We’ve moved…

…not to Montgomery, yet, but from wordpress to blogspot.  We originally chose to blog with wordpress because it seemed to be more customizable.  Wordpress’s downfall for us, however, was that it does not support Google Friend Connect with which the rest of the blog world stays connected.  I actually emailed wordpress to ask them about adding it as a widget, and they said they were thinking about it.  Soon after, they added one that would allow people to subscribe through email… I guess that was their solution.  Well, here we are.  We can now follow and be followed and finally feel like part of the blog community. The page is a little cleaner and less chubby now anyways.  I’ve copied and pasted the posts from wordpress… but comments were left behind (sorry to those who commented). Anyways, enjoy the “new” blog.

i’ve never won anything before!

one of my favorite bloggers is marta. i started reading her blog a while back when she contacted me about doing a giveaway from my shop as part of her holiday giveaway collection back in december. the giveaway was for a giraffe and a set of party hats. it was lots of fun and i was honored that she chose my shop to be part of it.

she’s now doing a mother’s day giveaway and i thought it would be fun to enter. she has tons of readers so i knew it was a long shot. for yesterday’s giveaway she asked that we comment on what we love about spring. i said, “what i love about this spring in particular is the fact that my husband is graduating from architecture school and we are moving to a new city. exciting new adventures.” and, guess what? she chose me to win that giveaway! i was so excited this morning when i opened my email and saw that i had won!

what did i win, you might be wondering. well, i won a $75 gift certificate to lisa leonard designs. i am so excited! i’ve already looked through her shop and am pretty sure that i’m going to choose this bracelet with my children’s names on it. can’t wait! what a wonderful mother’s day gift!

new apartment = fun

it’s official! well, almost. we still have to sign the lease, but we put a deposit on an apartment in downtown montgomery. woo hoo! we are super excited about it and can’t wait to move in. and, one of the best parts about it is that nick will be able to ride his bike to work (note to self: get bike for nick). we will live only about a mile and a half away. we’ll also be able to WALK to a lot of fun places in downtown. one of our number one requirements in finding a place to live was walkability. definition: a measure of how friendly an area is to walking. check out walkscore.com to see if the area you live in is walkable. downtown montgomery isn’t exactly the best place for walking. there’s still a lot of work that needs to be done to make it more suitable for walking like bigger sidewalks and more narrow streets, but at least we’ll be able to walk and not have to drive everywhere. we’ll be close to several restaurants, the baseball stadium, and the riverwalk. and, there’s a cute little park near old alabama town which is just a few minutes away. i thought i’d share a few pictures of the new apartment. keep in mind, the pictures were taken while someone else was living there, so that’s not our stuff in there. i like to look at the pictures and think about where we’re going to put our furniture and things. enjoy!

And the Winner Is…

Montgomery, Alabama!

The Henninger family is packing up and moving to the state capital. Nick just accepted a job offer from Seay, Seay, and Litchfield, an architecture firm that he interned with a couple of summers ago. We really feel like it’s where God is leading us at this time in our life. Nick is thinking pretty seriously about grad school in a couple of years. So, maybe Boston next? But, for now, we’re moving only an hour away!

We are excited though. We’re excited to see what God has in store for us there. Excited about meeting new people and living somewhere new and experiencing what a new city has to offer. I’ve already been googling things to do there and have come up with some pretty fun stuff!  They have a zoo which we’ll be getting an annual membership to. Oh, and by the way, I expect my Auburn friends to let me know if they come to town so we can get together! There’s also a splash pad by the riverwalk amphitheater which will be close to us since we’re planning on living in downtown. Have another loft apartment to go look at tomorrow. That’s a whole other story which I will be devoting a post to in the near future- the reasons why we want to live in downtown. But, for now, back to things to do in Montgomery. There are several fun museums and parks. I also have family there and several family friends. My three half brothers and their families live in the area. It’ll be fun for my kids to get to know their cousins better. And, I plan on visiting my auntie ceil for lunch dates. She’s not really related, but she lived next door to my grandparents for many years and she makes awesome healthy food!

We don’t have a moving date set yet, but we know it’ll be by June 1st. Nick graduates on the 14th of May and he’ll probably start work on the 17th, so we’re hoping to be moved in by then- which I’m now realizing is very soon!  It’s been a good 5 years here in Auburn- since we’ve been here we got engaged, got married, and had two babies! and we knew this day would come, but it is kind of bittersweet. We’ll miss our church family and our friends, but we won’t be far away.  We are so thankful that Nick has a job when many of the graduates from last year still don’t have jobs. God is good. The end.

