home.

we are settling into our new house and making it feel like home.  I am more and more convinced that “home” is where “our people” are, but having our stuff and kids and dog all underneath the same roof is certainly a nice feeling!

SO, without closing on the house we were selling . . . and with the goal of putting some stress behind us . . . we went out and celebrated Hatch’s birthday.  It was so much fun, a great distraction from the house stress, and a great reminder of God’s gift to me in blessing me with my hubby.  We celebrated, and we spent our last night at our house on Seminary Avenue.

the next day, we did indeed close on our old house . . . and we also celebrated our baby girl turning TWO.  I felt like I was doing just fine until we showed up at music class and all of her friends sang to her.  “Happy birt-day ME, Mommy!”  and the tears began to flow.  Oh, my baby girl!  Growing up so quickly and so beautifully and with such sweetness and sass all rolled into one.  Oh, how we love this precious surprise baby of ours.  She is so dear to us!  And, she can certainly hold her own with those rascal brothers of hers!

Miss Ash came over with some hand-made morning birthday treats for Anna!  Oh, how sister loves her new tu-tu!  We celebrated that day and that evening with a party at Sugie’s, and as a gift to Sugie and Bumpa, we moved on in with them for almost two weeks!

We were supposed to close on our new house on Anna’s big day, and we had to move the closing of our new house to the following day (which was a Friday . . .)  It was stressful and touch and go, but in God’s perfect timing, we closed at the very. last. possible. minute.  the celebration began . . .

and, so did the work!

we may have had a meltdown or two, but we did our best to keep it together!

While the work was happening, we made some use of our new backyard!  (this is a horrible picture, but we watched the man build daddy’s shed over lunch.  It doesn’t get any better than that!)

Sister tried out the new swing . . .

We took about 78321 trips to the hardware store . . .

And, we continued to celebrate little miss!

We then began our race with Hurricane Sandy—our goal wasto move in before she landed . . . so, we made things as complicated as possible and moved out of our old house on Saturday . . . we did what any parents would do, we lined up our kids with some shows at Sugie’s and we raced to move before the rain fell!

it was wild seeing our empty house . . . it held so many sweet memories for our family . . . so much change, so much life.  it’s just crazy that we moved into the house having been married just a few years, and we moved out with a different job (or two) for hatch, three children under four, and an enormous dog.  that little house will always be special to us.  and, our neighbors . . . OH, how we will miss our neighbors!

and we continued our race against Sandy and moved into the new house on Sunday . . . well, actually, the movers and I moved into the new house on Sunday while Hatch waited in line for 6 hours to buy a generator.  Exciting times!  Since Sandy came and went without much more than some wind, a brief power outage and some rain, Sugie and I were able to power through and unpack and unpack and unpack.  She worked her magic on our closets (we removed the doors from this one due to smashing tiny fingers) . . . can you guess whose closet this is?

some treasures were uncovered in our packing . . .

and, we eventually made enough headway in our unpacking to bring home the troops.  the little ones hadn’t been inside yet, and they were SO EXCITED.  Anna was most excited to see that her play kitchen from our old house had, indeed, followed her here.  Since moving in, these little ones wake up and scatter to play . . . and I chase them around to get clothes on, diapers changed, and sweaters on before we dash out the door! 

Our first morning at the new house!

First Yunch!

And, our second night in the house was . . . HALLOWEEN!!

Halloween dinner with our crazy crew!

then, life continued as we know it . . . you know, when daddy says to the kids “here is all of your candy” and then heads out the door to work!  thanks, daddy.  THANKS.

Anna began scaling the furniture for her “trick or treatings”  . . .

and, well, most of the boxes are unpacked . . . this house is feeling more like home, and we are doing our very best to settle on in for the long haul.  we are SO THANKFUL and so glad to be here!  God is generous and good to us . . . and, in hindsight, we can see that His timing is (indeed) perfect, and we are so very grateful!

y’all come visit!

pumpkins!

I have got to go to bed before I drop . . . but I wanted to share these pictures from Sunday.  We put packing on hold for a few hours and headed to the pumpkin patch for a little family day.  We waited and waited, but it was well worth the wait!  William woke up Monday morning and asked to go back!  More pictures from my real camera eventually, but for now, here we go . . .

family hay ride!  (anna and william were loving it despite their non-smiles!)

VERY excited!

my boys . . . oh, how I love these three!

as it turns out, we are very good at picking pumpkins.  and, while daddy is quite strong, we had to pick just a few of these beauties to take home.  it’s all you can carry, and our gatherers eyes were bigger than their daddy’s arms . . .

oh, the talent.  such talent!

my girl!

having a ‘nack on the ride home

and mr. william with his newest tiny thing:  a tiny pumpkin (this is for you, anne!)

and, sister, sporting her pumpkin gear that belonged to her cousin sam many years ago! 

sleep tight!  happy pumpkins! 

(and . . . we sell our house tomorrow!  and, someone very handsome turns 32!!  BIG DAY over here!!)

night!

in case you were wondering . . .

