Joshua's new favorite perch

Our front rooms now have windows (gasp, I know! Yet, we were indeed literally almost without these modern marvels for 4.5 years in DC, so this IS exciting!) and Joshua LOVES to stand on his little stool and watch all the neighborhood happenings. He IS the new neighborhood watch.

His favorite is when cars drive by. He gets soooo excited and signs: "CARS! CARS!" with an adorable grin and giggle.

Other times though (like below), it's all serious business. You know, the neighborhood watch times and all. (Shhh...he's on duty.)

Our family of three, soon to be FOUR! Yay!

Picnics and Ya-Ya and ice cream, oh my!

Joshua's Ya-Ya came over to play this past weekend! He thoroughly enjoyed the picnic outside that included tons of ice cream for dessert...Yummmm!!

He made the rounds to everyone, sampling the various flavors as he went.

Smart little fella, eh?
Ya-Ya's chocolate cherry flavor won out as his favorite though, much to Mommy's delight (that meant I got to hang on to my mint chocolate chip - which I'm normally obliged to share due to lack of alternatives! Ha!;)

Ya-Ya helped Joshua ride his motorcycle around the deck:

Er, make that PUSH his motorcycle around.

There still isn't much riding going on these days.

We'll get there...soon enough ;)

Thanks for a fun evening, Ya-Ya!

Alright, alright...

Per your requests (Jenny & Julie!), here is me in all my pregnant glory! ;)

(@ 32 weeks!)

My new life in NC, by Joshua McMurray:

There's LOTS of playing outside!

I've been working lots, too. I help my daddy whenever I can in his new office.
Mommy and I picnic outside for lunch on the sunny days!
Then we wave "hi!!" to Daddy while he's working in his new office!
Sometimes I like to sit in my big new highchair and just contemplate the trees...
I have so much room to roam around and run! I love it!

Lots more time with my daddy. I love that the most!

And my new favorite...my parents started giving me some dessert:

And I LOVE IT!!!!!

Our new home = lots 'o giggles!

Pure silliness...

CHEEEEEESE!!!!

The dancer danced and the band played on...

One of Joshua's buds recently impressed us greatly with his serious dance moves, so we thought we'd try to catch Joshua on camera with his new moves too!! Here's to you, Ethan!!;)

And Daddy's dream is coming true, apparently, that Joshua would become his drummer (he seems to love it so far!):

Moving on...

We've officially mooooooved OUT of our teeny (beloved, most days) apartment in DC of 4&1/2 YEARS (wow) back to our home in NC. Alas, during our life season in DC, we learned a lot, grew a lot, but are so thankful to be leaving the big city behind! We are very happy to be "home" for a time, however long that is!

Joshua was very glad to be able to help us pack the apartment. He was particularly adept at cleaning out (er, climbing in) cabinets! And UN-packing boxes...

WHATTA MESS! We packed in record time. There was a whole lotta "throwing things in boxes" going on. And not a lot of organization. Oh well...it all made it...we think.



Joshua on the trip to NC:
(Can someone say "exhausted!"...whew, me too!)

Seriously packed in. Can you find Joshua?

Checking out his new NC digs."Oh! Did you say I get my own room? With big mirrors?! FUN!"

Um, yeah. Did we mention how DIS-organized we were about this whole thing?

As evidenced by the U-haul full of stuff thrown in (literally) and tied down.

"Hey people, moving is hard work...ya gotta rest sometime."

Exhibit A (above) and Exhibit B (below).

Indeed, babies can be very helpful in the unpacking process.

What. a. mess.

Steve stops unpacking long enought to take a break and ........well........I'm not entirely sure.

Ride a mini-motorcycle through the kitchen? Hmmm.

We'll have to re-visit what living in DC did to our mental states.

Clearly, things have gotten a bit punchy around here.

Joshua is checking out the new view of our backyard.

"YEP, looks good from down here!"

"Whew. This unpacking business is haaaard work. We're so jumbled up, I lost my pants."

But in all seriousness...the above shot captures our hearts.

We're happy to be "home", for however long we're here!

Countdown to Lil' Miss Mini-Macette:

9 WEEKS!!!!!

Can we get her closet ready in time?!