Moving Day!!

Two men and a truck arrived this morning to bring all the "big" stuff over to the new house today. Mike was very quick to realize that it was his best investment of $500 through this entire process! The 2 men that came definitely earned their paycheck today - we didn't have anything for them to lift that wasn't at least 75 lbs....and hearing that Mike's toolchest had to go down into the basement caused quite the groan.

So we're in and I'm starting to feel a little settled. Mike has even been great to hang some of our pictures. We've felt very blessed (not lucky) that our furniture, pictures, etc. all match the colors and spacing within the house really well. The kids are loving the new space and fighting substantially less since they now have more than enough room to spread out. Tomorrow Mike is hooking up the washer and dryer - fun stuff!

FIVE!!

Brooke turns 5 years old today - WOW! We started the day with dessert as is tradition in our family. (All my kids had morning deliveries, so we start the day with a mini party and load up on the sugar.) Everyone had picked out their dessert from the Sendik's bakery the day before, so we were set. Clayton insisted that he have a candle to blow out too, but agreed that we could sing to just Brooke. It was a school day, so Brooke took in treats for her class to help celebrate and she got to wear a super-cool birthday hat all morning. For lunch, daddy took us all to Tazino's (one of Brooke's favorite pizza places.) We opened a few presents from Aunt Laura and from Mike and I - we're having a joint birthday party for Brooke and Clayton in a little over a week. And I think Brooke's favorite part of the day was that she was put to bed in her new room as our first "official" day sleeping at the new house. I cannot believe that my little preemie baby has grown up to be such a big girl. I love her imagination and stories. She has such a love of learning and can even read already...I'm continually amazed at how much she knows already. This definitely was a milestone that hit me as realizing how little time I do have with her before she'll be all grown up and no longer my little girl that I put to bed at night.

Blink and it's gone - he's 2 months old!

I can't believe that my baby is two months old today - WOW! He is such a good baby...which has been a huge blessing because the older two have definitely kept me on my toes. It is rare that Lincoln cries and usually if he does it's because I can't pick him up right away. As soon as he's held the crying stops. While we've been packing up the house and making many trips back and forth he'll either sleep or just sit in the swing and watch the action. I can't imagine what this move would have been like with a colicky or even average tempered baby. I'm curious to see how his Dr appt goes tomorrow - mostly I'm curious to know how much this kiddo weighs. He's the first of the three to have "thunder thighs" and is definitely a good eater.

Clayton vs. 58" Plasma TV

And the winner is....Clayton! This morning the kids were watching Jungle Book while I finished getting ready and packing up a few things to head over to the new house. Brooke announces "Mom, the picture on the TV went away." So I walked in there (the DVD had skipped a few times that morning and I figured it was a similar situation.) After examing the DVD player for a moment, Brooke then says, "Mom, it's cause he bammed it." I then looked more closely to see that the screen of the TV was damaged - that also explains why the room smelled a bit like smoke. After inquiring from the 3 and 5 year old exactly what happened here's what I gathered - mind you I was standing about 5 feet away in the bathroom with the door open as all this was happening and it wasn't dramatic enough to have caught my attention. Clayton's rendition "I hit the tiger with the green cup." Brooke's rendition, "He got upset because the tiger was being mean to Mowgli, so he bammed the tiger." I think Mike might cry as he hauls his TV (that happens to be less than 6 months old) out to the curb for the garbage men to put to rest....although I must say he did handle the phone call from me this morning better than I had expected. And of course about 10 minutes after the incident Clayton wanted to know if we could watch a different movie.

Baby Lincoln - smiling

Baby Lincoln has started smiling - I haven't been able to capture a good one on film, but I liked this picture too.

Too much McDonalds?

With living between the two houses and the new house not having appliances, we have gone through the McDonald's drive-though MUCH more than I would like to admit over the past month. And there have been a few signs from Clayton that have made that evident.

• It was a warmer day and Lincoln was sleeping in his carseat, so the old two kids and I decided to draw with sidewalk chalk when we got home. The kids are both excited about upcoming birthdays and we drew balloons and birthday cakes. I had drawn a cake and on one side written a 5 for Brooke and on the other I wrote a 3. Clayton was standing at a 90 degree angle to me and exclaims, "MOM - you drew McDonald's!" (the 3 looked like McD's arches to him...)


• As we were heading through the drive-thru I asked the kids what they wanted to eat for lunch. Clayton's response, "I want the grocery store."

