Treading Water

So it has been awhile since I posted... I will provide you a little recap of our last month.

Charlotte was born on June 17th (see previous post) with in the next week we had found a place to rent in Visalia, moved to a new house. What a whirlwind. It is not your ideal week of post-childbirth recovery or ideal first week of life (Sorry Charlie!) but we made and lived to tell the tale. I have to say that there is NO possible way we could have done this without my wonderful mother. She came to help out with the baby and we put her to work! She helped us pack, move, drive, clean, unpack, clean up the yard ... to mention a few things. She gets Best Mom of the Year award, hands down.

We did take time amid the craziness to get some pictures of Charlotte after her bath one day...

She is about a week old here..

Luke and Noah are very good big brothers to her and anxious to get in on the picture taking.


Anyhow it is now a month later and I have a few random boxes still to unpack, more than a few pictures to hang and other organizing to do but for the most part we are here! We are really liking Visalia and adjusting to the heat. (It was only 90 deg. last week and it felt nice and cool to me.) There are 3 other guys that Ryan works with who just moved here with their families and 3 of the 4 of us are in the same ward! It has been fun to have someone who is in the same situation to hang out with. I am sure they will all make it onto our blog at some point.

The search for a rental house here was crazy... because there was nothing out there that fit our criteria. We were really blessed to find this house. It is in a great neighborhood, is big enough for us all and room for some visitors... hint, hint, hint! And last but definitely not least it has a pool. As you can see Luke and Noah are loving it!

Who doesn't love a good splash?

Luke a bit more cautious than Noah but still loves the water and likes learning to swim.

Noah is scary, in that he has no fear. Give him a set of floaties and you can't keep him on the steps. He just kicks his way all around the pool.

Biscuit likes the pool too. I have caught him taking a dip to cool off during the day. He loves to jump in and join the fun if you let him.

We did have Lee & Rhonda up for the 4th of July/Ryan's birthday/to help out with the kids. It was a lot of fun. We went to Exeter and checked out the 4th of July celebration.

We didn't last long... it hit 100 degrees at like 10am and that was too hot for us!

The boys were ready to cool off after a half hour!

The next day for Ryan's birthday we hit In n' Out and then went and saw Cars 2.

Don't know what Luke was more excited about... holding all the tickets (a very important job) or seeing the new movie!

I will leave you with a couple more pictures of little Charlie. She is growing up so fast. I forget how quick they get big. I love her hair and am hoping and praying that it doesn't fall out!



We are off next week to Utah for a get together with all my siblings... sure to be a weekend of Benson-mania!