We have a house!

On June 12th George and I officially became home-owners! Woo hoo! It's been a roller coaster of emotions, vacillating between so excited and scared out of our minds, but I think we've settled on the middle ground of nervous happiness. 

I don't think we could find a more perfect living situation for our family. We now live in a cute neighborhood on a little cul-de-sac close to Charlottesville's downtown. Even before we moved in many of the neighbors introduced themselves and made sure we felt welcomed. It's like living in Pleasantville--all the neighbors know each other, everyone has been so kind to us, we've even already been invited over for a BBQ by a little family living behind us (the wife and George have a mutual friend at the hospital). Even the realtor that sold the house lives in the neighborhood and came by to drop off a lamp ("you might need the extra light while you're unpacking") and invited us over sometime soon to meet the other new families in the area. There is a park close by, very little traffic on the roads, and everyone has dogs and cats so the boys are in heaven.

How do the boys feel about our house?

They love it! Lance is loving having a bedroom all to himself and Jude and Cole love the extra space and the yard. Lance's only hang-up is leaving his elementary school and subsequently his friends, but we've heard his new school is wonderful and I'm confident Lance will quickly find his place there.

I'll have post pictures of the inside once we have it all set up. I'm embarrassed to say that even after two weeks of living here, we're still fairly deep in boxes. 

It does look better than it did during the first few days:

...but it's still a work in progress. Stay tuned for pictures in the coming weeks once we've had a chance to put it together. There is a saying somewhere that seems accurate:

"Cleaning a house with kids is like brushing your teeth while eating Oreos."

Too true.

Oh, and one more surprise about the house:

It comes with a cat!

Yep, apparently the previous owner had a cat that she didn't take with her. The neighbors have been feeding him, but it's pretty obvious he thinks this is his house.

So without further ado, here's our cat Tucker!

Tucker is 17 years old! I think he needs thyroid medication because he's skin and bones (although you can't tell until you pet him). He's the nicest cat and even tolerates Jude and Cole's enthusiastic love for a few minutes every day before walking off to find a quite place to rest in the neighbor's flowerbeds.

He lives outside and seems content with it, so we put his food and water on the porch for him to eat at his leisure. All the neighbors know him and leave food out for him too, and Tucker will make his rounds to the houses on our cul-de-sac.

The boys have been begging for a cat, but since George is allergic we told them we weren't going to get one. Imagine their joy when they discovered our new house came with a cat! He is by no means a kitten like they wanted, but they've quickly grown to love Tucker and anytime they're outside they try to find him. Even George accepts that he's "ours" now and we've caught him occasionally petting him. :)

We are loving our new house!

Bryce is 8!

June 21st we celebrated Bryce's 8th Birthday up in Ashburn. George was working nights so I took the kids up. 

My mom and Stephen were a trip touring France and Italy, so we stayed at the Glass's house.

I don't know how he does it, but Pop Pop is an expert at putting little munchkins to sleep. This little girl didn't take long in his arms before she was out for the night.

The next day we celebrated! Bryce had his birthday party at a rec center so the kids got to swim! Scott was so nice to let Lance come up with me even though it was his weekend.

Jude is becoming quite the fish. He loves the water and has begged me for the last couple months for swim lessons. I finally signed him up to start in July.

Cole loves the water, too, although if he falls down even in the shallow water he can't get his feet bakc under him to stand up and flounders until someone picks him up. A little scary, so I was grateful Mom and Dad had Lily and I could keep my attention on this guy.

Jude showing off how he can hold his breath under the water.

 Yeah, I think this picture is a bit creepy too.

Bryce and his buddy.

I gave the camera to Lance to take pictures with and this is what I got back:

Mommy and Jude in the "deep water".

Lance and Callie:

After two hours of swimming, it was pizza and cake time!

If I let them, my kiddos would eat pizza for every meal.

These two had a great time talking together--I'm going to assume they were chatting about Minecraft and Pokemon, two things they're both very much into these days.

The Birthday boy!

Such a good big brother!

Before they left, the kids got to try rock climbing on the wall the rec center had. Bryce and Lance both climbed a few times.

The cheering section for Bryce!

Lance almost made it to the top on his first run! He was about 18 inches from the top when his arms gave out.

Bryce trying again:

Lance's second run was better and he made it all the way up!

Ringing the bell!

Lily was happy to be with Grandmom for most of the party.

Happy Birthday, Bryce! I can't believe you're 8! You're growing into such a handsome, talented young man. We're glad we live so close so we share in these important events in your life. Thanks for being in our family and being so good to our boys. We love you!

