Pictures of new house!

Above are photo's of our new home! I took these the day we signed for the keys. I had every intention of taking photo's of our old apartment all empty and it just didn't happen. Moving is always such a "fun" time. HA! We're still working on unpacking, and being VERY pregnant does not make that easy, when you literally can not reach past the half way mark in many of the boxes because of a baby belly getting in the way. This evening Chad and I were able to get through 3 boxes for the kitchen, almost done with the kitchen!!! My goal is to have things hung up on the wall in the next week, have Chad get our carpet laid in the living and dining room, and carpet in the family room. We were very blessed that a friend gave us the carpets (with padding for living/dining room) and it's the perfect colors as well.

My heart swells

Last Sunday before AWANA, we got to church early and the boys were out playing in the grass across the street from the chapel with friends boys, playing soccer. The ball was kicked and rolled into the street. I was talking to another mom and didn't see as Jacob went to get the ball, he's 9 has known to look both ways, yeild, etc so I wasn't overly concerned as I saw him on the otherside of the street (side of the chapel) waiting on the car to pass to go back to the grass and continue to kick the soccer ball around. The other mom said "that was so great of Jacob" and she described how he looked both ways and then looked again twice, waited as a car down the block passed by and then crossed." She noticed and wanted to make sure I told him she noticed, because she knows as a Mom, that kids need to know we and others notice when they do the right thing (it's so easy to point out when they've messed up, but it's just as important, no more important to point out when they do right).
So today we're at the Bazaar that happens once a year on our post (Bazaars are wonderful little 3 day events that happen throughout various military communities...lots of different vendors come in, selling items from antiques, Americana decorations, cheeses from Holland (yum!), wine's from Germany, Italy, etc, lace, jewelry, etc, etc, etc). While making our purchase in the Americana space the lady tells me how impressed she is with all 3 of our children, how well behaved they were, that one of them had accidently knocked over a plaque and instead of doing what 99% of what others do and just step over it and go on like they didn't notice what they'd done, they set it back up and made sure it was in the same position as before they knocked it over. She said "you are obviously teaching them correctly". Whew...Chad and I both looked at each other and we smiled and sighed a sigh of relief that they were behaving so nicely, including Emma! (Hey she's 2, we all know they're unpredictable)

I am blessed and so very thankful every single day that GOD allows me to keep Jacob, Jackson, and Emma. He holds our sweet Jordyn in his arms and I KNOW she's safe and sound. As we prepare for our newest miracle and blessing to join us in only a few short weeks I'm in awe that for what ever reason GOD has allowed us these blessings, and we want to be intentional with each day we have with our children. I want them to look back and have happy memories of their childhood. I want them to see how the LORD has worked in their life from the moment they were concieved and that whether they were planned or not by Chad and I, that GOD planned for their lives and that they've always been wanted and always loved.

Back

We're back online! They came on Monday and got the lines turned on, of course nothing's ever as simple as it should be! :) We have 3 outlets for the phone/internet the main box being in the laundry room (for some reason the former tenants requested it be placed there....we're still not sure why!) then there's a line in our school room/playroom, then one upstairs in the living room. The only way for both our phone lines (we have a German line and Vonage/state side phone number) and the dsl to work, it all has to be hooked up in the laundry room. Not the most convenient of places and my wireless connection is not the strongest in the living room, but it's working and I'm here!

My laptop is still being looked at to see if it'll be cheaper to fix or for our insurance to replace (not sure if I ever mentioned that Emma got sick all over the keyboard of my laptop and well it did not recover lol), and Chad's laptop there's something going on with the cord/plug in so once my computer is either fixed or replaced we'll be sending his in and have them look at it.

The new house is great. I haven't gotten much at all unpacked, it's a slow process when a 34 week belly gets in the way and I can't reach the bottom of boxes, swollen ankles and feet and fingers, etc!! :) But we're here. The kids love it. There's so much more room. We have a 2 story duplex with a finished basement. The basement consists of our own laundry room (no more sharing!!!), the middle room is what we've made our family room (with a soon to be new flat screen tv that Chad's wanted and I gave my ok for), and the last room is our playroom/school room. That room is probably the most put together room. We sorted through a lot of toys and still have more to sort through (they're packed up though at least) and I still need to set up our school shelves. Tonight after Jack's baseball game, Chad's going to go and get a carpet our friend Tammy is giving us (for the living/dining room) and two school desks for the boys. We are wanting a small table to put down there eventually, but the desks will give us time to find exactly what we want and if we don't the desks will work great!

