passports should never be this hard.

We lost our passports in the Bahamas last March.  It was a total bummer.  Kind of a downer to the trip, but we tried to get over it quickly.  

So today we had to apply for new ones.  It was an ordeal.

Not because of them.  Just us.

I'll start by saying we started this process a few weeks ago, in our minds we were headed out to start and finish in the same day.

To Walgreens for pictures.

To the post office to do the papers.

Forgot we needed birth certificates.

Back home.

Papers sat on our counter for 2 weeks.

A few days ago we finally tried again. Since we're now running out of time.

I remembered we probably also needed driver's licenses.

And I realized 3 days ago mine has been expired since September.

Crud.  The day we finally try to finish passports up I'm guessing they won't take an expired license.

To the courthouse to renew my license.

Praying I didn't have to take a test.

Didn't know I needed a proof of address.

Back home.

Hopefully we have everything we need now.

Back to the DMV.  

Got my license and then FREAKED that my temporary paper one was not going to work for a passport.  UGH!

Luckily it did.

Finally have everything we need.

Handed them our passport photos and they said Dave can't be wearing a hoodie.

You know, because he may be mistaken for a terrorist.

And the Walgreens guy didn't catch that.
Geesh.  If the Walgreens guy didn't feel threatened by Dave's hoodie then why should border patrol?

So back to Walgreens.

ARE YOU KIDDING ME!?!?  

This should not be this hard.

Back to Walgreens.

Dave sits down to take a new photo.
I dared him to just pull his hood up over his head and see if the Walgreens guy would even say something.  But he didn't feel it was a good time to be messing around.

BUT WAIT...they don't want words printed on your shirt either.

So he turns the shirt inside out.  Easy fix.

Picture finally completed.

Back to the courthouse.

Passport applications finally done.

Only to find out it's a 6-8 week process.  We leave in 7 weeks.

We may or may not get to Cabo.

But we will for sure never lose our passports again.

And I hope this recap of steps helps someone else do this process way easier than we did.
It should have never been this hard.

goodbye nursery.

Another big-kid transition happened at our house last month. 

When Gavin was born, Taylor excitedly moved out of her room and into bunk beds with Mason, so that Gavin could have his own room.  We turned her girl room into a neutral nursery since we didn't know if we were having a boy or a girl.

She's been waiting anxiously for more than 3 years to get her own room back.  We have been in limbo with a possible move to a new house for the last couple of years, so we didn't want to spend money painting a room and re-decorating to give her her room back, when we could possibly be leaving. But we finally decided we'd just move her without all the extra details. 

So our last baby moved out of our last nursery.  And into the bottom bunk.
The 2 boys are finally together.

No matching bedding.  No theme to the room (the wall is still designed like a barn door from when it was Mason's nursery).  Just absent of all pink details is all that matters.

Everything in Gavin's room was going to work perfectly with the quilt we got her for Christmas, except the red details.  She was SO excited the day we told her that we'd go ahead and move her!  She completely agreed it was ok to not paint or buy anything new for this room, and just wait for the next room and do a little more personalizing then.

 

There are still a few red things up and if I just took the time to paint them pink they'd be perfect.  But knowing myself, I doubt I'll ever get to that.

Our big girl finally has her own space.

They boys have done amazingly well together.  They are both always so tired at bedtime that they have hardly even say a word to each other.

And our little missy who couldn't stand to clean her room or keep things picked up off the floor EVER, has kept her room nearly spotless ever since the move.  The first morning she woke up in her new room she made her bed without being asked and has made it every single morning since.