Chapter One

Christmas was on Friday, we took it easy on Saturday, gave talks at church on Sunday, packed the house on Monday, and Tuesday morning we got the truck.  I did do lots of preparations during the month of December...donating/getting rid of LOTS of clothes, toys, and books, and some minimal packing.  We still have too much stuff!  Tuesday, moving day, was dumping rain.  We pulled the back of the truck right up to the garage and we managed okay.  We had a handful of people to help load the truck and we finished an hour early.  We stuffed it full and even needed our friend to bring our patio furniture in his pick up truck because it wouldn't fit.  I probably should have taken pictures, but it was a busy day.  A good friend of mine took the kids to her house for the day.  We arrived at our new house with another handful of men to help unload...it was done in an hour!  I unpacked the kitchen that night and by the next day we were mostly out of boxes.  It went amazingly well.

 First night in their new rooms (Lily did not make it in the big bed...she fell out 3 times and is back in her pack-n-play.  It was a really rough transition getting her to sleep in a room with Kate, and not napping in the closet anymore.  We had a lot of late nights, night wakings, early mornings, and missed naps.  But we made it through and we are back on track!)

 Tommy now has a room of his own.

 One last goodbye to our Princeton home.  It was so good to us and we were very very happy there.

 The Master tub is a new favorite.  I have to limit Lily to only one bath a day.  She sometimes asks for 3

 We didn't do much for New Year's and felt like we needed to celebrate our new house and new year so we made a cake and played some games and watched some home videos of 2015.  I think it was worthy of becoming an annual tradition.

 Not even a week in the house and she colors on the walls.

 Time for school

 Can you smile?  Nope.  Too nervous.

 The principal was fantastic as she took the kids on a tour through the school.  I'll be honest, I toured it a week before and I came out sobbing.  I felt how the kids would feel on their first day.  I missed their old schools.  They won't get to learn Spanish anymore and the orchestra program is pretty pitiful.  I miss the "street" signs of the hallways "Lollipop Ln." and "Rainbow Rd." and I miss the diversity.  I've heard nothing but great things about this school so I'm trying to stay positive...and I know it will just take time.

 I do LOVE that they are in the same school together again...at least for the next 6 months.  They were given these school shirts to wear every Wednesday.

 And the best part is that the bus stop is right in front of our house.  They sit together on the bus too.

 The girls have adjusted pretty well.

 They spend hours and hours playing with their doll house.

 We spend a lot of time together as we don't know the area too well yet, or anybody for that matter

 We spent one morning painting and I decided to join and make a little sign for my new mantra

 I signed Rachel up for a Victorian Tea Party put on by the Princeton Cotsen Library in honor of the 150th anniversary of Alice in Wonderland.  When I read about it on a flyer I knew she would LOVE it!

 Greeted by a Victorian maidservant

 They had a fabulous time learning all about the Victorian time period and how important tea was to the people back then.  They played games and of course had tea (herbal of course)

 This girls was making me laugh so hard as she came out talking in her British accent telling me all about it.  She played the part well!  They even got to keep their cups.

 Our first snow!  We'll take it.

 Sunday night wrestling in the basement.  Perfect because their is no furniture

We have been welcomed into our new ward and we have been invited for dinners and play dates, been to several activities and book clubs and we are very excited to get to know everyone better.
One day we went to the aquarium with some of our new friends.

 Jake came to the house before we moved in to blow all the leaves to the curb and mow the law in hopes that we would catch the city pick up on their last rounds.  Well, we didn't make it and that pile of leaves needed to get off the street before all the snow and snowplows came through.  So I bagged all 9 bags the afternoon before the blizzard.  Not easy, because I had to chisel the bottom frozen layer off the street.  The cost of procrastination!

 Blizzard Jonah (do they even name the storms out west?)  We were all very excited for all the snow.  It was great to be forced to stay at home for the weekend and spend time together.

They were eager to help shovel the walkway, but it quickly turned into a snow fight

 Hanging out in the street, because they can

 And while they were outside...Lily stayed inside

 S'mores by fireplace.  Luckily we didn't loose power.  We purposely looked for houses with buried power lines for that very reason!

 The wind was pretty crazy that day and makes it hard to know how much we got.  It ranged from 20-30 inches.

 We had quite the job ahead of us.

 Luckily it was light.  Still a big job, but thanks to our helpers we were done in 1 1/2 hours.

 It was a big job for our first time shoveling and we feel pretty blessed that we have been able to avoid it for our first 12 years of marriage.  It was good quality time spent working hard with these guys.

She has been wanting to do this for a long time!

And while they went sledding we napped and made cookies :)