Moving In

We had a beautiful sight two weeks ago...the container packed with all our worldly goods made it all the way across the globe and to the front door of our new house.

A crew of five men spent the better part of the day carrying all 274 boxes into the house and unpacking nearly everything. This was in the minutes just before the chaos began and everything started filling up the house. Thank goodness for the movers but it's crazy with them asking where things go (especially thanks to our lazy movers in Australia that didn't bother to label half the boxes and sent the rest to the guest bedroom) and me checking numbers off all the boxes to make sure they all arrived.

We had no major damage and everything fit in the house so it was a successful move! Several small things were broken or disappeared, which is always disappointing but par for the course, I suppose.

Ready for a tour of the house? We'll do some before and after shots to show how things have come together over the past few busy weeks.

Master bedroom

Feels like home again! It's a big room so we still have tons of space by the windows. It sure beats squeezing past the bed and dresser like we've been doing for the past two years.

Master bath

Loving the his and hers sinks! We also have a nice long bathtub that's big enough to stretch out in and relax and a great shower. And for the first time in four years it's air-conditioned!!

My closet before...it was a disaster until just a few days ago because I needed several uninterrupted hours to tackle the piles of clothes.

The kids spent a few days with Grammy and Grumpy and now I can not only walk into the closet but see everything inside! Matt and I have laughed about how different our clothes look because the light was broken in our closet for the past year.

Ben's room before

I love his bed! It's the front and back from his old crib and it looks great but freaked him out a little at first because it's so tall now. After a week of making midnight trips to say hello in our room, he's finally sleeping well in his own room again.


Alex's room before was just a mattress

Now he has his own bed! He was literally jumping up and down in excitement when he saw his room all decorated.

We'll get him some proper furniture one day but for now he's plenty happy with what's in there and has been completely content since the minute he walked in.

The living room and kitchen were pretty crazy at the end of moving day!

The living room came together pretty nicely although the TV console didn't fit and ended up in the game room. It's worked out really well but we still need a solution for the big TV in the living room.

The kitchen was a lot of work but with all those cabinets it wasn't too hard to get everything put away in a logical place. I LOVE this kitchen!! We'll get some stools around the island and have some great times there. I'm also loving having a full-sized dishwasher and a garbage disposal again.

The game room off the kitchen was one of the worst places. None of the boxes intended for the kids' rooms made it in there so I spent an entire day shuttling clothes, pictures, toys, and books to their correct rooms.

Now it's our favorite place to hang out! We'll be spending a lot of time in here for sure. It's great to have it off the kitchen because I can still talk to the kids and referee while I'm cooking.

The study

It's coming together for sure but we still have some boxes to sort out and have to get some grown-up desks. Until then we'll just ask people not to look this way when they walk in the front door!

The dining room will be empty for a while and is collecting some random things but the kids are playing in here quite a bit as well so at least it's being used right now. Please don't look this way either!

Stacey and Reid have already been down for a visit and it was great incentive to get the guest room in order.

One of my favorite rooms is the mudroom between the garage and kitchen!

I'm loving this laundry room as well. Lots of space for storage and even room for a drying rack so I don't have to bother with hanging delicate stuff to dry. Even better because the washer and dryer are big enough to hold more than four towels so I'm doing about half as many loads as before.

Our outdoor table and chairs fit well in the covered patio and we're loving the yard, although it's too hot to play outside much at the moment. We're still desperate for rain and it's not proving to be an ideal year to get a lawn started but thankfully the house already had a sprinkler system when we moved in. We're getting some help keeping the grass in good shape, too!
Our next step is to start hanging everything on the walls but we have lots of framing to be done and want to take our time and do it right.

We are all so, so happy to be in our own home again and thankful that God has provided us an ideal place to settle. I looked at 40-something houses in just two days when we were looking for a place and this was the one house that made my heart beat faster the minute I walked in the door. I just knew it would be perfect for our family and I can't believe everything worked out and we're moved in it. We're all excited to make some wonderful memories here!

