Another New Home!

After 76 days of living in the RV, we closed on our house! (and all the people said "AMEN!"). We had a wonderful experience working with Melanie McDaniel of First Class Realty.  She's the best of the best, so if you need a realtor in the Hampton Roads, VA area, let me know.  I can hook you up!

 We had 4 days from closing day until we got our household goods and we had some work to do.  Drew's parents drove their camper up to help us out, so while Grammy was keeping the kiddos, we got busy.  We started in the garage.  It was musty and there was some mold on the walls due to a previous moisture problem in the crawl space.  Kilz to the rescue!

It looked and smelled SO much better when we finished!

 The yellow kitchen had to go!

 I had lots of helpers with the priming.

 Priming is done....did I mention that 3 days after we got our household goods, we left everything and went to DISNEY WORLD? (I looked at these primed walls for several weeks before I finally painted)

 Master bedroom was painted monochrome gray.

 Though it's hard to tell in this before and after, I promise it looks different in real life.  The office got a coat of accessible beige. 

We also painted one wall of the living room before our things arrived.

Then it was moving day!  My job was checking off boxes as they came off the truck and directing where everything went.

 I kid you not, the movers hadn't been there 30 minutes when one of them fell through the ceiling of our walk up attic.   Luckily it was just his foot and he didn't come crashing in.  The bad news:  they deemed that room a safety hazard so they couldn't put anything else in there, which meant that ALL the JUNK and holiday decorations that we keep in the attic, got stored in the catwalk upstairs.  

 Floor to ceiling boxes!

 At the end of the day, this is what our living room looked like! (YIKES)

But hey...at least we finally have a HOME again!  And we definitely have more than 300 square feet! So I'll take it, mess and all!

We left the house in a complete disaster 3 days later to go to Disney! (a trip that we had planned long, long ago!)

Keeping Busy in the RV

As you know, we've been living in our RV since June 15.  We've been in the park in Virginia Beach since July 17th.  We currently only have one car.  Drew leaves to go to work every morning so we have to keep ourselves busy until he comes home.  On special occasions, we'll drive him to work so we can go on special outings, like when we visit Slover Library in Norfolk.  (This place is 5 stories of AMAZING). The kids never want to leave the children's floor.  With all the fun you see in pictures, I promise they have books!

 Aubrey enrolled in a week long dance camp, so the boys and I tried out a few breakfast spots while we waited for her to finish.  

 But mostly, since we were stranded in the RV, we decided to get a jump start on the school year.  So we began Kindergarten and 6th grade in the camper! 

 It wasn't all work!  There were video games...

 ...a trip to the base water park

 and some mother/son and daddy/daughter date nights.

We'll be moving into our house soon and while we'll all be glad to have a little extra wiggle room, we're going to miss the camper.  Because even though it's REALLY small in there some days, we love the closeness we feel as a family!  

Congratulations Maj Wood

We had the opportunity to drive up to Annapolis, MD for the promotion of a dear friend of ours.  These were friends of ours and it had nearly been two years since we had seen each other.  Amanda and I were pregnant together so we couldn't wait to introduce our kiddos!  Penny was sleeping when we met up with them, so they met after nap time.  

And although it doesn't look like it, they really enjoyed each others' company....at least later on in the day!  :)

It was a lovely promotion ceremony.  Congratulations Major Wood!

After the ceremony we strolled through campus.  I had never been to the Naval Academy before and had no idea how beautiful it is!  I'm pretty partial to the Loveliest Village on the Plains, but The Naval Academy is a close second in my book.  

Officer Housing

Aubrey playing "mom"

The chapel was beautiful!

We made it on campus in time to see the Plebes doing their daily formation. 

It was a lovely day hanging out with our friends.  I'm glad we're only a short drive away and could make it to celebrate his special day!

A Wild ONE!

On Thursday, July 13, our sweet August Michael turned ONE!  It never ceases to amaze me just how quickly time flies.  It seems like only yesterday we were waiting for his (or her-since gender was a surprise) arrival.  This past year has FLOWN by!  Maybe it was because we were only in Missouri for a year or maybe that's just the way things go.  The older you get, the faster time moves.  

This year was great.  Andrew has been such a great big brother and we've loved watching Aubrey take on her role as big sister.  She's such a little "mama" and takes excellent care of her little brother.  The love between the three of them is so precious, it makes my heart want to explode!  The Lord has been good to us, that's for sure!  

August started his birthday with pancakes.  And even though he looks less than thrilled, he enjoyed them (as he does all food, if you can't tell).

 Andrew and Aubrey helped him blow out the candle after singing "Happy Birthday."

Later that day, Aubrey had a big appointment...

Granna wanted a photo shoot with all her grands!  She has such great vision when it comes to these photo sessions.  She set everything up and Erica Amos worked her magic to get some great shots!

(Doesn't my baby look all grown up with her haircut!)

 And since we had the photographer there, we might as well get in a smash cake session!

 Gracie did a good job helping to decorate the smash cake!

 Sweet baby thought that the yellow polka dots must have been the yogurt bites he's used to, so he kept trying to pick up just the yellow spots.  

On to the party~

In honor of our month long AMAZING adventure, we went with the camping/woodland animal theme:  August is turning a WILD ONE! (My amazing mother did all the decorations! She's talented like that!). If it hadn't been for her, we would've had a cake and sang "Happy Birthday."  LOL So thanks, Mom, for making out boy's day really special!

 I feel like my kids always get the short end of the stick when it comes to my cakes.  I'm always so busy getting everything else together, that the cake is always rushed and I never get to do "exactly" what I had planned.  Oh well.  It was still cute!  (And thanks to my Sister for saving me a couple of hours by doing the tee-pees.  

 Speaking of my sister, look how cute her fruit owl was!

 Jack and August with Grumps

 (I love that he wore the hat!)

 "Who me? You're all singing for ME?!"

 You know how hard it is to get a good picture of all of us?

 He takes eating very seriously!

 Though he was happy to share with Uncle Adam!

 I hardly took any pictures, really.  The majority of these were taken by other folks.  I was trying to enjoy the moment!  It was such a special day.  We had family and friends with us to celebrate our boy.  It was so nice having everyone together.  With us living so far from family, that hardly ever happens.  We missed all the ball players in my family who were off at different tournaments.  Thanks to everyone who came out to make his day special.  

Andrew and Maggie have been friends since they were babies.  Since her Momma is my BFF, it's only natural that they get along so well.  Just like with me and Erin, they picked right up where they left off and had a great time together. 

 Water fun!

August wasn't the only one that had a birthday while we were home.  My sister turned 33 on the 15th!  Drew and I were able to spend some time with her and Jefforey without the kiddos. (Thanks Mom and Dad). We went to dinner on Friday night and then on Sunday night we got to play some games at their house.  Good times were had by all!  I sure do miss my sister!  Living so far away starts to wear on you after a while and spending some quality time with her was good for my soul.  I always count down the days until we can do it again!  Love you Sis!

And just like that, our trip was over.  Next stop...VIRGINIA!