Moving out ... into 'the basement'.

The bare necessities are still in the house.  It shouldn't take more than a few hours to load up the rest of the things and take them to 'the basement'.  'The basement' will be our temporary home for the next months. 

Mike called this morning and asked where the check book is?  Um?  He thought he had it but couldn't find it.  Here goes the search party!  I know this will probably be happening more often because we have things stored at different places.  I wish I were more organized with our boxes.  When help comes and with me still recovering from Austin's birth, things just get placed here and there.  I'm not a very organized mover!  :((  I told Mike that the check book might be moved already and he looked around but couldn't find it.  Later, he texted me and said that he found it.  It was where he thought it was but over looked it.  :)

Moving into a one bedroom basement with four children is going to get interesting!  It's a nice day light basement with a kitchen, full bath and large living room area!  There's no doubt that we will make many memories.  Some funny and good.  Hopefully, lots of good times!  And some when we will beg for some alone time!  :)  Living in our house yet with not too many more things in it, makes me ready to get settled into 'the basement'.

The school tuition booklet arrived with all the school supply needs the other day.  I told the kids that that will have to wait until next week or the next.  I'm not ready to think school yet!!!  My summer is flying by and we are not NEAR ready to see it go!  I am trying to think of all the days we HAVE yet instead of how fast the first day of school is approaching us!  We would love to do some swimming yet this summer together!  We would love to sit around the campfire lots of times yet!  Right now we have work around every corner, so hopefully when we get moved and settled, we will take a few days to enjoy the sun and pool!  (Thumbs up!!!)  Also, when school begins, there go my helpers!  Hadassah and Matthew have been such a huge help around the house, with Ashlyn and with baby! 

We will cherish every day of summer to the very end!!!  Tomorrow is a big day for us ... so I got to go rest and hope that baby dear lets me have at least four hours of sound sleep before another feeding.  :)  One last time to sleep in this home before remodeling begins! 

Well, the back porch is gone!  Now we start with the front pavers!

 They keep using the small pavers as pretend phones.

Moving week ...

I have no extra time to blog these days and its not the way I like it ... but so it is.  I sit here and type with only one hand because of holding baby dear in my other arm.  Austin loves to be held.  All babies do and I'm trying hard to not let our moving week take away my time with baby!!!

We are moving out this weekend.  Things are crazy around here.  The house echoes.  The weeds are totally going wild outside.  Boxes are here and there.  It is so not my style of living but it's TEMPORARY!!!  I told Matthew the only day, "We need to think temporary!"  He didn't know what that word meant but after a quick "only for a little while" definition, he got it!  When my house is out of order, my life can seem out of order.  When I'm getting up during the night to feed baby, lose sleep, my life seems out of routine.  When the house echoes because there is no longer anything on the walls and the curtains are put into storage, my own living room seems like a foreign place.  Times like these is when I ask for just a little bit more of Gods strength every morning and thank Him for my health and energy!

It's hard for me to relax and get naps because I find myself lying still with my mind still spinning and thinking of all that we need to do yet before moving out.  Austin will be four weeks old tomorrow and my request was to not move before then.  Its getting close but we are excited to get the house project on its way to remodeling!   

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OK, I'm back.  The next day.  :)  Blogging is hard for me right now and I thought I had a chance last night to type, but baby needed me and it got too late.  So, I am back to finish up a post.  With two hands typing this time!!!  Austin is peacefully sleeping and the house is SO silent.  Mindy picked up the kids this morning and took them swimming.  I have the whole day to finish up some closet packing and care for baby!

I've only moved two times in my life.  Once when I was a little girl.  I remember the move but it was just down two houses and even though it was tons of work for mom and dad, I don't remember packing all the boxes.  Then when I got married to the man of my dreams, I moved into our house with him.  We are now fourteen years later and packing up is work!!!  I have been so grateful for every one's help!!!  Mom and sisters have been stopping in and helping me a lot.  We are still getting some baby meals and that's so helpful with such busy days!  There are so many things that I need to say "take to dads basement" or "take to the storage room".  I'm so thankful for the help with moving these boxes!!!  We sent Matthew and Tyler downstairs so many times!!!  :)  Thanks boys!  What we do is pack up the things that go with us to dads and put it in the Yukon or moms Suburban.  Then we all go over there and unload the things and try to put them in place.  On Monday, we put all my pantry items and spices, etc. in place.  Mike moved the shed into the field Monday evening.  Tuesday, we took another load of some clothes, canned goods, etc. over.  Today, I will be packing up the few  closet things that are still hanging.  We do not have that many more things to move yet, so the rest will probably have to wait till 'moving day'.  We still need a couch to sit on.  We still need the lights.  Still need our beds!  You get the point!  :)

Mike is using the "mule" to move the barn.

Matthew working on his pavers.

This really opened things up with the barn not there!  Wow!

There goes the computer desk!

Getting it done!!!

Another load!  Dad came last night to help Mike!  They moved Hadassah's small desk and a dresser over to dads.  We will use that while we live in the basement.  The garbage can has old curtains and blinds in it that mom took down for me yesterday.  One load at a time!  With dad's help, they took the kids beds apart and moved them into storage.  Now it's just their mattresses on the floors until we sleep over at dads basement.

Thanks mom and dad for coming to help!!!  Again!

