Fun with the Camera

Play in the hotel room before we left on our walk. I have been playing with the settings on our camera. And thought these turned out pretty well. Granted there are not to many bad shots of Judson if I do say so myself!!

While on our walk, or stroll rather, I let Judson get out for awhile. The bike trail was relatively empty at 9 in the morning so that was nice and made it more safe. He loved exploring!! He would walk for awhile then just plop himself down and play with all the leaves and things that were on the trail.

He is such a cutie!! I love that he loves to be outside and is so intrigued by everything.
I took many other pictures but for some reason they are not loading the the computer, and the others are on Facebook, if you are interested. We saw a deer while we were out and were able to take pictures. It was fun to be so close, though Judson really didn't care. He was much more interested in all the birds that were flying around us. It was a fun walk! We even found a park that will be a lot of fun to play at this weekend. I just hope that it is not to busy!!

"Home" in between Homes

When you walk in you are in the kitchen. There is a stovetop and even and oven. A fridge and dishwasher. It is not huge but it is nice to be able to make meals in the room and not have to eat out all the time.

This is looking back toward the door, the bathroom is around the fridge here. I did not take a picture of that. Nothing special, pretty small, but it fits our stuff!

Judson wanted me to be done taking pictures and pick him up. He was not so happy.

Walking into the room there is a bed in the left corner. It is not a comfortable bed, we are looking forward to being able to sleep in our nice comfy, cozy bed again!! There is also a chair to sit in, which is nice so you do not always have to be in the bed. Behind the chair back in the corner is where we have put Judson's pack n play. That way it is away from everything when Nate is getting ready for work in the morning.

There is a desk, which we do not really use. It is more of a place to put things so Judson can not get them.

We brought in some shelving and laundry baskets to keep up with our dirty clothes. It is not fun having to walk it down the hall and share one washer and one dryer with the entire floor. But I am glad that it is in the building so that we do not have to take it elsewhere and I can work on it even if Judson is sleeping.

A look back toward the kitchen. There is a good amount of closet space too. That is what the three taller cabinets there are.

Pack it up

The movers came last Wednesday and packed up our things.
There were four of them that came and 8:30 and were done by 2:30.
They even took an hour lunch break.
I could not believe how fast it went, and how many boxes there were.

Judson thought it was great having such an obstacle course in the house. He loved running around the boxes and peeking his head out. It was very funny, but a little crazy to live around. Once Judson woke up from his afternoon nap we went to a friends house to hang out and then ate supper out that night. The house was just a little to crazy to be in for long.

The movers came back on Thursday and packed the truck. There were like six of them this day and they had the rest of the house packed up and the truck loaded by noon. It was so fast!! But it was good that they worked fast because we had a lot of cleaning to do. It was easier to clean and empty house, but it still it took forever!! I am so glad that Nate had taken Thursday and Friday off of work and was there to help me with everything.

The closing was on Friday, so the house is not longer ours. We really loved that house and living in Lincoln. We will miss all of our friends there so much.
But we know that God has sent us on this journey for a reason and we need to trust that He knows what is best for us.

We are currently living in an extended stay hotel (once we are a little more settled I will take some pictures and post them), but have made an offer and had it accepted on a house in Ankeny. There are just some things that the sellers need to take care of and we need to wait for the bank to get everything in order for us. We should close and be able to move in the first part of June. So just a few weeks or a month here in the hotel. It is close quarters, but it is great being back together as a family again!!

Crazy Kid

As I was working on laundry today I forgot to shut the doors. Judson found the box of dryer sheets and decided that he should take them each out of the box. Oh yes, one by one he pulled them out and spread them around the hallway. I later even found some in the bedroom. He had such a great time, and smelled very good after wards!! I am just glad that the box of 250 sheets was half gone! He is just so curious about EVERYTHING!!!!!

Thanks to my boys...

I had a wonderful Mother's Day. Judson slept in until 8:30, so I was able to as well.
Nate got up and made breakfast (scrambled eggs, pancakes, strawberries, and bacon) then he brought it all to me in bed, along with flowers!! It was so sweet of him and we all enjoyed the great breakfast! Then we went to a wonderful church service, grabbed Arby's for lunch and came home to eat and relax. It was a wonderful day!! I am so blessed to have two amazing boys that love me so much!!

THANK YOU LAURA BETH!!!

Laura Beth you are the BEST!!! I love the new blog header!! And the new background. You are such a sweet friend and it was such a fun surprise this morning. I needed something to brighten by day and you totally did it!! I LOVE YOU!!

Park Play

The kids LOVED playing in the sand!

They even did a pretty good job of sharing the few sand toys,
and not getting the sand all over each other.

The big girls. Delaney and Victoria.
They loved playing on the tire swing.

The big girls played so well together!! It was so cute to watch them play!!

Trying to get a picture of the boys together. It was not so easy!

Judson sure thought it was funny though.

But Nolan did not think that it was fun!!

Yesterday many of the moms and kids from our small group were able to get together for lunch and time to play at a park. It was so much fun to get everyone together. It has been hard to do with all the kids and different schedules. But when we are actually able to get together the moms and the kids have a great time!

A day with Ellie

Yesterday Judson and I were able to spend some time with Ellie. (the little girl that I used to watch) Her new daycare person had sick kids of her own yesterday. It was so much fun to see Ellie and Judson together again. They were so cute playing together, "talking" to each other and walking around the house.

Judson was so funny at snack time... I was making some butternut squash for him for later and he did not want it later. So he passed on his yummy peach/mango puffs and ate butternut squash. So far he is a very good eater!

We went on a bit of a walk and played at the park. They are a lot heavier to push than they used to be. They both LOVED being at the park, I forgot to take the camera with though. But I am not sure if I would have been able to take any pictures anyway. It was busy keeping up with two climber/walkers!!

House Project

We had a whole house inspection done on Friday because of selling the house. We got the results back on Friday night and found out that the house only did "fair". So with that there are things that we need to improve upon before the buyers really want to buy. We are still working on negotiations to see what of the things need to be done we will actually do.

But without finishing negotiations we decided to start on one of the projects. The back patio needed some attention. It was beginning to settle by the house. It was about an inch lower than it needed to be. So we started pulling up the bricks and of course one led to another and then 1/3 of the patio later we needed to get some sand to raise things up. It took many more trips to the store and many more hours than we thought. It is still not done, but already looks so much better!

James Hamilton came over and was a HUGE help!!! We would not have been able to get as far as we did with out him! And thank you so much Amy, Ella and Miles for sharing him with us!

Judson decided that while he was outside playing he should eat dirt. He ate many dirt clods but this was the biggest and made so much mud in his mouth.

Judson was very helpful moving all the sand around.

He also really liked to climb on the bricks that had been pulled out.

More sand play!

It was a very busy afternoon. It is so great that we were able to get so much done. It really is looking so great!! To bad we will not really be able to be around to enjoy it, but I hope that it helps us to sell the house and to be able to live together as a family.
Judson loved being able to play outside so much to day and to make such a mess. He was so funny exploring the sand and all the tools that were out.