Memorial Day

So at one point during our Memorial Day festivities I thought that I should take some photos, but then I didn't. So no pictures.
This year Memorial day fell on Aunt Cammi's birthday. As luck would have it, Cammi was actually in town this year for her birthday weekend, when usually she isn't. So we decided to have a little cook out at our new house. Seth and Heather had not seen it yet, so it was fun to have them up to see it. We just had normal cook out food, and a good time hanging out. We set up the slip and slide for the kids, and they loved that. Olivia even eventually got into things. She is very ready to keep up with the boys this year.
We actually started out the day on the canal with Grandad. It's nice to have Grandad come up sometimes, and we run/walk/ride in the stroller/bike/scooter, just whatever you want to do. With 3 adults it's enough to have someone take care of the kids at all times, and when I get more in shape and spend more time running than walking (read, once I no longer have the allergies/cold that never ever ever goes away!) then it will be nice to have Grandad there so that both Jesse and I can get our runs in at the same time. We also got to see Cammi start her birthday kayak run with a few friends, and the kids played at the boat ramp into the river for a little while too.
So it was a fun little day for us. This week is a super busy week for me with teaching preschool, and then Nate having a birthday on Saturday. Saturday- that is 2 days away. I have not bought a single present. Not one. I'm in a bit of denial about the whole thing I guess. Lots of work for the party still left to do too. Oh well, it'll come whether I'm ready or not, and it'll probably turn out just fine either way too!

Kings Dominion

This past weekend my brother came to town with his oldest daughter. We decided that it would be lots of fun to take the whole family to Kings Dominion. So, with the exception of my pregnant sister in law, everyone here in MD went to the amusement park for the day.

The drive getting down there was an adventure in and of itself. Our kids are notorious for getting motion sickness when you get them up early and put them right in the car for a long drive. Keeping that in mind, I had packed 2 changes of clothes for each kid, as well as a whole roll of paper towel and a whole package of wipes. As it turns out, the only thing that I forgot was trash bags. Also, thinking about how gross it is to clean up chocolate milk puke, something I have done many, many times in my life, we skipped their normal morning drink, and opted for orange juice. Better, but probably apple juice would have been easier on their little tummies. So after about half an hour driving, Graham was the first to go. He threw up when we were nowhere close to a convenient place to pull over to clean him up. But we found a place, and got stop one out of our way. After that, we drove by this:

 It's like a tractor supply store or something, and we drove by before any of the fire trucks even got there. If we had been about 5 minutes later, we may not have been able to get by.

Then it was Olivia's turn to throw up. After we got her cleaned up, the rest of the ride was pretty uneventful. And like I said, it's all about motion sickness, and really, only when they are in the car right after waking up. So they were fine the rest of the day.

We got to the park, and eventually found my mom and brothers and niece. The first ride of the day was the Ghoster Coaster. Or, as others know it as, the Scooby Doo. This was my favorite ride as a child, and it was Nate and Graham's first ride on an official roller coaster. Graham rode with Jesse, and after an initial bout of nervousness on the first hill, he got over it and was all smiles when he got off. I rode with Nate, and after the first hill, he looked nervous and started to hold his stomach, and I started to think that he would make our record 3 for 3 if you know what I mean. He did not throw up, but he was very upset after we got off of the ride. So no more Scooby Doo roller coaster for him.

Instead he rode rides like this:

 We did get him on this little "roller coaster", which is more like what you would find at a fair or carnival.

 Can you see Graham's tiny head?

 They both loved the bumper cars, and that is how we ended our day later on.

 This was I think Olivia's favorite ride. Their second time back on the ride Olivia saw that is where they were headed, and pretty much pushed everyone out of the way to get herself on.

 It was nice for Olivia to be able to ride a bunch of rides, and I'm glad that the boys like her so much to take her with them.

 I like this little girl who just jumped in with Graham, and appears to be blowing him a kiss.

 We spent the day split between spending time in the Kid zone, and the rest of the park. Jesse and I rode a few rides, but none of the big new ones. I didn't want to just leave my mom with the kids the whole day, plus, it is fun to see them having fun.
One new thing that we did do was to go to the Dinosaur park. They have animatronic dinosaurs along this little path, that you do a walking tour of. The boys loved it. (And by the boys, I mean Jesse, Nate and Graham.) There were a few places where you could push certain buttons and control the dinosaur movements.

 They were all life size, so some of them were, well, big.

 And it would not be complete without the T Rex family. Most of them did growl and move and such, but the kids were not scared, so that was good.

 Olivia was the champ of the day. She only sometimes got to ride on things, and mostly was just pushed around in her stroller. But she didn't cry or complain, and just was happy to be included in things. What a little angel she was. (if only all days could be like that!)

We did get both of the boys on the Avalanche ride, which is a bobsled ride, and since there were no up and down hills, they both loved it, and proclaimed it to be their favorite ride of the day.
The ride home was uneventful, just the way we like it, and the boys are now asking to go back, and have reverted to their other favorite request- Disney World.

Lately

Lately life has been, well, boring. Nate goes to school, Nate comes home, I have gotten into a little bit of a routine. Jesse goes to work, Jesse comes home. We just have been not doing much lately. I had my first social event at our new house, I hosted my book group, and I have been spending time putting the finishing touches on the house. I have pictures up, and curtains up. I need to change out a few more curtain rods, and then change the valances in the kitchen. But then there's just the amount of time it takes to keep the place not a total mess. Which is a lot. In the next month things will probably pick up a bit. My brother and niece are coming into town this week, so we'll spend some time with them. And then we will start to have birthdays and school will let out. Just stuff like that. In the mean time, there are few things cuter than Olivia sitting on that bench at the island in the kitchen.

