That's right. I'm not totally sure that I shared the news of Justin's next recruiting station.. but if you didn't already guess by the title of this blog, it is Texas! This was the location that we decided as a family to head to, rather than Justin's home state, New York. While being near his family and familiar places would have been ideal, living in a state with a lower cost of living and a better opportunity to find recruits was a better choice. We have known that Justin was going recruiting for about 8 months now, so our mindset has been mostly positive. He was DA selected and apparently only a really small percentage of the ARMY actually qualifies for recruiting details. They go over all of your financial situations (past and present), your background, your driving record, etc. It's both a privilege and an amazing career opportunity for Justin. 

We have lived in Texas prior to this occasion.. but that lasted about a month. If you are a long time reader, you know that a compassion reassignment was granted for JBLM just a week after we arrived at Fort Hood. Justin never did make it to his unit and we never really got to explore Texas the way we intended. We are so excited about all the opportunities that will arise for our growing family while in the South. It's funny actually because most of my marriage has taken place in the South as well. If you recall, we lived in Georgia for just about three years prior to moving to Fort Hood for a month. We have lived in Washington now for just over two years.. and although Washington is home for me, I am so excited about this change. 

I'm definitely not ready to be moving there in the dead of summer... but I am SO excited about getting central air back into a home of ours... which brings me to our home.. We have been working with a real estate agent for about 1.5 months now? Aaron has been absolutely fantastic and has actually compiled a house list with homes 5 miles or less away from Justin's workplace. I have seen well over 100 homes from his list and out of over 100 homes.. ONLY TWO have actually made me scream: YES! I WANT TO LIVE HERE. Thankfully for us, one of those two homes is the home we will be living in. The process started on late Friday afternoon (when I first noticed the listing) and we just found out on Monday afternoon that we got the house! 

Finding a house when moving is always a big stress for me. I need to *love* the home we move to, it helps with adapting to change for me. I also love being able to have an address for forwarding mail, the movers, and for our family/friends. My favorite part about this home is hands down the backyard and the kitchen. The backyard can be seen from the kitchen and I envision long summer days watching Ava bug play and run around having the time of her life. There are also three big windows with plenty of opportunity for light.. which means awesome for picture taking.

Overall, I am just so completely excited about this move and what it will mean for our family. 

♥- Leilani

Settled

As I'm writing this, Ava bug is sleeping in her toddler room.. in her toddler crib... alone (more on this later)! We are finally all settled into our new home, and we are absolutely loving it! I'm still super impressed that it took less than 72 hours to go through all of our boxed goods, hang up all the decor on the walls, and host our first family function. Justin and I are definitely a productive couple and it works in our favor pretty darn well. Some of the things that we are loving so far in the new house would be the kitchen, the spacious living areas, and the yard space. My kitchen doubled in size which seriously has me beaming! The counter space, the openness of the kitchen, and the fact that I have more than enough room for a little office space nook is just glorious. I think our next project we are going to tackle for the kitchen is making a movable island.

I'm elated that Justin is becoming more and more of a handy man around the house. I'm so excited to personalize the island the way we'd like. Aside from the kitchen, the living room, laundry room, and overall floor plan just completely makes our last house look so inadequate. The living room is pretty accommodating for the new sectional we just got, which has me feeling ten kinds of relieved, and the laundry room could pretty much be a mini play room if we wanted it to. There's also huge basin in the laundry room for my cloth diapers, and I'm super stoked about that. I still can't believe how much we like this house!

The overall neighborhood is pretty quiet and there are a few toddlers Ava bug's age that live pretty close by. We are within walking distance to at least three different parks, and we have the most beautiful view of the water, with an option of boating or playing in the sand. Today is Justin's first five minute commute to work, and I BEYOND grateful that we will get to see him so frequently. Ava gets to do breakfast and lunch with daddy, and it'll only take him five minutes to get home after work. I couldn't picture a better day for my family. I seriously can't believe that we managed to live over an hour away from post (in traffic) for an entire year. We will NEVER do that again.

Back to the toddler news... I seriously just laid her in her toddler bed, and she's been in a princess slumber ever since. We completely transformed Ava's room into this Paris meets Ballerina theme, and I know she totally loves it. She's always pointing to her initials on the wall and the eiffel tower we added a couple days ago. The room has the three dimensional pom poms that match her decor and we are painting this weekend (hopefully)! We spend a good chunk of time in Ava's room since we moved in, so I'm hoping the comfortability helps with this transition. Aside from that, things are pretty normal around here. I should be getting real internet today and we get our custom fence put it in a couple of weeks. I'm ready to get back to blogging more consistently, I definitely miss sharing with all of you!

P.S. this house gets amazing natural light in every room. Be prepared to see some awesome photos from me in the next few weeks!

P.P.S If any of my readers could suggest a good night light for Ava bug or possibly a projector, it would be appreciated. Leave your suggestions in the comments below, or shoot me an email!

Happy Tuesday all!

