Phase Two: Completed

*Public service announcement* - Julie, scroll down to the next post just in case you don't realize it's there :)

We are completely moved into our "big house" - boxes unpacked, pictures hung, and curtains put up. It's been...exhausting. My man is the hardest worker I've ever seen, and he's been putting in some serious hours trying to get everything done pretty quickly so that we feel settled. His ankle (the previously patched-up one, three times over) has been swollen for the last couple of days, so now we're hoping to take it easy. The kids and I have taken it easy while he's been at work. :) We've found a pool where we've been swimming twice, and we plan to go again this week after I get over my sunburn. All of the children were fine, but I couldn't reach my back well enough to get good coverage and I'm recovering. :) Adah took right to the pool - putting her whole body under and wanting to learn to swim. She's a pretty brave kid. Her favorite thing was swimming through my legs. Nathaniel loves to splash, splash, splash and then splash some more, giggling all the while. I don't have any pictures - I think I'd need to grow a few more arms for that. Shiloh and Cora only took breaks when the lifeguard blew the whistle; other than that they were in constant motion. Abigail and Jackson only took about two minutes to recover their love of the water from way back in Florida. All in all, it's been a great stress reliever from moving in! We've been reading for the summer reading club, taking walks in the neighborhood, and going to Target WAY too many times. :) Adah is learning to be confident on her bike (still with training wheels), Jackson has transitioned to the top bunk (what a big boy!), and Shiloh and Cora have begun piano lessons with their new teacher. She is truly a gem, and they are learning hymns right now. How wonderful to have daughters who can play the piano! Abigail Emma is DYING to lose a tooth since Adah has just lost two more, but we keep telling her not to MAKE it happen. Abigail and I went to run errands the other day just the two of us, and her constant chatter was so cute. She is really quirky. Daniel saw her bunny hopping naked into the bathroom to get her bath the other night and said, "NOW I know who she reminds me of - RAMONA!" She even looks like Ramona on the cover of the books. Jackson is just really entertaining right now. He has funny observations about life, and he's always ready for an adventure...preferably an adventure that involves some sort of a battle. Nathaniel is talking a lot more and even says words we can understand. :) He is very affectionate and greets us with a sunny, "Hello Mommy!" or "Hello, Daddy!" when we get him up in the morning. He was fun to watch in the pool as I got to experience a "first" with him.
Well, I better wrap this up since it's late Sunday night. Just wanted to let y'all know we survived the move - barely. :)
Here are some recent pictures:

Guess who greeted me with newly pierced ears when I came home from the homeschool convention?? Adah Tomata decided she wanted to get hers done when she saw that her good friends, MeilaRose, Mylee, and Mia had theirs done! Daniel said she did a GREAT job, and she proclaimed, "It not hurt like a shot, Mommy! You said it hurt like a shot, but it didn't!" She is happy with her sparkles, but she wants to change them every day like the others do. (Sorry for the weird camera angle...I need to take a class. Seriously.)



The following pictures are from Organizational Day for NGIC. The weather was perfect, and we agreed that it was the best Organizational Day we'd ever been to (I also won some prizes, and prizes are always good). They had lots of things for the kids to do, as you can see from the pictures. They also had free snow cones, free popcorn, a magic show (fabulous!), balloon shapes, face painting, fire trucks, a SWAT team, and lunch. We enjoyed ourselves very much. And Daniel got PAID for the day. Nice.

Adah on the big slide. Everyone went down MANY times.

Abigail and Adah in the bouncy castle. Abigail got some SERIOUS air in there. She's so light and she's so bouncy anyway (think Ramona) that she was in her element. The only problem was that she became a dangerous projectile when she couldn't control her bounces. Jackson got taken out a couple of times.

The following pictures were taken at the Lewis and Clark Exploration Center (Expedition Center? I can't remember) which was located at the park where the picnic was held. It was open for the day for the kids to explore. And do you know why the Lewis and Clark center is in Charlottesville? Anyone? Lewis was born in Albemarle County, VA, and Jefferson was the president who sent them on their famous expedition (little bit of history for the day). Anyway, the kids got to see a mock-up of a riverboat they might have used, practice using a pulley system to lift a log, and carve out a canoe using a chisel and mallet (Dad - am I saying the correct tools? Probably not.) Jackson liked pretending he was steering the boat. Nathaniel liked running up and down on the boat and scaring the living daylights out of me because the boat was elevated pretty far above the ground.

Here are my handsome men sporting their caps and fire helmets (and leis, which are oh-so-manly).

Jackson got up in the fire truck. He was pretty silent with the firefighters, but Daniel and I asked a lot of questions and Jackson showed later how much he was really listening.

Again with the photo skills. *sigh* I had to hurry up with the picture because the helmet was making his head fall to the front or the back (which, by the way, was hilarious). He liked the armor the SWAT team had. He's also holding the sword the balloon man made for him. He even got a belt with a sheath to put the sword in (it might have popped by this time).