We had two big mishaps. Chad dropped and busted up our headboard. So, Chad now wants us to get a new bed...a king size! :) (We're in a Queen) Our room will be a little cramped, but it'll be worth it to have the extra room and as Chad said, soon we're going to have another little one sleeping with us so we need that room! LOL (never mind that we've had 3 sleep with us in a queen and it worked fine and 1 sleep with us in a full size) but I'm not going to argue with his logic!
The other mishap, is that Chad pulled many of our items out of our old storage room in the old apartment building and people stole some of our items in between trips. We got most of it back (Chad caught one person red handed and she brought everything back, someone else had told her we were getting rid of everything and we both talked to her, yelled at her, and forgave her...she also let us go through her apartment and search for the missing other items). The thing that's missing now that I had an emotional attachment to was many of our Christmas ornaments, most being ones of the kids, including Jordyn's and even ones from my childhood, which most I don't have an emotional attachment to, except for one that my Great Aunt had hand made and painted for me, it was Lucy (from Charlie Brown). I'm praying some how we get those ornaments back some how. Two large suitcases (nice ones) were stolen as well (stinks but no sentimental attachment obviously).

The kids all love their own rooms, we still have to paint them (well Chad does) and get rugs for their rooms, but it's all coming together slowly but surely! I have 5 weeks left of this pregnancy, it's still going great. The baby is growing perfectly. I really thought I'd gained at least 10 lbs the last two weeks, as much as my stomach has grown, but no...I barely gained 1 lb, the only way that could be is because of all the cleaning and back and forths between the house and apartment!

I am planning on uploading pictures tonight to the computer and will hopefully be able to post them on here tomorrow of the new house (before we moved in) once I have it all organized and decorated I'll share more photo's!

God Bless

This is it!

We lose our phone and internet tomorrow and won't have it back until middle to possibly the end of the month (oh yes it really does take that long in Germany to get a simple transfer!), it could be sooner, but I'm not counting on it! We are getting things done, it just feels like nothing's done yet. Tomorrow that should change because Chad's going to go pick up the moving truck and he'll start loading up all the boxes and footlockers and small pieces of furniture that he can carry by himself. We'll load things into my van and his car as well and that will hopefully show us just how much we do have done. Chad's hoping to get off early today so he can finish packing up Emma's room (I'm doing the kitchen, bathroom, and closets today) and he'll start on our bedroom today as well. The boys are making progress on their room, slow progress but progress none the less. How they're doing things has changed as it wasn't working with them but since I gave them a change in the game plan they are actually seeing a progress! I won't be able or have time to check anyone elses blogs either. I look forward to being able to share pictures of our new house and will take photo's of our current and soon to be old one (all nice and empty).

God Bless

Sorting and Packign

As thrilled as I am about our new house we're moving to, the sorting and packing are things I would love to have someone else do. We could pay for movers ourselves, but well I'm just too frugal and can not justify paying for something we can truly do ourselves. We have a plan for each day of what we want and NEED to get done. Saturday after a fun morning of Easter Egg Hunts and other fun games to celebrate The Month of the Military Child and free lunch, shopping for footlockers, cleaning supplies (more like scrubbing items for Chad to clean the oven and some dish clothes for me to clean the bathroom!). To a friends to pick up boxes and home to sort and pack. Tomorrow I'll be packing up the living and dining rom, the entry wall table and closet and linen closet, while Chad goes through our storage room. Sunday we have church, Easter pictures, Easter dinner, family Egg hunt, then packing! We'll be working on our bedroom and hopefully get Emma's room done as well on Sunday. Monday I want to get the kitchen and bathroom done. Tuesday we'll finish the boys room or what's not done in there, and then cleaning what needs to be cleaned.

Want to pray for us?? Lots to do and well not a lot of time to do it! We can start moving on Wednesday after the preinspection of the new house and preinspection of our current apartment which is just them telling us what we're required to clean (which from our many friends who've moved from here, we know will not be much...thank goodness!). Ok I have to get to bed now, to prepare for tomorrow's crazy day! :)

Oh our phone and internet will be turned off on Tuesday and will hopefully be turned on by the 19th, but no promises! This is probably the last time I will write until after our move and internet is back on.

God Bless