I'm Still Alive!

Hello There. I know it has been well over a month and half that I have updated here, but we have been super busy. Yep, we have moved. We are starting to feel more settled now that we are unpacked and Thad is home! Will and I lived at our new townhome in Johnston for a whole month before Thad even came home from being on a clinic abroad trip in Madagascar and then taking his last set of boards back in Davenport. I can not tell you how happy we are to have him home! Will is adjusting much better now with having his Daddy home...and he has his own room now! It is really exciting for him and he loves to sleep and play in there. Oh boy he is growing up so fast! :) I don't have any pictures to share yet of the new place for we are still decorating and what not. But I can tell you that we painting a couple walls in our living room a bright cheerful blue with the hopes of it feeling like blue sunny skies all winter long. :) I may show a few corner shots sometime soon. But we are loving the smaller and more open floor plan, the downstairs is just one little room with a kitchen, dining, living, and laundry room. We are also really enjoying being in Des Moines again. Will absolutely LOVES being so close to his grandparents, and uncles. Although he does miss all of his buddies back in the Quad Cities...we also are missing our church. We have been on the search for a new church home around here. Although we are definitely blessed with so many friends and connections in the area. Thad has absolutely LOVED working since he started last week. He looks forward every morning to getting up and going in to work to better peoples health. He is like on a high when he comes home telling me he has the best job in the world and all the cool stories of the day. Oh and I will make sure he writes a post soon about his trip to Madagascar. He has some really cool stories and pictures that definitely need to be shared....but other than all the moving and settling we have been staying busy with lots of other things. Will and I have really explored the neighborhood. We have a pond across the street that has seemed to attract lots and lots of duck and geese this season so we have enjoyed walking over there to feed them and watch them. Will reminds me to watch out for all the poop. :) We have gone on many walks, found a mud pile outside our house and a park a few blocks away that we have visted quite often while the weather was still warm enough. We also are fortunate enough to live across the street from the public library. We are able to walk there in like 3 minutes, so we go there quite often. We signed up for story time which Will looks forward to each week. We sing lots of songs and dance and use instruments and do crafts. We do felt board activities and of course a story as well. He is so interactive and loves to get involved with the other kids. Doing stuff like that makes me realize how big he is!

Since we have not lived in the Des Moines area in over 8 years now the city has changed so much! We have enjoyed checking it out. Finding our new favorite local shops and learning more about our community. We were super excited that Trader Joe's just opened up in West Des Moines! I am amazed with how much Des Moines has grown over the years...actually a bit overwhelmed, but we will find our rhythm. Anyways.. I am starting to babble. Here are a few pictures to update you and now I am going to go catch up on your blogs! :) Happy Sunday!

Playing at our new favorite park

What's this stuff??

Cousin Hunter came to visit!

My cute little bumble bee all ready to trick-or-treat.

And one sneak peak photo of Thad in Madagascar.