Reflections on the first two weeks...

It's really hard to believe that Emily is two weeks old. The time has really flown by quickly. Of course, when you're not getting much sleep the days do begin to run together. She is the sweetest little girl, and I'm not being biased either. She has the most beautiful blue eyes that just stare back at me. She has a lot of hair just like Thomas did, but I think it's a little bit lighter. Her eyebrows and eyelashes are also lighter so maybe she'll be a blondie after all. We really can't believe how much she looks like Thomas. There will be no mistaken them for brother and sister. Speaking of Thomas, he's over the moon in love with her too. He really likes to hold her, kiss her, hug her, and rub her head. Of course, we have to stick close by because he doesn't understand how fragile she still is. And he loves to ask ton of questions about her.



I knew she was going to have her days and nights mixed up a little because she would get active in utero around 2 a.m. and be quiet as a mouse in the morning. I wasn't sure how long this would last but was hoping for the best. It's still a little hit or miss but most nights she does well. On occasion she will still be alert after feeding in the middle of the night. Thankfully I can catch a nap during the day most of the time. We still haven't ventured out of the house much. Instead, Cindy has been taking Thomas to the park in the mornings and we spend our days hanging out at the house. Although, with the nice weather that's coming I may get some cabin fever and want to get out a little more.



Here are some more pictures of Emily. It seems like she's constantly changing.

Emily Anniston - going home from the hospital.

EAC 2 wks

Emily Anniston Craig Has Arrived!!

Our precious little girl arrived earlier this week. She was born Tuesday, August 11, at 11:56 a.m. She weighed 7 pounds, 12 ounces and is 20.75 inches long. Mommy, Daddy and Big Brother Thomas are over the moon in love with her. If you're wondering who she looks like it's definately Thomas. We look at his baby pictures and just marvel at the resemblance. She is as sweet as can be. Unfortunately she does have her days and nights mixed up, but we are working on straightening that out. You can click on the pictures below to see more of our little, precious girl.

Emily Anniston Birth Day

Emily's Room

I've made some really good progress on Emily's Room within the last week. It's still not the finished product but MUCH better. I still need to put things on the walls (some of it is still in boxes and will have to be found). But it is at least mostly ready. I'm really pleased with how it looks so far and can't wait to finish it soon.

Click on the picture and it will take you to the online web album.

Emily's Room

Settling In

So, you've seen few pictures of our place in Boston before we moved in and a few with boxes. Now that we are getting a little more settled I thought I'd share some more pictures where it looks a little more like home. We are still working on getting pictures up on the walls but we will get there. Each week it feels a little more like home. We actually do have a good amount of space. What we lack is closet/storage space that's not in the basement. But at least we have a basement. I already have pieces of furniture picked out from Ikea to help solve this problem. And we decided to lift up our bed to allow for more storage space underneath it. But that means that I need a step stool just to get into bed.

Emily's room isn't ready yet so I haven't taken pictures of it. I am running out of time before she arrives but she will be sleeping in our room for the first few months anyways. And it's gotten harder for me to maneuver with this round belly. LOL. As soon as I feel that it's picture worthy I will share with all of you.



If you'd like to look at the photos individually you can see them at:

Boston House Part 2

Exploring Boston

Well, as many of you know, Boston is a very cool city. After digging ourselves out of boxes for the first week, Thomas and I started exploring things to do in the city.

Here are pictures from our first weekend in Boston. When you click on them you will be taken to another website with more pictures from that album. Enjoy!

Exploring Boston

A few from the Children's Museum.

Boston Children's Museum

Pictures from the Fourth of July down at the Charles River. It was a spectacular show. Thomas was a little unsure at first but once I covered his ears he enjoyed it much more. He did make a new friend that day... a little dog sitting right next to us. We thought it was a puppy but turns out to be quite an old dog. Thomas was also given the last flag one of the military guys was handing out. It was a great way to celebrate the 4th of July and moving to Boston.

Fourth of July

After being here a couple of weeks we were mostly settled in our house. Most of the boxes were unpacked or downstairs in the basement. So, then it was time to make some new friends. John had mentioned that one of the other fellows that started this year also had a son Thomas' age (and another one 7 months old). Well, I knew they were in the same boat we were ~ moved to a new city and didn't know anyone. So, I called his wife up and we decided to get together. It has been such a wonderful blessing to have connected up with them. Thomas and Leo get along great and so do the Mommies. Thomas loves that his name is Leo because that is his favorite character on Little Einsteins (and I know Leo likes Thomas the Train so I wouldn't be surprised if he feels the same way). We have gotten together a couple of times since we first met and it's been great for the boys.