Almost There

No more of this kind of entertainment at our house:
After 8 weeks (8 VERY long weeks, if you ask Ben) we will be seeing our furniture today! The container is being hauled to our front door as we speak and should be completely unpacked today. We are one excited family! Not only does it mean we'll get to see all the things we've missed, we finally get to move out of the apartment and into the house we've been waiting to enjoy. The kids are with Grandma and Grandpa for several days so I can get ahead of the mess before they come and make an even bigger mess.

We have enjoyed a few things about our temporary apartment, like the king-sized bed. Every morning the kids would come pile in bed with me and we'd watch cartoons together before getting up. Some mornings they didn't leave.

With no other kids around to play with, these guys have been inseparable. Ben even started reading books to Alex!

Bedtime was always a challenge here because they boys will not go to sleep together in the same room. They just play and get in trouble until they finally pass out from exhaustion, so we'd split them up to fall asleep then move one from our bed back to his own bed. Only Alex always has to take things one step farther and he would usually sneak into our closet to sleep on the air mattress which was still there from the jetlag recovery days. This particular night he gave me an extra laugh because he also took all the pillows from our bed.

Ben is also good for a laugh at night because he insists on sleeping in his blinders now. Funny boys!

Ben also found Daddy's bluetooth headset and loved talking on it.

Alex prefers good ole cherry chapstick to all the technology. Think he got enough?

We've also had some fun times outside of the apartment, especially on the weekends because it was way too cramped to sit around inside. We got to celebrate Grandma and Grandpa Kirkham's 40th anniversary with them. Congratulations on 4 decades of life and love together!

The kids and I have taken advantage of all kinds of summer activities for kids in the area. Every week there is a new $1 kids movie at the theater, Ben went to a VBS, I started a women's Bible study, we found a great free indoor playground at a nearby church, and a fun playtime in the middle of the shops. This would have probably been more fun if it wasn't 95 degrees in the shade, but the kids still had a good time.

The highlight was the little leis the guys made and got to tear up at home. We are loving our Texas summer!

This morning is the quiet before the storm...we won't have internet at the house for 10 more days so my next post will be a while and hopefully be from our new home!

Happy Fathers Day

Thank you, Matt, for being our rock during uncertain times.

Thank you for being there during the happiest times.

(and the, ahem, hardest times for some. No names will be disclosed)

Thank you for the fun and laughter.

Thank you for teaching us we can find adventures anywhere.

Thank you for enjoying the little moments together.

Thank you for making memories with us!

Thank you for being a loyal, hard-working, and loving father. We love you and celebrate you today and always.

And to my dad, thank you for always being there for me, either in the same house or across the world! I'm so blessed to have you for a father and a grandfather to my children. I love you!

Too Much Mary Poppins?

Happy Birthday Reid!

I guess the summers will always be busy with little boy birthdays from now on - Ben in May, Reid in June, Alex in July! We were so excited that cousin Reid came down from Dallas to celebrate his first birthday with all his grandparents.

We were all excited for the big moment - the eating of the cake.

Ummmm.....

....no thanks. We couldn't believe it but Reid had no interest in the cake or the icing, even by spoon.

These boys, on the other hand, were thrilled with the prospect of cake and helped celebrate with lots of enthusiasm.



After everyone's tummies were full, Ben said he was going to teach Reid how to crawl. (Reid has started crawling since last time we saw him, but let's let Ben think he did the teaching!)

Alex was just waiting impatiently behind the couch for the presents to come out.

Reid got to open his loot and scored some nice gifts for his birthday. He gave a wave of thanks to the paparazzi before he started playing with everything.

After the big celebration, we spent a couple days enjoying everyone's company. Alex always struggles not being the baby in the house and finds lots of things to do to get some attention. I think he's gotten a little big for the baby bath!

We tried (unsuccessfully) to get a picture of the cousins...guess who wasn't in the mood?

The kids and grandkids

Grammy and Grumpy and their grandsons. Oh, Alex, there is never a dull moment with you!

