House Update

I had big plans to do a video of my house after we were all moved in and it was perfectly decorated.  There are two problems with my plan - my house won't be decorated or done for a long time & this would require that my whole house be clean at the same time.  So instead of a beautiful video you get a few pictures from my phone.  Maybe I'll get Mike's wide angle lens and take some good pictures, maybe not.   Regardless, we are loving the house, the new school, and the large lot.

Dining Room

Living Room

Looking from the kitchen across the eat in area into the Family Room.  We added all those pantries on the right for more food, school stuff, and toy storage.

Family/TV/Play Room

Fireplace mantel in the Living Room.  Thanks Mom!

We had the old kitchen cabinets out and all but two of our new cabinets put in when we moved.  We haven't done anything since.  Once we have the two missing cabinets installed, the trim and kick plate in, and some hardware on - then I'll post pictures of my new kitchen.

February Mish-Mash

What we've been up to in February (besides unpacking & settling in):

 Celeste traded in her pacifier for a new stuffed friend, who she named Pasi.  Mike decided she was ready and we had a conversation with her and she agreed.  Although it's been tough, she hasn't asked for her pacifier, she seems to understand it's gone.  She does cry for it and gets really sad and misses it, but doesn't ask for it.  I'm really missing her naps that mysteriously stopped at the same time the pacifier was traded away.

 

Cutting the tip of her pacifier off & kissing her new stuffed animal.

 

Snow Days!  We've had more snow and more cold weather.  The kids have had several more snow days and have had a lot of fun.

Building a snowman with very wet snow

 The snowballs were so heavy they had to roll them up the ramp to stack them.  Then they fell off.  Madeline was not happy. 

Luckily they were able to rebuild the snowman! 

 Swimming in mom's bathtub.  Although they look cute and are smiling - they fought the whole time they were in there.  It's not really big enough for 5 kids.

Anna Elise and Calvin spent a lot of time making bracelets.  So did Celeste when they left their stuff out and weren't paying attention.  She was able to put a lot of rubber bands on their loom. 



Blue & Gold Banquet for Cub Scouts.  Calvin made this snow skiing/boarding mountain cake for the 'Olympics' themed cake decorating contest.

Lilah started preschool.  She goes twice a week for 2.5 hours.  She was excited to find that her friend from church is in the same preschool class.   She was really nervous on her first day, but loves it now.  She is so 'ready' to go to school.  Celeste spends all her time begging mom to play with her when Lilah isn't home.

We Moved!

The loan finally came through and we were finally able to wrap it all up and move - 2 weeks late.  We were all SO excited. We were ready.  Moving into a big, brand new house is not something I ever expected to happen.  I keep asking the kids 'can you believe this is our house?'.  I still can't believe it.  We love the house.  I can't wait to get everything moved in and unpacked and arranged and settled.  I can't wait for the kids to go to their new school and make friends and have a better learning environment.  I can't wait to plant grass and have a big lawn and for the kids to go explore 'the woods' behind our house.  I feel so very blessed.

Nothing like playing in an empty moving truck on moving day!

 Our new house!

Nightmare

Getting a loan has turned into a nightmare.  Probably the worst part of all is not knowing.  Not knowing if you are being told the truth, not knowing when or even if you will get an answer, not knowing when or if you will be able to buy a new house.  We've sold a bunch of our stuff (including our chickens), we've signed a rental contract with future tenants and have to be out of our house so they can move in, we've packed most of our belongings, we've both turned to our parents for help, we've done everything we can and the only thing left to do is simply wait and try to not go crazy.  We've also had record breaking cold weather (along with the rest of the country, I know).  We've had prolonged periods of sub-freezing weather (which means if you have an older house and just a heat pump you are cold), a ton of snow that won't melt (and not enough snow plows to remove it), and lots of snow days.  What do you do with kids at home in a cold house where most of their stuff is packed and it's too cold to go outside?  You leave!  We all finally hit the wall with all of this and decided we need a mini-vacation.  On Friday we went to Williamsburg to a warm hotel that had an indoor pool and a hot tub!  We swam and hung out in the hot tub and spent some time in a warm building with the heat on high!  On Saturday we found a local bounce house and spent a couple of hours letting the kids get all of their pent up energy out!  It was great!  We came feeling refreshed until we realized that our house was still cold, our stuff was still packed, and our tenants had frozen pipes...but it was a nice break while it lasted.

Swimming at the hotel.  They had cool underwater lights that changed colors!

Calvin chillin' at the bouncy house

Celeste sliding

Check back later tonight for the links to our YouTube videos  - Mike dared the kids the get out of the hot tub, run outside, roll in the snow, then run back inside and jump in the pool.  Hilarious!

Happy Birthday Madeline!

