New House

We ended up moving in March 13th. The move was SO much harder than I expected. So much harder.

We had three big moving days. The third moving day was just Chris and I on Sunday evening getting what we thought would be the last of it. Just a few boxes. It ended up being a whole trailer load. We just kept pulling more and more boxes out of our attic and boxing up more and more "little things".

It turns out I'm a hoarder after all, it's just that all my things were packed neatly away in boxes. And when I say all my things I mean ALL my things. Literally everything I've ever had from childhood until now. I'm talking keychain collection, button collection, pin collection, popples, glo-worms, old cameras, coloring books, all of my stuffed animals, all of my school papers, a tiny little bracket from my braces in a plastic bag. Seriously, poke my eye out. Ridiculous.

We were exhausted when we finally called it a night on Sunday and so was my Dad who was taking care of the kids while Mom unpacked our kitchen...Praise the Lord! Mom had had them by herself the two days before including overnight while Dad helped us move.

The next week was mostly spent going back to the old house cleaning it up and getting the rest of our crap. I think it was Thursday night and we were driving over there again and I told Mckenzee "This is the last time we are going to drag y'all back over here." and she said, "Me and Ri-wee just stay in the car."

We closed on that property on the 19th and we were done, done, done!

I made good progress unpacking boxes and getting things put away for a couple of weeks and then I just reached my limit. We kind of hit a lull and we got so sick, but things are coming back together again and we painted the living room and got solar screens put on the windows and bought gutters and we seem to be on track.

I have to say it has been an adjustment for me. The kids did fine. Chris did fine. But I have had a hard time. I don't think it's any secret that I deal with anxiety issues. It is of course worse in times of stress. The new house is bigger and the bedrooms are split. Which means when we go to bed at night, my hardest time of day, the kids are as far from me as they can be. The first month we were here we couldn't get our security system set up because our phone line wasn't working. Thankfully, my Grandpa was able to get that working without us having to pay AT&T $200+ an hr. Then there was "The Incident" that happened the second night we were here. Read on to find out about it. Needless to say, I had a hard time sleeping.

Plus, I think I went through a little bit of grieving over selling the other house. It was our first house. It was painted and fixed up just like we wanted and we worked so hard to get it that way. The kids rooms were custom done by Daddy and that's the house I brought my babies home to. It was sad for me to leave it even though I always knew it wasn't where I wanted to be forever and it was the right time and we needed more space.

On to happier things. I LOVE the new house. It has space for all of our things. We have a play room! Amen to playrooms! It has changed our life! Chris and I love to talk about paint colors and decorating ideas. It is starting to feel like our house and not a vacation rental. There are so many things I want to do to it and I wish I could just snap my fingers and make it happen. I know you are wanting to see pictures and I have a few, but they were all taken before we moved in so it looks very blank. I'll post those and then later do a post of afters so you can see what it looks like with our things and with paint.

I am anxious to get back to blogging and reading all of your blogs as well!

view from entryway

living room from formal dining

From back of living room. To the left is the formal dining. We plan to enclose it with french doors as a study. To the right is the playroom.

Kitchen. Wow. Might be my favorite room in the house. Gas range. Didn't know I would love it so much, but I do.

Master bath

It's hard to tell much about the rest of the rooms from the pictures without furniture. They kind of all look the same. More pics soon!

Not so Sweet Afterall

Sunday night Chris and I were watching Undercover Boss. That's a very cool show by the way. Anyway, the kids were right next to us in the living room playing in Kenzee's Frog tent. They were laughing and having a good time and I suggested they take some toys in there and so Mckenzee got some and they were playing. The tent was zipped up, but the front is mesh. We couldn't see inside real well because we had the lights on and there was a glare. They were playing so nice together. If you ever think that thought in your head 80% of the time something shady's probably going down. I realized I was hearing a shaker sound. Not totally unusual becuase we have shaker toys, but as I looked closer I saw what was happening through the mesh. I told Chris to get in there quick. Turns out Mckenzee was emptying an entire container of sprinkles and Riley boy was just eating them up. His hands were covered. Chris tried to get her in trouble, but we bothed started laughing when we saw Riley. He dumped out the tent in the backyard and we made her get wipes and wipe out the inside. Here's the pics:

The Culprit

The Crime Scene

The Accomplice

Mckenzee Gets her Ears Pierced!

This was so fun. I was nervous. She wasn't. She didn't even cry. We went to Sweet and Sassy with our good friends the White's and Sarah and Kenzee got haircuts and then picked out earrings to get their ears pierced. Mckenzee chose flowers with a blue stone in the center. They drew on dots with marker and had us approve their position and then she was ready to go. I sat right in front of her and a girl got on each side to do them at the same time. They had her count to 5 and pierced them on 3. She got a look on her face when they did it, like"Hey, I think I'm gonna hit you," but I handed her her starbucks milkshake real quick, that we had brought on ice, and she was fine. No tears and so happy with her earrings!

I love this girl!

I Love Snow!

