Week 48

This week has been a combination of settling into the house and Christmas prep/activities. The elves have been up to their usual mischief. We've found them doing things like sledding down the stairs on a blanket, and having a "snowball fight" with the cotton balls. They must really miss the snow - they had even built a cotton ball snowman.The kids were very excited to start opening their 12 Days of Christmas gifts from Grandma Jackson.We saw Santa at the town hall (photos to be added when I pick them up). But the Christmas parade that was supposed to be that night was postponed due to rain.

The rain/weather hasn't been easy to deal with this week. It's been cold (hovers in the 30s) and overcast or rainy quite a bit lately. In fact, we dealt with our first "snow day" in NC on Thurs. They cancelled school for this. (need to add photo from phone)

I really just have to shake my head at them and wonder what they would think of a real snowstorm. Sam said the roads were icy on his way to work though so I'm going to give them the benefit of the doubt and say I guess we're better off inside than letting people that can't drive in bad conditions out on the road driving our kids around.

I was determined to get the Christmas card photos done though so I made everyone shiver on our front porch for a minute to snap a couple. This one isn't going in the card but I thought it was cute enough to share. As you can see, Kaitlyn was the only one who couldn't quite pretend we were all happily not freezing.

And I snapped a few photos of our newly-turned 4 year old - before he got any older!

One more week 'til Christmas people! (just thought I'd add that because we're getting pretty excited)

Week 47

The elves found us at our new house (Friday morning). Kaitlyn has been anticipating seeing them for at least a week now and both kids were very excited to see they had arrived. They spent the whole morning showing them the house and carrying them around everywhere.

We took Friday morning to register Kaitlyn for school, set up our account with the city, etc then we were off to Audrey's for the weekend. Sam had to work all weekend, we had no furniture - so we were very happy that Audrey was excited to have us :) And we had a fantastic time. Even though it snowed and inch or so on Saturday and we couldn't find any warm clothing for the kids. I have to admit I was a little annoyed - I was thinking we wouldn't be dealing with snow in NC! haha. But it didn't stick to the roads and I'm told at our house it was barely even snowing.

Sunday was Tyler's birthday. We had Birthday Breakfast Cake (coffee cake - worked out perfectly that Audrey had already been planning to have that on Sunday) and candles. And look - their elves showed up that morning!
After lunch we all headed home for Tyler's birthday party with Daddy (the first one Sam has been able to celebrate with us this year). Sam picked up a cake from the grocery store and we stuck one of Ty's toys on it because Ty insisted that this one was his "backhoe birthday." And of course he got presents - a new scooter, Hot Wheels tracks (his first set of what will probably be many many more), and new pants (growth spurt right before the birthday really works out nicely).

Isn't he cute?! This is what a big 4 year old looks like. :) He does that head tilt anytime he poses for a photo.

Monday brought Kaitlyn's first day of school. She likes it and is settling in well. Her teacher told the class that Kaitlyn moved from Utah and brought the snow with her, and I guess since snow is a rare thing they were all pretty happy about it :) We met the 2 households in our neighborhood that have kids in elementary and share the same bus stop and they're very nice. Both kids will have some good friends closeby.

Tuesday the moving truck arrived with our furniture - woohoo! We are still surrounded by many boxes but the house is starting to feel functional and we're very happy with how things are going now. It's a bit hard to concentrate on moving in, and getting ready for Christmas but I think we are balancing it. We put the tree up Wednesday and finished decorating it last night. We also found our Christmas books, as you can see.

What else?
I'm really liking Sam's work schedule so far. He gets an early start on the day and most of the time he's off work in time to work out with his buddies and still make it home around the same time Kaitlyn gets off the bus. It's a long day for Kate because she's one of the first on the bus and one of the last, but so far she's not really complaining. There is just so much going on and so much of it is new and exciting that the kids haven't had a chance to be anything but hyper and happy all the time.

