Anyone See Logan?

Doc

I guess even bad guys need a doctor now and then.

And in with the NEW!

One good thing about selling our lovely house was getting to buy our new home! This house has four bedrooms upstairs, a full finished basement with an extra bedroom and bathroom, a fenced yard with a deck, a fireplace, and a good school district for our kids. It checked off all the must-haves from our list, as well as quite a few nice-to-haves. We knew the day we bought our old home that we would have to move out someday (if only to get into a better school district), and it is a nice feeling to know that with this house we won't have to move unless we want to! And I may never move again. Ali loves having her own room in this house, and Logan loves the basement and the chimney--for Santa to come down, of course!

Here I am in the middle of chaos the day we moved in:

When packing I promised Logan he could have one of the boxes I was packing up after we moved into our new house. I didn't realize, though I probably should have, was that he would expect a box the second he walked in the door! The kids have has about as much fun playing with the empty boxes as I have had emptying them. It is so nice to get stuff settled here!

Ali loved rediscovering things as I pulled them out of boxes:

And here we are a week later. I've actually gotten almost everything unpacked at this point, mostly it's just pictures left in boxes. But since I'm the one unpacking, often I'm the only one who knows where things are and where they need to be put away. Logan put it best when he said, "I knew where everything was in our regular house, but I can't find anything in our new one!"

We do love it here, and we're excited to see what this house brings!

Out with the Old!

Well, we officially sold our wonderful Periwinkle home on April 12, 2013. We moved in October 2004, and I think it's safe to say our family grew a bit over that time period!

I guess I shouldn't have been, but I was surprised at how emotional I was walking through our home one last time before we left. This was the first house Jason and I had together, this was where we brought all three of our children home from the hospital. It was brand new when we bought it, so it was ours in every sense of the word: we picked the paint colors and painted all the walls, we chose and did the landscaping ourselves. And I could see the love and support we have received from our family over the years: our dads hung all the blinds; my mom made almost all of the curtains; Jason and his dad put up the back splash in the kitchen; my mom, grandpa and Aunt built the shelves in the garage. Everything I saw brought back a memory: here was where we laid Ali and Logan on the floor the day they came home from the hospital, Logan screaming his head off; this is where I sat feeding each baby in the night; this was a favorite hide-and-seek hiding spot; this is where Eli took his first steps...and on and on. It was such a happy home, and I am so grateful to have lived there and to have begun raising our family there. But the great thing is, I know our new home will be a happy place too, filled with the same wonderful people. How blessed I am.

Water Fun

Logan and Ali spent about two hours happily playing in the bathroom with their bath toys the other day. If only every single towel hadn't been soaked and the pool on the floor hadn't been there, this might have become a new favorite pasttime.

Mommy Ali

Ali loves the stroller and baby she got for her birthday; they have renewed her love of playing Mommy. See her purse over her shoulder?

Easter

We had a wonderful Easter this year. We continued our newish tradition of spending the week before Easter talking every day about what the Savior did on that day the last week of His life. I personally love the daily reminder of Him, and enjoy the chance to talk about Him and testify of Him to my children.

The Easter Bunny hides baskets in Mom and Dad's room so we can be sure we get to see the kids see them for the first time, and not at 5am when Logan gets up. They were as patient as they could be and at 6:45am we let them come in and see the loot. The Easter Bunny loves to see the kids love the things picked out especially for them. There was lots of, "How did he know I would love this?!"

Eli couldn't even look at anything else in his basket once he saw the chocolate bunny, but loved to explore his treasures once he had a few bites.

Here is Ali looking so grown up in the pretty Easter dress Grandma Eldredge bought for her:

And here she showing a bit of personality:)

The kids enjoyed the Easter egg hunt at Grandma and Grandpa's house:

And here is Eli being very serious about the hunt. I promise he smiled on Easter, we just didn't get a picture of one!

For dessert we got to celebrate Amy and Steve's engagement! We're so excited for them and it was the prefect way to end a great day!

Moving Help

This is the kind of help two-year-olds give when you're trying to pack up the house: permanent marker mustaches when you're not looking.