After weeks of being nomads, the moment we'd all been waiting for had finally arrived - moving into our house!
My Dad and his wife, Terri, graciously flew out to help us unpack and keep the kiddos entertained, which was a huge blessing - Thank you! It was so nice to have the extra help unpacking boxes and seriously, just knowing the kids were having fun and out of my hair allowed me to work so much more efficiently. I loved all the picture texts I would get from their adventures too. Especially the playing with the Emoji pillows at Walmart ones . . .
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| Even though this is a reenactment, yes, Kate did, in fact, fall face first into the pillow bin. |
You would think that unpacking a house that you'd already lived in would be simple, right? Well, yes, and no. Some things were pretty easy - like the kitchen. But it just takes a long time to put away every. single. item. The other thing is that we had acquired some new things and rearranged some rooms, so there was still some figuring out to do. All in all I'm happy with the way it turned out and am happy to be back in my Florida home (now that it has a secure roof and AC that works!)
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| rearranging of the den |
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| Kylie had to have her own "desk" in the den too to work alongside her Dad. So cute. |
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| Kate was way into putting together her birthday Star Wars Legos while I unpacked. Kept her from undoing my work, so I was good. |
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| Lise's paint job turned out splendid and she was able to decorate it to her hearts content. Actually, she has never really stopped decorating it, as she continues to rearrange her bookshelf, build a "reading nook", create a homework desk, or update the wall decorations. The mark of a true artist. |
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| Aly turned her room into a collage o' friends, which is awesome. I wasn't able to capture it in time while the bed was actually made, but this is probably a more accurate sense of Aly's room. |
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| This is also the cleanest you will see of Kate & Kylie's room, as there is always some sort of Pony/Barbie/Littlest Pet Shop/Little People Village/Neighborhood going on. |
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| We also turned Kate & Kylie's old room, the largest room upstairs, into "The Kids' Lounge", complete with TV, Wii, computer, and Art table. It has been nice for the girls to have some space to spread out (which is really just code for more places to make a mess!) |
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| When Chris was setting up the garage he found this snake digesting something big. Welcome back to Florida!! |
As Chris was settling into his new job, he started traveling down to South America to visit all his guys who were deployed in various countries. Super busy, but they were also able to see some cool ruins and visit some museums. Glad he gets a little play with all that work. ;)
The beginning of August also brought Kylie's birthday. She was super excited about her "treasure box" and all she wanted to do on her birthday was go swimming. Luckily we had a nice friend invite us over to swim in their pool. Success!
So yeah, once the house was unpacked we had a couple weeks of summer left to enjoy. Of course we swimming. In addition, Aly was able to cross "go through a drive through in a cardboard car" off her bucket list.
It was super funny, because the girls tried jumping to get to order, but it didn't work, so I had to follow behind them with the van. The workers thought it was hilarious and everyone came to look and take pictures . . . which led to them getting kicked out of the drive through by the manager. They did get their ice cream, however, so it turned out to be a smashing success.
Aly also had no trouble jumping back into water sports. There is a fun family in the ward who took the Mia Maids out boating - super fun.
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| Such a fun group of girls |
