Memorial Day Weekend!!

What a weekend. Mom and Dad came down on Friday afternoon and we spent the weekend here at the house getting things done and trying to stay cool in this humid and hot state!! Paul had to go to Oklahoma City to bring down a load of furniture from our parents homes that they had been holding onto for us. So he drove up on Saturday and back on Sunday, within 36 hours he spent 14 of them driving!! He arrived on Sunday with a van FULL of furniture and other misc. bits. The kids were so happy to see Paul they all ran from the back yard and into daddy's arms! While mom and dad were here they played with the kids and just hung out. Mom had a good time playing baseball and tag with Nathan and Kayla. Dad helped to hang the spice cabinet and went to the hardware store to help me find the right things I would need to hang our cabinets all over the house. We spent Saturday at Home Depot and Lowes buying paint, trash cans, dry wall anchors, and towel bars. There was no where to hang a towel in any of these bathrooms. Well, there still isn't anywhere to hang a towel, I have purchased the towel bars, but they are currently sitting on the counter in the kitchen waiting for my husband to hang them. I thought about hanging them myself, but I know that Paul would enjoy using the power drill much more than I would. Plus he is much better than I am at making sure things get done correctly!! While the kids were entertained with Gram and Pop I was able to paint the half bath a light blue color that made the bathroom 10 times brighter than it had been. it was painted a brown color, which was fine, but made the bathroom so dark. I have to find things to put in there to decorate next. That is however the last thing on my list, decorating. First I have to get the boxes unpacked and furniture ordered. All in time.... Sunday night for dinner we feasted on hamburgers, corn on the cob, deviled eggs, potato salad, baked beans, and strawberries. It was like Thanksgiving dinner in May. We all ate more than we should have and enjoyed every bite!! On Saturday the kids shard watermelon with Gram and Pop. Gram than proceeded to cut the watermelon into bite size pieces and deseed it. By the time the day was over I think that Nathan had eaten half of a large watermelon by himself!! On Monday we went to a neighbors house were they hosted two other families for a cookout of hamburgers, hot dags, and brats. Plus all the sides you could think of. There were deviled eggs, pasta salad, potato salad, chips, grapes, cantaloupe and some other bits. For dessert there was ice cream with sprinkles and chocolate syrup. It was a good time of play and everyone had a good time getting to know one another. It was a nice way to get to know the neighbors. That is how we celebrated our memorial day weekend!!

update

The unpacking has made giant leaps, we have about 30 of the smaller boxes left to unpack, and the problem is that we don't really have anywhere to put the stuff!! We still have to go in search of office furniture, living room furniture and bedroom furniture. While my parents were her to watch the kids we tried to find furniture for the living room, but that was a bust. We had gone out to many furniture stores, and finally found the chairs and sofa we wanted, the salesman took us to the fabrics and we told him he could help his other customers while we looked at fabrics. After 45 minutes of looking at the fabrics he showed us we picked out the ones we liked. We have him paged back over to where we are and he starts to write up the order and looks at the fabrics and realizes that NONE of the ones we picked out were the right brand. So we sent him away again only to decide to leave. By this point we had been out at furniture stores since 9AM (it was 1PM) and I am exhausted and just want to go to bed. So another weekend!! The pregnancy seems to be going well; I have had a few Braxton hicks' contractions, but nothing to get excited about. The baby is an active little one and I am getting TIRED very easily now. I am looking for a day this weekend when I can sleep in and leave Paul with the kids for a day!! There is just so much to get done around here and shopping to be done that we are having trouble getting it all in!! Nathan has settled into the house VERY well and has enjoyed having the neighborhood kids to play with. He would stay outside all day if I let him playing. Kayla and Emily are doing well also. They enjoy following Nathan around and want to play the games that Nathan plays. Kayla wants to tag along with the boys and get in the way of what they are playing.Here are a few pictures of them playing around the house...

Giddy up horsey!!

Nathan has discovered marshmallows and not to eat them. Here he is with a "cactus" and a face with marshmallow eyes!!

Moving in...

We started moving into our house on Wednesday, which was a long day, once the movers finished bringing in all of the boxes, Paul went to Sears to buy a steam cleaner to clean all of the carpets and try to get rid of the smell of dog. While he managed to the kids I steamed all of the carpets. There is still a small area to do, but I have been busy doing other things, like getting the kitchen sorted so that when our next shipment arrives there will be room for the boxes. Yesterday we got the refrigerator, washer and dryer delivered, then I put some beds part of the way together and washed (by wash I mean put in the dishwasher) most of the dishes that have been in storage for 4 years. There are a lot of things that will find their way to good will, or a garage sale. Then it will be time to buy paint, tape things off and get busy painting the kids rooms and maybe the half bath. That may be a job for the weekend. So much to do, our downstairs is pretty empty, but I am sure I will be able to spend money to fill it up. Today was spent finishing up the kitchen, and going through boxes upstairs to put things away. The kids will have their own closet upstairs to put toys in. Then it was just a general clean up. This weekend I will use Paul’s help to finish putting the kids beds together, shopping for furniture, and possibly look into some paints. The kids had a good time on Wednesday jumping running, and doing somersaults on the second floor and they did not have to walk with quiet feet (we are in a second floor apartment and the kids have to have 'quiet feet'). Nathan enjoyed hiding in the mound of paper from the boxes, and there is only more to come!! The neighbors have been really nice and have small children so it will be nice for the kids, mainly Nathan, there is a 6 year old and a 5 year old. They came over and asked Nathan to come out and play and he was more than willing. It was really nice. I am ready to be settled so I can relax a bit more and get involved in some of the neighborhood activities. That is about all from here. I hope that everyone is doing well and keeping safe.

...after constructing her house out of cardboard Kayla was exhausted and needed to lay down for a nap... ...then it was time for a picnic on the floor.

Emma Lou...

Here are a few recent pictures and a short video of Emily that I thought you might enjoy...

Emily likes to look at herself in the mirror and call out "momma" or "dadda"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hwEXTHrx26c

Happy Mother's Day!!

I know it is late and the day is almost over, well for those of you in Spain the day is over!! I just wanted to wish all of you mother's out there a great day. I was able to take part of the day and do some shopping for myself, then we went to the furniture store, than it was time for a dip in the pool, sorry no pics from the pool, I forgot to grab the camera. Nathan and Kayla had a blast jumping into the pool and Emily, who wants so much to be older than she is, kept jumping into the pool as well, she only dunked herself 3 times, but that never slowed her down. Anything to be older!! Happy Mother's Day to all Mother's out there!!

getting settled...

We have arrived back in Houston and are slowly getting settled back into life here in America. We have bought one car and will move into our house on the 15th of May. We have made atrip to visit the grandparents and are continuously looking for things to kjeep us busy during the day. There have been trips to the park, th egrocery store which has been a BIG hit!! The grocery store gives the kids a balloon when you walk in the door and then at the check out they give the kids a piece of paper that the kids put into one of those claw games, and they collect points. When they reach a certain number of points, they can turn in their points to get prizes. this has been a BIG hit with Nathan and he wants to go to the grocery store to get points everyday. We have one to PetsMart to look at all of the animals and the kids enjoyed all of the fish and birds there. Then there have been a few trips to the bank, post office, and other misc. stores just looking. Not much else to report, just getting ready to move fromn our 2nd floor apartment into a real house and have a yard that the kids can go into to run around and play!! More to come soon....