We Officially Have a New Address!!

Well...we are finally in our new home!! We are thanking God for all He has provided in this home as well as our temporary home, wonderful family and friends who have helped with lots of sweat to help us move and paint and clean and for trustworthy realtors to guide us in this process!!

We need to take some more pictures but here is a before and after shot.... this is our family room before.... And here is our family room after....

We painted and put in some carpet(we needed one room at least to get on the floor with the kids to play and wrestle). Most of the boxes are unpacked but there are lots of pictures still to be hung:)

On a side note, Ava and Cooper have adjusted very well. They adjusted better here than in our temporary situation. It helped that we were here painting for a week before we actually moved our stuff.

Cousins Cousins Cousins

A few weeks ago Matt's brother and his family were going to make the trip here for a visit and wouldn't you know it Coop got sick. So Aidan and Renia and Jack promised to come in a few weeks! And we are so thankful they did!!! It was a blast seeing the kids play together! Aunt Ginny sent some "twinsee" outfits for Jack and Cooper. Jack wasn't thrilled to wear it at first (he's a smart kid) but he finally gave in.
We enjoyed catching up with Aidan and Renia and were so grateful for time to play with Jack! We went to the Children's Discovery Gardens in Dayton for a morning and let the kids get wet, run, play in the sand. We also hit the Air Force Museum for the big kids:) There was lots to keep us busy but at the same time I loved having time together to take walks and eat meals. The kids played so well together we wish we could do it more often!

We have been praying for Aidan to find a job and God answered that the day they left! They will be heading back to Colorado and we look forward to visiting them hopefully next summer!

The County Fair

We've tried these last several years to make it to the county fair with some good friends of ours who have little kids the same age as ours. At the last minute we squeaked it in this year on one of those fabulous 90 degree days:)

An extra treat this year was the 'circus' show....with elephants and camels and ponies and doggies. It was probably a half an hour show and the kids really seemed to get into it especially because it started off with eating ice cream!

Before the circus though, a fair wouldn't be a fair without the traveling rides??? Here are a few pics of the kids with their sweet friends racing away in their cars. At the end of the night I asked Ava what was one of her favorite things and she said riding the cars. She almost backed out at the last minute getting on, I'm so glad she overcame the fear.

Free prizes are always a fun part of the fair, right? Coop got a ball and can you tell what Ava won? In case you can't tell what is all over her arms and legs...it's a red heart stamp. I'm very surprised this was not her favorite thing of the night because she thoroughly enjoyed using it and sharing it with the rest of us there:)

Always Soothing to the Soul

It's always so soothing to my soul to be with good girlfriends from years gone by. Over the last few years several friends and I have gotten together a couple of times of year just to reconnect and BE together. Many of these friends have some kind of tie to IU where I was a student and on staff. This last week I headed to Batesville and dropped the kiddos off at my parents and made my way to Bloomington to spend the night for one of these get togethers. I was so bummed I forgot my camera so the only pics I have scanned in the computer are from years ago but thought you might get a kick out of it especially the one below:)
This is a picture from the summer of 1994 where I met my good friend Deb on a summer missions project. She is on the far left and yep that's me next to her both wearing the teal hats:)

This is another good friend, Sadee, and we met at IU and were roommates for several years before I married Matt. She was back in Bloomington this last week for a wedding so it was a great reason to have a girls night. These are just two of the girls I was able to see and catch up with last week and it was well worth the trip over. When asked what we did I said we ordered Chinese food in and just talked the whole night....really? Yep, just like old times. I'm so thankful to Matt who always encourages me to do whatever it takes to go and take the time to stay connected! So refreshing!Thanks girls for a fun night and can't wait til the next one!

Nana & Papa Love

Last weekend Nana and Papa came to town! Ava in particular was counting down the days until they arrived. Each night at bed time she would ask how many more sleeps until Nana and Papa came! The one BIG bummer of the weekend was Coop got a viral infection that is contagious the day before they were leaving to come so Aidan, Renia and cousin Jack weren't able to join us! Matt and I were extremely sad and disappointed! Hopefully they will visit in a week or so and we will pray no one gets sick:)

We didn't do too much other than take them over to our new house (it is officially ours, we closed this morning). Nana came loaded with books for the kids. Ava LOVED her new sticker book! Thanks to Nana this saved us at the AIA baseball game on Friday night in which Ava had no interest in being there until Nana pulled out the sticker book!

And of course the kids loved time with Papa...lots of laughs and giggling! Here Ava and Cooper are pretending to paint their nails with Papa. The kids gave him lots of haircuts with their fake knives and forks, wrestled on the floor and had fun galore in the basement riding their bikes.

I absloutely love seeing the kids spend time with their grandparents and they have a ball!

SOLD!

That's right......oh so many mixed emotions for me, but our home sold and we have officially moved!! We moved out almost two weeks ago now and God has led through this whole process and provided in great ways. We are living in a temporary situation that is perfect. We will move into our new place mid August...I know, we have to move TWICE!!! Matt assures me this next time will be much easier because most of the boxes are still packed.

The kid's had a rough few nights at first in the transition but they bounced back quickly. Here they are enjoying eating breakfast at their little table...we don't have a small kitchen table so we thought this space was perfect for them. Below this is a picture of Cooper....a boy with white dress up shoes and a flashlight who's on a mission:)

Here is the place we are hoping to call home. I say "hoping" because we know it's not a done deal till closing which is at the end of July. Change can be hard for me...ending one chapter and beginning another.

Breaking the Rules

The Fourth of July this year came so quickly! We've been busy with the X-project and with packing up our place (for those who haven't heard, our house sold! and yes, we are still staying in Xenia). So, we decided to go all out and by that I mean keep our kids up for fireworks!! That to me felt like breaking the rules:) We hardly ever keep our kids up past bedtime....for lots of reasons but one is just to have somewhat of an evening still before our bedtime:)

Before the fireworks though, we hit the Beavercreek parade! I love parades! Mostly because of the bands, music, dancing....I know kind of weird! So...no bands, no music, no dancing...at this parade!!! Let's say we may not make this parade an annual one on our list. Although, Ava and Cooper LOVED it! Ava especially loved it from afar...she didn't want to get too close so she'd run behind our chairs in the grass and wave from where it was safe:) Coop ooohed and aaahed at every thing that came by....even the cars that carry people who are running for political offices:)

So, again, I'm not sure we'd make the Beavercreek fireworks an annual event either...let's just say we waited for an hour and got to see about 8 minutes of fireworks! But, in spite of that we really had lots of fun...we took bubbles for the kids to have fun with to help with the wait and loved hanging out with fun friends!It was really worth it to break the rules when it comes to bedtime...the kids did great...I was worried they'd hate the loud noise but they again LOVED it! Afterwards, Ava did say, "Mommy, I didn't like the loud boom part." But during it, she did fine. Who knows, maybe we will break the rules a little more often this summer and have some more summer fun:)