The one about everything.

This past month has been pretty crazy. Marc got out of the Army. He started his new job, we packed up three and a half years worth of stuff and bought ourselves our first house. And because all that wasn't enough to adjust to, we threw a new dog into the mix as well.

I could probably write a book about my feelings on the Army, but I'm relatively sure no one would want to read it. I will say the Marc joining the Army was such a huge, huge blessing in our lives. I very much did NOT want him to do so five years ago. After much fasting and prayer I reluctantly agreed that it was the right decision and he took the leap. Of course there are many, many frustrating things that went along with the military, but overall I'm so glad that we did it. Marc would likely never have gotten into his field of work if not for the Army and the fantastic training opportunities they provided him. He absolutely loves his job, especially now that he is working it as a civilian. He is/will be doing basically the same work as he was before, but without the uniform. And without all the extra hours of random Army demands, as well. I know there are going to be frustrating things to go along with his new job, too, but we are definitely still enjoying the honeymoon phase right now.

On the house front, I never would have guessed that home buying would be such an emotional roller coaster! We looked at so many houses and were really starting to get discouraged before we finally found the house we ended up in. We love it! The girls can't get over how big it is, I have to make sure and tell them which floor I am going to be on or they tend to freak out a bit. The first few days we were here they spent just running around and around the whole house. Finn loves it too, based on how much better he is sleeping now that he is in his own room.

And the dog. Of course T has been planning and counting on getting a dog when she turns five. We had been casually looking for a while, but when we found some cute golden retriever/yellow lab mix puppies up in Pennsylvania we just had to do it. The girls were soooo excited. We made many a name suggestion, but they were set on naming her Rose. I suppose I shouldn't complain too much, since when I was allowed to name a dog as a four-year-old I went with Poocha. Rose is much cuter. The first few days she was here we kept trying to persuade them to change it, but it has stuck now. Teresa is getting pretty good at interacting with her. Nora loves her from afar. Finn is mostly indifferent. She's much bigger than I thought she would be, she was only born in January-ish.

In other news, our cute little Finners turned eight months old. He finally busted out his first tooth, and it is mighty cute. Poor kid, Nora is always sticking her little fingers in his mouth trying to get a good look at it. I didn't think it was possible, but he seems to becoming even more of a mama's boy. No complaints on this end, for sure.

Marc did a little photo shoot of him on Sunday because he just looked too handsome wearing his Daddy's old overalls. It is so fun that Gigi saved so much of Marc's stuff to pass on to him!

The key to getting some good, pensive model shots is to do the photo shoot immediately after nap time.

Look at that boy, standing all by himself! He went down not too long after this picture. 

And while we're at it, I might as well clear out all the pictures from my phone too. These go back to April-ish, I think.

Finn is so excited to by matching with his Mommy!

And then Daddy jumped in with another blue-striped shirt, and his excitement grew! (And yes, we did leave the house like that, thank you very much).

And that's our teenager, Teresa.

Ha! This poor little dude. A few weeks ago he kept trying to use this empty laundry basket to balance himself while he stood up. Pretty much as soon as he got up all the way it would flip over and trap him beneath. He was none too pleased about that. 

He just loves his big sisters. One of my favourite things he and Nora do is just laugh at each other. Nora will go over to him and just laugh, and he will respond with his own giggles and they go back and forth like a little laughing conversation. I keep trying to catch it on video, but of course they always stop when they notice me noticing.

Nora has a style all her own, and I love it.

First cantaloupe. It was a huge hit.

My daily view. Love it.