Measly Attempt

This is such a measly attempt at documenting the past 3 weeks but really, it's all I've got.

This huge semi pulled up to load all of our stuff on December 30th after Paul and Manny had spent the past 2 1/2 days packing more boxes than you can imagine. Honestly, our house was small. It was a relatively nice weather day and after most of the last minute errands were run, mom and I along with the kids, headed to our new place to grab keys and get to our hotel rooms.

I went out to get us something to eat (while it was freezing rain in a section of town I didn' t know very well) and when I walked back into the hotel room, this funny dressed baby ran towards me. Apparently he had soaked himself with water and my mom improvised. It was so funny, he was wearing a woman's vest, a silver bracelet, a chomping on a cookie. Why have I never thought of this ensemble? He thought he was pretty funny once he saw us laughing over and over. Good thing we were on the bottom floor because he kept dancing too!

We were all so tired from such a long day. I kept trying to scoot Reed back so he wouldn't fall off the bed but he wanted to lay really close like this. I felt so bad that my mom's last couple days here were in the hotel and a house full of boxes. I'm sure she couldn' t load the plane fast enough! We are all so grateful for her help. We needed Granny that's for sure!

We moved into this house on New Year's Eve and it was an awful day. It was cold, the day before was freezing rain, then snow on top of that and then more freezing rain. It did make for some lovely ice on the branches though. Obviously, I played around a bit in Photoshop too. I took these all sitting in my warm van with the window rolled down as the nice men unloaded the truck.

It was such a crappy day compared the the previous day, I really did feel bad for them. It's just at the same time, I felt so good for myself (and all my loved ones) that I just made sure and said thank you over and over. Not sure if it helped but maybe their paycheck did.

While I'm still grateful for Paul and Manny and all their help, they have gotten more annoying as time has gone on. I know all their careful packing is to save their own fannies but it has ended up to be the biggest joke. All of this paper came out of one box. One box! Some of it wrapped around printer paper, a plastic box, crayons, anything else you wouldn't have wrapped up in paper, etc. So not only do we have over 100 boxed to get rid of, I'm sure we've killed off a million trees or so with all the paper we are throwing away. Ugh.

Nathan was finally able to get back to scouts and this time with an official shirt (no patches yet, I just found the sewing machine!). I wanted to take his picture so of course Reed wanted to be right in front of him. And he wouldn't sit still. Typical 2 yr old behavior. So even though this is a horribly blurry photo, I had to post it. Plus, look at Nate's brute strength, he's 'benching' 30-something pounds here, ha.

The kids have loved our yard. They play soccer in the front when they want to back and forth between their bikes and they play in the back for hours. We live on a long culdesac with little traffic and they have loved riding their bikes/scooters. I'm so happy for them, they have needed this room to run and I'm so grateful they finally get it!

With vaulted ceilings and wood floors, this has been one echo filled house. It's much louder than we're used to and way more loud than I like it. We finally found a rug at Costco (with a $40 off coupon, thank you) and it seems to help even if it's just a little. Now if I could just get new couches, a new table and chairs, bookshelves, decorations and more rugs, we'd be set. I'm kidding (kind of).

We've also been prepping for the Pinewood Derby this week. Milo and Nathan worked together on most of it. We only had to remind Nathan 15 times or so in an hour that is was his car they were working on, ha. As you can see, the 'workshop' isn't the safest environment (like the garden/tool bench?) so the power tools were entrusted to Milo and Nathan did more of the sanding and decorating of this car.

He did end up getting into it, especially once the can of spray paint came out. He decided on a 'shark car' and I think they did a really good job on carrying out this first car and it's design. Of course power tools were purchased along with a second block of wood, some graphite and some weights. Official weigh in was tonight and they came in .4 under weight (I didn't get a photo before they left dang it!). Milo said some hot glue and a couple pennies did the trick to get it up to 5 oz and the shark car is ready.

When they came home from weigh in, I asked Nathan if he saw any other cars and how they looked. He is so funny and matter of fact. He said, 'Well they were waaaay better with their paint jobs!' and walked off. Cracked me up. Race day is Thursday, hope we can handle all the craziness of our huge ward and pinewood derby madness. Especially with a 2 yr old in tow!

I could have taken a few photos of some friendly faces that helped unpack and a couple more friendly faces that helped decorate. But since I didn't I'll just have to say THANKS people..... I love you, I love you!