down in his room.

Back porch - We can’t wait to make more use of this space next summer. We’ve let Ethan splash around in his baby pool a few times, but other than that we haven’t really had a lot of time to do much out here. Our backyard slopes downward, so we hope to level that out a bit next summer so Ethan (and baby Veeck) can crawl around out there.

Front of house - The people who lived here before us did a lot of work on the outside of the house - planting shrubs, flowers and trees. We love our crape myrtle trees! Let’s just hope we can keep it up as well as they did. I will say that Tim has done a good job keeping the grass relatively short - Ray Christian would be proud of him!

And here are a few pictures of our first (non-family) visitors. Katie and Mike are friends of ours from San Francisco (who now live in Texas). Thanks for stoping by - we had such a great time catching up and seeing you guys again!

Hope you enjoyed the tour! Now, if you haven’t been here yet, you need to come see it in person. We promise, most of our boxes on unpacked, so we won’t put you to work!