a few pics from right before the move....







everybody's first night in their new beds-







making progress in the bathrooms. in fact, this picture is already outdated cause i totally have running water in my bathroom now :)



we lived with our tub in our room for the first week. now the room feels a bit empty without it.....



exploring our new backyard-











gave neiko a piece of cake. he used his hair to clean his hands :)



these last 4 pictures were for neiko's birthmom. i wanted to show her his new room-



he loooooves playing out on the patio. he loves being outside in general, so much so that he lets himself out the doors all the time. gotta always keep my eye on this one.....he is TROUBLE! :)







so our second week in our house turned out to be just as busy as the first. the first garage sale did not go well, so i advertised on my own and had it again the next saturday.

also i spent 2 days cleaning a house for dave.

so with making signs for the sale, lining up sitters so i could clean all day, coming home and cleaning all evening, having the sale, hosting a girls night, and helping our good friends move it was another crazy week.

and this week is the school's big fundraiser, which is put on by us school moms, so that tells you what THIS week is like......

BUT THERE IS AN END IN SIGHT.
on saturday we leave for gulf shores, alabama to put all this craziness behind us.
soooo ready to spend a week on the beach with dave and the kids and some of our family and friends.
no school schedules or house stuff or ANYTHING to stress about.
.........unless you count packing for 7 and a 14 hour car ride with the kids. :)

I have to mention that in the midst of our chaos my little (former) baby has been growing up. she is just another one of the kids now and does everything they do. and she says everything they say.

some of my favorites-

"wait a minute!"

"one more time!"

"i've got a better idea"

"can I go too?? oh, I'm too little....."

"stop saying that, neiko, that's annoying!!"

and

"stop singing! you're hurting my ears!!

of course, she never says that last phrase to ME. ok, yes she does. all the time. :)

She informs me every night that she doesn't like her new bed. Except it sounds more like this- "I don't like dis bed. I don wanna pleep in dis bed. I wanna pleep in foa's bed."

But koa's bed is a bunk bed with Shaeya sleeping on top. And koa still bangs her head. So far Shaeya is so happy to be sleeping on the top bunk that she hasn't complained too much....

So here is a small glimpse into the first week at our new house-

We have no washer and dryer yet. 5 kids plus a week with no washer and dryer.....

and we had a flu bug run through 4 of the kids this week. But thankfully only 1 of them puked.

And then there is neiko. Our move triggered some kind of something with him. He has been truly terrible. Defiant and stubborn, throwing lots of tantrums and throwing food. Pushing every boundary, getting into EVERYTHING, and constantly letting himself out the doors. He is doing something bad every minute.

I had to set up a "time out" pack n play in the living room to deal with some of these behaviors.

But at the end of everyday I sit down with him in the rocking chair in his room with his favorite blanket and some warm milk. And he lays his head on my chest, and I sing to him while I rub his back and his head. And somehow I know my sweet boy is still there. He is crying out for love and consistency and I'm doing my best to give it to him.

He is just trying to deal with another life change and with a busy mommy.

And I will not be this busy for too much longer. I went from cleaning and unpacking to trying to get organized and set up for a garage sale. The neighborhood sale is on saturday and I decided that it would be worth it to join in. The timing is sorta bad but also good.

Otherwise, we made progress with the bathrooms this week, i got the kitchen and our closets organized, the washer and dryer are coming tomorrow, and then after the sale on Saturday the big garage might actually be empty enough for one of us to park in.

Sooooo next week should be better. I'm not saying that this week was bad, I'm just saying that next week will be better......:)

WE DID IT!!!!

We went through a few frustrating days after our inspection on Wednesday- the inspector left Dave with a loooong list of things that needed to be done before we could get our temporary certificate of occupancy.

My plan was to use Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday night to move our clothes, dresser drawers, kitchen stuff, and food. But when we got that impossibly long list we decided I better just stay home with the kids those nights to allow Dave to get as much done as possible. It was pretty frustrating. I was so stir crazy at home, trying to stay positive and keep packing not knowing if we would get to move this weekend or not. And Dave was working crazy hours on that list. One of those nights he crawled in bed at 2am.......

But he finished everything, we had a second inspection on Friday, and we PASSED.
We were so relieved and excited, and then trying to round up some last minute help for the move the next day.

From there everything went pretty smoothly. We got our stuff moved, cleaned my parent's house, set up beds, and started in on organizing.
And we are still organizing.

THANK YOU SO MUCH to everyone who helped us and who watched our kids!!

We feel so blessed and happy and relieved to finally be together and in our new home!!!!!

We have what seems like endless amounts of trimming, painting, and organizing ahead of us. And we have only 1 fully functioning bathroom- 2 of them do not even have counter tops or sinks. Also our living room is decorated with a huge pile of trim.
But none of that matters at all to us at this point- we are just so happy to be living here.
With 2 parents for the kids, only 1 house to take care of, and no more showings!! :)