Matthew has been working hard at moving all the pavers from the back porch to a pile by the pine trees.  We are hoping to use these somewhere else after we are moved back in. 

With all our many cats around here, Hadassah loved one in particular!  It looked just like the very first cat we had!  It was fluffy and so cute.  Well, last night, Matt and Hunter were out helping Mike move the desk, chair and odds out to storage.  Mike pulled the skid loader over for Matthew to use for his pavers pile.  Hadassah went out side a while later and came back inside crying like crazy!  I immediately asked what was wrong.  She said, "Whiskers is dead."  What?  Why?  What happened?  I went to take a look and there laid the favorite cat.  Still.  Not moving.  She didn't seem hurt.  Nothing seemed to be wrong.  The cats climb on the mower.  On our tires.  On the skid loader.  Hadassah assumed that when Mike moved the skid loader, it caught Whiskers.  I felt so bad for her.  Why would it have to be the favorite with so many other kittens and cats running around that we could care less about?  She cried for awhile and then seemed to be OK.  She said that's how life goes sometimes.  :/  Matthew moved the cat from the stones.  We do know that it was only a cat and not something much more valuable!  We pray for protection and safety and we are very blessed!

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Austin is one month old today.  I feel like I'm not getting many weekly pictures of him but my days are crazy right now and hopefully soon we will have some kind of 'normal' again.  Once we are settled into the basement, things will get a bit more scheduled!!!  (Thumbs up!)

He is most times sleeping for the night by 10 PM.  He wakes up at 2:30 AM for a feeding.  I love it when he goes right back to sleep!!!  That's not how it is always.  Then he wakes up at 5 for another bottle.  He then sleeps till 8 AM.  When he sleeps I sleep.  Our mornings don't get started early but that's OK.  He gets fed again and then gets a bath.  He's growing right before my eyes.  We love him so much!!!

Here are a few more pictures that Lindsey (Sweet Face Photography) took for us that I wanted to post!!!  I will always love these pictures!!!

I'm off to do more packing and organizing!  I might even go out for a little bit!  Maybe some shopping???  I need a break from my empty house and boxes!!!  I also want some clothes that fit me better now that baby is out!  :) 

I am SO thankful for the AC this week!!!  Goodness, it's to be 90 degrees today and feeling like 100!  As much as I would love to be swimming with the kiddoes, baby and I don't need to be in that heat!

Pray for us as we make the final moves and start remodeling the house on Monday!  It will be a challenge!  I am VERY thankful for a God that gives us strength and sound minds and healthy bodies!  (The other kids are being treated for infetigo!  A quick trip to Quick Care last week gave us cream to treat Hadassah and Matthew now!  Their skin is finally clearing up from this skin rash!)  I am also thankful for a husband that's been working almost none stop till 10 PM every night!  The kids are doing great with helping!  Change is not always easy.  Moving into a basement and away from "home" won't be all gravy and roses!  Pray for us!!!  "Temporary!" 

God is good ALL the time and ALL the time God is good!!!  We are so, so, so blessed!

Getting ready for the remodeling + portraits

It is finally happening.  We are working every single day on getting more house things packed up.  Mike comes home from work and works.  :/  Here at home.  Matthew said last night, "Is daddy always going to work here at home after work now?"  Mike and Matthew are still throwing and playing lots of baseball together but now the evenings also consist of 'other projects'.  Mike borrowed Matt's saw and made a ton of dust and dirt when he sawed a line in the black top.  There is no remodel job without tons of dirt and we are beginning to see that.  Ginger's paws were all black and dirty from running in the grass and black top.  :/

Matthew loves to help Mike with his work.


The girls did chalk and watched.

On Saturday, Steve and Landon came to help load up some furniture.  The hutch (which is for sale!), the piano and love seat all went to the neighbors for storage.  We bought some chairs and things at a local yard sale on Saturday morning too that went right into storage.  Thanks Steve and Landon.

Hadassah is getting annoyed at her tan.  Since we've been not going to the pool since baby arrived, our tans are all getting lighter.  Hadassah and Matthew set up the little pool and filled the tubbie up with water and soaked in the sun on Saturday.  :)

They even had their own snack shelf!  :)

What a way to beat the heat!

We bought this pick at the yard sale on Saturday too.  Matthew dug a big hole in the field and dug out rocks.  Ashlyn helped him wash the rocks and they were pretty findings.

Mom came over and we packed up the foods in the kitchen.  Now these containers need to be moved over to our "basement home" for storage and use.

Mom and Jody came yesterday afternoon and all the all the things came off the walls.  Books and toys were moved into storage.  The house is starting to have an echo to it and very bare.  We need to be out of the house by August 3 so that means next weekend we pack up the clothes and beds and move out!

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Austin is three weeks old already.  He's drinking 4 oz. of formula.  He decided to like that better than me.  :)  I'm OK with that!  We took some pictures of him two weeks ago and I have to post them.  :/

Many thanks to cousin Lindsey for her photography talents and skills.  The pictures will always be treasured!!!  She's got a business called "Sweet Face Photography" if you need pictures done.

Thumbs down???  :)

 My favorite!!!

 Love it!!!

 Proud brother!

 Our family!

 Because two people fell in love!!!

Lindsey took so many and I would love to post more soon!  Stay tuned in!  :)