Doing his time!

I just thought this was too cute not to post.  I cannot even remember what he had done.  Jason told Blake to go put his nose in the corner and when I looked I couldn't help but smile! 

There are a lot of good "corners" in this house.  Anyway, the funnier part was that after he was able to come and talk with us about what he had done I look and notice a spot on the wall.  Us: "Blake, did you lick the wall?" Blake: "Yep!" Us: "Why?" Blake: " I wanted to know what it tasted like."

Well, okay then!

Construction Zone

WARNING: This post may show pictures of young boys with big boy tools :)

The boys are now sharing a room!  I will start by saying it has gone pretty well (knock on some wood!!) We decided this for many reasons but a few of them being 1. Most houses we looked at to rent had 3 bedrooms and we wanted to have an "extra" room. 2. Blake was still in a toddler bed so we were going to have to make some kind of mattress purchase or bed change. 3. Better do it now if we are going to do it at some point (it should be good for them, right?) and 4. I think Jason has probably always wanted a bed like this ;)

So what better to do on a rainy day....go to Home Depot and purchase the wood.  Blake was an awesome help unloading it!

Stacking the wood for his new bed! (please pardon the garage....unpacking the inside and getting Blake a bed were priority)

The next night a little bit of cutting began.  The night after that our wonderful new neighbors saw Jason working and brought over his saw and the cutting was done much faster!  Thank you thank you!

Next night the sanding process! (it sounds like it took many nights but it was actually only worked on about an hour each night)

Caden sawing :)  This wasn't for the bed but he had fun!

Assembly began!

You must measure and remeasure!

Make sure it is level!

And we better measure again to make sure!

Everyone wanted a turn with the electric drill!!

Getting closer!!  We had to take a break at this point to go get one more piece of wood for the rail and a new mattress!

By the time we got home it was late so we put the boys in our bed to sleep so we could get things finished up and cleaned up!

I don't think this slide will hold me!!  The boys are going to love it!

It is COMPLETE!!! 

We moved the boys to the bed after it was done and Blake is on the top and Caden is on the bottom.  I could hear them when they woke up the next morning laughing and saying "this is awesome!".  They do have such a cool daddy!  I am so glad Jason did this for them and is able to do this!  Now mommy needs to get busy and paint it! 

A glimpse

So here is a brief glimpse of the house as it has taken shape..... (for those interested)....

Here is a view looking into the kitchen.  Our table and China Cabinet fit in the eat in kitchen area.

This area below is what would be the "formal dining room" but we are using it to do reading/crafts with the boys.  It is a nice sitting area. We will be doing something with the coffee table in the picture so hopefully it will be gone soon:)

This is a view looking into the living room towards the front door.  The cut out area to the left is into the kitchen...I like it because I can see into the living room from the kitchen.

This is the other view of the living room, looking at the back doors.

This is the boys "playroom" and will also have a desk in there.  The closet is nice too because I could put shelves in there that hold books, puzzles, legos, etc.  I took a picture but it didn't look as "organized" as I thought it was so I am not posting it:)

So that is a little look into our home.  I will post more on the boys room when I post about the awesome loft/bunk bed that Jason just built for the boys room. 

There are things I would add to or change about the house but the beauty of it is that I don't have to because we are renting.  It is perfect for our needs and I feel VERY blessed that God saved this house for us. It feels like "home"!!

First outing

The boys got here on Thursday evening and we spent Friday just getting acclimated.  Friday night we decided to take them to the river street in Savannah to look at a display of ginger bread houses.  They were able to see the river....even though it was dark....and ride on the ferry boat.  If we had it to do over we would have waited on this outing because it was a little too much stimulation all at once.  Regardless, they had a good time and we stopped by River City Sweets for a treat before heading home.

What to do?

So what do you do with all of the moving boxes????

MAKE A FORT of course!!!

The boys had already told me not to throw out all of the boxes.  I was actually told today that I was a mean mommy because I did get rid of the boxes....oh well, this mean mommy couldn't handle all the boxes anymore or I might have a breakdown:) They did have fun while we had them though! 

(also, note the sled in the background of the top two pictures....not thinking they will get much use here in GA)

Moving in

Our things arrived in GA on a Sunday. (Two weeks ago now)  It was a long day but I was thankful I wasn't doing the unloading.  We took some pictures of the truck so the boys could better understand.

I know it looks like I was just observing, but I did have a job.  I had to inventory everything as they brought it off the truck.  Everything had a colored sticker and a number and I had to mark it all off and then tell them where it was to go in the house.....it was a hard job;)

Jason had a hard job as well:)  He actually couldn't take the watching and checking things off a list so he had to start unloading and putting things together.

The garage is filling up!  The inside filled up very quickly too!

This was the room that pretty much took anything that we weren't sure where it was going to go. It was a combination of 3 rooms from our house in TN in this room.....it REALLY overwhelmed me.  Once I started on it though it went much better than expected. 

We didn't really tackle many boxes after the movers finished unloading.  The next morning Jason went to work and I got to work.  I started in the kitchen and I felt I was going to be drowned by the amounts of paper!  I know we could have had them unpack many of the boxes but there wasn't anywhere for them to put the stuff and I wanted to think it through...I admit it.... I am a little OCD!