♥- Leilani

My Saturday

I cannot believe I am still without wifi. This is some kind of record for me. We have been in the state of Washington for over 11 days, 9 of those have been spent in our new home, and still, we have no wifi. I am beyond irritated with Century Link and their customer service. Not being able to use social media sites has been refreshing, while feeling rushed to write papers or work on assignments for school, has not. A tech should be out Monday (hopefully), let's hope we'll be up and running by then. Today was a really good day. It was a really calm day too. We didn't go anywhere. It felt weird. I really wanted to take Bug and her daddy to the zoo ( I wanted to see the elephants), but Justin needed a "chill" day. Moving back to my home state has caused our entire family (yes, even Cooper) to be on the move every single day. Although I don't mind the fast pace, I'm glad my husband knows when to call a relax day. We took a walk in our very large neighborhood, and I discovered a little gem, just minutes away from our home.

Yep, it's a park. Although Ava bug isn't old enough to play on this thing now, by the time the summer hits she will be. Or we can push her on the swings at the very least. I am thinking of having Ava's first birthday here. It's location couldn't be more perfect, but it's also kid friendly. There are a good amount of park benches, and we could bring the grill from our home to the park. The idea is still in the works. I know Justin loves the idea of a free venue. Speaking of Ava, and growing.. we started giving her finger foods. Food is definitely  a big deal in this house, especially when our girl is such a picky eater. We gave her organic yogurt melts from Gerber, and a couple other organic canned finger foods. Turns out they are a hit with Ava, and we love watching her pick them up and feed herself. Also, Ava has been sleeping over 13 hours each night, and I love it! Teething has cut our little bug a break, and she is back to eating all her meals again. We put her down for bed at 730 and she stays in bed until 830 or 9am. I'm so happy with how consistent her sleep schedule has been. 

I think I've also come to decision about future giveaways.. I have decided to end that part of networking. Don't get me wrong, it has definitely been a privilege to review and giveaway baby geared items, but my attention and focus is needed elsewhere. I'm still going to blog, and write about things we love and use with Ava bug, but I think that may be the extent. I have already scheduled to have my facebook page deleted and anything else I get from any company, I plan on giving to friends or family that are interested. On another note, we put up our first piece of decor in this new house. It's a decal, a very cliche decal, but I found it to be very fitting. 

In an effort to not up our data plan again, I'm going to call this a wrap! The movers come Monday morning ( I may have already mentioned this in a previous post) and I am singing the hallelujah chorus. I can't wait to have my furniture, my desk, my bed! Happy Sunday all! Make it a great day.

♥- Leilani

10 days!

So, we were able to take a video tour of our Washington home this afternoon, and I have to say, I am in love. So much natural light, and a lot of space. The five piece master has double doors, and this house offers a room that already seems perfect for Ava bug's nursery. The location is perfect for shopping, outings, and it's essentially close to everything we need. I think my husband was just elated over the garage door opener. Not having an automatic garage opener has been a pain for us in the house we are currently in. We are sacrificing yard, for house, which I am perfectly okay with. There is enough room for grilling, and for Cooper to handle his doggy business. The neighborhood offers walking trails, parks, and little poo bags for your animals. Overall, I am so relieved that I picked a house that will be great for my family. Looking out towards a golf course and view of Mt. Rainier is something I'm not complaining about either.

We opted to do a partial DITY move for a numerous amount of reasons (I'm not going to list right now). I think it'll be a smoother drive for Justin, and considering this is our second move in less than two months, I'd say smooth is exactly what he needs. This will be a different kind of experience for us, (as we won't have our things immediately), but I'm hoping the experience is a good one. I am excited that I won't have to pack anything. The moving company takes care of that (liability issues). We were able to pick a delivery date, even though they have the latest possible delivery date listed as the 27th. At the most, that's only 10 days without our things, and we are packing a lot of the essentials in the car anyway.

I am feeling a lot more confident about traveling with Ava on an airplane. I called the airlines (not so helpful) and was able to get some information out of them. I know what I can bring (baby wise), and I know what I can actually take on the plane. I'm so, so relived that we don't have to check bug's infant car seat. Thanks to my cousin-in-law.. I think that's the proper term Katie! I am waiting for this handy infant seat backpack to arrive for our trip.

I plan on using the ergobaby carrier the entire time we are traveling. Hopefully having my hands free will make this trip go smoother. Katie also filled me in on another handy tip. Since infants and typically kiddos under the age of two cannot pop their own ears, you wait to nurse them until you are taking off, or landing. The motion the jaw makes and the swallowing alleviates the discomfort from their ears popping. Justin is going to help as much as he can before we leave, so I guess the only thing I have to worry about is the layover. I'll have a lot of help with everything once we actually land in Seattle too.

I am getting so excited about this! Can't believe how quickly everything is going. Well, it looks like I'm off to watch some football! I'm rooting for Indy to lose today! Happy Saturday all!

 ♥- Leilani