Buckle your seat belts

Because this post - it's going to be a long one! We have been in our new digs for a little over two weeks now and I've not posted since prior to that so I've got major picture back up!

My Dad and Kathy came in bright and early on a Friday morning to help us move the next day and before we got to work there was some fun had between the girls, their Grandaddy and Gigi:

Saturday was moving day and it was interesting trying to juggle three kids and be of any assistance at all. Tim and my Dad did all the heavy lifting while Kathy and I were on the ready to direct and unpack in the new house. Luckily, Greyson cooperated by doing a little bit of this here and there so we could actually unpack boxes as my Dad and Tim delivered them.

The moving weekend was interesting to say the least. We realized a few days prior to our move-in date that our county was being hit by some kind of random insect infestation and when we did our final walk through I feared what kind of situation that would create for move-in day. Well, the little critters called Kudzu bugs (which you can learn more about here) were worse than I anticipated...they were ALL OVER our new home, all inside our new home and all thick in the air. Because they were in such high numbers, they came in on all of our belongings too (as you can imagine I was super enthused). Here is a picture of one of the columns under our front porch...every speck you see is a kudzu bug. Although some of these pictures show the severity of this issue...you really just can't grasp it until you're here.

Despite our new friends the kudzu bugs - the girls are super pumped about their access to our pool and playground...this is the view from our guest bedroom - they are literally in our backyard.

These are some close up pictures of the bushes and trees in our yard.

 Crazy, right? Thank heavens they don't bite, but they do stink to high heaven when you kill them. They are in between the glass and screens of all of our windows, they are in the cracks of our car doors, they are on our ceilings, they are EVERYWHERE and I'm so ready for them to be gone. Sadly...there's not much information on when and how they will go but I'm praying it's sooner rather than later. In the meantime, the fly swatter and shopvac are both kept handy.

 

On one of our last nights at Aunt Melissa's house the kids played with giant glowsticks that she found at Target. These pictures are kind of funny but I think they are cool:

Thank goodness for the help of family during our move. It was absolute craziness and without my Dad and Kathy coming in to get us out of our storage and into our house and the help of my Mom and Jim getting some things put together and away there's absolutely no way we could have gotten into our new home within a desirable time frame.

 

After everyone left to go home and Tim went back to work it was really hard not to just feel overwhelmed by my cardboard heaven. The only thing that kept me sane was knowing Tim's parents were on their way. Oh my word what a blessing having their help was. I essentially asked Marlene to be Nana so I could just scurry around here between feedings and get things done. Clearly she did just that:

She not only was a tremendous help with the kids she was a tremendous help around the house too - she and Dad both worked tirelessly around here getting boxes unpacked and broken down, organizing to the best of their ability and just willingly helping in ANY way they could. I can't really say how thankful I am...when they left I felt like I could breathe again and things were in enough of a working order that life could start to be more normal.

 

She and this little sweet pea got lots of time to bond and hang out while she was here.

Until we had the toys in some sort of organized fashion, trying to keep the girls entertained has been tough. We had some big boxes left over that I decided to turn into forts and oh what fun those little forts have been.

We decided to make those boxes the most fun possible so the girls would be able to have some way of entertaining themselves. They have been so good and so patient and so tolerant and easy going with all of this, so I'm glad we could take some time away from unpacking to have a little fun with these boxes:

 

Do you like how Kennedy added (in her own way) that essentially grown ups weren't allowed? Too funny!

She's even decorated the inside!

It has been so nice to have all our family together again (the dogs and cat are back...more on this later), to be in our own place and to start making it ours. There is much to be done but I keep trying to remind myself of the advice my big sister Angel gave me: "it's a marathon...not a sprint". Oh how true those words are and I keep reminding myself of not only that but also that my job right now is to be with my kids, pouring into them and nurturing them and managing our day to day needs (laundry, meals, etc.). So...this will be a LONG project but a rewarding and fulfilling one. Every time I start to feel anxious about all that needs to be done and all I want to do I try to remember that there's no need to hurry...we're going to be here for a while and we can take all the time we need to get it just right. I think we're going to love living here...the house just fits us right where we are and I'm so thankful.