One of our outings was to a water play area and playground across from Mass. General Hospital. John was able to look out his office windows and see us playing in the water.

Boston Water Park

Another time all of us attempted to find a suitable trail to hike in a nearby reserve. I know we will eventually find a good one, this just wasn't the day. We did have a good time exploring, though.

Let's Go for a Hike

A different water play area but no less fun.

July 20, 2009

I think that catches everyone up on what's been going on in our lives over the past month. I thought I'd never get caught up but I'm sure it won't last long. Keep checking in because who knows when Emily is going to decide to make her appearance.

Our Moving Adventure!

Our move to Boston was certainly the biggest adventure I've had in my life up to this point. We really couldn't have done it without all the help we received from family and friends. So many of you gave your time and energy to help pack and clean and even physically move our stuff. May the Lord bless you richly for your generosity.


The trip up was LONG and complicated. I had planned on breaking it up into 3 segments. Spend the first night with Karissa (8 hour drive) spend the next night with Grandmama (8 hour drive) & spend an extra day with her and then another 8 hours to Boston and be in our new home. The plan was to arrive by Wednesday evening. HOWEVER, things never go as planned do they? John & his dad, Michael, were driving the truck and pulling his car and were aiming to get in by Monday night (left early Sunday morning). They were about 3.5 hours outside of Boston when the truck broke down. So, it had to be towed to a place that could check it out. The mechanic determined what was wrong (thankfully not caused by the guys) and set about working on it Tuesday. They fixed the problem but it STILL wouldn't work so now they had to transfer everything to a new truck. So, we (me, Thomas, Latonia and her kids) stayed an extra day with Grandmama. It was certainly a nice blessing to get to spend extra time with her And there was no sense in us getting there ahead of the guys or even at the same time. But I honestly didn't see how they were going to get everything back into one truck. We really had that thing packed and even ended up leaving some things behind because we couldn't get them to fit. Amazingly, though, they were able to get it all back into one truck. I do believe they were professionals, but they were not as careful about how things were packed. So, several pieces of furniture have shown up here with nicks and dings which is a little disheartening. Thankfully, the truck company was generous enough to comp us the car dolly and let them leave it there at the mechanic's. That made it easier getting into Boston and not worrying about dropping it off or maneuvering around with it.




So, that put them getting in Wednesday night and I was planning on arriving Thursday night. But again, things don't always go as planned. Wouldn't you know that my Jeep broke down 4 hours outside of Boston, just a short distance from where they broke down. It started with the battery, but we didn't realize that at first. All my gages were going crazy and I thought it was something electrical. I was working on getting a tow truck when the service station lady came out to give me an unbelievable hard time about moving my vehicle. Like I wanted to be sitting there blocking her pump! We had been fine on the interstate and we didn't have problems until we were finished fueling. We were able to get it jumped and I set out for Walmart to get the battery replaced. But after we got that taken care of the thermostat went haywire! We had passed a Jeep dealer on our way to Walmart so I headed back to it. But I just couldn't make it there, though, without it going up into the red zone. We were 500 feet from them and I had to ask for a shuttle for the kids and a tow truck for the Jeep. But I've got to say, of all the dealers I could have ended up dealing with these guys were the nicest. They brought it in and assessed what was wrong. It was the radiator, of course. And the part wouldn't be there until the morning so we were going to have to spend the night. The guy at the dealer gave us a recommendation for a hotel (had a pool for the kids and a WONDERFUL breakfast included) AND he said they would pay for a rental car. Can you believe that?!? I was floored. They have a rental agency right there at the dealership so we didn't have to go anywhere for that, thankfully.

We got the necessities transferred to the rental car and headed to the hotel. The kids had a great time in the pool, of course, and it wore them out good for bedtime. And I had requested a late check-out for the next day so the kids could play some more in the pool and so we wouldn't be stuck in the waiting room all day. After the kids went to bed, Latonia were going to watch some TV to unwind from the day and it wouldn't work. So, when I check out in the morning I mentioned it to them and they credited my bill 25%. Again, unbelievable, but I'm so thankful. Every little bit helps at this point.

We were finally able to get back on the road late in the afternoon and I was just dying to get to Boston. I just wanted to see John and sleep in my own bed! No more complications, thankfully, and we finally arrived right before sundown Friday night ~ a little more than 2 days later than planned.