I have a few other posts in draft mode that I will commit to working on this weekend, but for now, as promised, here are some snow pictures. Oh, how I love the snow. I wish it would snow for days and days. It makes me so happy. I left a ruler out on our patio table and watched the snow rise up it. We ended the night on February 11th at 10 inches. I know they said we got more than that, but that was my best measurement at our house. Mckenzee and I ventured out in the morning to Ballet and Zumba and it was laready very white by then. The first pics below were taken about 9:00. After Daddy came home early she and I made a snowman. We had intended to make 2, but were worn out with just one. In fact, when I was almost done I sent her in to get her Daddy to take our picture and she didn't return with him and I asked where she was and he said she had already taken off her shoes and coat and hat and she was stripping down. I had to get her anyway and that's why she is not quite dressed appropriately in the snowman pics.


9:00 am

5:00pm

The next morning

The blue thing on the table is my ruler

Baby Boy is One!

Happy Birthday Riley!

We got him this chair for his birthday and some cute little pedi-ped shoes. He has been getting in his sister's pink chair everyday just to sit, so we thought he would love having his own. When he saw it he climbed right on up and just sat and played and smiled so big.

My sweet boy is one year old! I can't believe it! Riley is walking everywhere. His favorite foods are blueberries and bananas. He eats twice as much as Mckenzee does. We call him the hog. He can say: Momma, Da da, bye-bye, ball(ba), pup, duck(du), and PawPaw. He has signed 'more' and 'all done', but most of the time he just prefers to yell and point. He's a big fat Momma's boy all the way. If he's not busy eating the dog's food or dumping out her water, digging in the trashcan, getting in the recycle box, climbing in the refrigerator, or knocking down his sister's newly built block tower, he is quite content to be on my hip. He love, love, loves to dance to the Hokey Pokey. He is sleeping from 7:30 to 5:30 and will usually go back to sleep for a couple of hours after he wakes up then. I love his sweet face and big blue eyes. I wish he let me squeeze him tight more and give him lots of kisses.

First pic was on self timer. He was in his chair, but got away from us before the picture took. I thought it was quite appropriate of how things are around here. Of course, sister is naked as always.

Me and my boy

Party time

He loved it when we sang him Happy Birthday.

...but he was not a fan of the cake. He tried to push it away when I sat it down and of course his fingers got icing on them when he did. After awhile he finally put his icing fingers in his mouth and then he gagged. We tried cutting open the cake and just giving him the inside, but he just kept looking like he wanted to throw up so we got him down and opened presents.

Sold!

Please forgive me. I had every intention of posting that we had just listed our house for sale this week. I was going to put up all the pictures of my perfectly clean home that kicked my butt all last week. I will still post those pics soon because it was beautiful and may not ever be so perfect again.

So, we listed our home for sale on Saturday afternoon. Our realtors had it on the internet within a couple of hours. On Saturday we cleaned out the garage, planted flowers, and cleaned off all counters and surfaces. Completely clutter free. On Sunday we had one showing and Monday we had 2. Monday night we had an offer for our full asking price and we accepted and now we are looking for a new home.

We have prayed and prayed about this and it is obvious to us that God is working it all out. We are entering into our 10 day option period now so we hope the inspection goes well and if all does we are set to close on March 5th.

Christmas

On Christmas Eve my sister called and said she heard on the radio that we were going to be met with near blizzard conditions later that day. She and I both thought that was hilarious. Then later, we knew what they were talking about. The snow fell ALL DAY and toward the evening was blowing completely sideways in sheets. It was awesome. I very much loved it. We decided to go ahead and brave the cold and loaded up our babies and head to church that evening. I asked Chris as were were buckling their car seats if we should really be doing this and he said he was just thinking the same thing.

We went anyway and when we got to church there was a full house including lots of small children and babies. Crazy people. After, we went to my parents house for pizza and Wii playing. Here is Kenzee snowboarding.

I am sure she really will be an awesome snowboarder someday. She told me the other day in the car that when she got bigger she was going to go snowboarding and that it would be okay cause it was just a little bit dangerous. This was before she played it on Wii....don't know where that came from. Then, for days when you asked her what she was getting for Christmas she would say a pogo stick. I would tell her no, time and time again that Santa did not have any pogo sticks for 3 year olds and then one days she finally said, How about a snowboard? Silly girl.

Chris and I stayed up until 2am getting things ready, cleaning up and doing additional assembly. Obviously, I did not follow my rules for Christmas Eve, but it we were glad to get everything in order for the next day.

Christmas was awesome. We started the morning by reading the Christmas story, but this year we read it in our bed with the kids before we went into the living room because we figured we wouldn't be able to control them once we got in there and we were right. Chris and I went a little overboard with the kids, but that's okay...we had to dock our spending money for each other, but we were just so excited about their stuff we didn't care. The picture is a bit embarrassing. It's not that they got so many things it's just that the things they did get were big. They loved their presents and we enjoyed watching them.

Later that morning Chris' family came over and we opened presents with them and then that afternoon after naps we went to my parents house. I do believe my mom and dad went a little overboard on their children too, but we really enjoyed our gifts and spending time with them and Aunt Sara....who got me awesome presents by the way. She always knows what to get. Thanks Wa!

We just hung out over there all evening and it was fun. My mom made ham and other tasty food and had a beautiful table set for us.

Merry Christmas!