So happy to be back in touch with some old friends. Playdates with friends from elementary school, book club with high school friends, and bumping into graduate school friends at the zoo, of all places. So happy to reconnect and share where we are right now. Happy to spend more time with my oldest friend. Happy to make new friends and learn more about them. So happy to hold on to friends that are far and still looking for ones that are even farther.

We haven't been through a lot of the scenarios listed in that video, but I hope we're all together when we do face them. Love you girls!

Things I will blog once I have time to write and a place to download my completely full memory card:

Anna's Valentine party at preschool
Noah talking to the camera about cookies
Hawaii (hello!)
The million pictures I took before we moved to document my love for the old house
The days and nights we spent working on the new house while it was empty
The kids sitting in the new kitchen windows
The tear filled day we said goodbye to the old house (I cried at the closing table. Oh yes I did)
Moving day
Our first walk in the new neighborhood
Anna in her St. Patrick's Day hat
The kids playing in the backyard
Going to the zoo with Sam and Max
Pictures of the new house, and the tiny bits of progress we've made

Or maybe I'll feel too overwhelmed by that list and I'll just go back to blogging cute things Anna says! Either way, I feel bad for not blogging more and there really are a lot of things I want to share. But here I am again, at midnight, while the rest of the family is asleep...except for Nathan who I just heard open the fridge :)

While I really should be in bed, I am here. Just click on a few colors in the little palette on the right, and proceed to Flickr for mucho time wastin'. Who needs to unpack/clean/ organize/ go to bed before morning?



I recommend orange, yellow, and green. Goodnight!

Lost, in a pile of boxes...or laundry....or paint cans. We moved into the new house this past weekend and life is still a blur. The morning after the move (all 3 days of it!) was complete I went to town on my kitchen and now it's my clean and organized haven in a sea of chaos. Several times a day I will walk out of the kitchen, see the piles of boxes in pretty much every other room, and then retreat back to the kitchen.

The kids rooms are organized, but most of their things are still in boxes. Our bedroom is kind of a mess, but it's functioning for now. My project yesterday was to get the sitting room (off of the master bedroom) in some sort of order. That basically meant moving the piles of clothes from the floor into the closet and promising to organize them when the more important things are finished. They're nice and folded, they're just a mix of summer clothes, winter clothes, pajamas, etc. But now you can see the floor! And visions of my craft room are building ;)

Even with all the mess and confusion we are loving our new home. Last night at dinner the kids were talking and singing and doing all of their usual things and Nathan and I just looked at each other and said, "This is crazy!". We still can't believe how great this place is. Before we moved in I was so excited about the back yard, and we're already putting it to use daily. For the first time, Noah has grass stains on all of his clothes. I'm not thrilled about the stains, but I feel like he should have them because he should be outside playing all day, so even those make me happy. Anna is constantly running back and forth between her new (hand-me-down) playhouse and her swing set and today we bought a baby swing so Noah can join in. A few days ago we took a walk after Nathan got home from work and met a bunch of our neighbors. Everyone is so nice!

It will be a while before everything is in order but we're enjoying the process. Thanks so much to everyone who helped us move and helped us care for the kids. I promise to post house pictures as soon as I can!

Pack car as full as you can with random stuff
Arrive at new house
Take kids and snacks inside
Start unloading car
Tell Ruby 20 times to get back inside
Make snacks for kids
Start unpacking the stuff we brought and put it.....somewhere
Change into painting clothes
Lay down drop cloths
Go downstairs to get more snacks for kids
Break up fight over snacks
Patch walls
Take down ceiling fan
Power sand walls
Change a diaper
Vacuum up dust
Prime walls...over and over until scary stenciling is covered
More snacks
Potty emergency
Scrape two layers of linoleum off of laundry room floor
Find poor little daughter asleep on the floor
Find son feeding raisins to the dog
Call it a night, hours past the kids' bedtime
Repeat!

We are exhausted! The kids are being so good and patient while we work, but it's hard for them. They get bored and hungry and are just being little kids! So it's hard to get much work done, but we keep trying. We move in less than a week and almost all of that work described above has been on just one room. Anna's room was painted (by the previous owners) in a mural of fairies, trees, flowers, and a river with a big wall going next to it. Kind of weird, and definitely not our taste. But it wasn't just paint. There were stickers and glitter and all sorts of issues with the walls, so just getting it to the point where we could paint was a struggle. We're there now, but ugh, there's so much left to do. On that room and others. We know it's a process, just like it was on this house. But we're realizing we probably won't even be able to finish the kids' rooms before we move since we have a few nights this week that we can't get to the house to work. I hate that, but it will all work out. Plus I'm too tired to think about it much more!