moving day

the staging area for our outer banks trip.

poor Ben. He was exhausted.

we had so many people come and help us move. It was amazing! It was Daves birthday so I bought him a house. Nothing says 33 like a new house. Everything went so smoothly. We had our walk through at 9:30 and then our closing at 11:30. By 1 o clock we had the truck and were ready to move in. We took the truck to the house that we had been staying in for the summer and packed everything up. Dave took it to our first storage unit and packed everything out of that one and took it to the new house. I sat and cleaned the house that we were staying at out. It was so nice not to have to worry about our kids that day. They had a great time with friends and were so excited to go to their new home later that day. Dave and I met back at the new house and then he met up with some friends at the second storage unit that we had and they packed that all up while I went and got dinner for everyone. It was perfect timing all the boys arrived and I arrived at the same time at the new house and they started to unpack the truck. It was crazy fast. Every time I turned around there was a new guy unpacking the truck. It was amazing. We got it done so fast. We had some pizza and a birthday cake to celebrate the big day. It was a really long day and the whole next day Dave and I just sat around in the house not knowing where to begin. It is so overwhelming to see all these boxes and empty space. The kids loved showing everyone their rooms and the backyard and basement where they found all their old toys. Later that night we found the train table box and Ben about had a heart attack when I dumped out all his trains. The poor boy had been staying in a house with all girl toys for the past 3 months. He is in heaven. It's hard to keep track of the kids because they are all over the house exploring new places. So I really should unpack but I have no motivation for it. My kitchen is done and that is what is important I guess.

Vacation Bible School

We found a bible school that we signed Siena up for this summer. We found one close to home that Siena and her friend Jacob could go to. She was really excited about it. She loved that she got something each day that she could come home with and loved showing me everything. It was a cowboy/Ranch theme so now she loves playing cowgirl and wants to be Jessie from Toy Story for Halloween. Its very cute. Thursday night we went to an ice cream social where they showed us the songs that they learned. It was really fun and I am glad/surprised that Siena actually participated. She asked me later if I saw her play her guitar up on stage. It was so fun!

house pictures!

rec room in basement. i am hoping to keep all the toys down there, Dave has different plans for the room.

formal dining room that we probably won't use.

fun eat in kitchen.

family room right off kitchen.

master bedroom.

Siena's room. she is so excited it is purple.

guest bedroom in basement. come and visit!

office/sewing room right off the basement rec room.

back yard. it is a really long skinny back yard.

front entry.

I am too excited for our new house. So here are some pictures I have that will have to keep everyone satisfied for 6 weeks. I hope I am not jinxing things for putting these up. enjoy and you are welcome to come and visit us come September!

Nana and Papa come

24 foot truck. we didn't think we would fill it all up. we did!

National mall on the fourth after Ben decided he liked the fireworks.

Siena and Nana and Papa

this is how close we were to the fireworks. they were set off in the reflecting pool.

Papa and Siena.

Siena was so proud of her fourth of July shirt. She liked it because it had her age on her shirt. Only this year honey.

hopefully they are dancing and not fighting. who knows.

dancing on the lawn of the Capitol.

We were so excited for Nana and Papa to come and visit us. Papa was here for some meetings and Nana came along to play with the kids. We were so excited to see them and had so much fun. The fourth of July is the best time to be here in D.C. you couldn't pick a better place. So we took them downtown for the firework display. It was amazing. I love the fourth. Dave and I haven't braved the crouds on the national mall for the fireworks since our first year here so we had forgotten how many people are there. It was crazy but we had fun and the kids were so good. They love being down on the mall and we don't go there enough. They are really excited to go up in the Washington monument. We still need to do that. We had awesome friends that once again saved us a great spot right in front of the Washington monument. It was amazing how close we were to the fireworks. Ben didn't expect them to go off and was playing when they started and he bolted the other way. A couple minutes into it he discovered that he liked them. If you oohh and aww enough he thinks they are cool. We also went to the rehersal concert on the Capital on the 3rd of July. It was fun too. The kids danced the night away as we listened to David Archeletta and Reba McEntire. They were the only ones that showed up for the rehersal. Gladys Knight and Hootie were there the night of the performance. It was really fun and got us in the mood for the fourth. Nana and Papa were here just in time to help us pack up everything and move. Nana was able to come to the new house inspection and check out the new home. I am glad she got to see it. One day the kids spent the whole day with them and I don't think they will ever have as much fun again. They started at the Zoo where I think they ate at every stand then they went back to their fun hotel and had a nap where they got to jump on the bed and sleep with all the pillows and then got to swim in the pool. Then they went out to eat with them before the rehearsal concert on the Capitol. It was the best day EVER! Dave and I spent the whole day packing up the house it was nice to have the day to ourselves without kids getting in the way.

Our craziness

cute Ben. He won't go anywhere anymore without his baseball hat. Just like daddy.

proud of her wonderpets fruit snacks. anything to make life easier.

Ben helping us move. He decided to color code the couch with every color sticker. Nice.

