Two Weeks!

We have been in our new house for two weeks already. Time has flown by.

But we have been busy over those past two weeks. Since we have company coming tonight some areas of the house are actually pretty clean so I snapped just a few photos. Mostly I am showing off how much I have already gotten on the walls. I don't know why but it just feels so much more like home when there are things on the walls!

The girls playroom.

Sam's Room

More of Sam's room.

Avery's Room.

The living room or study type room.

And Chris's pride and joy...the basement!

Although I did invade his man cave with all of my lunch boxes!! They just look too cute all across the room on that shelf. He was not amused but I love it!

Happy Earth Day!

Here is how Sam, Avery and I spent a portion of our fabulous Earth day!!

Our tomato plants before we got started.
But first we dealt with our compost from the kitchen.


Sam helped dump it into our big composter.
Then we watered the compost and got water for our tomato plants. Then we finished re-planting our tomato plants! I cannot wait until Sam can pick a tomato and try it straight off of the plant that she helped to grow!! So amazing.
Avery didn't really do much but watch and look cute!
Hope you had a great Earth Day and found some way to celebrate the Earth today!!

we played

Sometimes I get the very strong feeling that I am neglecting Avery. I don't feel like I ever hold her and that her life just consists of being "placed down" in one spot or another. She spends her days going from the stroller to the car seat to the bouncy seat to the bumbo...etc. Keeping up with Sam, the move and now the new house I am just running around like a crazy person all the time and she is just never in my arms.

Does this happen to other moms with the second? Is this common?

I know my sister used her sling a lot with her second and her third which is so cool because it allowed her to keep going and going but still feel connected to the baby. But I must not have the same muscles as she does because it is just impossible for me to do things like laundry, cleaning and even playing with Sam sometimes with the sling on, it just hurts by back and shoulders too much.

So today even though I wanted more than anything to be productive, hang more pictures and decorate more of the new house when Sam went down for her "nap" Avery and I just laid on the floor and played. She is starting to giggle, pay attention to toys, really hold herself up and smile the biggest smiles. I hate that I am missing out on these precious days. She is almost four months old and I am missing her infancy because of, well, LIFE!

I guess I need to slow down and play more often but I find that sometimes that is exactly the hardest thing to do.

Video Wednesday

ABCs and the never ending Twinkle Little Star!




Not a video, but Avery's first experience in the exersaucer! She started out so strong...
And then started getting tired...

And more tired...
And then gave up!
What a whirlwind week we have had! Moving last week was hard, stressful and exhausting but with the amazing help of Grandma, Pawpaw and Nana we survived! The house still has stuff sitting around everywhere or I would post pictures. Maybe someday we will be unpacked, decorated and clean enough that I can take some photos. But for now we are getting settled in, loving our big backyard and exploring our new neighborhood.

Our New Home!!

Our new backyard. Complete with swing-set!

Looking out at the backyard from the basement.
The gigantic bar in the basement. For all the big adult parties we are going to have! Out of town friends and family we need you to come visit so we can put this thing to use (since we still don't have any friends in Madison! ha!)!!
The rest of the basement.

The fabulous master bathroom. I am so excited about this tub!And there is a fireplace in the master bedroom...love that!
Stairs going to the second floor and a look into what will be the girls playroom; its suppose to be an office but a playroom seems more necessary right now.
Dining room.
Kitchen.

Once I get the girls rooms all set up I will take pictures of those. Blank walls with windows are not that exciting to take pictures of!

Moving day is only two days away!!

A Good Day - Poorly Documented

We are horrible at taking pictures! Yesterday is proof of that. All I wanted was a cute picture of the girls in their dresses but picturing taking was pretty much a complete failure. The only outdoor green space I could think of to take pictures was the park, which is not a great idea in dress clothes. And then the wind was SO bad.




Sam opening her Easter eggs in our new family room. She loved the Easter egg hunt that we did in the back yard. But we didn't really get any good pictures of that either!
Oh well. We had a good Easter even though it was just us and we spent most of the day working on the house.

All of the painting that we wanted to do before moving in is now done and the cleaning is almost done. Carpet cleaners come on Tuesday and the movers come on Thursday! I CANNOT WAIT!

Hope you all had a great Easter and were more successful capturing your day!

Cleaning Day One...

ended after 45 minutes.



I was so confident. The house looked pretty clean. I had toys packed and at the house already to entertain Sam. I had gotten advice on the best cleaning supplies to use and had everything ready.

But my plans today, when finally put into action, all went to SHIT!

After running the errands that I needed to do, driving to the house and getting everything ready just so that both girls were settled and I could start cleaning it was already pretty late and time to eat lunch. I got one very small room cleaned (the house may have looked really clean but of course there was a ton of dust and dirt when I started REALLY looking) and then had to stop to feed both girls. So I set up the little picnic lunch that I had packed for Sam and I. We were sitting in the middle of the kitchen floor but my fun little picnic was quickly turning into a messy nightmare! Marinara pasta was clearly not the best choice since noodles and sauce were making their way all over the kitchen. Sam just wouldn't sit still and since I was trying to feed Avery I couldn't force Sam to sit and eat. So lunch was a disaster and neither girl ate very much.

And then the crying began. Sam was mad because all I had for her to drink was water and Avery was super tired and just wanted to go to bed, which of course she couldn't cause I didn't have a bed! She wanted nothing to do with blankets on the floor or the bouncy seat that I had brought. I could not get her to stop crying. Then Sam got mad because Avery was crying; awesome!

This is when I snapped. Avery went into her car seat still screaming. All of the stuff from lunch (including a piece of silverware!) went into the trash. Sam got yelled at so fiercely she actually quickly grabbed her shoes and ran to the car. And we left. I gave up.

I was so excited to spend the whole day in the new house just cleaning and, well just being there. But it was just too hard. It is too hard to take care of two kids in a house that has NOTHING in it and try and clean that house at the same time.

There is painting to do and still a whole house to clean but it is not going to happen today. Avery and Sam are both in bed napping and I will sit on the couch, eat ice cream and watch bad day time TV. I lost the battle today and have lost my confidence. Maybe I will find it at the bottom of this pint of ice cream.