One year

It's hard to believe, but one year ago today, we arrived in the 'burgh to stay!
In some ways, it feels like it was another lifetime when we were living at the beach! Certainly a lot has transpired over this past year and it has been a very full and blessed year. We are so thankful for how God has directed our path each step of the way!

the blessings................

• arrived without (kelly) having seen the house we were moving in to. Praise God, though not without some inconveniences, it has been a wonderful home for us!
• arrived without any jobs. Within a month, God had provided a job for Andrew.
• Small problem - he hated it. :) Again, God was gracious and provided a new job within a few months!
• A few months into that job, he received a promotion which allowed him a huge increase in the flexibility of his hours. Something we have not had the privilege of before, and how thankful we are for that!
• we love living in the heart of the city. We love being able to walk to our bank, eye dr., dentist, other dr's, cvs, rite aid, restaurants, friends' houses, parks, starbucks......
• coming in at some of the beginning stages of Redeemer Community Church has been such a learning experience. We are thankful for what God is teaching us through this phase.
• we have found the city to be SO kid-friendly. Since starting our mom's group, we seemingly have a never-ending list of activities which come across our path. From symphony concerts to movies in the park to spray parks to stroller walks to the Children's museum, Science center, Zoo....Graham is one lucky boy!
• we left behind so many wonderful friendships, and while those cannot be replaced, we are thankful for the new friends & neighbors that God has brought across our path.

The not.so.lovely.................

• everyone here smokes. ok, probably not everyone, but sometimes it seems that way! I hate walking down the street and having multiple people blowing their smoke right at stroller level. grrrrr.
• the weather. not so in love with the weather here, seems we go from extreme hot to extreme cold to 20 inches of snow in 2 days to 7 straight weekends of rain in the spring.....yes, it's been crazy.

But, as you can see, the good list is far longer than the not so good list and we rejoice in God's goodness.

not an uncommmon sight in our neighborhood of older Italians!

Graham was just 5 months old when we arrived!

 It was an interesting 6 weeks without a stove, and we were thankful to have it!

our team might not be great, but baseball games are still fun!

at the pumpkin patch with our Redeemer clan!

my very dear friend who has since moved back to Turkey. SNOW!

the momtourage is growing.......

enjoying the spray park!

After almost a year of living in white walls and interesting borders, we were very thankful to get the go-ahead to make a few changes! A $5 can of "oops paint" goes a long way!

our big 17-month year old boy!

looking forward to what God has for us in year #2!

FRIENDS. FUN. 4TH. FIREWORKS. how to sum it up?!

We were so excited that our friends, Jeff & Holly, from Va Beach came to visit for the 4th weekend! We tried to give them as much Pittsburgh flavor as we could pack in 3 days, around naps of course! They were such good sports as most of the time we were plowing thru crowds of people!

Max & Marcus were good little troopers!

G & Max had lots of fun playing together. They are 6 months apart, and yep, G is twice his width. :)

the boys

 

we were outnumbered!

thanks random picture-taker, these don't usually turn out!Jeff & Andrew took in the Pirates game, and they actually beat the Phillies!

On to the fireworks....................did I mention there were lots of people?!!

We basically watched the fireworks from somewhere down there!

Marcus was more into them them Max or Graham!

G immediately started crying when they started and said he wanted to go ni-night. So this was his postition during them, apparently he was over the excitement!

he's never been up 3 hours past his bedtime!it was a great fireworks show!!

Fun weekend! We are exhausted, I am pretty sure we exhausted our guests! But it was all good. Of course our favorite moment of the weekend we didn't get pics of - Saturday night after the kids went to bed, we grilled bbq chicken on the deck and topped it off with s'mores. ah, peaceful!

Thankfully, we have monday to crash & recupe! I am sorry our guests aren't so lucky. :(

I do believe the 4th of July should ALWAYS be on a weekend. :)

And I'm proud to be an American

Where at least I know I'm free

And I won't forget the men who died who gave that right to me

And I gladly stand up next to you and defend her still today-'

cuz there ain't no doubt I love this land, God Bless the USA.

Every time we hear of another soldier who has lost their life in the Middle East, we are reminded that men & women are still fighting daily for the freedom that they believe in and that we enjoy freely. Thank you to all who serve so selflessly and to the families who let them go.

_____________________________

We are so excited to have our friends, the Padigos, visiting for the weekend! We have a church picnic and will be trying out Graham's first fireworks!! Andrew is off on Monday - yay!...............

Hope you all have a wonderful 4th of July! 

the getaway

We indeed had an amazing trip for our 5th anniversary. We are lucky enough to be within 4 hours of Niagara Falls, so we figured that should be the place to go! We spent all of our time on the Canadian side (our hotel was there too) and we're really glad we did, it was amazing! We were most surprised at how beautiful the entire area was and how many things there were to do!

It was our first time leaving Graham for more than a few hours, and that part was definitely hard. We missed him a lot and everything kept reminding us of him (I can't believe how programmed I am to point out buses & birds right now! Andrew didn't care so much. :) But, we knew he was in great hands and we also knew it was SO good for us to get away by ourselves as well! I am sure you other moms can relate how hard it is to leave a piece of you when you go away!

We have so many pics, I am not sure where to start! But I do believe the falls probably deserve their own post because they were so magnificant!

First glimpse.....

Horseshoe Falls (Canadian side)....the clouds - wow!

American Falls.....

Yes, we did the Maid of the Mist!34 million gallons per minute go over these Falls and they are diverted 50% during the day & 75% during the night. Unbelievable!

saw several beautiful rainbows!

view from the very high Skylon Tower!

(all photo credits to Andrew!)

I'll share more of what we did soon........................

the grandmas come..........

We were so excited to have my mom & grandma come for this week! They spoiled us rotten! My 2 favorites - getting to take a shower whenever I wanted and my grandma did every single dish in sight all week - bless her!!! Plus, my mom did several sewing projects that my very craft-challenged self did not want to take on. Thanks mom!

We hit the Strip District for Peace, Love, & Little Donuts, The Pittsburgh Popcorn Co. & Bella Norte Pizza (a very yummy + 5 lbs. added day!) Used a free 4 pass to the Children's Museum, walked on the North Shore, PF Changs, toured Hartwood Acres and saw the sights from the top! Part of our huge blessing was that they came to watch graham for 2.5 days while Andrew & I got a special anniversary getaway (more on that later!). So while we were gone Graham was treated to the National Aviary, the Zoo, the Farmers Market & Chinese (which he apparently loves!) I think he was too busy to miss us! We had such a fun week and were so glad they were able to come!

chilaxin'?

 

modeling his new hat that grandma made for him

ok, I draw the line at letting him drive, Grandma! :)

We will miss you, thanks for a wonderful week!!