Moving and Settling In!

Last Friday Tony took the day off and we started the move off with just getting the kids rooms up.  We got up Friday morning and finished packing up Elizabeth's room(most of it I'd done already) and I worked on boxing up Devin's room, which wasn't nearly as hard as I thought it was going to be!  While I was packing up Devin's room Tony was taking down Elizabeth's bed which also wasn't nearly as bad as we were thinking it was going to be.  We both got done a lot faster that anticipated, which meant as soon as Tony's dad came to help we were loading up his truck(we opted out of using the trailer because of the snowstorm), we got loaded up and up to my parent's house around noon or a bit after!  My mom watched the kids for us while Tony and I unpacked and  put together the kids' rooms. Devin's room was pretty easy as we decided to use my parent's toddler bed as it was a lighter color which went better in his room...and it already had a Buzz Lightyear tent on it!  Then it was just deciding what toys I wanted to keep in there, and how best to arrange them.  Devin's room isn't by any means a legal or even good sized bedroom, it has no window(which is actually a plus for him as he prefers the dark. But we did put a "daylight" light-bulb in there if that counts! ;) And it is on the small size but it's not meant to be a play-in bedroom, it's pretty much just a place for him to sleep, and play with a few things as he falls asleep and for a while after he wakes up til I get him, and so far it's working out perfectly!  Elizabeth on the other hand has two windows in her room(the placement of the windows just did not work out for our plan of putting two bedrooms there, but like I said it's actually been good that way!) which is really nice since Elizabeth is afraid of the dark, he room gets tons of light, the only time we turn the light on is when the sun goes down!  Her loft bed has been a lifesaver in that room as it isn't very big either, bigger than Devin's but still not as big as a typical bedroom, but since she has all the space under her bed it works out great!  She has the most adorable princess room ever!  The $9 wall decals we got off Amazon were the best nine bucks we've ever spent!  They totally pull the room together, they look amazing and we so easy to put on!  Seriously....best nine bucks EVER!!! Devin has Toy Story ones but I haven't gotten them up in his room yet(think I'm gonna do that tonight actually).  We got their bedrooms put together faster than we thought so we even had a little time to rest after.  Elizabeth told me what princess to put where in her room, it was so cute how she had it all planned out complete with explanations for why each place was best for each princess!  We left the kids with my parents and grabbed lunch on our way back to the condo, where we starting serious packing!  About 4:30 members of our ward started showing up to help which was sorely needed as I was completely spent and in a lot pain after over doing it that morning with the kids rooms move.  We ended up with 6 helpers who were very motivated to get us pretty much entirely packed by the end of the night, and by about 10:00 that night we pretty much were!  It was amazing how much we all got done....you know what they say, many hands make light work...well it is certainly true!  Man am I gonna miss that ward!  I tear up every time I think of them....they've done so much for us throughout the past almost 6 years, it really has been more like a great big family than a ward, and it is very hard to leave!  So we will definitely be visiting often!  Saturday was the big move.  We had originally planned to use trucks and trailer to haul everything up but because of the snowstorm of a century(ok only 20 years....but that doesn't sound nearly as good) we opted to just rent a moving truck and take everything covered in one trip!  And it was a great decision!  Once again thanks to the greatest ward EVER, and lots of help from Tony's family we had it chuck full of all our boxes and such by about 11 am!  Sandy came with me in our loaded up Pilot, Tony's dad brought their truck which had part of our bed and some other stuff, Johnny brought up Russell and Tony's car, and Tony drove the moving truck with Landen in tow(he was quite excited to ride in the big moving truck as he's never ridden in one before!)  Up at my parents' house once we got a good system in place we cruised through the unloading, and were done and had lunch before we the time we told my parent's ward to be there to help! And by that night we had the living room unpacked and set up!  By Sunday the kitchen was unpacked and set up as well!  It was so smoothly and I'm so very grateful it did!  We still have plenty of boxes to unpack and go through, and the front room is still a storage room as is all around our bed in our room...but it's so nice to be on our bed again in an actual bedroom again!  And as for the front room, we're going to get the condo emptied and cleaned and on the market before we go there.  But it's pretty functional for now, Elizabeth's school is in an extended recess though we have been working on reading and writing and she does ABCMouse.com and lets face it....someone as curious as her...who asks as many millions of questions as she does is ALWAYS learning!  That and well she's four and reads on at least a first(probably closer to second) grade level, does first grade level math, science and social studies...so I think a missed month or so isn't a really big deal.  Know what I mean? ;) 
This week has gone really well!  We're back into our usual routine which Devin is loving, I'm loving all the space the kids have to play! I love that I can be cooking dinner and see what they're up to.  They're(ok WE'RE loving having cable) it's funny though, the kids still prefer to watch PBS kids, they just don't have to deal with it cutting out constantly because of a crappy antennae, they can actually watch a whole show all the way through!  I love HGTV!  My down time got a lot better!  Oh and my parent's leather electric recliners help greatly with that as well!  We are so blessed to be here!  Well I think that's about it, enjoy the pics!

I love the way Devin is sitting like a grown man!

Sitting eating their yummy cookie while watching netflix.

Playing in the large open great room!  Devin used to never ride on his firetruck, cause he could never go very far, now he goes all over!

Watching tv from the laundry basket!

This much mess in the condo living room would have left no floor showing...love the space, and Devin's Mickey ears!

And some of Elizabeth having fun with a whistle!

And finally a video of Devin playing with the shake and go Buzz car my Uncle Chester gave him for Christmas, they were having a lot more fun with it before I started recording...naturally.  And have since realized it's a lot more fun to send down the hall!