Meeting the Neighbors

Tom, Grace, Megan and I went on a walk last night after dinner.  We were around the corner and down the street just a little bit when some guy comes running out of his backyard shouting about a bear.  Tom and I looked at each other.  What are we supposed to do with our kids and a bear loose in the neighborhood.

This lady opened her door and let us come in her house.  It turns out that her daughter is in Grace's class so she was excited to see her friend.  What a way to meet your neighbor.  Afterwards, Tom said he was disappointed that he didn't get to see the bear.

Apparently the bear likes to hang out around our neighborhood.  Now I'm nervous to go on walks.  I better figure out what to do if I meet the bear sometime.

These pictures aren't of the bear but these pictures were taken at a park about five minutes down the road.  I guess I can see why a bear would like it here.  We took these pictures last fall.

 Megan playing in the water.

 Grace

 This picture of Grace with the rake is from our yard.  Not sure how it got in the middle of the park pictures.

 John and Kate, Kade, Grace and Megan

 Grace and Kate.  It is so fun having cousins close by.

 Playing in the leaves.

 Here are the kids having fun in the leaves in our yard.  They kept jumping in and rolling around in the leaves.  Good thing they are kids.  I kept thinking of all the spiders and ticks and who knows what else could be hiding in those leaves.

Big Changes

So many things have changed in our lives since I last posted.  Tom was transferred to New Jersey for work.  It has been quite an adjustment coming from Arkansas.  It took me a long time to get used to a slow-paced life.  Now we are back to everyone being busy and in a hurry.  I get honked at frequently (and I am always following the traffic laws).  People are seriously impatient here.  Tom told me I need to get over it.

We lived in a hotel for two months with 5 kids!    That was an experience I hope to not do again.  We ended up staying at the Residence Inn by Marriott.  They were awesome.  Everyone was so nice.  Dorris was in charge of the food.  She reminded me so much of Consuelo.  She loved my kids and was always so nice to them.  Ramona cleaned our room everyday.  She gave Megan a stuffed monkey one day.  Megan loves that animal.  Everyone who worked there was so friendly.  We had a pool until the beginning of October.  That was great.  I loved someone cleaning my bathroom everyday.  Never dirty.  I didn't do a whole lot of cooking for 2 months.  That was awesome too.  The cons?  We lived in a hotel for two months with 5 kids!  It was really hard on them.  I put a ton of miles on my car driving the kids to school and back and running errands everyday.  I had to fill up my van every two to three days.  I'm glad we are now settled in our house.  We also weren't planning on staying long term in a hotel so I didn't pack properly.  Luckily, I had them bring their backpacks with us.  We had to buy pants, and coats once we got here.

Here are some pictures of our house.  This is for you mom.  I know you keep asking for pictures.

This is our living room.  Beautiful hardwood floors throughout the house.  The lady left me her lace drapes.  They came down pretty quickly.

This is our kitchen.  That is all the cabinets we have.  There is a little on the other side of the fridge that you can't see in this picture.  We have our table in there but we can't put the leaf in it.

                                     
 This is the dining room off the living room.

 Bedroom

 Teal bedroom.  Walls, trim, baseboards.  Luckily the ceiling wasn't teal.

 Master bathroom.  That is a 19 inch vanity.  It's even smaller than our vanity in our California house.

 Master bedroom.  Painted wallpaper.  Lovely.  Not sure what to do about the walls because they are in really rough shape.  There are nails popping out underneath the wallpaper all over.  The seams are all showing.

 Bedroom

 Lovely red carpet with peach walls.  We ripped the carpet out of the bedrooms already.  Since it's so cold here in the winter, I would like to put new carpet back in.

 Sorry this one is sideways.  That is our pink bathroom.  Nice and manly for three boys.  Grace loves it.  We painted her room a nice soft pink and she cried because she wanted it to be bright pink.  I didn't see that one coming. I will look for material with a brighter pink in it for curtains.  Maybe that will make it better.

 Family Room

 Laundry room

 Half bath

 Basement / play room

 Awesome storage off the basement.  We have a place for food storage that isn't in my closet or the garage!!!!

Our house.  It is very pretty here with all the trees.  We have a million leaves in our yard and I am not exaggerating. We have been raking leaves each week.  We fill up our five trash cans and then fill up these big paper bags.  We had eight two weeks ago.  The next week we filled up the five trash cans from the same spot in the front as the week before.  We have 1/2 an acre still to do.

The kids are starting to adjust which is good.  It just always takes awhile when you're older.

Spring Break

Holy Moly, it's been a long time since I posted.  I have so much to catch up on.  

 For Spring Break we decided to go back to Orange Beach, Alabama.  It wasn't as warm as two years ago but it was sunny enough for the kids to still get burned.  The water in the gulf is still warmer than an August day in California.

 The kids had fun burying each other in the sand. Grace wanted to be a mermaid each time.

 Megan wasn't too sure about the sand at first.  Thankfully she didn't try eating it like some of my other kids have done.

 Mermaid girl

 There were a few days when the waves were big but the rest of the time it was perfect for Grace to wade out in the water by herself.

 Here is Grace taking all the toys and driftwood she could find to make herself a "campfire".

 This is her tent she made.

 Here is the only proof that I was at the beach.  One of the kids took this picture.  The kids played in their bathing suits.  I was in a sweatshirt.  It really was pleasant almost everyday.  There were only two days that were on the chilly side.

 So much fun.  I miss being close to a beach.  Nine hours is too far.  We had a blast.  It was a fun vacation.