On The Home Front

We have closed on our lovely new house and have keys to go and visit, but have nothing practical inside yet to make it livable. Our shipment was supposed to make landfall in the US on the west coast over the weekend and still has to make its way to Houston by rail, clear customs, and get trucked to our house. We're hoping to be reunited with our beds and toys in another couple of weeks. In the meantime, when we're over at the house the kids have to find entertainment any way possible. How did I ever live without an iphone? Here they are watching a show together in an empty bedroom.

And here they are fighting over it. Naturally.

We did get our 54 boxes out of storage and it was fun seeing what I thought was worth saving four years ago. Let's just say that I should have parted with ALL the winter clothes I packed away! It was exciting but also pretty emotional for me to go through everything from a time in my life that is gone, even though where we are now is so much better. Even running the vacuum and smelling the familiar scent of our old house brought tears to my eyes. Our lives have changed SO much since then! Anyway, now we have a twin bed, one old TV, lots of old books and vases, a vacuum, a loveseat, and a fridge in the garage. Not enough to live on just yet. While the movers were unpacking I fed the kids in the only seating area in the house - the bench in the mud room between the garage and kitchen. How much do I love this room already?!

We did go out to meet some of our new neighbors at an ice cream party at the neighborhood pool, even though we're not residents just yet. It's a fairly new development so no one has lived there more than four years, which makes it nice for people like us who are looking to make new friends. After ice cream sundaes, the kids got their arms painted and each got a balloon animal.

Alex is still asking to get another Elmo.

Ben settled on a red guitar.

They each got balloon puppies to take home, only Ben's didn't make it too far inside the door. I forgot the trauma of popping a balloon as a kid!

Alex is such a character...he always keeps us laughing. He decided to drink apple juice and milk at the same time at dinner. Sounds gross to me but he loved it, or at least loved the attention it drew to him.

And in our latest drama - Ben took a fall in the bathroom on Sunday and got a big goose egg on his forehead. It looked bad but didn't seem out of the ordinary until he threw up an hour later, then fell asleep on the couch for the first time ever (not counting jetlag or fever). I woke him up for dinner and he ate a little then threw up several more times. By that time Matt and I knew it was more serious than a bump, so I took him to an urgent care clinic and was immediately sent to the ER.

Thank goodness there is a new Texas Children's campus on the west side of Houston because we trust them completely and we had a great experience, as far as after-hours weekend emergencies go. The doctor ordered a CT scan on Ben before he even examined him because of the head injury/vomiting combination. It took a while for the radiologist to look at the results so we hung out in a room and lucky Ben got to watch TV and play on my iphone (again - how did I live without that??) for a couple of hours while we waited to see the doctor. He perked up with all the excitement and attention at the hospital and I think really enjoyed the whole thing, except for the throwing up and headache.

Our prayers were answered and we were so glad to find out it was just a mild concussion and nothing more serious internally. Ben managed to survive his traumatic birth and four months in the hospital without damaging his brain so we would sure hate to see a simple fall harm him! Praise God for keeping him safe yet again. But let's not make any more unplanned visits to Texas Children's or my hair may go completely gray.

Ben at 5

I just had a little interview with Ben to remember his favorite things at five years old. As I asked him each of these questions his first response was "You know! You know what I like!" so his answers were a little short.

Color: yellow

Food: crackers, triangle cheese, strawberries, cookie cake, chocolate

Cartoon: Jake and the Neverland Pirates and everything else except Alex's shows

Drink: lemonade, orange juice

Movie: Mary Poppins

Animal: giraffes

Treat: skittles

Things: building blocks

Toy: my black truck

Activities: swimming

Story: A Wocket In My Pocket, Wacky Wednesday, and pretty much anything else by Dr. Suess

Song: supercalifragilsticexpialadocious (and he can really say it!)

Dislikes: watching Mickey Mouse because that's Alex's show. carrots.

The kids have figured out how to talk on the phone to one another in the apartment and don't seem bothered in the least by the dial tone. It's so much fun to watch!