Week 46

Thanksgiving with my family. Low key, easy, and very enjoyable. The kids spent lots of time with everyone and had plenty of attention. We all had tons of fun playing the XBox Kinnect (with the video camera that puts your whole body in the game - cool stuff and VERY interactive). I loved letting Bonnie host - I didn't have to plan meals, or worry about cleaning up or anything. (Thanks Bon!) And I even let Bonnie talk me into working out with her Turbo Kick (kickboxing - she took a class to become an instructor) both days we were there. (I'm so out of shape! I thought I would be dead the next day but my poor old body held up surprisingly well)

And of course, I loved having Sam around after 2 months with him gone. It felt so good to have everyone together and happy.

Then came the long drive to North Carolina. Three full days in the car, which is really really long but it went very smoothly. The kids were real troopers and we had no meltdowns and almost no whining or "are we there yet?"s.

Lots of time spent in a series of Holiday Inn Express hotel rooms. That's just how it worked out, but after the first one we were happy to spot one every time we wanted to stop. By the 2nd day we had it down to a science - who would carry what when we packed stuff into the room, where everyone slept and how to find the pool, how the elevators and continental breakfast bars worked...
And isn't it adorable how I found the kids sleeping yesterday morning?

And there it is - our new house! The closing got delayed a day (which forced the furniture deliver and now we're camping out until TUESDAY), and the day of the closing was hectic and stressful, but we are now the proud owners of a new house! I love it and am so happy that we're not living out of a car and hotel rooms.

Week 45

Finished Mom and Dad's laundry room (mostly. they need to seal the grout and put everything back). Officially sold the house. Big snowstorm warnings - the storm didn't quite live up to the hype (they actually cancelled school for Wed!) but it still made life very difficult. Spent 12 hours driving to Bonnie's house for Thanksgiving. Postponed Thanksgiving dinner until Friday because Wyatt and Dad were delayed a day dealing with issues at home. But Sam did make it in to town (after delays of his own and luggage that didn't show up until the next day) right after we did so we were happy. Spent Thursday hanging out with Bon, Larry, and Mom.
So basically it was an eventful week but way too busy to stop and grab the camera.

Week 44

Took Ty to see the herd of elk that Dad spotted down by the river.

Saturday: Kaitlyn got to go swimming with a friend. Tyler and I spent most of the day at Wyatt's house doing laundry. Also got to have a quick visit with Louise which was really nice - I like her a lot and am so glad she seems to be winning her fight with bone cancer.
Sunday: Worked on the laundry room with Dad. Finally got the cementboard all laid.
Rhonda and Dave stopped by to play Santa (early). Their sequinned dancing Santa hats were hilarious. And the kids got totally spoiled.

Monday, Tues, Wed...all a bit of a blur but I know I was working on stuff with the house, running errrands, getting things done. Oh - and we finally got notice of our closing date on the house here- WOOOHOOO. We'll be out of here by Thanksgiving

Week 43

Busy, busy, busy week!
We snuck in Tyler's birthday celebrations on Saturday before going into full Moving/Packing mode. He has a little party with his friends in the morning and they had SO much fun. And of course the grandparents came over in the evening to celebrate.

Monday brought the movers out. I spent the whole day sitting at the dining table with my computer for entertainment while they boxed up EVERYTHING. Oh how nice it was just to watch it all happen. This is what it all looked like Monday night.
Tuesday brought another set of movers and a giant moving truck. I can't believe how quickly and smoothly it all went - despite waking up to new snow (and a thick coating of ice from the rain the day before) and frantically running around trying to get the ice melted off the driveway and anything that had been left outside before the crew got there.

Wednesday was spent cleaning the empty house and having the inspector walk through. Tyler packed up some of his trucks and tractors and had a lot of fun playing on all that open carpet.

Phew! I can't believe all that was jammed into one little week.

Week 42

This week has been all about fall and Halloween of course.

Festivities at school for Kaitlyn. Trick or Treating on Saturday

And of course some raking leaves and jumping in piles later in the week. All this while I try to keep things going on the move and sale of the house, planning Tyler's eary birthday party, doing a little more on Mom and Dad's laundry room...