Life is a little crazy right now. A month ago today we decided to put our house up for sale. We close tomorrow at 10:30 and then are officially homeless. My worst case scenario going in to this house selling deal was that we would sell our house and not have a place to go and would have to rent. I was really hoping that we wouldn't have to do that. Turns out we have awesome friends. We are 'house sitting' our friends house for the summer. It worked out perfectly and I can't even say how grateful I am for it. She is gone for the summer and has 2 kids that are our age so she has all the toys and beds and things that are perfect for our kids. Ben and Siena love being here and are so entertained with all their toys. We finally got our computer over here and set up so I am all ready for the next 6 weeks. I would love to move right in to our new home but I think this is the next best thing to it. We have 6 weeks to go... and counting. We are going to closing tomorrow and we finally finished cleaning our old place. We were told that they were coming at 5:30 tonight for a final walk through and we left at 5:20 with it all clean. We cut it a little close. So now I have nothing to do except dream of my new house and furniture shop. So we will be spending a lot of time at the waterpark. Yeah. The kids have been really good as I have been back and forth to our old home and Kiara's home. We have watched a lot of movies. Siena has picked up two really fun new phrases. Today while we were at church I was talking to a family and she yelled. "Mommy stop talking!" really I don't talk that much. This girl just needs too much attention. Then tonight right before dinner she was stealing M&M's and I asked her to stop. I knew what she had in her mouth and I asked her what they were and she said, "don't worry about it". Real nice.

We Wonder Pets. It is a really cute t.v. show and basically it's a whole cartoon/musical. They sing everything. The only thing I don't like is that one of the character has a lisp and Siena has caught on and sometimes created her own lisp. It's not good for her speech but it's kinda funny.

Our first home

kid not for sale!

2004 when we bought our house.
the front yard and fence that we have completely re done.

moving in with gross mirrors and yellow walls.

awesome wallpaper. the future Bens room.

pink dining room. because that is really cool apparently.

the room previous to Siena arriving. nice and orange.



Some of our repairs over the last couple years.

mom finishing laying our new sod as the sun goes down.

totally re done flower bed and nice doors.

Siena loving her bright room.

Dave decorating Siena's room for the nursery.

Ben's room. He loves looking at all the baseball cards put around his room.

It has finally come time that we find a bigger house. This has been our first house. Dave and I were married in September and we bought this home that December so we have been here almost our whole married life. I have loved this house and the neighborhood and am really sad to leave. We have been here 6 1/2 years and I think that is the longest I have ever lived in one home. Most of all I brought my babies home to this house. We decorated for them and walked the halls a million times trying to get them to sleep. We have a lot of good memories here. They learned how to do many things here for the first times. They also are the reason we are getting a bigger house and I have to keep reminding myself that they need more space. We have loved this home so much and are so grateful for the good place that it has been. We bought right at the beginning of the big market boom. We found this place after looking for a while and I knew we had to have it right away. It was in a good neighborhood and it had a yard. Our requirements for a home when we were first buying was that it had to have a place for a kitchen table and a king size bed. Those were the only things we owned and a couch. You wouldn't think that that was too much to ask but it was kinda hard to find a place. We came the next day for the open house and then made an offer. I think 6 other people did too. The lady remembered us and liked us so we worked some deal out and bought the house. The yard was a mess. The dining room was pink and all the walls in the rest of the house were orange and yellow. She had wallpaper all over. It was a mess but we had no idea what we were doing we were just happy to have a home. We fixed it up a lot before the kids came along. I can't even say how much I love this house and how sad I am to leave. If only I could make it bigger.
So after going to open houses for a couple months we decided it was time. We fixed up our home and cleared out all the stuff. We found a great realtor and put it on the market late Friday night. Saturday morning we got a call from someone that wanted to see it. A guy was up from Norfolk, va and was looking at houses all weekend. Ours had just come on the market and he wanted to see it. He loved it and Sunday morning 9 a.m. we got a call that he made an offer. The offer was good and we accepted it. The only thing was that he wanted in in a month and we didn't have a house to go to.

I quickly started looking at homes with our realtor. It was stressful to me and because we had been looking for months at open houses we knew a little better of what we wanted. We have found one in Springfield Va. So hopefully it shouldn't make Daves commute too much longer. It is in a nice neighborhood with a short walk to a nature center. It has good schools and we are really excited. When Siena and Ben were looking for houses with us their only requirement was Siena wanted a purple room and Ben wanted a basketball hoop. We found one with a purple room and we have 2 basketball hoops that we are taking so our kids are happy. We are too and hope it will be a great place like this one has been. Best of all there isn't a lot to do to the house it is nice and will have tons of space for us to grow. So my hope is that we will be there forever and not have to move ever again... I can hope.

Fathers Day

Dave is a great Dad.We had a great day and tried to spoil him all day long. We made a golf cake for him that the kids loved. They were so excited eating it. They especially loved the trees (mike n ikes). Happy Fathers Day we love you.