Thank you

I want to take a moment to thank all my faithful readers for sticking with us despite our sporadic postings over the last few months. We are finally settled in our new house, and our internet is connected. 100% of the boxes have been opened and sorted through, 98% of the furniture is in the right place, and 75% of the pictures are on the wall. We still have a few bigger projects like new counter tops in the kitchen, painting the nursery, and extending our patio that are on the list but hopefully they will be done by the end of summer. I will post some pictures our new house shortly. In the mean time, I also want to thank some folks for gifts that kids have received to include clothes, books, toys, and blankets. My goal is to snap of a photo of each gift in action, so that you can see the smiles you bring to our kid's faces.

Thank you mom for the adorable kids clothes.

Thank you Crystal for the hand-me-downs (actually Ava just wanted her picture taken and this is what she was wearing).

Thank you Annie, Billy, and Reina for the Pirate Mouse book.

Thank you Jen, Stephen, Conner, and Caley for the scrapbook.This is list of "thank yous" is by no means inclusive. We really appreciate everything thing that all of our friends and family have given us over the last few months from a place to stay, food to eat, new clothes and toys for kids, money for birthdays, and your time and company. We love you all!

Wild Woman

Elizabeth is quite the wild one and can always make us laugh. She is now into picking out her own clothes. The other day, I guess she was trying to go for the 80's big hair look. I think she has achieved it. She is also really enjoying her gymnastics class that she take once a week. Of course the trampolines are her favorite activity and this has inspired a new round of jumping on the beds and couches at home. Elizabeth is actually much more of a follower rather than a leader despite her first born status. Milo's crawling around our house inspired a game of "Follow the Leader." Elizabeth is only in front because she moves the fastest. The good news is that well exercised children sleep very well at night!

Little Woman

Despite her independent spirit, Ava has quite the maternal instinct. Every night she sleeps with a doll named "Baby Ava." This doll was originally given to Elizabeth, but she is a much bigger fan of Spiderman. Therefore, Ava has taken Baby Ava under her wing and hugs, rocks, and cares for her. Plus, this is better than showering too much love and affection on poor little Casey.Another one of her favorite toys is Gloworm, who she has recently begun to breastfeed.Ava even take the responsiblity of feeding Sammy very seriously and will watch over her and feed her dog food piece by piece.Handbags and shoes are some of Ava's favorite accessories. However, she really has found some big shoes to fill while hanging out with her Godmother/Aunt Andrea.

Tummy Time

At Casey's 3 month check up, he weigh in at 11 lbs and 4 ozs and 23 inches long. This puts him in the 25th percentile for height and weight. Not huge but a drastic improvement from where he started out in the 5th percentile. His head circumference on the other hand is in the 75th percentile in typically Sonne/Knight reproductive style.

Casey has been practicing his tummy time and can now roll over from stomach to back, which always seems to surprise him.He can also blow bubbles.Plus, Casey is smiling and laughing more than ever, but this has been a little harder to catch on camera. However, here is as shot of one of his unhappier moments. Although his sisters still adore him.This is where wished I grabbed my camera with the video option. Elizabeth was rocking Casey and singing "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" to him.

Landa Park

First Annie, Billy, and Reina, and now Andrew, Lauren, and Milo have made the trek to San Antonio to visit us and Gram and Bub. We have been very lucky to spend so much time with family lately and have tried to create some fun memories. Over the weekend, we had a picnic at Landa Park, just a couple of miles from where Gram and Bub live in New Braunfels. The park has lots to offer with plenty of playgrounds, water activities (pool, paddle boats, wading, feeding ducks), and even a miniture train.Bathing beauties at the swimming hole.

And last but not least a tuckered out little dude.

"The Girls are Back in Town"

The female Knight cousins are currently having a reunion in Texas. It has been about 3 months since they were last together, and now Reina is an active participant in all of Elizabeth's and Ava's games.However, Casey is none too pleased that Milo isn't around to help balance out the estrogen.

