New House

Well- the move is done!  I'm sort of laughing while I type that, because there is so much left to do.  But we are officially in our new house.  And, totally ignoring a few hiccups along the way, all three of us are so happy to be in our new house.  Clay keeps saying that he still feels like we're staying in someone else's house, but hopefully when we unpack the last of everything, and put things on the walls it will feel like home again.

Here are the three pictures I've taken since last Thursday.  I had these visions of taking a family picture on the front steps on our first night.  Moving Day could not have been further from my expectations.  There was no time for a family picture, and frankly, none of us were in the right mindset mood to take a picture.

Here's our house on the eve before the move.  

It looks so peaceful, right?

 This was sometime on Saturday or Sunday.  George has been pretty worried about Harper throughout the move, and he had taken a book to read to her and 'cheer her up'.  

He came up to me after this picture and said, "Mama, Harper won't get out of bed!  I think she doesn't feel good."

Bless that child's heart- he loves that dog.

  We were without television for quite a while.  And while George doesn't really watch that much TV, he definitely loves some screen time.  I found him in our office just watching the screen saver photo slideshow, and he could not be peeled away from it.

Here are a few things I've learned from this move:

* Unless the Lord calls us differently, I never want to move from this house until our kids are old enough to pack us up and move us themselves.  

*  I am so thankful for grandparents.  Both of our sets of parents kept George thoroughly entertained (and out of the move) throughout the weekend.  I love that George loves going to both of his grandparents' houses, and it was so nice to know he was having WAY more fun with them.

*  Packing up an entire house is one of the most daunting and never-ending tasks I have found.  We used a moving company for the actual move, and they gave us a 'generous estimate' of 50 boxes for our house.  When it was all said and done, we had packed almost 100 boxes.  

*  Unpacking is actually the most never-ending task.  I have thrown more away since unpacking than I did when I was packing.

*  Moving was much more emotional than I thought it would be.  I will always be nostalgic for our first house on Woodhaven Drive, even as much as I love our new house and our new neighborhood.  

I feel as though we are starting a new chapter in the life of our family.  We will [hopefully] be in this house for decades to come.  We will watch our kids grow up in this house, and it feels good to allow our roots to deepen in one place.  I love this quote from Father of the Bride.  It is exactly how I hope I feel about this house in the years to come.

"I love this house. I love that I taught my kids to ride their bikes in the driveway. I love that I slept with them in tents in the backyard. I love that we carved our initials in the tree out front. This house is warm in the winter, cool in the summer, and looks spectacular with Christmas lights. It's a great house. I never want to move. But the thing I think I like best about this house are the voices I hear when I walk through the door."