May, Old and New

May was a big month for us, for a lot of reasons but probably most of all, because we moved.  Like I said before, our house sold in about 2 days so we were searching for a new place and in March we found one.  It's in Haslet.  Haslet is about 20 minutes (15 on a good day) from my job and even closer to Luke's school.  If there is no traffic, I can get from work to his school in about 10-15 minutes.  One of the big reasons we moved was so that I could be closer to the boys and be able to pick them up quickly, if needed.  And, one of my priorities is to minimize the amount of time the boys spend in preschool.  Being closer, they will all have less time in school and Luke will have less time in the after school program.  Haslet is in Northwest ISD.  I checked it out and it seems to be a good place.  Luke's new school is small-ish, with only 3 kindergarten classes.  More about that later.  For now, a goodbye to our old place.  Northcrest was Jeff's home since 2004 and our home since 2005.  We put a lot of blood, sweat, tears (literally) and money into this place and it was hard to say goodbye.  Of course it was also the place all my boys came home to and spent the first parts of their lives.  There were a lot of very frustrating things about the house but I will miss it still.  Please pardon my ridiculous trip down memory lane.

2728 Northcrest (Luke had finally learned his address, sung to the tune of "Happy Birthday" 2-7-2-8, 2-7-2-8, 2-7-2-8 Northcrest, In Plano, Texas!)  Too bad, his new one is much longer!

 Luke's first room, and later, Eli's.  See those cute valences?  Grammy made those and put them up and put up with a very pregnant me who had no idea how to decorate a nursery!

 Where the boys had their first real baths...

 Their "playroom," or at least a place to pile toys at the end of the day.

 The kitchen Daddy built, the blinds we ordered online after realizing they were nearly impossible to get anywhere else, due to our old house and 1960's window sizes, the painting Grammy and Papa came over to help us finish before Nathan arrived, the paint drips on the pantry door from that late night of painting (hoping Jeff would not notice!).

 The counter space where all the bottles and formula sat, the dishwasher Jeff and I bought with our wedding money, the sink we traded Grammy and Papa a couch for, the cabinets we picked out before kids and before realizing how hard it would be to keep them clean with kid fingers everywhere, the new fridge we got after paying for a damaged one but they sold the damaged one (again) to someone else...

 The room the big boys shared after Eli came along.

 The bathroom where they learned to brush their teeth.

 Ok, I could go on and on about every little thing in the house on Northcrest.  I guess it's even worse when you remodel something together, pick out every fixture, every paint color (and stay up all night when you're 8 months pregnant to paint the inside of the baby's closet before Daddy can put up the closet system that almost made him loose his religion)...so many memories!

But, on to the new!  Here's the new place! It's beautiful and has a huge yard for the boys. 

 Jeff's favorite part!

And, Jeff's very favorite part of the new place!

The house is all I could have asked for and the only house with finishes up to Jeff's standards.  The location of the house turned out to be less than ideal.  Through it, I've learned again to be thankful for my blessings, in so many ways.  The other pictures of the house are from when the other people were still living in it, so I decided not to post a bunch of pictures of their stuff :)

April

The big event (it must have been big because I hardly have any other April pictures except for this event) for April was going to see Thomas.  Two things were different this year.  First, Thomas was not held in Rusk (boo) and second, I was not able to go (double boo).  I so enjoyed loading all the boys into the truck and traveling to Rusk for the day.  Getting out of town, leaving the crowds and watching the boys have a great day, was one of my favorite days of the year.  But, I guess the lack of crowds that I loved caused the organizers to not bring Thomas back to Rusk.  So, the boys saw Thomas in Grapevine this year.  Our realtor was very sweet and gave us 6 tickets to see Thomas this year.  The only problem was that they were for a Saturday, a work day for me.  So, Grammy and Papaw got to see Thomas this year!  Even though I had a little pity party for myself for not getting to go, I was glad Grammy and Papaw got to experience Thomas with the boys (and Jeff too of course).  These first few pictures are of Nathan, just being silly in the backyard and the rest are of the trip to see Thomas.

 My favorite one, with Sir Topham Hat.

 Ha! These are too funny!

 And, a last one of my Eli.  He has surpassed Luke, whose love for Thomas has waned a bit, as the #1 Thomas lover in our house. 

March

I think the best way to attempt to get caught up on this blog is to just start posting by the month.  So, these next few posts will be picture heavy, with some descriptions.

Over spring break we went to MS.  Here is Eli, eating a bunny rabbit cookie.

 Having some fun at home...

 Nathan's pirate pose.

 First time Nathan wrote his name in chalk...

 This is from Bible Days at school.  The boys got to dress up as their favorite Bible person.  Nathan wanted to go as David (with bear and sling shot).  Luke is in the background getting dressed as Joseph (the carpenter, wanted to take tools).  I think for both of them it was the prospect of taking props that inspired their choices of characters :)

 More fun in the back yard...I don't know why but it just makes me feel so good to see them all playing together.  The sandbox is a place that happens sometimes.

 A free Monday...Eli and I went to the playground while the big boys were in school.

 Out of order, another one at home, playing in the backyard.  Luke was trying to tie me up with the jump rope.  I let him do it because he was laughing hysterically the entire time. 

So that's a pretty good summary of March.  We were well into the house selling process by then.  We put our house on the market in the first few days of March.  It ended up selling in about 2 days, which was great because I don't know how long I could have kept it show-clean.  We were blessed for sure, especially since we did not have to move out until the first part of May.  So, we were off to find a new place!

Easter

For Easter this year we stayed in Plano, went to church (I had nursery duty) and then headed over to the Wilson's.  I neglected to take any pictures of our family but thankfully, Brian took one of the whole group (minus Uncle Jake).  It was a fun day even though Nathan was in a terrible mood and had an accident on his Easter pants, before the picture of course.  Luke and Nathan really enjoyed Easter egg hunting this year and we had a lot of fun filling the plastic eggs together.  It's amazing to me the difference between 3 and 4 years old.  Two and 3 seemed much more similar than 3and 4, at least for my boys.  Good company, good food and looking forward to future years when the boys really understand why we celebrate Easter.