3 weeks already!

Its hard to believe its been 3 weeks already since we moved! Every day I wake up i'm still so thankful for this house and can't believe its ours!
Everyone is so happy here!  We love everything about it here. Even the birds in the backyard are mostly bluebirds, which are so much prettier than sparrows! Even the cats are thrilled to be here! And not because of the birds, but because of all the space they have to roam.
We occasionally have a female peacock roaming around in our backyard, and lots of deer pass through. And its so quiet here! And the air is fresh and doesn't smell!

We are very slowly getting settled. Its been slow going but its happening.  Boxes are finally almost gone from  inside the house... can't say the same for the garage, but slowly that is being chipped away as well.
So we haven't taken any pictures of the house yet since its been a mess, but I thought i'd take you on a mental tour.

So i'll start with the master. So I did not realize just how badly the rental reeked. I'm guessing we eventually started to adjust to the stink since we lived in it all the time. But after moving, we can smell it. Just walking into our master closet, the smell of the rental settled into all our clothes, shoes, blankets, coats, etc. It smells terrible in our closet!  So, I ended up washing every piece of clothing that we own that could be washed, every blanket, every sheet, every coat.... i haven't done shoes yet, but that's next.  Its been a very long process.  I also bought a reed diffuser to put on the shelf in the closet, hoping to get rid of that smell!!!
As far as the master bedroom, its become the dumping ground for all of our wall hangings and decorative objects that came out of boxes, as well as extra blankets and things that i'm still trying to find homes for in the house. Its pretty disorganized.

The master bathroom is looking nice though.  The drawers were full of my hair and body products though, and it was bugging me because some of them couldn't stand up because they were too tall.  My little sister pinned this on Pinterest: http://www.kevinandamanda.com/whatsnew/house-and-home/organize-overflowing-bathroom-beauty-products-with-crown-molding-shelves.html And i thought it was a really nice idea, and surprisingly it doesn't look cluttered! I immediately loved the idea and went and bought those shelves (very cheap $6 each at Walmart) and created my own wall.  Of course, mine doesn't look nearly as pretty as that girls does... hers looks like a beauty salon of products, but mine serves its purpose!

My laundry room, I am LOOOOOVING!  LOVE having indoor laundry!  My laundry gets done much quicker, I don't dread doing it nearly as much!  And I love my new washer/dryer... they sing to me when they are done. :)  I love having a utility sink also, and its came in handy several times already when Avery's pooped her underwear.  The stuff that wouldn't come off in the toilet sprayed off easily in the utility sink.  Unfortunately, the very first load of laundry that I did in my new washer, I washed one of her turds unknowingly. She'd pooped her pants, and apparently a turd got in her pants too that I didn't see when I threw in the washer, so when I pulled the first load out after it was finished, I thought it smelled a little less than fresh, and a couple turdlets fell out and I picked one up wondering what it was.  I smelled it.  Really!?!?!  I washed a turd on the very first load!? Luckily my new washer has a "sanitize" wash, which I think just uses super hot water and washes for longer. But, since it was not clothes that I could wash in hot, I ended up washing the load twice in cold just to make myself happy.  Then the next load I did the sanitize option!

Office/craft room, is slowly coming together.  I finally got my sewing/craft table that I got for christmas put together.  The room is still disorganized and very messy, but its not a high priority.  It functions fine, so we can organize it after more important things are done.

Kids rooms haven't changed much... a couple things added to the walls.... a little rearranging.  That's about it.  Oh, and the kids already managed to rip the curtain rod in Avery's room out of the wall. Clearly the drywall anchors that came with the rod were garbage.

Kitchen and living area is finally looking normal!  Derek is slowly getting the cabinet pulls on the cabinets in the kitchen, but its slow going. When he's done with the kitchen, he'll still have to do both bathrooms, and laundry room. And yesterday our TV mount finally came, so he got the TV on the wall.
My kitchen still has empty cupboards, :) although yesterday I did a little rearranging while dinner was cooking. Canned goods were in a very terrible awkward spot where I couldn't find anything I needed, so they got moved, and I think now they will be much easier to find things, however I had to use up a cupboard that was once empty. :( Sad times, I like being able to brag that I have empty cupboards since i've always had a shortage of cupboards and had to store things in extra cabinets all over the house/garage.

