Settling in...

 We are settling into the new home well! Mornings are rough since I'm driving all the kids to their respective schools (about an hour round trip for the elementary kids, and 40 minutes round trip for Lance). Poor Valerie and Lexi are spending a lot of time in the car in the mornings. But I still make it to the gym most days and that is a plus.

Have I told you how perfect this place is?

First bath in the big bathtub!

I just can't get enough of this sweet face. Her personality is really starting to shine through. She is always happy and cracks herself up. 

Finally getting the last of the things out of the old house so I can clean! 

Seriously. When did we get so much junk?

Jude has discovered how to edit photos, so I find things like this all the time now:

George borrowed his buddy's jeep so we could haul a few more things without the big van. The top floor of the house actually walks out to the patio and back yard, so it was super convenient to be able to drive up the hill and carry things inside, instead of hiking it up a flight of stairs. Lexi liked riding around on the trailer in our yard.

Boys' beds are up! I think a bunk bed would have fit better, but they vetoed that idea.

Church! We are ALWAYS late, so most weeks we spend Sacrament meeting in the foyer. It works out well, although my kids aren't learning to be very reverent. Oh well. Such is life.

WE MOVED!

 Finally finally it was time to move to our new house. Everyone had mixed feeling about it, since our little house at 153 Olton Place, a tiny little cul-de-sac with neighbors that were basically grandparents, was the only home half of them could remember. They were leaving behind friends and even though we were going to finish out the school year at Cale, they were sad to be starting a different school come fall. Still, we were excited for the new adventure.

Moving always takes longer than you think and you don't realize how much junk you have until you have to actually load it up. Sam Knight came over and spent the entire day helping us load and unload the truck. He is a true friend.

John and Lily playing one last time on the swing set in the back yard. 

That weekend we met the neighbors and our kids hit it off pretty well. Hopefully they'll all be good friends!

Our new backyard!

Have I told you how awesome Sam and Sara are? Not only did they help us move all our stuff, they helped us build beds for the kids. I don't know what we would do without them. Honestly. They are some of our absolute favorite people.

Lily found some ice cream in the freezer from the old owners and decided to break it out while Charlotte was visiting (gross!). We didn't have anything unpacked, so they dug in without spoons.

I am so excited about this new house. It is bigger and nicer than anything I imagined we'd be able to buy.

Tired out from moving, so we took a break and went to Busch Gardens for one of their opening days. Jude is finally tall enough for Griffin! 

I got to ride with him on his first go. I LOVED it and so did he.

The Knights came too. These cute girls are one month apart. I'm excited to see how this friendship develops.

Invadr!

Cole recently got really into this fat cat character called Pusheen. He got this cute stuffed animal for himself and insisted on getting an identical one for his best buddy Walter.

Lexi comes with me to Cole's PT appts. She is just getting interested in drawing. She drew these faces all by herself! Not bad for an almost 3-year-old.

We also got to meet up with an old friend that used to live in Charlottesville, Erin Gibbons. It was fun to catch up and see her again! The hardest part of living in Charlottesville is the massive turn-over of student families. Of the families we got to know and love when we were first students, only one is still here.

Facetiming with GiGi on my Birthday! Thank goodness for technology!

She wrote me a poem, just like she does every single year. I love it.

My friend Heather offered to take my girls one day so I could get some stuff done. She is amazing! I am grateful to have friends like her and Sara. They truly make my life happier.

Packing up...

We have begun the long, hard process of moving to our new house. George and I have spent so much time going through all our things and trying to get rid of everything we don't want or need. How on earth did we accumulate so much junk?? 

We knew we wanted some new furniture for the new house. Our friends suggested a really neat place about an hour from us called Greenfront, so one weekend we packed up the kids, a million snacks, and went to check it out. We got a couple neat things, but decided we definitely needed to come back another day WITHOUT kids so we could look around the 9 warehouses full of eclectic furniture. 

Cole had a rough day and made sure everyone knew it. At least he can verbalize it...

Trying to get stuff done is hard to do, even when the four oldest are in school! 

At least the company is awesome.

George rented a dumpster for us to throw away all the big things we didn't want and couldn't donate. I had my doubts that we would fill it, but when they came to pick it up, it was practically overflowing. And we still had two truckloads of stuff to move! Jude and his buddy Grady had a good time helping us break down the big things. Sledge hammer for the win!

Snowflaked baby!

Jude and his school buddies Hunter (orange) and Joey (green) on a field trip. I'm so glad he has good friends. 

While going through our stuff, the kids found some old Halloween costumes. We decided not to keep them, but the kids insisted on trying them on again.

My shopping buddies.

Rub-a-dub-dub, three girls in the tub! Doesn't get much sweeter than this!

We are going to miss this little swing set. The family that bought our house asked if we could leave the trampoline and the play-set. It would be nearly impossible to move anyway, so we agreed, but the kids are disappointed.

Lily's picture of her family. Love it! (she appears to be missing a few people...)