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I have clearly been MIA on the blog but I think I have a pretty good reason seeing as we’re in the process of moving across country with an almost 3 month old. :)
The whole process began weeks ago when we began packing up our apartment in Princeton while having to tailor our packing to Owen. By last Tuesday we had quite a bit packed and Lucas took Owen and me to the airport bright and early. We woke up at 4:00am and caught a 7:00am flight out of Philly. When we arrived to the airport there were lines everywhere! Thankfully Owen was my ticket to the front and we made it to our gate with 10 minutes to spare…nothing like cutting it close!
After an uneventful 2 1/2 hour flight we landed in St. Louis. Owen was great on the plane and after nursing him during takeoff he pretty much slept the entire flight. I even managed to make to the bathroom myself on the plane while holding Owen. I’m pretty sure that puts me in the running for woman of the year. :)
My mom and sister picked me up in St. Louis and we began the 4 hour drive to West Plains. Of course we had to stop at Target and eat lunch at Steak N’ Shake, but soon enough we were at my parents.
After Lucas dropped us off at the airport he spent that day (Tuesday) packing up the remainder of the apartment and cleaning it from top to bottom. On Wednesday the truck arrived and he loaded it all with help from some friends. The truck is being delivered to Boonville so thankfully he didn’t have to drive it back. But on Thursday he loaded up the Civic with Paca (our cat) in tow and drove the 18 hours to Boonville straight! What a man! What a crazy-get-it-done-while-taking-care-of-a-cat man!
So Owen and I have now been in West Plains for a week with a quick trip to Springfield to meet the family. Lucas has since been in Boonville with his Dad sanding the hardwood floors and now refinishing them. They are working so hard on the house and I’ve been working hard taking care of Owen. Thankfully we’ve both had help from our families along the way because there is no way either one of us could’ve done this without them.
Now the countdown begins to the actual move in day. This Friday my mom, sister, Owen and I will head up to Boonville and then move in will begin on Saturday. My dad will come up late Saturday/Sunday and stay for a few days after that and the rest of the family will be there to help for the weekend.
I can’t wait to get into our house and start getting settled. Our life has essentially been up in the air since Owen was born and it will be nice to work our way into our new life in Missouri.
Sorry for no pictures but I wanted to at least catch up on life. Soon enough I’ll post some pictures of our journey so far and of course of our life to come.
-Shannon
It all started with an evening walk around the golf course behind our apartment. I wanted to take a few pictures of Owen with the Bob (our stroller) and Lucas decided the pictures should only be of Owen and the Bob.
Now it has turned into our standard picture of Owen out and about. Neither one of us want to be in the picture so we just take it with Owen and the Bob…
…in Princeton…
…in NYC…
Who know where else Owen and the Bob will go…
-Shannon
This past Thursday I was surprised with a baby shower thrown for me by our church. I thought I was coming out for a small baby shower with just the worship team but when I arrived I was whisked up to the gym for a church-wide baby shower!
My friend, Pat, had organized it all and was sure that I had figured it out but I was completely surprised by all the people there and the extravagant showering of gifts!
Unfortunately I didn’t take any pictures of the event itself so you’ll just have to gaze at all the wonderful gifts we received. There were lots of needed items as well as some fun ones too.
Besides showering us with all these gifts, Pat had the idea to gather together a bunch of people who all contributed to a Visa gift card! She thought we could use this as we move back to Missouri when we will still need more baby items for the nursery and such. The gift card totals around $300!
We just can’t believe how blessed we’ve been through this entire pregnancy and we feel so loved and grateful for the people God has placed in our lives and the life of our little one.
-Shannon
Last year in our Christmas cards we included a letter that looked at the highlights from the previous year. Granted 2008 was filled with lots of changes with Vancouver to Missouri to Princeton and this year hasn’t been quite as exciting but still there are lots of things to remember. So I thought I would continue the tradition by looking back at 2009.
January
After having spent the holidays with family in Missouri we settled back into our normal schedules and enjoyed the winter weather.
February
In February I ended a 2+ year journey and cut my hair.
March
We enjoyed some local Philadelphia flavor when we headed down to Philly with some friends from church.
April
Lots of traveling happened in April. First to Ithaca, NY to visit some college friends, Matt & Tracy, along with their new baby Nadya…
And later in April we headed off to Vancouver…
May
May began our summer in the city with the visit of Lucas’ parents, Bonnie & Larry. We headed into NYC to show them around and explore some new things for ourselves.
At the end of May we headed back into NYC to meet up with my Aunt Dodo and Uncle Mike and to stay the night on Times Square.
June
Easily the most exciting thing of the year…
We found out we’re expecting! Granted the real event happened in May but the excitement began in June. :)
Also my Aunt Shirley and Cousin Carrie came for a visit…
July
More visitors in the form of my sister, Megan; my friend, Allie; my parents, Craig & Pat…
August
In August Lucas and I celebrated 6 years of marriage by taking a little vacation up to Vermont to get away from New Jersey for awhile.
September
Besides celebrating my birthday we also enjoyed a visit from Mandi & Jesse.
October
In October I headed home to Missouri to enjoy a wonderful Baby Shower with family and friends.
