The Big Catch Up.

Whoa.  I hope are you seated with a cup of coffee and have some time.  This will take a while.

Long time, no post.  There are a few legit reasons.

1.  Last summer my hard drive crashed.  I thought it was being backed up on our off site bank, but (insert long story) it wasn't.  Over two years of documents, scanned images, and pictures- gone.  That is Maggie's whole life!  With the help of friends, Troy was able to recover a lot of it, BUT each image (43,000) are mixed up, and spotted with anything I ever clicked on, like a facebook photo or Target logo.  I have yet to try and sort through it all.  It put me off of uploading my pictures after a month of not having a computer at all.  Don't worry, we have looked into other solutions.

2.  Over the summer, we were preparing to move out of state.  It all started in March, when Troy heard about a possible job opening in Mississippi (a job transfer within the same company).  We laughed, because who moves to Mississippi?  The thought never crossed our minds when we were praying to move South.  Other positions were opening and God kept turning our hearts toward Mississippi, specifically this one job.  We figured, we will play it out and see what happens.  One possible start date was Sept 1, so we had to get moving on preparing our home to sell if we would move that soon.  We finished all the projects on our list and had a stager make us a checklist to make our home look appealing to buyers.  If the move didn't happen, at least our home would be updated!

Troy's company flew him down for an interview that went very well.  And we waited for an offer.  The September 1st start date passed.  We were still waiting for that call.  Then, in October, they flew us both down to check out the area and meet his coworkers.  We fell in love with the area, and made new friends.  One little town was the answer to my specific prayer!  It is small, quiet, friendly, and perfect.  We knew if God was going to do this, all our needs will be met.  The next month, when Troy finally got the offer, our needs were met and even exceeded!

3.  We packed up and moved the week after Thanksgiving.  2 vans, 4 kids, 2 cats, and a fig tree, for 1000 miles!  No time to blogging!

We are renting a cute home with lots of land and space while we are trying to sell our house in Baltimore.  That is a source of stress, but God is going to have to take care of that too!

So here we are.  This Hayseed in the City has become Hayseed in the 'sippi.  (That was all my sister's clever idea, by the way.)  I cannot express how many times God confirmed this move to us.  It was about 9 months full of amazing details where God was answering us.  But the most comforting confirmation is- I feel like I'm home.

Summer so far

Maggie Moo turned Two!

Full blown birthday parties don't happen every year in the Stouffer family (4 big parties in 4 months- Yikes!).  Instead we have some fun birthday traditions for the actual day.

(We are shooting for an April birthday party with one of the July parties for one year, and a June party matched with the other July party the next for an easy rotation.)

George had a party last year, so this year

we had a tiny Party for Margaret.

We had to have a cow party before she got too old for a party themed after her cute nickname.

 Moooooo!

(Praise the Lord for pinterest!)

 I was thrilled to find this table cloth and matching napkins from my Mom's stuff.

It made it feel like she was a part of the celebration.

 She loved having her church Momma, god-Momma, and little bestie, Nathan over.

 It was quiet and laid back,

 just like a cow would appreciate, I'd imagine.

 The morning on her birthday, we did the usual.

 She came downstairs to find gifts.

(And acted like a monkey??)

 If you know her infatuation with belly buttons (belly butts as she says), you will appreciate this baby doll! 

 It dances when you press her belly butts!

 Birthday breakfast consisted of chocolate waffles with icing!

 Hesitant, but then stuffed her face.

 Then, she got gussied up with her princess lip gloss for a day on the town!

 We started off with a lunch at Chick Fil A (the kid's choice)

and a long time at a park.

 Then to cool off, we drove to Little Italy for lunch and dessert at Vacarros!

 The Colosseo is family sized (actually, I think it was only a half a Colosseo!)

 We finished our birthday fun day at the Boumi Carnival!

 Maggie was just old enough, and certainly brave enough to ride some rides this year.

 Livia was her ride partner and watched out for her the whole time.

 And at the end of the night, a rainbow appeared!

 What a wonderful day to turn 2!