Bathing Sillies

For those of you who are wondering the fun and games are over for Ryan, he had to report into work this week and is suffering through three weeks of in-processing. Yesterday, I joined him for a very boring spouses orientation. I officially traded in my Active Duty ID card for a Dependant ID card and picked up the activity schedule for the Spouses' Club. I figure that I can attend a few play groups and dinners over the summer to meed some new folks, and find out some info of schools and kids activities before I go back to work in the fall. While Ryan is off filling our forms, the kids and I are finding ways to entertain ourselves while waiting to move into our new house. We went to Landa Park in New Braunfels to ride the miniature train and play on the playground. Back at Gram and Bub's house the pool is always a great way to beat the heat and wear the kids our for a nap. Elizabeth also started gymnastics this week. I forgot to bring the camera, but I will be sure to grab some shots next week. Ava is just dying to join her big sister on the mats. I have no doubt of her athletic ability, it is her listening skills that need to improve before she can join.

Homeless!

Home at last? Not quite! We have been on the go since my last post and I have barely had time to collect my sanity let alone update my website. Following the birth of Casey in North Carolina, we returned to Washington, DC at the end of the month for exactly 36 hours before flying to Texas for a week of house hunting with the whole family. Our house in DC was under contract, and we were very much looking forward to buying a home in San Antonio with lots of room for our growing family and a nice big back yard for the kids and the dog. We found a great house and wrote a contract only to enter into a multiple contract situation and a bidding war (so much for a lousy housing market). Anyway, we lost and returned to DC without buying a house. After mulling over what to do, I returned to San Antonio with Casey a few days later for round two of house hunting. There were a few new things on the market and I expanded our search criteria. Casey and I put in full days searching for a home. We wrote another contract, and again found ourselves in another bidding war. We lost again, and again I returned back to DC without a clue where we were all going to live in two weeks time. At least Casey got to spend some quality time with his great-grandmother, Nana. We really appreciated her putting up with a house full of people for almost two weeks straight.However, that had to be set aside because other issues became more important at that moment...Ryan's graduation from medical school! Graduation was on Saturday, 17 May, and the festivities started on Friday. After seven years as a Lieutenant, Ryan finally got promoted to the rank of Captain, and I had the pleasure to share that rank with him for at least a couple of days. The graduation ceremony was made special by all of the family that made the effort to be there, as well as our friends who came by the house later to say goodbye before we left the area. Ryan also got me a really kick ass necklace to honor my seven years of service in the Marine Corps. On Monday, the movers showed up, and on Wednesday we packed up our few remaining things, signed the papers for the sale of our house in DC, and were officially homeless and living out of our cars. So I did what any good 30 year old, college educated person would do, I moved back in with my mother. After departing DC, we all headed up to my mom's house for a few days visit before proceeding up to New York over Memorial Day weekend for our friends' wedding (Mike and Sarah Zeola). We stayed with my sister and her family in Watertown, NY, which might as well be Canada. Their house was great and hospitality was fantastic, and our girls had a great time playing with their 2 year old cousin, Sam. The wedding was a blast. Elizabeth made an adorable flower girls, and Ryan was a handsome groomsman. (Ava, aka Captain Destructo, stayed with my sister during the wedding.) After the wedding festivities, we started our long journey from Canada to Mexico. Our first stop was in Ohio (13 hours in the car). Ryan, Sam the dog, and Ava stayed behind in Ohio while Elizabeth, Casey, and I made the remaining 18 hour drive to Texas. This is not something I want to repeat anytime soon. Note, there are not cute pictures of our cross country journey. While I was driving through Dallas on May 28, the movers called and asked where we wanted our household goods delivered. Unfortunately , we had to put them in storage, where it takes at least two weeks notice to get them back out and a few more opportunities for our things to get damaged. We resolved ourselves to renting a house in Texas only to be utterly dismayed with our options. I decided to take on more look to see what was on the market, and wouldn't you know but there were three houses that I was interested in purchasing. Why didn't this happen a month ago!!! We decided to get buying one more shot, and wrote another contract. Third time is the charm, we got ourselves a house, of course not with a few other hickups but the good news is that on 19 June we will finally have a place to hang our hats. In the interim, Ryan's family has been really great about putting up with 5 extra people and a dog. We are all thriving (Casey is smiling a lot and starting to coo).This past weekend, Ryan's dad and step mom invited us down to their house on the gulf coast. It is not the Atlantic, but we all had a blast. Plus, the kids and the dog slept very well after all that time at the beach.I can't figure out which is my favorite picture of Casey, so I will just post them all.The end. Our house hold goods will arrive on June 23, so shortly after that I should be able to get back to posting once a week. Thanks for hanging in there and still checking up on us.