Project Upstairs!

Dave's sister Liz moved out at the end of January. She had been living with us in our upstairs room since July 2018. She left us to move to Tyler, TX to take her dream job working as a NICU nurse. We are so excited for her!

After she was gone, we got to work moving our current playroom, which was also the guest room and piano room, to the upstairs. It's taking the kids some time to get comfortable going there to play since it's been off limits for so long, but we know that eventually they will like having all the extra space and we will love having all the toys and mess out of sight. Charlie will also be moving into the guest room once baby comes, so it was nice to get all the toys out of there to make room for him. 

Farewell to Liz! Charlie is going to miss her the most. She moved in when he was only a few months old and he does not remember life without his "Lizzie."

This space is still a work in progress. Eventually we will get some big cube shelves for toy storage, a better couch and maybe some bean bags for extra seating since this is also the movie/video game room.

While we were working on the upstairs, we also tackled the attic! Since access is through the upstairs room, it had been neglected for the last year and half. Everything had just been dropped by the door and you could barely move around. Now it's nice and organized. I even vacuumed the floor!

Conference Weekend

This was an interesting Conference with the new prophet and all the announcements. I'm excited about the changes! With the kids I was only able to catch a fraction of the talks, but still felt the spirit of the messages. It was a nice way to spend the Easter holiday and I'm glad we had family here to watch it with us. I didn't take too many photos, but here are a few things that happened over the weekend:

Working the traditional Conference puzzle. This one was 1000 pieces and we were able to get it done in just a few hours thanks to all the help!

Sophie had a soccer game between the Saturday sessions. Her team got killed, but the girls said they still had fun. We had to wake Davey up from nap to go to the game and it took him awhile to come out of his funk. 

Charlie was really spoiled this weekend. With all the family here, he got passed around from person to person and was rarely set down. I only ended up with him for a short part of the afternoon session. 

Davey loved spending time with Papa

And Sophie took every minute Grandma had to spare. They spent a lot of time playing with her Hatchimals, coloring, and doing puzzles. 

At one point Davey randomly ran up to me and said "cheese!" I wasn't ready to take a picture so it's a little out of focus, but he still looks cute! 

Saying goodbye is always hard. Sophie cried at the window as they pulled away. I remember doing the same thing every time we had to leave my grandma's house when I was little. I'm glad she loves her family so much, and that we will get to see them again soon when we drive down to Dallas in May. 

Grandma, Grandpa and Liz Come to Visit

We invited Dave's family to come visit for the weekend and they said yes! Sophie was so thrilled to have them come and it was fun to show them our new house since Dave's dad had never seen it, and his mom and Liz and only been there before we had unpacked and settled in. It was a very short trip, but we managed to fit a lot in during just a day and half, hopefully making the drive worth it for them.

Here's what we did: The Howes arrived Friday night and were able to join us for dinner and then say goodnight to the kids. On Saturday we started with Sophie's soccer game, then had lunch at Blue Sky, a puzzle competition at the library in the afternoon, and we finished our day with dinner and fun at the pumpkin farm. On Sunday Dave was speaking in church, so they came to hear his talk before driving back. What a whirlwind of a weekend!

A welcome picture Sophie drew for them. This is grandma and Liz, and then she ran out of room so papa is on the back

Blue Sky was really yummy and priced lower than expected - always a nice surprise. Sophie and I shared a chocolate shake that was amazingly delicious. It's just a short 5 minute walk from our house so I might be tempted to pop back over for sweet treat every now and then. 

We bested the other three teams to win the puzzle competition! Our puzzle was actually pretty difficult and it was a close race to finish before the team next to us. Our prize was some candy, a puzzle, and a free bag of books at the library book sale. 

We were so glad they could join us at the pumpkin farm!