So Many Changes

I guess I should start with the new baby. How is it that I have forgotten to post pictures of him in the last eight weeks?! He is totally adorable. He was 6 lbs. 4.5 oz. and 19 3/4 in long. Now he's 10 lbs. Here he is--

Lincoln Willem Van Horn

Newborn

2 Weeks

2 weeks

1 month

6 weeks

Now he's smiling and content for longer periods of time. His siblings adore him.

The other crazy stuff going on in our lives started the day Lincoln was born. That same afternoon, John got a phone call about a job that we have been waiting for since February. He applied for the job in January, and went through the whole interviewing process over about three weeks time, only to find that they needed to wait three months before they could hire him. We weren't sure they would actually stick to that, and so our hopes had diminished quite a bit by this time. But, the offer became official three weeks after Lincoln was born and we immediately started preparing for our move to Iowa.

Those preparations meant working on the house to get it ready to sell. We knew we had to do something with our kitchen since we destroyed it and never built it back up. It's more like we started a bunch of projects that never got finished. With the help of my mom and her mad painting skills, my dad and his wood working (plus so much more) skills, and of course the help of several professionals (for texturing, countertops, and tile floors), we got the house and kitchen looking beautiful in just three weeks.

Floors all torn up

New tile

New granite counter tops, tile, and bead board

Dinette area

John has already moved to Iowa to start his job. He has been gone for one week now. We already miss him lots, but we are doing all we can to sell our house so that we can move up there with him and save him from his cracker box living situation.