November
We bought a house!
December
The belly continued to grow as we await the arrival of our little one in February. We celebrated Lucas’ birthday and then enjoyed the holidays by ourselves in New Jersey by heading into NYC on Christmas Day.
-Shannon
This past Monday we celebrated my 28th birthday! I started the day by going into work but I only stayed until noon and then had the rest of the day off. To celebrate, we headed to the orchard to pick some apples and enjoy the day. Afterwards Mandi and I headed to the grocery store to pick out lots of great food for the birthday feast. We ended up having spinach and artichoke dip and a BLT cheeseball with crackers for starters. Then for the main meal we enjoyed shrimp scampi, steak, asparagus and salad. To top the evening off Lucas made me my favorite kind of cake…FUNFETTI!
I also enjoyed 2 birthday boxes! One from my parents and one from my in-laws. They were both filled with wonderful things to enjoy. Lots of food/party items…
And some great gifts as well…
Lucas let me pick out a new camera lens that I am thoroughly enjoying and he even surprised me with a crafty project kit for a new planner. I’ll share pictures of it as I put it together.
Overall I had a great birthday and it was especially wonderful to share it not only with my lubber but also with great friends. I can’t believe that next year we’ll have a 7 month old to add to my birthday festivities. :)
-Shannon
This past Saturday our friends Mandi & Jesse came into town. I have known Mandi since high school days and she was also a bridesmaid in our wedding. Lucas and I met Jesse in college and Mandi and Jesse met right around the time we got married. So needless to say we’ve all been friends for quite some time. :) They are staying with us for the week while they enjoy NJ, some trips into NYC and a U2 concert today. They flew into Philadelphia so we thought we’d enjoy the day by showing them around. By now I feel like I’ve seen some of these places way too many times but it is always fun to show it someone for the first time.
Of course they had to see the Liberty Bell…
We went on one tour of the old buildings and while we were waiting we decided to have an impromptu photo shoot. First the girls…
And then the guys…
We headed down to South Street to enjoy some Philly Cheese Steaks…
They were totally worth the hour long line we had to wait in…
And some more Philly…
On Sunday we all went out to church together and Mandi & Jesse were quite the troopers when it came to spending 5 hours there. Once we were finally done with church we headed over to Lambertville for lunch.
We spent the evening at home enjoying our time together and watching some football. So great to have friends visit us…
-Shannon
First of all, my birthday was on Monday and even though it wasn’t technically the first day of fall I like to think that it is. :) We celebrated by going to the local orchard to pick apples and mums to bring in the fall.
And even though the pictures don’t show it we enjoyed this day with our friends Mandi & Jesse. They are visiting from Missouri and are here until Saturday! It has been so nice to have some old friends around and especially since they were here over my birthday.
I’ll have to take share the mums once I arrange them on our porch but with the apples on the kitchen table and the mums outside our door, fall has moved in to the Endicott household.
-Shannon
During the visit with my parents I happened to have a midwife appointment scheduled. I invited them both to come along with me and they were very excited to do so. I thought that we might get to hear the heartbeat but I wasn’t sure. When we arrived they met one of our midwives and enjoyed talking with her. Then we went on the search for the heartbeat. She wasn’t sure if we would be able to hear it but sure enough little Nacho was beating away! Lucas and I had only seen the heartbeat so this was the first time to actually hear it. Both my mom and dad teared up and cried a little. They are pretty excited about this little one. :)
After our eventful morning we headed off to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. Instead of going all the way into NYC we took the ferry from the NJ side. It was heavenly! There weren’t any crowds or lines or anything annoying like that. From the NJ side you leave from an old train station so again my dad was in heaven. First we spent some time looking around the station…
…and then we were off on the ferry.
Even though it was a little rainy we enjoyed the day and the cooler weather. But I’m pretty sure the day was a bit of a wash because my parents couldn’t stop talking about Nacho. I wonder if they even remember seeing all the sights. :)
-Shannon
After our big trip to NYC we needed a day to recover so after enjoying church in the morning we spent the afternoon/evening in Lambertville. This town is a nice little town along the Deleware River that has cute little stores and restaurants. We wandered around town for a bit…
…and then decided to enjoy dinner at the Lambertville Station Restaurant. As the name implies this restaurant is set in the old train depot and with my dad loving trains we couldn’t pass up dinner outside on the patio.
Our dinner was great and afterwards we enjoyed a nice walk across the bridge to New Hope, PA and then ice cream whem we got back to Princeton.
It was a nice relaxing day in contrast to the hustle and bustle of NYC.
-Shannon
Each and every spring I am absolutely in awe of nature. For a solid month or so I will comment on each tree every day. Lucas gets pretty sick of it and says that I act as though I’ve never seen spring happen before. But to me spring is always different and it always makes me so excited when it finally comes.
I feel absolutely invigorated walking through the woods by our place and seeing each new sign of life. And now that the green has finally taken over, it is even more amazing to me how quickly we adjust to seeing it. I’m almost past the point where it catches my eye and the green becomes the everyday color just like brown was through the winter.
Hopefully even though the heat of summer is quickly approaching I’ll still remember to enjoy my new world of green.
-Shannon