. . . we have not completely fallen off the planet . . . yet!

we are living among boxes and have been packing in our every spare moment!  we close next week on our new house and hope to move the next!  ah!

in these past several weeks, we’ve confirmed that boxes are just as much fun (if not more) than toys . . .

as part of an effort to not move too much food, we’ve been baking!  and, I now remember why I didn’t do much backing while our house was on the market . . .

this is how we roll when babes are awake while mama packs . . . (which, I will say, is not often since our families have been tremendously helpful in playing with the littles while we are slaves to the boxes!)

we had one funny trip to the dentist, where they all got prizes for being brave patients!

we may have eaten out a meal or two or ten, because this mama can either pack or do everything else I usually do--not both!

this girl is loving school and will be 2 (TWO!) next week!  HOW did it happen so fast?  We happen to close on our new house on the same day that Sister turns 2.  The tears have already begun!  We are so grateful for God’s goodness to us, and we are excited to celebrate this little lady of ours! 

there has been some “cwimbing” lately . . .

and, I say, if you’re not going to tinkle on it, you might as well use it as a stool!

and, the amazing daddy made a box maze, so we have played many a game of hide and seek!

these rascals continue to LOVE school.  this past week was fire safety week, so we have been receiving instructions from Fire Department #8’s tiniest firefighters.  It’s good to know that in a house full of boxes, we still have time to practice “stop-drop-and-roll.”  I am so grateful that they LOVE their teacher, their school, their turns as line leader, finding their sister on the playground, and their special activities!  What fun!

slowly but surely, there’s more to come . . . one box at a time, one box at a time!

oh. my. heart.

after a great ole weekend and a big day full of packing today, we picked up the littles and grabbed a quick dinner on our way back to our home.  as we left our little pizza shop, the boys asked me to please take a picture of them with their daddy.  (normally, they hate having pictures taken, so this was quite an interesting request.)  and, here we have it!  it’s not the clearest picture, but the grins on these big little-boys’ faces are PRICELESS. 

oh, I just love it!  such a sweet way to wrap up the weekend!

for grown ups only

so, my very talented and sweet Aunt Kellie has published her debut novel, A Guilty Mind.  It’s available at Barnes & Noble, Amazon, and even in Kindle form for your ipad!  So, scurry on over and get yourself a copy . . . and spread the word to your friends and book club!

Link here to Amazon! 

 

Aunt Kellie is mother to four of our super-fun cousins—including the infamous “Cinderella” Cammie, who is the lone reason I stay sane all summer long; “Gup-Guppy,” baby Anna’s heart throb; the fun-loving OOK (Lukie); and, the big girl cousin, who is actually Kellie’s baby, who throws amazing dance parties, Mere Mere).  Kellie is the wife to my hilarious and incredibly generous Uncle Dave, and she was also one of my Nana’s main care givers.  I know that this fantastic book of hers has been in the works for a while, but that she was able to care night-and-day for our Nana, enjoy the summer at home with her kids, send four kids off to three different schools in the last few weeks, and kick-off the fall with a debut of her first novel is QUITE impressive.  (And, where will my kids be on Sunday, you may ask?  At Aunt Kellie’s house playing, while Hatch and I pack, pack, pack!)  Aunt Kellie, we love you so much, we are so proud and impressed, and we are just thrilled for you!  Way to go—I truly admire you!

So, go on, now . . . buy the book!  And tell me what you think! 

there are no words.

{there are no words, but I will try to find some . . . }

 

my baby started school today. 

I don’t know what to do with myself.

she was so excited, she couldn’t even stand it. 

she had thrown at least three fits within the last week about wanting to start school NOW.

today was her day, and she was just thrilled.

I, on the other hand, was feeling a bit emotional about the whole thing.  how did my baby get so big?  not only is she going to school, but she WANTS to go to school.  I enrolled my boys in Mrs. Bauer’s baby class because I was pregnant with her . . . and now she is going.  This time in our lives is crazy, and it is flying by me.  Fortunately for us all, life continues despite my emotions, so I had to wrangle her brothers—who had put ALL of their blueberries into their water cups pretending they were fish—and convince them to please hurry up and EAT, now, PLEASE, so that we could get there remotely on time.  (Hudson did not eat.  Hence the peanut butter spoon in the picture.)  My emotions collided with our hurry up-and-go list today, but I had to stop and take a picture or two!

I was able to snap a few pictures of sister wearing my old dress before we headed off to school (actually, before we had to redirect and clean Hudson off from his peanut butter entanglement . . . and then do an emergency diaper change in the car for Anna B) . . .    

When we got to school, we were late but she was thrilled to go into her classroom. Truth be told, she went into the boys’ classroom, and I had to fetch her and redirect her.  She walked right on into “Anna’s C-wass” without hardly saying goodbye to me!      

I was scheduled to work in the class today, and ended up going back into her room—she saw me out of the corner of her eye, but she tried her hardest to pretend I wasn’t there.  Perhaps I cramped her style a bit!? 

    

So, today was a bit of a dry run for us both . . . she still had mommy to run towards when she wanted more snack, and I still had my Annabug to smooch and squeeze this Wednesday morning.  I have a feeling that next week will be odd for me.  I cannot get over how big she is!

    

And, full of personality!

In true Reppard form, she wanted everyone else’s snack at school . . . but, what can I say?  Hudson and I have taught her well.

Sugie, you will be glad to know that she loved my/her dress, too!  BALLOONS!

    

While her bag did not meet her PINK specifications, it did have a pink birdie . . . and her name on it, so she agreed that it would do!

    

trying it out . . .

              

and, ready to go! 

this girl is so sweet, such fun, full of life and passion (!) and so loving and expressive. 

she is so dear to me, and preschool or not, she will always be our baby anna!

+++

and, in other news . . . the moving process is about to begin . . .

     

our moving assistants arrived yesterday!  what great helpers!

Also, as an FYI:  I am open and excited to receive any and all packing and moving tips or tricks!  and, if painting is more of your thing, fear not . . . we’ve got some of that ahead of us, too!  the more the merrier!