Little Gym Big Show

Here are some photos from Thomas' Big Show at The Little Gym. He has loved going here since he was 9 months old. It was really hard to leave our friends and teachers, but I'm sure he will like his new teachers in Boston.

The Beginning of Our Boston Adventure

Okay, so I know it's a little late in coming. But I really have been meaning to share about our trip in May to find a place to live in Boston. And of course some pictures!

John was scheduled to attend a conference in Boston in early May so the timing was perfect for us to go hunting for a place to live. To be honest, I was a little anxious about this adventure. The last time I was in Boston was in academy and we certainly weren't looking at places to live. John felt confident that we wouldn't have a problem finding a place to live (or at least he looked confident). I just knew I'd feel better after we had signed on the dotted line. So, prior to our flight I lined up a few places for us to look at as soon as we arrived. And wouldn't you know, the very first place we looked at was wonderful. The lawn was lucious looking. I really wanted to take my shoes off and just walk around on it. And there was more space than we ever dreamed of getting in Boston. But, since it was the first house we were seeing and we had scheduled two more to look at, we decided to wait on making a decision. However, after seeing those two houses there was no doubt in our minds that we wanted to rent the first house. Turns out finding a place to live wasn't so hard after all ... or so we thought. We did let the agent know we wanted it and weren't planning on looking at anything else, but it took her around 24 hours to let us know that the owner had decided to rent it to a friend. Honestly, it sounded a bit fishy to us.

I can't tell you how disappointed I was. I really didn't think we would find another place that I liked as much as that one AND I had lost a day of looking in the process. We really hustled Thursday night and were able to line up quite a few places to look at on Friday. I think I actually looked at 8-9 places and none of them struck me as the one. I'm sure a couple of them could have been doable and we were seriously considering one but it had a very ackward layout. So we waited.

With the next day being Sabbath we decided to take the much needed rest and attended the church John had gone to while he was in Boston for a summer in college. And for the evening we went on a dinner cruise in the harbor to celebrate our 10 year anniversary (a little early). By Sunday morning we were ready to look at a couple more places that another agent had lined up for us. But, once again we were disappointed. The ones we were supposed to see were cancelled for various reasons. And when I asked about a specific place that her company had listed she said she didn't really want to show it to us because it wasn't deleaded. What?!? Now, to the REAL issue!

Lead paint...had no idea...flabbergasted really. I'm mean, seriously, I'm at a loss for words. But, evidently, it's a huge deal up here. So, once we figured this out we decided to just look at places that were already deleaded. You would think that would be simple enough except that maybe 5-10% of the places up here fall in that category. And I don't mean 5-10% of the ones that are looking for tenants. I mean TOTAL! So, our choices were pretty slim. Add on top of that all the other constraints ~ budget, distance from the hospital, number of bedrooms, need for space ~ and it felt pretty much impossible find a suitable place.

But, with God nothing is impossible. He is so good. He knew all along exactly where we needed to live. And we finally found a place Monday night that met ALL of our needs. And as an added bonus there is a playground less than a five minute walk and public transportation is less than a five minute walk.

So, here are a few pictures of our new place.




Okay, well, evidently not all the pictures want to be uploaded but it gives you a bit of an idea. There will be more to see later.

It's A GIRL!

Here are some pictures of our last ultrasound showing that we will be blessed with a little girl in August. And we've decided to name our favorite little girl Emily. And what will her middle name be? We still have no idea. This is much harder than it seemed to be with Thomas, but we are also a little bit busier this time around. But no worries, we will have a middle name for her by the time she arrives (and I'm certain it will be before that).



We are pretty lucky to get to see her again this next week for another ultrasound. I'm sure she'll look even cuter this time. If her activity level is any indication I don't think she will have any trouble keeping up with her big brother. Although she seems to be a little off on her days and nights (I'm not looking forward to retraining that!). At first I thought she was going to be calmer, but I'm not so sure now. She has some strong muscles already and has kept me up a few nights excercising them.



As soon as we know what her middle name will be we will let you know! Stay tuned.

My Handsome Little Man

Latonia found a great little place to take some photos and of course I had to use my favorite model. These are just a few of the pictures I took. I still need to edit the rest but haven't had the time. They were taken back in January but hopefully I'll get to finish editing them soon (I can dream can't I?). Sometimes it's really tough to get Thomas to smile and interact with me when I'm trying to take his picture. Luckily there were cars passing behind me and I could encourage him to look for trucks like Pop's.