I love how much space we have!  Currently, i'm sitting on the couch, the kids are on the floor in front of me with the bins of legos out, playing legos.  I've got 4 baskets of laundry sitting on the floor near them, with laundry waiting to be washed, the vacuum is out, several boxes are sitting out, a puzzle is in the middle of the floor, and 2 small ottomans, and a new tree/plant and it still doesn't feel overwhelming or messy. In the rental the entire living room would have been taken up, and even at our old house, the living room would have been quite full, and overwhelming.
The other day the kids were running around and through the house chasing each other, and Derek and I were smiling at each other that it was nice that they had room to run now.

Jadon's attitude has improved since moving, and its amazing to me that the rental house had such a hugely negative impact on all of us. I remember while we were there feeling like I whined and complained about it all the time, and then I started to feel like maybe I was just being dramatic.  Then when moving day came (finally!) and I heard everyone's comments about the rental house, how bad it smelled, how small it was, how gross it was... it made me feel better that I wasn't being overly dramatic about the place. :)
I wouldn't say that living in the rental makes me more grateful for our house now because I am grateful for this house no matter where we had lived before. I was grateful for our last house.  However, i'm so extremely thankful that we didn't have to live in the rental for longer than 4 months!!! I'm grateful to our lender who pushed for a quicker closing date to save us money, and i'm grateful for our builder who had no problem taking on that challenge!

And because I haven't had a chance to thank you all yet, THANK YOU so much to our families for helping us move in!

6 years old

Its hard to believe that my little boy turns 6 tomorrow.  He's growing up so fast.  Every year i'm amazed how he's grown and changed in so many different ways. He has more energy now than he did when he was a toddler or preschooler, and he is constantly climbing..... climbing on counters, over couches, in the window sills, up the cabinets, up the cars, up trees... pretty much if he can climb it, he will, regardless of if he's supposed to or not. 

He's more of a handful now than he was as a toddler/preschooler too, which is weird. He's a very particular kind of guy, and likes to have things go the way he has them planned out in his head, and if they don't go that way, he gets a bit out of sorts. 

The last year has been hard for him because of this.  A lot of changes in his life. And now we are having to make another big decision- which school to go to.  Stay at the school he's at, but we're just outside the zone for it, so he wouldn't get to ride the bus, which he really wants to do.  Or, go to the school in our new zone and have to leave his friends behind, and the familiarity of his current school, but get to ride the bus. He's pretty torn. 

He is a very smart kid.  He reads everything.  EVERYTHING.  We worried that reading would be hard for him, but reading comes so incredibly easy to him, its insane. His reading group at school started on 1st grade level reading a month or so ago, and its a breeze for him.  

We started him in karate in January to help him learn balance, coordination, and focus.  His balance has improved, and he finally learned how to do a real push up... something he has struggled with.  The physical aspect is good too, he gets a lot of good exercise. 

He and Avery are such good friends.  They get along really well 90% of the time.  On the day these pictures were taken, it was shortly before we moved into the new house, and Derek was trying to buy new socks.  Who knew it takes 20 minutes to decide what socks to buy??? ;)

Anyways, the kids entertained themselves by trying on different hats that were nearby, and then posing so I could take their pictures.  Eventually Jadon got silly. 

Looks like he's trying to have a movement in the last few!

His 4th tooth finally fell out last week!  Its been loose forever, and the grown up tooth had almost grown completely in front of it, but it FINALLY came out!  He was disappointed that the tooth fairy didn't bring him a new tooth brush or floss, but since he already has 3 toothbrushes, and had just visited the dentist the week prior and gotten a new tooth brush, the tooth fairy thought he didn't need another tooth brush. Besides, the tooth fairy wasn't prepared for the tooth to come out that night so she didn't have a new tooth brush in waiting. :)

Anyways, Happy Happy 6th birthday to my big boy, my firstborn, my son who made me a mama! I love you!