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!