June: good-byes, swings, creeks and trains

Sometime when I feel like I can keep it together I'll have to do a post on our good friends the Simmons. They moved at the end of May so Cal could start his EM residency up in Portland, Maine. Sarah and Cal are the kind of people you imagine when someone mentions "life-long friends". They have been our next-door neighbors and almost constant companions for the last two years. Their little girl Ellie would come over to play most days and multiple nights a week found the Simmons at our house watching movies, playing games, eating dessert or just hanging out. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with them so far away. Someone like that you never forget and can't ever replace. The kind of friend that is always there for you and loves you for who you are, who pushes you to be your best but doesn't judge if you fall short. The kind of friend you can call in the middle of the night for anything or who goes with you when you take your child to the emergency room so you don't have to be alone, or who gladly volunteers to watch all four of your kids so you can have an hour at the gym or a date night with your husband. Oh Sarah, what am I going to do without you? She's the best friend I've ever had and my heart is broken that they have moved so far away.

Our "good-bye" dinner with the Simmons and the Taylors a few days before they both left.

Ugh. Okay, on to happier things...

Our last couple of weeks in our apartment were busy while George worked and I procrastinated packing. I spent a lot of time on craigslist looking for things for our new house. We scored a couple times with a free piano and a leather couch we got for a great price. When we were about to go crazy cooped up inside, the kids and I ventured out to enjoy our cute complex a few more times before the move.

I am going to miss having the park right outside our back door. It's been nice being able to send the kids outside to play while dinner cooks or I'm getting some chores done. 

This little girl loves to swing! She wiggles and squirms and laughs when I push her. Jude likes to push her as well, although I get a bit nervous with his enthusiasm and usually end up taking over in an effort to keep Lily from flying out of the swing. Jude struggles with the "she's a baby" concept and is convinced she can play rough like Cole and Lance. Maybe he's right--Lily thinks Jude is awesome and sometimes just hearing his voice makes her laugh.

On one particularly hot day we went to the "down park" and played in the creek. The boys thought it was the greatest thing ever. (Lance was spending a couple weeks in California right before the move.)

Rock! Jude and Cole had a blast throwing the rocks onto the creek and watching the water splash.

Jude ran off to explore another part the creek, hence the millions of pictures of Cole.

I don't think I'll ever get tired of Virginia's green.

Lily was a trooper as usual and happily hung out in the grass.

The day after Lance got back from San Diego the Scouts held a Regatta at Pres. Schill's house. Lance made an awesome boat with Scott which he raced. George and I got lost on the way to the Schill's so only caught the last race. It looked like fun!

Lance testing his boat in the river.

The last "race" they did they had all the boys drop their boats into the river from the bridge. I don't think they figured out who won, but it sure was fun!

Almost immediately after this, the sky opened up and it poured! Our family was soaked completely. We tried to take refuge on the Schill's porch along with everyone else, but after Jude threw up (he tends to do that if he's too excited or had too much to drink) and Cole ran back down to the river to play, I decided it was time to go. Although it was crazy with the rain, I'm glad we got to see Lance race his boat.


Have I mentioned how much Cole loves trains? And by love I mean the "take a train everywhere and even sleep with it" kind of love. This little boy is obsessed. It's strange because neither Lance nor Jude have every been that attached to a certain toy, although Lance does like his own blankets.  Cole on the other had has a special toy that he cannot do without. This toy does change from time to time, but he is never without at least one thing that has to go with him at all times. It's been his Wonder Woman cape in the past, along with some Ninja Turtle swords and most recently it's been trains. He has to have a train no matter where we are or what we're doing, the cars have to be in the right order and no one else can fix it if it falls apart. Even if you put his train back together in the right color order, he will tear it apart and fix it himself. He's such a funny kid.

He is also obsessed with train tracks. The day we closed on our house, we went across the street after signing all the documents to have some lunch. There happened to be some train tracks next door and Cole refused to come inside the restaurant. He saw the tail end of a train go past and it was all over. He cried and cried and refused to eat until we took him back outside to watch for more trains.

They sat like this for probably half an hour just waiting for a train. (See the little train Cole has?)

The other day I had to get the brakes changed on the van. George was working nights and needed to sleep, so I left Lance and Jude at home to watch TV while he slept and took Cole and Lily with me. The car repair shop shares a lot with the train track and Cole could not have been happier.

We saw no less than three trains pass by. Even though we were stuck at the shop for three hours, Cole was in heaven. Love this boy!