Making our house a home

We had a LONG drive in the car, with 3 kids, age 5 and under.  It went about like you would imagine.  There were times that we giggled and sang songs, and had great family bonding time.  There were times when Kate was crying and refused to sleep, during which we almost lost our minds.  We drove about 10 hours a day for 3 days, and usually between 6 & 7 hours was when we all started losing our patience with being in the car.  We were all over-tired after the first day, because Kate thought it was SO fun to be in a hotel room with the 5 of us together that she decided to stay up ALL night and entertain us all.  It could have been a lot worse, the girls were troopers, but I am glad that we don't have to make that drive again for a LONG time!

One thing that was REALLY awesome, fun, and helpful was that my mom made a suprise box for us.  The girls got a morning and afternoon present and snack, wrapped in wrapping paper, to open each day that we drove.  So a few hours in we would bribe them with a fun treat & present from "BlahBlah", and then again late in the afternoon.  They would then play with their new toys and snack for the next hour, which they loved, and which really saved Matt's & my sanity.  Here they are playing with one of their surprises.

We got rained on the last half of the last day, pretty severely.  Most of the cars on the road had pulled over because it was raining so hard, but we found a semi who was willing to drive, and we rode behind him, since we could see his lights.  Another day, I am sure we would've pulled over, but at this point, we were only a few hours from home, and we had a strong desire to push through and get here ASAP!

 As we finally reached Rochester, we let the girls know when we were in our neighborhood, so that they could keep an eye out for our house.  They had seen pictures of the outside and knew what it looked like, they were very excited to finally get to see what our new neighborhood looked like.

We got to the house, and I had to get out in the rain and cut down all the stuff in the cargo area on top of the car and pull it off, so that we could pull into the garage.  Then Matt ran inside and got positioned with the camera, to be able to catch the girl's reactions as they saw the house for the first time, and got reunited with all of their stuff that they had been seperated from for the past month and a half.

We spent the first few weeks settling in, getting projects done.  Just to name a couple: taming the lawn & doing lots of yard work that had been neglected for 1.5 months, sanding down and re-sealing the deck, cleaning out the spiderwebby garage/reorganizing/putting up shelves/etc, stocking the house with groceries, hitting up 2nd hand stores in search of winter wardrobes, registering Lily for Kindergarten, registering our vehicles in MN, getting driver's licenses, trying to figure out Health Insurance, filling out lots of paperwork, doing all the final steps for Matt's school/orientation/student loans, and many, many other "grown-up" responisbilities.

Along with making sure the girls were adjusting to the big change, trying our best to spend as much quality time together as a family before school started, enjoying our yard and the FANTASTIC play set that the previous owners left (really, its my favorite part of the house, having this great play set that all my kids love so much, so thanks previous owners!!), and getting familiar with Rochester. 

And randomly at our house summer time seems to equal eating lots of dill pickles.  All 3 of my girls LOVE pickles.  Which makes sense, since I love them, and they are one of my go-to pregnancy foods, so they each got a lot of pickles in utero!  :)  They are a favorite summer time snack at our house.

 

Summer has quickly turned into fall here, and I finally understand the whole back to school "in the fall" phrase.  Growing up in Arizona, it was still over 100 degrees during the first 2 months back to school, and still felt very much like summer.  Things have cooled off here though and for the most part, I am really enjoying it.  The changing colors, the leaves blowing in the wind, the crisp-ness in the air.  It makes me want to read Harry Potter :)

 Apparently my "cool mom" stock went up 100% when the girls discovered that I have a secret box full of old acting trophies in my closet.  To a kid trophies=coolness. (to be fair 2 of these trophies are Matt's, so he is cool too!)

 Nothing better than the sound of 3 little girls giggling as they chase bubbles!

 If you look at the picture below, you can see a lady bug on Lily's hand.  We always seem to have a couple flying around the yard, the girls love it!

 

Matt and I also started P90X, and have been working out everyday, which has been great.  So needless to say, we've been keeping pretty busy!

At the Beginning of Sept, Lily started school.  She absolutely loves it.  Especially riding the bus.  I am adjusting.  I know its good for her, it is just hard for me to let go of control of her surroundings and send her out into the world.  I'm handling it better than I thought I would though.  As long as I don't think about it too much.  :)

 Doing her first homework assignment

 Daddy walking her to her orientation

The next week Matt started his program at The Mayo Clinic, and is already a slave to it.  He had 4 test/quizzes this week, one last week, and has 2 next week.  He has been a rockstar so far.  I am very proud of him.  Here is his pager, AKA his mistress.  He is at her becon call for the next 2.5 years.

 

 

I am also doing a rotating pre/joy school with 6 other moms for Izzie.  I feel so bad that she isn't getting to go to Miss Linda's preschool like Lily did.  I feel like Lily was REALLY well prepared for Kindergarten.  But I am hoping that this one day a week program will at least be helpful for Izzie, and that I can work with her at home.  Here she is before HER first day.  She LOVES it so far, and is so happy that she is finally big enough to go to school!

 

Izzie is always doing things to catch me off guard and being her mom is always entertaining to say the least.  Here is an example of a conversation the other day.

 

IZ: "Mom, do you know God kills monsters?

 

ME: "..."

 

 (squinty eyes, trying to think of a good response)

 

(She can see that I am scrutinizing what she said)

 

ME: (very slowly) "Did you say, 'God kills monsters'?"

 

(Her looking at me like I'm slow)

 

IZ: "Yeah.  Really mom.  Him does.  Him kill them."