Easter

We had a busy Easter this year. The day before Easter was full of lots of moving things. I got up and left our house at about 8:30 to drive to my mom's house to pick up her truck, and some shelves that we were getting from her. I went straight to the new house, and unloaded the shelves (all taken apart) and waited for Jesse and his dad to arrive with some things from the old house, as well as our washing machine. While waiting for things to happen that day I was taping the trim.
After they got here with the washing machine, we went down to VA to pick up some bunk beds that we bought from someone in my in-laws' ward.
Then we came back up, and put the bunk beds together, and I got us some lunch from the local deli. All this time Cammi had the kids up in Frederick. She had taken them to the zoo, and then back home to hang out. After getting the beds back together, Jesse and his dad went back to Frederick to pick up the kids, I once again stayed back and taped. Soon after they got back, Grammy arrived with the cousins. We soon had an egg hunt orchestrated by Aunt Cammi.
The big kids were down in the yard.

The smaller ones up on the deck.

After dinner we went to the local creamery for some dessert. They offered Olivia a free baby cone. It was so cute, and she loved it!

We all enjoyed it, and many were left with ice cream faces.

After that, we headed back up to Frederick, had to stop at Kohl's, and got home at about 9pm. So I was gone the entire day, and I was exhausted.

The next morning was Easter, but we had early church, so the kids got to have a little candy for breakfast, and then we headed off.

That evening we went to my mom's house for dinner. Matt and Melissa joined us. The kids did not want to cooperate for a group picture. This is the only one that I got.

Olivia thought that she'd have a nice pre-dinner treat.

It was a lovely Easter weekend, and nice to be able to spend it with all of our family.

moved

Well, we are now sleeping and spending most of our time in our new house! Yea! Moving day went quite smoothly. We were competing with a youth fund raiser, and Jesse didn't contact the other ward until the last minute, so we didn't have a ton of people come to help us, but those who did come got a great work out, and we got the loading done in a little over an hour, and the unloading done in less time. Once again, so thankful to all of those who have come to serve us in the past month. Aunt Cammi came up to entertain the kids while all of this was going on, so after I supervised the unloading of the truck, I was able to start to unpack a few things. I got most of the upstairs unpacked the first day, but that was easy stuff. I know where I want my clothes- in dressers and closets. I know where I want toiletries- in the bathroom. It's the rest of the house that I'm stumped over. I got the kitchen started last week after I packed it up with my friend Lisa, and today I have gotten most of the rest of it unpacked. There are several rather large scary boxes that I'm avoiding, which were the last to be packed, and just had clutter and mess thrown into them. Yikes! And then there is the pantry problem. Whereas my kitchen is bigger than my old one, the pantry is much smaller, so I need to decide what makes the cut to be upstairs.
We love being here, but there have been a few problems crop up. The washer lines were never tested in the home inspection because there was no washer, so we tried to hook up our washer, and now there is leaking in the basement. Blah. The dishwasher may or may not leak, I have to keep an eye on that. Jesse and his dad took care of a leaky, running toilet, so that is good now, but when you take a shower, water ends up on the outside of the stall, and that is not good. I guess I never thought that on my first day of home ownership things would be so wet. I was hoping that came a little later.
But none the less, we are now living here, and loving it. Still quite a bit of work to be done, and I am waist deep in boxes. (Except for the basement, they are piled up to my neck down there.) Hopefully we'll get settled in in the next month or so, and then I can show you around!

What we do

So we've mostly been packing, and painting and getting us from one house to the other in recent days. But when we are not doing that, here is what we've been up to. Grandad got us an iPad, and the kids love to play on that. This is Graham's tough face, he got a "couch burn" on his eye, and for a while it made him look a bit like a thug.

Nate finally lost the other tooth, and now he's back to being cute.

I get this face from Olivia quite a bit, the bite your lower lip face. Oh, and her brothers taught her that neat trick of climbing up to stand on the ledge.

The boys enjoy playing outside almost every day. That is what they want to do the most, and I've been enjoying time at the new house, and being able to just throw them out into the back yard.

The other day the boys were watching a movie, and had some pillows and blankets out. Whenever that happens, Olivia sits right down, tucks herself in, and makes herself comfortable.

I'm going to start putting a few progress shots of the new house on my other blog. Nothing is quite to the finished stage, but I'm excited with the progress that we've made.

Just like that

And just like that, we are homeowners! Holy Moly!!!! Here are a few pictures from the rest of the house. I will be doing quite a bit of changing, especially when it comes to paint color. I think that painting it is what is going to make it feel like it's actually mine for real, and not just for now. Here is the back. The back yard is fenced in.

Here is the cat door. It'll make it so that the cats can get to their litter boxes in the basement without me having the basement door open.

Dining room. I'm already taking the wall paper down that is under the chair rail.

Large mirror in the living room. That is already down too. Nate cried a lot because we weren't keeping it. It was too big to get out of the room in one piece, so we had to break it. Now we have to work on the wall behind it before we can paint. SO MUCH WORK to do before painting!!! ugh!

One of the bedrooms. This is all going too. Ugly wall paper up there too. Not a high priority though since we don't need all 3 bedrooms right away. This will eventually be Olivia's room.

Master bedroom. Through those doors is the bathroom.

Kitchen. I may leave this for a while since there's not much I can do with it on a budget.

Family room. This only needs to be painted.

So there is our new house! We're very excited to get to work on it, and in the next few weeks I can imagine my mornings being spent at the new house working on painting, etc, and afternoons at the old house packing. It's all real now, and I probably ought to stop living in denial.