Easter, Eggs, and the Hunt for a New Home

We had a very busy, fun-filled Easter weekend. It began with a  morning egg hunt on a lovely little farm. Then, a cute little friend’s second birthday party. And after that, apartment hunting in downtown Montgomery. Yes, Montgomery. More on that later…

Spring is in the Air

We’re enjoying the spring weather!

playing in the water! can’t wait until we can go swimming!

Two Months Old

My has time flown by! Our little Olive Jane is now 2 months old! She is growing and changing every day. She smiles a lot and is starting to coo and gurgle and “talk” to us. She loves to listen to her big brother Noah tell her stories about dinosaurs and spider man. She’s discovering her hands. She sleeps pretty much through the night (even though it’s with us!). She loves bath time and hates to get out.  And, she’s about to go on her first big road trip to Chicago! We’re so blessed to have her in our life.

Diaper Duty

We all know that changing diapers is part of having babies. Here is my big question of the day…Why, oh why don’t men’s bathrooms have changing tables? Granted I’ve never been in a men’s bathroom, but according to Nick there are never changing tables in the men’s bathroom! A thought just dawned on me…maybe he just tells me that so he doesn’t have to change the kids’ diapers when we’re out. No, he wouldn’t do that…I think.

But, seriously, I just don’t understand why. The modern day dad is much more involved with his children than he used to be. Nick does just as much of the child care as I do when he’s home. And, by the way, he is an absolutely wonderful husband and daddy. I hear stories about men who come home from work and plop down in front of the tv while mom continues to take care of the kids (even though that’s what she’s been doing all day) and cooks dinner, cleans, does laundry etc. I don’t know how women who are married to those kind of men make it.

Back to the dilemma. I realize that there are family bathrooms in some places, but they’re not that common. I really don’t mind having to change diapers while I’m out, but I think it would be nice to have the option for dad to change the diaper when we’re out of the house. Oh well. It’ll probably happen when my kids have their kids and I’ll say something like, “They didn’t have those when we were raising you guys and we were just fine.”

Life’s Changing Fast

It’s been awhile since our last post. Guess that’s to be expected since life’s CRAZY right now and is about to get even more so. But, what’s new?

I’m realizing how quickly Nick’s graduation is coming up and keep wondering what’s the next step for us. Nick’s been applying to quite a few firms, but we keep hearing about how horrible the job market is right now. Nick just heard about another round of lay offs in the architecture world. I know how incredibly talented my husband is, but I also have to be realistic and know that he might join the slew of jobless college graduates. And yet, we are hopeful all the while. We’ve talked about how fun it would be to just move to Chicago, job or no job. We do have our business babydarling that could keep us afloat in the mean time. If we went ahead and moved there it would be a lot easier for Nick to pursue job opportunities. We’re heading that way next weekend for Nick to hopefully interview, or at least visit some of his favorite firms. Apartment hunting is also on the list of things to do. We’ll see what happens…

We take comfort in knowing that God has a plan for us and are really excited about this new phase of life!

Jeremiah 29:11 “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

Life as a Family of Four

Where to begin? It’s wonderful, exciting, joyful, scary, busy, exhausting, happy, amazing. We are truly blessed. As my mind tries to peer through the fog of the last few weeks and realize what just happened, I’m overtaken by the sweet moments we’ve had together as a family of four.

The first is when Noah came wide-eyed (even though it was almost 11 at night and he’d been sleeping) into the delivery room just half an hour after Olive was born. He was so excited to meet his baby sister. He climbed up onto the bed with me and couldn’t take his eyes off her (that is, until he spotted the nurse’s latex gloves and just had to have some)!

The second is when we came home from the hospital. We all rode home together in our little car. Noah was being so sweet, and Olive slept the whole way home. Then, we walked up the steps and into our “humble home on wheels” just the 4 of us.  Noah was so excited to show Olive his room and his toys. It was special.

We’ve had some rough moments too- Noah had so much attention from grandparents the first 2 weeks that when they all left he apparently forgot everything we taught him the last 2 and a half years. But, now that we’ve had some time to adjust he’s done really well. He’s been really sweet to Olive the whole time though- and protective of her. When other people hold her he usually gives a scowl and says, “That’s my baby sister” in a gruff voice. It’s kind of sweet, actually.

The last few weeks have been sort of a blur, but I’ll never forget the very true words that someone once told me, “It’s amazing how your love can grow.”