Happy Fall

It was so nice this year for the Pumpkin Parade!  The kids were a little hot in their outfits! 

 A few days later they had fall shirts on again, so I had them pose again.  It was cooler, but still nice.  While we were in Disney World this past week, we got SNOW already!  I sure hope we don't have snow from now until March!  That will make for a long winter!  I'd like fall weather to stick around for awhile yet!

Recent Garper Pic

I thought Greta and Harper were cute today in their animal print pants.  Greta is often in her jammies still when Harper comes, so she likes to try to coordinate her outfits with Harper's :-).

Kids

I thought it was cute the other day how he fell asleep.   A lot of times, he either tucks himself in his bed or falls asleep watching a movie.  This is him just crashing.  And I love that his little Kung Fu Panda is near him too--he LOVES him.

 I am not a fan of what comes after fall, but I do enjoy fall weather (when it actually feels like fall).  I'm getting a bit tired of our summer wardrobes, so I've enjoyed the recent cooler weather.  I often buy a lot of the kids' clothes on clearance at the end of each season, so it's fun to get their next season's clothes out since I normally don't remember what they have.   We went to a cousin's daughter's casual country wedding Saturday night and Layla thought the girls needed a picture together in their coordinating outfits. :-) 

And so to not leave Gibs out...

 As I was uploading these pics, I noticed this one of our family from Joe's work picnic.  It was a really HOT day in July so we are all a bit red and glistening, but overall, not too terrible for a quick family photo.  And it even looks like we kind of tried to coordinate:-).

 

Gibs' First Day of School

Gibs had his first day of Threeschool today!  I can't believe I have two kids in school already (well, sort of--he only goes one morning a week).  Today the parents came along so next week will be the true test of how he does on his own.  I think he will really love it. It's two hours of playing with other kids and different toys--what's not to like? :-)  And the kids in his class all seem so sweet.  I'm sure he'll have a great year with them.

Hi teacher, Mrs. Walters, seems very nice...

His teacher's assistant painted his hands to put on a paper that he'll get back when he graduates from 8th grade (I don't know if they put it into a book or something--I can't remember what his teacher said).  I don't like thinking about him being in 8th grade--that seems way too old!

 Proud mama...

Tumbling Time

Gibs started a class yesterday with his friend, Maddy, at Zeeland Rec called Motor Movement.  It's a class allows toddlers to run around, tumble and burn some energy off.  He seemed to like it.  He loves doing somersaults at home which I think he gets partly from copying Layla and partly because he incorporates into his Kung Fu he tries to do.  He's been obsessed with Kung Fu Panda lately and loves to act like Po:-).  Him and Maddy will have this class on Monday mornings until mid November.  We made a quick stop at the bakery after class, so I'm assuming that may become part of our Monday routine as well:-).  Maddy and Lincoln came over for a play date afterward and we said how weird it is now with Jonathan and Layla in school :-(.

Bus Rider

Layla started riding the bus to school last week!  The first day, she got on happily.  The next few days were not as good, however.  She cried each time when getting on which was so heartbreaking for me to see her ride away on the bus crying!  She told me though, that she settled down after a couple of minutes, so hopefully that's true:-).  Her bus driver has been so sweet to her and even cleared out the front seat for her when she was crying :-).  Each night before bed, she'd complain too that she didn't like riding the bus.  She started to love school last week, just didn't like the bus.  But now today, she got on fine and says it was fine.   So she apparently just takes a little time to adjust to new things.  She is loving school and has learned to count to 10 in Mandarin, sing the clean up song and has learned some colors and words like "hi", "bye" and other things.  Maybe she has learned more than that, but that is all we've really heard from her so far.  We are very glad to be doing the immersion program as we can already see how easy it is for a 5 year old to pick up another language.  I can't even repeat back to her things she says to me:-).

 

First day riding the bus...

 Even daddy went to the bus stop the first day...

 All smiles the first day...

Final House Pics...Only 2 Months Later

Since I posted building progress pictures along the way, I figured I should post final pictures of our house.  It's only taken me two months, ha!  I guess maybe I thought I'd have more done as far as decorating goes, but really, I haven't done much since we first moved in.  Eventually:-).

 

We are so happy with how everything turned out.  When you see your house on a print, you really hope it all turns out like you're picturing it as far as room sizes and such go.  And it really did.  Thankfully.  I really feel like the whole building process was pretty painless.  We had been warned about how much work it is and how stressful it can all be, but Baumann Builders made it all very simple and were very easy to work with.  Moving in was the hard part:-).  But we are now feeling very settled.  There is definitely some closets and such that I need to better organize, but that's what winter is for, right? :-) 

 

Half bath by back/garage door...

 The big kids were gone the other day, so I thought it would be a good time to finally take some pictures with only one kid taking toys out around the house.  Greta thought she should pose for the pics:-).  I love how she sees a camera and does her "cheese" face.  This is the back entrance.  The door on the left comes in from the garage and the other goes out to the size of our house where we'll (hopefully soon) put our swing set in for the kids and eventually (some day) a barn.  The laundry room is to the right (Greta's left).  The bench/chest on the left is where lockers are supposed to be...eventually:-).

 This is probably my least favorite room, only because laundry is pretty much my least favorite thing to do:-).  Our old laundry room was in our basement in our mechanical room, so it's great now having it so close the kitchen and I really love having a counter and a sink in it and cabinet storage. 

 I also really love having a desk in our kitchen now.  As there keeps getting  more to keep track of with school and activities and such, it's great having a place to help me try to keep it all straight!  It's also handy having my printer in my kitchen now too.  

Front entry... 

 Joe's mom found this bench and it couldn't be a more perfect fit!   Now I just need some hooks/shelf to put above it.

 Living room...

 

Dining with a door to our covered deck that we'd like to screen in...

Kitchen (obviously)...  

 This is the kids' sitting area between their rooms that clearly doesn't have a lot in it right now.  When they're older, we'd like to put desks up there for them.  For right now, it's where we keep their books (to the left there is a spot where there could be a built in cabinet that we have a big book shelf in now) and where they can play or watch tv.  The doors on the right that you can see are Greta's (the one that's open) and the game closet, and Gibs' is to the right, directly across from Greta's door.

 Layla's room...

 The kids' bathroom...

 Greta apparently wanted to look relaxed in her room...

 Greta's room...  

Gibs' room is clearly a little heavy on the buddies, but he loves them:-).  He also LOVES all his trucks and his trains.  He can play farm/trucks/trains for hours by himself.  Although this week with Layla being in school, every afternoon for rest time, he's been playing for awhile, and then tucking himself in bed for a nap which is funny because normally he only naps a few times a week now.



 I thought this old book that I found in a box of old books from my parents was a perfect decoration for Gibs' room since he loves Donald Duck and the colors of the book cover match his room perfectly:-).

I really need to work on our room.   The curtains I bought for our room, I ended up using in the living room since I couldn't find anything else I liked, and I have things to hang up, they're just setting on the floor:-).  Plus, Joe is very anti-hanging things on the wall, so things can only go up if I'm positive it's going to be there for the next 30 years, lol:-).

 

This is the play room on the main floor which has been great having a place to put all their toys and to (try) to keep them out of the living room.

Maybe we can close the doors some day when it's an office:-)...

 

So that's our house...we still definitely have things to do (especially outside!), but we are loving where we are now and it definitely feels like home.  When we sold our old house, we didn't know what our next house would be, so it's nice now for whole process to be done with and to be settled in our new house.  We are enjoying our country life :-).