A brief recap of the last 3 years

I've been away from this blog for a really long time.  The five people who read this blog probably already know most of the things I'll bring up here but for some reason I cannot just write a current post without addressing the absent information.  I'm sure a random internet lurker will appreciate my efforts.
My last post told of the birth of my 3rd child, the Walnut. Well, when that child turned 16 months, we discovered much to our surprise that we were expecting another baby.  We looked around our 1200 sq/ft townhome with a parking spot for a back yard and thought, "Where are we going to but them?"
My dear Dilbert started looking around for other jobs.  He loved his current job but there was no way we could afford a large place on the current salary in the DC area. He found a few options but nothing that would allow for what we really wanted. 
We wanted a home that we wouldn't grow out of with enough room outside for the kids to play and a neighborhood where we could feel safe letting them do so.  To those not familiar with the DC area, those things come with a really big price tag. 
In the back of our minds we'd always thought about having Dilbert telecommute and moving wherever we wanted.  Dilbert talked to his bosses about this option and everyone thought it was a fine idea.  We'd always thought the Pittsburgh area would suit us well so we started looking and found that we could find exactly what we wanted well within our budget close enough to the city that Dilbert could commute in if he ever decided to switch jobs. 
We fixed up our place and put in on the market, got in our van that night and drove up to the burgh to look at houses.  We found one that weekend and by the time we got home we were under contract and the house had been inspected.  We closed a month later and moved into our truly enormous house on a half acre in a nice neighborhood in PA.
Five months later Filbert was born here in this house.  I'll write about that someday but not now.  That birth challenged everything I thought I knew about myself and birth and it got pretty heavy for a while.  I have to be in the right frame of mind and possibly fortified with a bottle or two of wine before I get into all that.
Filbert has just turned a year old now and in the meantime we have been doing our best to make friends, put down roots and raise and educate our kids the best we can.
I want to write down here as much as I can because the older my kids get (The Pudding is now 9!) the more I realize how much my mind is letting slip away.  All that stuff that I thought I'd remember, I don't remember.  First words, ages of first steps, teeth, words. All those little insights that mothers have into what works for their child, it's possible to forget them for a time and have to relearn them all over again.  It's mid May and so our school year is coming to a close and I'm hoping that I will have the time to record many of those little things here so that I can revisit them, relearn them and remember all the thousand and one sweet moments I have the privilege to share with my babies.