Leaving Day

We have loved North Carolina and the people we meet there so much that leaving it behind is painful. My heart aches knowing that we are walking away from that amazing place. I don't have any bad memories   associated with North Carolina, our home, neighborhood, ward, schools, and on and on. Someday we will make it back! Maybe.....but we did take a couple of last pictures to remember a few things.

So our grass definitely needed some work in the back...but look at the trees! Real, huge, tall full blown swaying in the breeze trees! How we are going to miss the woods in our backyard! The boys loved exploring back there. And I loved not being able to see neighbors behind us and hearing all the birds chirping throughout the year.

Last Beach Trip :(

We are going to miss the beach so much! Why are moving back to Idaho again? We headed to Morehead for the 4th of July and one last beach outing before moving. We booked at the last minute so there were no hotels on the beach available but at least we were withing a few minutes of the beach. Brad and I took turns taking the kids to the beach and staying at the hotel with our new baby. No beach for her unfortunately!

Favorite Baby Pics

Here are a few of my favorite pics of Ashley so far. She is an amazing baby. Sleeping well, hardly cries, and so much fun to cuddle. The kids adore her. Ty is always wanting to hold her and Trey likes to play with her. I have the funniest/cutest video of Trey pretending to punch things with Ashley's tiny fists.

She's Here!

Our beautiful girl arrived on June 10 at 8:25 am. She was 8 lbs. 3 oz. 19 inches long. Our second heaviest child, which explains the ginormous belly. She is beautiful and lovely and perfect and I don't want her to get big. Can you please just stay tiny and snuggle against my chest for the rest of your life? We named her Ashley Ellen Steadman. Ellen after her great grandmother on the Steadman side of the family. And Ashley because we wanted a name that ended in a 'y' and it sounded a little Southern to me for our new Southern Belle.

Pre Baby Photo

Yep. That is real. My abnormally large, pregnant belly. Every time I see a picture of myself I can't believe how big it is. How is that possible? It is still mind boggling, even though I have lived it, experienced it, felt it for all of my pregnancies. Less than 12 hours to go before I get to see my beautiful girl. Can't wait!

Ty's Birthday

Ty had a low key birthday with the new baby set to arrive in three days later. It was fun though. He choose his dinner, McDonalds, we opened presents and had cake. Plus we told them a few days ago that we were moving back to Boise. Ty thought that was a pretty good present. 

Ty has grown up so much in the last year. He is creative, a good problem solver, and always coming up with new things to build, draw, play, put together, etc. He helps me out a lot and is always watching out for his younger siblings. He always strives to help others at school and church. 

Durham Bulls

We had to go to a Durham Bulls baseball game before the baby comes. And we had some buy one get one ticket deals....so we headed to a Wednesday night game. The boys were interested for the first couple of innings and then were more concerned about getting food and souvenirs. After a meltdown from Ty because we wouldn't buy him an overpriced bulls mascot stuffed animal, we decided to leave a bit early. The next morning Trey found a Durham Bulls key chain in his pocket. He had put it in there at their shop and forgot about it. We had to have a little teaching moment on stealing. Don't remember the score or much about the actual game, but will always remember how the kids behaved. For good and bad!