I can't say that we've avoided McD's as a much more disciplined friend of mine has done (the convenience is too great on the really crazy days) but we have been there MUCH less recently.

UGH - add it to the list!

Apparently I thought our "to-do" list wasn't quite long enough - add fix cars (yes, plural) to the list. Mike had parked the cars in the driveway with his car right behind my dad's van and then I pulled in and up next to my dad's van. WELL - when I went to back out I forgot Mike's car was back there and when I went to straighten the wheel so that I didn't run over the landscaping rocks I backed into his car. Oops! Basically I scraped both cars together - minor dents, but still! Mike has already buffed out what he could and is debating on if they are worth fixing. His point is that between the Walmart parking lot and the kids - what's a few more dents!

I am hoping the neighbors weren't watching while this happened, but again, if we can't provide at least a bit of good entertainment for the neighbors, why be there!

THESE are the days I'm going to miss!

It's been rainy and cold the past few days...yet today was so different then my crazy day a few weeks ago. Brooke was the first one up this morning - I had already showered so we were able to enjoy breakfast and conversation together. Clayton slept until almost 8:30 (unheard of - he's usually up at 6:30 at the latest!) He started crying in the kitchen before we left for school because he needed a kiss and a hug from me...oh, melt my heart. I hold those moments close knowing that there will be a day that my little boy won't desire a kiss and hug to start off his day. They had a great morning at school and then we played at the new house with our friends Miss Joy, Casey and Caleb. The afternoon was still dreary, rainy and cold so we all took a nap - very rare that all 3 kids are asleep at the same time and Brooke asked if she could snuggle with me during nap in my bed...how could I say no.

Everyone still had their "moments" today of whining and arguing, but overall it's days like these that I truly will miss and look back at fondly.

SOLD!

Our "little house" as Brooke has affectionately called it for years has sold. We substantially lowered the price so that we didn't have to keep up two houses for the winter and it sold within a couple days of doing so (there were 15 families that came through the open house.) This house holds a lot of great memories and will be missed, but God has been gracious to give us many indications that the time had come to say goodbye to our first home. We close on November 13th but hope to have most everything moved over to the new house by the end of the month.

Meeting the new neighbors

We've officially met one of the new neighbors. Being back and forth between the two houses we hadn't had the chance to meet our new neighbors. On Wednesday my friend Jennifer and her two kids were over at our house to play. Jen had to run out to the car for something and gave Clayton instructions to stay in the house - I was tending to Brooke who had just had a storage bin dropped on her foot and was being very dramatic about the whole thing. Clayton decided that he did need to go outside and I promptly followed him - which he thought was funny and decided to run around the front yard. Our new neighbor Steve was outside with his dog and watching the whole thing. As I was carrying Clayton back to the house (sideways under my arm like a sack of potatoes), Steve's dog Leo (a 90 lbs dog) comes running over to our yard to see what all the excitement is. Steve very politely says, "Hi - are you my new neighbor?" I introduced myself and then one of the other kids opened up the front door to reveal the drama that was still going on inside (mostly hysterical screaming) from the aforementioned storage bin that landed on Brooke. I don't even want to imagine what Steve was thinking at this point, but hey if we can't bring a little excitement and entertainment to the neighborhood, why be there!

Clayton dressed himself today...

...and everyone at preschool noticed! We've never had so many people say good morning and tell him how cute he looks - can you tell why?! Some battles are not worth fighting and Clayton was so proud of his tie. I asked if he was going to work like daddy (see, Daddy wears a tie to work everyday). He responds, "That's silly. Daddy goes to work. I go to school." Some mornings he walks right into his preschool room and other mornings he needs a bit more convincing. This morning he announced to me in the hallway that he needed his kiss so that he could go to school. If every morning goes that smoothly, he can wear the tie everyday!

Lincoln has a cold...

I took Lincoln in to the Dr because he has a cold. I'm guess it's probably because Clayton doesn't seem to understand that it's still a kiss even when it's not on the lips. (Lincoln gets near mouth to mouth resuscitation from Clayton!) When I called to make the appt because he had congestion we had to enter the clinic as though he had H1N1 flu. They made my 34 day old baby who was sitting in his infant carrier wear a mask! How crazy is that - oh well, it made for a picture for my blog post. The Dr confirmed it was indeed just a cold and as long as he doesn't develop a fever or cough we're good. He weighed 11 lbs 1 oz! YIKES. That's gaining almost a pound a week.