Let's start at the beginning. Monday was obviously Halloween night. We had already carved our pumpkins and made our decorations and the kids were excited about trick-or-treating. When I got home from work that evening our friend Katy and her daughter Ava were already at our house. We had a quick dinner and then everybody got dressed up in their costumes, we turned off our porch light, and we were on our way.
Boy, was this fun! Our kids are naturals when it comes to trick-or-treating. They ran from house to house and held up their pumpkin buckets and even said "thank you" at most of the houses that we visited. Jack got a little bit carried away at first and as soon as the person would open the door he would bolt into the house before anybody could hold him back. He soon caught on, however, that all he needs to do is hold the bucket and the candy will come to him.
After we were done collecting the candy we all went back to our house and enjoyed the spoils of the night. Then Addy and Jack went to bed while we had scones and hot chocolate. We let Evelyn stay up with Ava and pass out candy to the other kids in the neighborhood while the adults enjoyed good conversation and guitar music ;)
The next several days of the week were spent preparing for our big move. Packing, cleaning, organizing, and planning took up pretty much every bit of spare time that we had. In the meantime, I had an awesome week at work- just a little FYI.
Finally, on Friday night Rachel's mom flew into town and everything was ready.
Saturday was crazy. All morning I made trips back and forth from our little duplex to our new home. The goal was to get all of the breakable things moved in before we turned the Elders Quorum (a group of guys from the church) lose on the house. While I was taking trips, Wendy stayed at home with the kids and Rachel stayed at the new house organizing thing. I'd say we did pretty good because by noon she had the kitchen pretty much completed.
Around 1:00 the Elders started showing up. In short, we moved everything in two trips and got the stuff all put into the rooms where it belongs. There was only one casualty- a bottle of laundry cleaner spilled. That's it. Not too shabby. That same day I put the beds together and got the kid's rooms pretty much organized to they way they will be.
On Sunday we all went to church and met our new ward. We like them. We also did a lot of unpacking and organizing.
We are getting close to being done. Our house is looking a lot more like a home and we absolutely love it. Can I say that again? We absolutely LOVE it! The previous owners took very good care of things and made a lot of improvements. Specifically, I love our kitchen. I like cooking and this kitchen is like a cook's dream. The kids love having the space to run around (outdoors or indoors) and we love having the space for them to do it.
You know, it is amazing what space will do. That, along with some thoughtful organization and lots of child-proofing has made our home such an easy place for our family to be compared with any other home we have been in. Our kids can pretty much go anywhere or do anything without us ever having to keep a super careful watch on them. Even in the back yard, our huge windows allow us to look out and make sure they are fine and happy (which they always are) without having to actually go outdoors.
One of the other things that I am really excited about is the ability to do projects. Some people I have spoken with see this as a major downside to owning a home. I think, however, that since this home is already in really good shape, the projects we do will be fun instead of frustrating. Sure, there will be repairs to make along the way and things that don't go exactly according to plan, but by and large I think that the improvements we do will be focused more on making our home into something that is uniquely ours.
And after years of apartments and rental homes, we are finally in a place where we can just "be." No more moving. No more landlords. Just living. What more could we ask for?
I made a 20 minute video-tour of our house for those who want to see it. We haven't yet gotten the internet at our new house though, so for now we are leaching off of a neighbor's unsecured wireless connection. The connection is sort of spotty though, so I haven't been able to upload this video. I'll post it sometime in the next couple of weeks.
Yay! So glad that you're all moved in and loving it. I can't wait to see the video The kids were so cute in their costumes. Good times!
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