My computer has been reclaimed

Chuck has (finally) finished grad school, and the proper owner of the laptop (that would be me) has been reinstated. This means two things- one, I can start blogging again and two, I can attempt to upload pictures onto my computer without worrying that it will crash and Chuck will not have a computer to do his work on.

I have genuinely missed blogging the past month or so. I am horrible about documenting my girls' lives anywhere but here and I feel like without this blog a lot of the little details are missed. As I am not a scrapbooking, baby-book keeping mama, this little space is where our life is recorded.

I feel like a TON has happened since my last post: My bestest friends visited for President's Day weekend, Piper was 3 months on Feb 20th (which means she'll be 4 months on Tuesday... looks like a joint 3/4 month post!), Chuck's grandfather passed away after a long, healthy life and the four of us traveled to Indiana for his funeral, and Chuck and I celebrated our first real anniversary.

First real anniversary, you ask? That's right, we were married on leap day! We think we're pretty awesome and feel super special when a leap day rolls around. Chuck had an amazing weekend planned for the two of us, with a trip to a bed and breakfast (Piper in tow). His parents were going to fly in to keep Jade and we were going to go see Beauty in the Beast in 3D (my favorite Disney movie- he found a theater still playing it just a couple hours away!). Unfortunately, Great Grandpa B passed away right before the magnificent weekend was supposed to occur, so instead we drove to Indiana with two babies. We were able to sneak away for a movie while we were there and I think Chuck should still get massive props for the amazing plan :)

It was a sad reason for a trip, but a great trip. Jade hadn't seen her Benbow side of the family since Christmas 2010 and Grandpa B, Uncle Chris and Auntie Beth hadn't even met Piper yet and it was so nice to be able to see everyone and to see Jade really bond with them. I'm not sure when we would have made it to Indiana without the need to be there and I'm grateful for the time we were able to spend with family.

While we were still in recovery mode from the Indiana trip (I'm sure you can imagine that a trip that included a12-hour drive with two under two wasn't all rainbows and butterflies), we got some HUGE news from the great folks at the Air Force Personnel Center. We're moving. In June. This was incredibly unexpected... we had been told to anticipate being here 4 years so we hadn't been preparing at all. While this news is met with a lot of excitement, it has also been met with a lot of "what the crap?" from both of us. We'll be going to Tinker AFB in Oklahoma City. Oklahoma isn't exactly a place I'm dying to move to, but Chuck's been there before and I know we will have a great community of friends. I've moved enough now that I know that each new location brings new friends and great memories. So far, I've been able to focus on that, and not on the fact that I'm leaving good friends here. The main concern at the moment is getting the house ready to be put on the market... we've rented a storage unit, hired a realtor, had painters come out to give us estimates for painting the outside of the house, and de-cluttered two rooms in the house. We still have a lot left to do before April 1st, which is when the house will be listed, but it's a doable amount of stuff and I think the house will look great when it's done. If you think of us, please be praying for the sale of the house. That the Lord has set aside a buyer and that buyer is being prepared for the house. That we'll get a decent price and not leave this house with regret that we did more home improvements than we should have. That it will sell quickly and we won't be tied up with the mortgage while looking for a place to live in Oklahoma.

Whew, that was a long paragraph. But I feel like you guys are all caught up. There should be many pictures to come and posting should be on a more regular basis now!