CatchUP

Well well well....

We have not blogged in a-while. Having said that, let's play catch-up. In past blogs, you've seen we went to Atlanta and Cali; in July:

• Our friends we're living with, the Martins, had their baby! (see their blog for more)
• We went back to Atlanta to visit Becca's brother/family
• Becca and I visited Montgomery Bell State Park in TN this past weekend
• We started packing again, because we move into our new place this Thursday!!

Life has been crazy, but we are thankful to have friends and family watching our backs, and keeping our heads above water during the trying times. We love you.

These deer walked up when Becki and I pulled up to the Park Inn at Montgomery Bell State Park:

Here's a shot of the lake:

A shot of the Park Inn:

Cadan tried to eat a magazine while we were staying there:

Oh, and here's the house we're moving into this Thursday:

Bye, thanks for stopping by...

Dave, Becca, Cadan, and Shep

A week in pictures

In Atlanta with Auntie KiKi

and Uncle Shawn

In California

Cousin Oz

At the beach

Cousin George

At the Pier

The Fam.

Home again

Shoot #2

Ok. So we visited our relatives in Georgia last weekend. Karen (Becki's sister-in-law), who's a pro photog, took this shoot of Cadan. Take note: This is Cadan's 2nd shoot with Karen...so basically he's already a very young male model. I plan on watching Zoolander with him soon to school him in the finer pts. of male modeling.

In other news...if you haven't heard of Colbie Caillat (rhymes with 'ballet') yet, you should definitely check her out. For all those who thought that good songwriting was dead, she destroys that idea. An LA singer/songwriter, she's now touring with John Mayer and Brett Dennen. (Wish I could see that show).

Beck and I are headed to southern California this week...we'll update you after the trip. Bye for now.

Links:

Karen Nickel Photography
(click Enter Site and then Slideshows to see the Hightower
and Hightower 2 slideshows)

Colbie Caillat

Dave, Becca, Cadan (& Shep)

only 4 to go

Only 4 puppies left. Which one do you want?
Pumpkin?

Tiptoe?


Rascal?

Or Gabby?

My dad is going to Virginia Beach on Monday the 9th and is bringing Amanda Scott her puppy (wink, wink) anyone else interested?

Pooperific

Don't you hate it when poop can ruin your whole day...well in the midst of being up to my elbows in spot removers and laundry detergents (all to no avail) my trusty memory came to my rescue. I remembered once upon a sunny beach day when my sister-in-law (thanks Susie) mentioned the magical ingredient for pesky baby poop stains. I tried it out and must share it with all of you new moms...

This is how yesterday went down.


Notice the LARGE poop stain. So here is where the magic comes in. First wet down the outfit...if there are large chunks, spread them out or rinse them off..

Then stick the outfit in the sun to dry... I thought this might cause some confusion so I put a couple of pictures here to help out.


And Voila.

The poop disappears.. If the poop has not disappeared re-wet the garment and repeat. Note the outfit is not necessarily clean at this point, you may be overcome with joy and want to fold up the onesie and put it back in the drawer or try it on you little one, daring them to try and poop again... but I would throw it in the wash for good measure.

Please feel free to share this little secret that should be kept secret no more.

On a side note you may want to enjoy the sun while you wait for the outfit to dry... try lounging in a pool and kick your feet up while you have a chance... next year they'll be old enough for grass stains... any suggestions?

Okay....drumroll please...the puppies are weaned and looking for new homes. Dave and I have our heart set on the first one. Mom and Dad are puppysitting until we sell our house and get settled somewhere else... and Shep said he needed a playmate. Only five puppies left..any takers? Amanda Scott? Mike Forester? Just wondering...



Cadan is becoming well adjusted, in fact he and Hope have conspired against Katrina and I from time to time, but we'll save that for another post. Cadan tried out Hope's swing for the first time the other day. I love the expressions he makes...you can always tell what is going through his mind.

We have spent some time house hunting and are interested in a house close to where Dave works. We are praying for direction as we are trying to make a lot of huge decisions in a short period of time. Dave is in the midst of a project at work and has been up to all hours in the morning all week. He is commuting over an hour to work every day and if he gets caught in traffic he can be on the road closer to two hours on the way home. Here is a picture of Nashville as Dave drives by it every morning from the 'burbs to the 'burbs bypassing the city...so close but so far away.
Well, we are all a little tuckered out. The "boys" crashed out when I was brushing my teeth. I guess we could all catch up on a little sleep.

The big reveal

Change is inevitable... but when it all happens in one week it seems almost surreal. I could write a novel and still not cover all of the chaos of the last week and a half.
For starters we have officially moved to Nashville... well Columbia to be more exact... Cadan fell asleep at the wheel so it made for a long trip:

We packed up our stuff at my parents house, loaded the car and set up the coffee pot so we would be ready to leave bright and early Friday morning... in all of our efficiany we forgot to plan where Cadan was supposed to sleep after packing his craddle. Anyone have an extra laundry basket?

We pulled up to the Martins 9 hours later...
We felt very welcome as they showed us around...especially when we got to Cadans room and saw all of the notes that many of you sent us. We were really touched! I often sit in the glider rocking the wee one and rereading the many messages you left for us. Such encouragement as we go through this crazy season of life.



As if that wasn't enough change...Dave landed a job and we finally got a contract on our home in Virginia. I guess we will be packing again sometime soon.

Sunday we tried out our first church in the area. We picked a nice day to try that church because after the service there was a yummy church picnic...Cadan pooped out after all of the excitment. He was sleeping so soundly we had to check and make sure he was still breathing.

To add to the many new things in our life we took a trip to Chicago over Mothers Day weekend... we couldn't wait to see Dave's Chicago family and introduce them to Cadan.
We had some scary turbulance on the airplane much to Cadans delight...the plane was swaying in the wind as we were trying to land... 40 mile per hour winds made for a rough landing and everyone clapped as the brakes of the plane screeched to a halt... I think I even smelled burnt rubber.

So now that we are "home" we can finally put up our feet and relax.

Talk about a busy week!

Well this post has been a long time coming, I understand it is about a year long so to not bother you further...check out the Martins post for some more cute pictures... check out the ones of Hope and Cadan... I hope they make you laugh as much as we did. Cadan didn't think it was so funny.
We'll post more when naps allow...love to hear from all of ya'll.
Becki