Our Maddy Paddy or 'Mato turned 7.  Admidst the craziness of getting a loan, packing, painting, going back to school and work we celebrated Madeline's birthday.  She choose to have donuts for breakfast, her Dad ate lunch with  her at school and she picked hot dogs for dinner.  She LOVES hot dogs.  She had a 'store' cake and was thrilled with it.   I also have some pictures of her 'curly' hair.  We tried rolling her hair in curlers again and she was able to sleep with them and got some great bouncy curls.   We love you Madeline!

Merry Christmas!

Christmas was a little bit different for us this year.  I had planned to do a more simplified celebration because we are busy getting packed, closing a loan, showing our current house to renters and organizing our move.  What I didn't know was that it was going to be even simpler then planned.  On Sunday afternoon I got sick and that evening Lilah got sick and by the morning Madeline wasn't feeling so well either.  Mike's cold from 3 weeks ago was getting worse.  On Monday Anna Elise got sick and everyone was getting worse, not better.  We all had some kind of stomach flu.  Mike made lots of trips to the store for medicine, gatoraide, crackers, and anything else that we needed.  By Tuesday Calvin was sick as well.  We were not able to go to the zoo for the Live Nativity, we skipped our 'baking day' and didn't make very many goodies or cookies, we didn't deliver goody plates to friends and neighbors, we had to postpone our Christmas Eve party, and we all just laid around the whole week!  We did watch Christmas movies and shows and whoever felt well enough, did some Christmas crafts.  On Christmas morning we felt pretty good.  We were able to open presents and we all felt like eating and had our traditional breakfast of Monkey Bread, scrambled eggs and sausage.  Unfortunately that afternoon Celeste finally succumbed and Mike was getting worse.  On Thursday Mike ended up at Patient First and came home with a diagnosis of severe bronchitis.  The Dr gave him a breathing treatment and 4 prescriptions.  I'm glad that the chest x-rays and blood work came back negative for pneumonia!  On Friday morning I woke up with a severe sinus infection that included the normal congestion and pressure but also had body aches.  It lasted several days.  Lilah was taken down with round 2 as well and eventually Anna Elise also got sick, again.  It was not a pleasant week as far as our health was concerned - however, we still managed to celebrate Christmas, have some fun, and spend lots of time together as a family.  Before we got sick we made a gingerbread train station, saw the downtown lights, went to the Nutcracker, and while sick we had our postponed Christmas Eve party, played with presents, Skyped with and talked on the phone to extended family, and got lots and lots of rest!  
For our Christmas dinner we switched up our normal dinner time family questions.  We asked everyone what their favorite present was and what they planned on giving  Jesus this year.  I'm so thankful that Calvin was the first one to go and that he took the questions seriously and gave the perfect answers.  He said he was going to give Jesus the gift of trying to break a bad habit that he has been working on.  The rest of the kids followed his example and all of them picked some personal habit or characteristic that they were working on changing.  It was a nice ending to a special day. 

 On our way to the Nutcracker

Our train and train station gingerbread kit!

 Mom did a lot of the building

 Celeste took good care of the candy =)

 Everyone had fun decorating

Almost done!

 Christmas morning!

 

Celeste eating breakfast in her new dress up and with her new dress up shoes - she carried them around with her all day!  (ignore the lovely picture of me)

Happy Birthday to Me!

As the oldest person in the house with my birthday on the shortest day of the year - sometimes I'd be ok just skipping it altogether - but I know I'd never get away with it.  I told Mike I didn't want anything for my birthday, just to go out and celebrate with him.   He took it one step further and made it a big celebration the whole day!  I got up early and got my birthday breakfast - donuts!  While I was gone the kids got out the birthday plates, napkins, party hat and card that Mike was hiding away.  I came home very surprised!  After lunch we continued the party with a piñata full of chocolate!  We didn't have time to eat my 'cake' but we finished big with a babysitter, dinner, a movie, and milkshakes.  We watched Saving Mr. Banks and I really enjoyed it.  It left me wanting to watch Mary Poppins again.  If you are going to watch it, watch Mary Poppins first!  I did feel a little bit of guilt because I know it was not Mike's first pick, but he was a good sport.  It was a sad movie, which was unexpected, but it was really good and I loved it.  If it's not an accurate portrayal of what really happened, don't tell me!
Anyway, the party continued on Sunday - we had cake after lunch!  The kids insisted on putting the right number of candles on the cake - they barely fit!  I really appreciated the effort that Mike put into making it a fun birthday.  I also had fun watching the kids have fun with the celebration!

 piñata fun

 Ready for my date!

Fun with birthday hats

 I blew out all the candles on my first try - unfortunately I also blew hot wax all over my table!