All moved in!

Well we are homeowner's once again!! The close was far from smooth, but it all worked out in the end. We were able to get our keys last Monday night and had the movers come late Wednesday.

I must say I have the greatest friends EVER. Between helping us move and unpack, and help watch the kiddos... we were covered! I am so thankful for all of our sweet friends (& mom who helped watch Cole).

I really don't have many pictures to post, it has been a busy week. There is still some unpacking to do and some furniture to buy, but we have a new place to call home. So all is well.

The kids camped out Tuesday night. There was no way we were getting them back in our apartment.

Thanksgiving day we made a ham and some fixins... including a pumpkin swirl cheesecake. YUM! Twice the time, twice the mess and ten times the fun! Although Abby doesn't look happy to be at the end of the mixin' line.

The girls couldn't wait for it to be done baking. Too bad it had to sit in the fridge for 6 hours after that.

They eventually gave up and I found ballet bear in their place.

Oh my... the things you take for granted when living in a tiny space... like a YARD. They've been running around like crazy outside several hours a day. It's great!

You can't take your eyes off this one for a second. There went the breadcrumbs that were a key ingredient for our dinner. Thanks Cole.

Family game night is back!

Some space for ring around the rosy! Now when "they all fall down" they have to be careful - hardwoods hurt!



Austin played in his first tournament over the weekend. He was on a new team that didn't do so hot, but he did score the only goals on his team. I was thinking we would take a break in the spring, but after talking to the coach he told us to keep him in... said he is very good and makes quick decisions for his age. He said they are watching him for when they make club selections. So here's to a crazy spring schedule also...

Packing up

Austin's at a birthday party, James is sick, and Cole is asleep. The girls and I are packing up.

Well at least Abby is. Emily is busy reading to her animals.
If we're lucky, we're out of this apartment early next week. We thought there was a 0% chance of this changing, but after going back and forth with the mortgage people yesterday it is not guaranteed any longer. They ordered a late Friday inspection... why they didn't do it earlier is beyond me. So extremely frustrating.... they have known our closing date for the past 4 months and wait until the last minute to perform an inspection. So fingers crossed that all will go according to plan!

Here's a couple of pictures of the new house a week ago.

This is my favorite part of the house... big kitchen and I love the stone arch!

Just some random other stuff. Here's Austin at his Veteran's Day program.


and the girls at their Thanksgiving program called "Totally Turkey." Super cute!




And look who is toothless just in time for Christmas!

Well I gotta run. I hope y'all have a great Thanksgiving! Don't forget to count all your blessings, we will! :)

Abby Update - Wednesday

Abby's home!! Her face is pretty much back to normal. She might have a tiny scar where they made the incision in the crease of her nose... but I don't think it will be a big deal.

We're so glad to have our sweet girl back home with us... really don't want to experience it ever again.

This is her before:




And after:




She's home with me today, but should be headed back to school tomorrow. I think she's back to feeling like her usual self except her hand is very swollen from the IV... but that's pretty much it.

We so appreciate all the prayers :)

Abby Update

What a difference a day makes! Abby's face looks so much better. The antibiotics are kicking in.

I'm still not sure how much longer we are going to be here at the hospital. There is still a chance of a second surgery. We are all ready for Abby to come home and get back to normal.

We are so grateful for our sweet friends that have been helping with the other kiddos.

So thanks for all your prayers, keep 'em coming :)

Please pray for Abby

I wouldn't normally post this, but our sweet little Abby could really use your prayers right now.

She's in the hospital with a really nasty infection. She should be ok, but it's still scary. We went to the ER yesterday for an abscess on her face that turned bad very quickly. It went from a small pimple, to the whole right side of her face swelling. We got transferred by ambulance from that hospital to the big children's hospital downtown.

She had surgery yesterday, and woke up this morning worse. She can't even open her right eye now. We've had slews of doctors into see us... the last one being an infectious disease doctor. We're still not sure what it is (probably MRSA). They changed her IV antibiotics to a stronger one today, in which she didn't react to well. If she doesn't respond to these, she'll have a catscan in the morning followed by more surgery... and we're already guaranteed another 48 hours there. She started off in good spirits, but she's really tired of it all right now. Poor baby.

So like I said, I wouldn't normally post anything like this, but we could use all the prayers we can get. I'll update more on here when we get more information. Thanks for the prayers!!

Happy November!

It seems like we have been waiting and waiting all year for November to get here. If all goes according to plan, we should be moving in our new house around Thanksgiving! It can't come soon enough. I have to keep reminding myself as much as apartment life completely stinks, we need to stay positive! After all - we have a roof over our head, food in the fridge, and a healthy/happy family. We are blessed!

They just put the carpet in our house this week, and I completely teared up after seeing it. It's so real now. YEAH.

Here's a few pictures from Halloween this year. A sweet friend invited us over to trick-or-treat. Unfortunately her son, and Austin's best buddy, had strep and couldn't join us. We missed him, but the kids had a blast. And we have tons of sugar. The one good thing about all this sugar is that if the kids misbehave, all I have to do is threaten to take away candy and they immediately stop. Haha. Whatever works, right?! Little do they know... a handful ends up in the trash each day while they are at school.

This is the only picture I have of Cole in his full costume. He would not leave that thing on his head. I got it at Target after last year's Halloween for 90% off. Honestly I didn't even know what it was, but apparently it was some sort of martian from Toy Story. All I cared was that it was a costume and cost $1.

Austin was Darth Vader. Every year he picks out something he knows nothing about.

Emily was a bumble bee and Abby was a witch - another Target find from last year that went into the dress-up drawer.



Don't let this picture fool you... this was the one time Cole actually held the pumpkin and kind of went up to the door. He pretty much was cranktified the rest of the evening. I'm sure next year will be more fun for him.



Hope y'all have a happy November!