THREE years old, THREE parties!

Celebrating Elias' 3rd birthday has been a ton of fun! He had his first party when we first arrived in Texas with all his cousins since not all of them would be in town for his real birthday party.


His next party was on his actual birthday in Austin at Aunt Meg's house. While he was sleeping we worked hard on making these little car cakes. They were awesome and he loved it! Best of all though, Elias could actually eat these cakes since they were wheat, egg, and dairy free! The neighbor kids came over and we stuffed ourselves, then jumped in the car for Dallas, which was an extra long drive (6 hours!) b/c of bad weather.

Finally, we celebrated in Dallas at Nani's house with grandparents, cousins, friends, and aunts and uncles. This time he had a Lightning McQueen cake that Lulo (Chase's mom) did and it turned out perfect!

A boy's best friend

Elias really loves dogs! He always tries to go right next to Checkers or Brio and mimic whatever they are doing.

Nothin' Like a Texas Hill Country Sunset

A wonderful welcome on our first night back in Texas.

Moving Pictures

Playing in the empty moving trailer was lots of fun for two-year-old boys!

PACKING THE HOUSE
Before

During

After

UNLOADING IN AUSTIN
All of this...

Had to fit into here....

Chase is a master at life-size Tetras. It all fit, with room for more!

By the Numbers

3: Days that Chase was on the road with his mom and our two cats.
5: Number of car/truck loads of stuff that we hauled to Goodwill.
6: Number of offers we had on our house before we actually sold our house. (Closing date not until January).
8: Number of hours that it took to load and then unload the moving truck.
19: Number of people that helped us by packing, loading, etc. (Okay I admit, some of those people were paid movers, but I considered them my best friends at the time). :-)
178: Number of boxes that I packed along with my amazingly supportive friend Jayana.
6,000: The total poundage of all our earthly belongings.
1368: Cubic footage of our stuff.
1,637: Number of miles that Chase drove from New York to Texas.

Lessons I've Learned

It's been a whirlwind the past 6 weeks and this poor little blog has suffered terribly. But I'm happy to say that we survived our cross-country move, and while we are not necessarily settled in yet, it does feel good to have that all behind us. Here are the biggest lessons I've learned:

1. Never, ever agree to your husband packing just his tools and then leaving for his new job while you stay behind to take care of the kid, pack the whole house, negotiate sale contracts on the house, sell the car (and then not have one for a whole week), say goodbye to friends and also continue working in your own job up until the very last week.
2. You should always buy triple the rolls of tape that you think you need.
3. You will absolutely use all the boxes that are piled on your front porch.
4. No matter how much stuff you get rid of, you will still have a million more boxes to pack.
5. Basements are really just black holes for tossing and storing things that you will never, ever use.
6. Going back to the house for one last time to pack just two more boxes will really turn into FIVE more times and FIFTY more boxes.
7. When every item is finally packed and loaded, the truck will drive away and you will silently hope that a fireball from heaven will crash into the trailer and destroy your stuff so that you don't ever have to see it again.
8. I will always offer to help every friend in their moving process and I will stay by their side when they are delirious and crying and walking in circles. (Thank you Jayana!)
9. It's terribly heart breaking to say goodbye to best friends that you love so much.