Syd and Kay's new room

Here are a couple pictures of the girls' new room. I still need to "decorate", but all the boxes are out!

Our New Home

Here is the outside view of our new home. As rooms start coming together, I will post pictures of the inside. Almost all the boxes are unpacked....but there is still much organizing to be done! Kevin is hoping to start on the wood floors next week...we are putting hickory floors in the dining room and living room. Then we will start re-carpeting.

We Have Moved!

Finally....we have moved into our house, despite all the delays! We closed on Tuesday afternoon and the moving truck arrived first thing Wednesday morning. Kevin spent the night in the house alone (well, with Newton) and the girls and mom and I stayed at the hotel. We have worked very hard and have 80% of the boxes unpacked! We love this house and are excited to personalize it. The girls have a great little room that they are learning to share. We bought them bunk beds and Sydney LOVES sleeping on the top bunk. We still need to train Kayleigh to sleep in a regular bed....right now Kevin is rigging something up so she can't get out. We thought Syd could have a bed and Kay could remain in the crib, but the room is just too small.

I have an awesome office that will double as my violin studio....it's a great space. And our kitchen is beautiful too....I will post pictures as it starts coming together.

Syd and Kay in the hotel

Sydney reading her letter from Leah..."this is so exciting mommy!"

Sydney in her top bunk.

Moving On Up

We leave for our new home tomorrow. I had tons of pictures I was going to post, but they got erased from my camera. I am very bummed. We went to Wildlife Prairie Park yesterday and rode a little train, saw lots of animals and went down a big slide. Then we went to visit Grandpa and Grandma Eichorst (my dad). The girls got to see a week-old horse and ride on a tractor with Grandpa.

Today we went to church and as we were standing up to leave, my front tooth fell out! I have had this fake tooth for a good 15 years and never had any problems. I have had many dreams that it has fallen out, but today that nightmare came true! I was a little freaked out, but thankfully my dentist here met me and fixed it. Sydney thought it was a cool trick that I could pull my tooth out. You don't realize how vain you are until your front tooth is gone.

Hopefully the next time I post, it will be from our new home.

Moving Update

We have closed on our house in Minnesota....the moving truck loaded all our earthly belongings yesterday and we drove to Morton last night. It was a very long day and we were all ready to get some much needed rest! Today was a bit stressful as our lender has failed to return any calls. We had a 3 hour window of wiring money to the title company in MI....Kevin and I ended up spending the morning at Wells Fargo applying for a new loan. They were able to get everything lined up for us, and hopefully, we will still be able to close on the new house on Tuesday.

For Mother's Day, Kevin got me a "spa day" here in Morton so I feel like a new woman....highlighted hair (Sydney told me my hair was golden), new haircut, manicure, pedicure.

My grandma is here for the evening. It's her first time out of the nursing home since she went back in February. She is enjoying watching the girls play.

Pictures

Check out Kayleigh's outfit....bib, fish necklace and mommy's shoe!

They entertained themselves for quite awhile in these boxes!

Here are some photos of my garden

Moving Week

Well, this is it....moving week is here! We sign all our closing papers on Wednesday and the moving truck gets loaded on Thursday. Then we will head out to Illinois to spend the weekend with my family. There is still quite a bit that needs to be packed, but we have gotten alot done. It always amazes me how much stuff we really have!

We will drive up to Michigan on Monday, stay in a hotel and then close on our house there on Tuesday. Then we get to unpack all these boxes!! I was joking with Kevin that I'm not going to unpack this time....just in case we don't like it there.

We are still having beautiful spring weather here...my garden is growing like crazy. Some of the plants are just so beautiful! Our crab apple tree in front is just beginning to bloom and the lilac bushes look like they could burst any day. I love spring!

For some reason, Sydney is calling me Irene today....I have no idea where she got that name. I don't remember reading a book with that name in it. But she just came into the kitchen and said "Irene, could you please get me a snack!"

I'll sign off for now....maybe some pictures will follow later today.

Goodbye Parties and Ice Cream

We had a "Moving Party" with our good friends and neighbors, Leah and Racheal, this past Friday. The girls really are the best of friends and this move will be difficult on them. So we (Tara and I) decided that we should have a party for the girls to celebrate the move. We made this cool Hobby Holly cake and made "friendship pots". It was fun...I'm not sure if the girls had more fun or if it was the moms?!?!

The girls sure do like their ice cream! Sydney was so excited to have ice cream cones at lunch yesterday. Now I know how to get 30 minutes of quiet....give them ice cream cones! Sure...it's messy to clean up, but they were quiet for at least 30 minutes with those things!

More Packing Done

Well, with both girls packed now, we are almost ready to go! Kayleigh was very cooperative when we put her in the box!




Some of you still ask about Newton...yes, he's still with us. Here is a picture I took of him yesterday. He was laying on the back of the couch, contemplating yet another move....

Packing

I got some packing done today!!!! (see photo below) Now if she would only stay in there! I still need to catch and pack the other one.

Kayleigh is ready to go to the park

Daddy just took the girls to the park for some playtime and lunch. This is supposed to free me up to pack...and here I am updating the blog. Well, at least I have my priorities straight! We have one week until the moving truck comes to load our stuff. We are getting lots done so we will be fine! We are having beautiful, sunny, warm weather this week...it's glorious!

Fun With Grandma Redman

We have had a wonderful visit with Grandma Redman the past couple days....she came to play with the girls so mommy and daddy could get some packing done. She also had some fun gifts to deliver from her trip to France (clothes, chocolate, cheese...yum yum!)

Sydney wearing her frog shirt from France

Sydney is always so cooperative when having her picture taken!

Sydney deemed herself "dog feeder" while Doogie and Emmie were here.
Sydney in Doogie and Emmie's dog house.

I also had the honor and privilege of speaking to my MOPS group about Compassion International yesterday. It was my last time attending MOPS here and I was the featured speaker. I gave a 45 minute presentation and got 10 new children sponsored! Being an advocate for Compassion is such an important part of my life and I love having the opportunity to share this ministry with others. I

Happy Mother's Day!

We went to the chidlren's museum up in St. Paul this morning...it was very cool and the girls had lots of fun playing. I posted lots of pictures so you can get an idea of what it was like.

Sydney and Kayleigh riding the bus.

Playing grocery store....

in the restaraunt....chef Sydney

the water part....

hanging fish...

This area was the "Habitot" area for infants and toddlers....lots of caves, tunnels, areas to crawl and explore.


Turtle Sydney in the Earth Room

There was a roof top garden and this was the rock painting area....just water with paintbrushes and lots of rocks to "paint"