I am very thankful that I had 3 full days to tackle the boxes and paper and get organized before the boys arrived.  Once they got here the unpacking halted!  It feels like home now and all the boxes that the movers packed and unloaded in the house are gone!  The garage is still a work in progress and we still have bins we need to go through but I feel good about what we have done.  Will post more pictures soon.

Boys and Trains!

Playing catch up....

While in Blountstown/Bristol after Thanksgiving and waiting on our stuff to arrive in GA the boys were able to climb on this train.  It sits by a restaurant we ate at with Mimi and Papa and they climbed on it at night.  They wanted to go back during the day and I wanted to go eat again:) So it worked out for all of us....

Do I have to?

So, here we are.  I am so glad to have all 4 of us under one roof again.  Ready to figure out our new normal. Our new home is slowly starting to feel like "home".  I didn't think I could like a house after our house in TN.  I was spoiled with it.  I must say though that houses in TN are just grander and less expensive for whatever reason.  I think God knew just what I needed to make this transition easier.  I am finding that even with less square footage I actually have more storage space in many places.  We are making it work.  I am liking not having to walk upstairs.  It helps because even if there are things I may not like it's okay because we are renting and figuring this new life out. 

So, I have spent the last few days surrounded by boxes and packing paper and organizing.  I love to organize.  I love for things to be in there place.  Something I forget about me with kids in the picture because I cannot seem to always be that way with them around.  I do try but I have let some of it go.  So since I had time to unpack it felt good these 3 days to put something somewhere and it stayed there.....that ended quickly when the boys walked in. 

The boys really just jumped right in.  They see all there things and the first night went well.  They actually went to bed easily in the same room!!  (knock on wood)

The truth of the matter is, now I am ready to go "home"! I have all of our things here and I have hidden in the house while Jason worked and busied myself.  I now know I have to step out.  I have to start meeting people and be the new person again.   The boys are here now and I have to for them.  We cannot just stay here all day every day. So, here I go again on many "first dates" and will probably have some short stints and "breakups" along the way.  Surely some will stick though.... someones kid will hit my kid at the park and we will start talking and they will welcome me into their group and actually follow up and turn out to be wonderful friends.  Or I will meet someone and they will realize I am new and invite me to the zoo and then to a Thirty-One party and then we will become great friends...... if only it could be that easy.  One can hope.

Tomorrow we will see.  My first day here with the boys.  I am glad it is Friday and Jason will be home over the weekend:)

Cousins

While in FL Caden and Blake were able to spend time with their cousins. They had time to play with Tristan and Catherine and Mimi and Papa's. While at Mimi and Papa's they wanted to jump into the leaves.  Mimi was nice enough to rake up a pile for them!  It didn't take anytime for Tristan, Caden and Blake to have that pile scattered again!

Caden

Tristan

Loved this one of Caden!

Blake

So glad they get to have fun times with their cousins. Glad I thought to grab the camera....too bad Catherine was napping and I wasn't able to get a picture of her.

The boys were also able to spend time with my cousins children (not sure...does that make them 2nd cousins?) To the boys they are still cousins :) They played hard!  Here they are making a plan or setting the rules.

Plenty of room to run!

Farewell TN

So Thanksgiving week for Jason and I consisted of the movers packing us on Monday.  I couldn't believe they had almost everything packed in 4-5 hours (except the garage)!  We then enjoyed a nice dinner with some great friends who we will surely miss! Hard to believe after living near them in FL and then having them in TN as well that we will not be in the same state. (trying to talk them into moving to GA;) )

 On Tuesday we ran errands and took care of last minute cut offs and paper work.  We were also able to enjoy dinner with some other friends that night:)  Everything was packed up and we had to eat out anyway, so why not do it with friends!

Caden's Room

On Wedn the movers came to load everything.  This took longer than expected because they couldn't get the large truck to the house and they had to shuttle everything.  So, they had to load onto this truck and then take it to the big truck parked a few miles away and transfer and then come back and load more.  It was a long day!

Wedn night we cleaned and loaded our cars with the things we were taking with us.  Thurs morning we got up and cleaned more.  We didn't expect it to take as long as it did.  We then went and said good bye to our neighbors and finally pulled away around 1:00.  It was the oddest feeling driving away. 

Before I headed to FL and Jason headed to GA we enjoyed a late lunch at Cracker Barrel.  It wasn't a bad Thanksgiving lunch:)  Sure will miss this place but I know we will make a new home for us in GA.

NashVegas

So my final weekend in TN my brother came for a visit:)  I had been wanting to go line dancing with girl friends and it hadn't worked out.  So, I invited any of my girlfriends to join us (and their husbands) for a night downtown Nashville for some fun line dancing. 

Well the company was excellent, but the line dancing wasn't what I had expected.  It was a little ..... well..... boring:(  Oh well, lesson learned.  Like I said the company was fun and we still had a lot of laughs!!

We ate where they had the line dancing lessons and when done we headed out to see if we could find some other bands worth listening too.  We went into a place called The Stage and the band playing was Savannah Jack....they were great!!!  They were so fun and sang some great songs....80's dance party!!  At the end the lead singer threw out some t-shirts and I am proud to say I got one.....Sorry Jeannie and the girl I didn't know I wasn't letting go when I grabbed hold :)

Shanelle and I :)

Jeannie, Me, and Shanelle

Jeannie and I :)

Me and Paul

All in all it was a fun night and I am so glad I had some friends willing to join my brother and I for a night downtown.  I will miss the music of Nashville!