We moved out of the wonderful little cul-de-sac the weekend of Thanksgiving. While there are some aspects of apartment life/bliss in the cul-de-sac that we definitely miss, we are so happy to be in our own space! Just having two floors to live on has been wonderful!
The move itself really did go as well as a move can go. We packed up some each day so we weren't too crazy when the big day came. Both Marshall and Bridget handled it all well, but Marshall did start sleeping in our bedroom on the floor for about the last two weeks we lived in our apartment. (He doesn't do so well with change.) Once boxes started piling up he knew something was coming! Of course it didn't help that his toys were all disappearing into boxes as well. But, he pooled his resources and was able to get creative. :)
Richard had to work Thanksgiving night (7 pm-11 am). He didn't get any sleep at all, despite being told that Thanksgiving nights are usually very slow. So, he got home at about 11:15, slept for 2 1/2 hours and then he and I started moving our kitchen. We were able to get it all done in three trips using our van.
The real move began on Saturday morning at 9 am. We had SO much help from neighbors, branch members, and Richard's co-workers. By 1:00 everything had been unloaded at our new house. Richard and I did have to make one more trip back to pull clothes out of closets, but that was it.
On Monday I went back to our apartment to finish cleaning it and check out. Our apartment life was done!
We are so grateful to all of our friends who helped us during that whole week. Not only did people help us move, people watched our kids, brought us food, had us over for dinner, helped me clean, and chauffeured me around when I locked my keys in the van (first time I've ever done that)! Thank you, thank you everyone!
This is only some of our moving crew. Thank you!
I should have taken a picture of our living room before we moved. Pure chaos. But, here is a picture of the living room in our house after we had been living there for three days. Believe me, we had actually made decent progress in this room before I took the picture. :)
We are still not completely unpacked, but mostly. With a vacation and Christmas in between all of this who really wants to spend their time unpacking boxes?!
We are going to buckle down after Christmas though so soon I will start putting pictures up of the house. Our landlord is awesome and is letting us have free reign with paint and she is also paying for it! The room we want to paint first is Marshall's room. It is the only white room and the paint looks to be the oldest out of all the rooms. We just went to the paint store last night to get some samples. This is fun, and even more fun when someone else is paying! Stay tuned!
Marshall thought this was funny for about three seconds. Then, his laughter quickly turned to tears.
Ah, it was such a good laugh for us. But, do not worry. Marshall got his stuffed animals back pretty quickly and his world was right again. Silly Dad.
He FINALLY ventured off of my lap. But, of course he went straight to Bridget's present.
He finally realized that his presents were pretty cool too.
Bridget eventually perked up after some breakfast. It was so wonderful to see more of her personality after a few sick days.
Dressed and already for church. Darling.
After church we opened the presents under the tree. Bridget was asleep for all of this so it was just the three of us. Marshall was in heaven. He kept the pace quick and unwrapped all of his presents and then some.
Every single present that we knew Marshall was getting we were so excited about. We were convinced he would be ecstatic about each one. Not so. He liked them all, but he did not appear to be over-joyed about anything. I must admit, I was somewhat disappointed by it all. But then, he opened this...
And I finally saw that excitement I had been waiting for. It made me happy. :)
Round two of presents came a couple of hours later after Bridget was awake and happy. Marshall was such a good helper and pretty much opened every single present for her.
Marshall helping.
Marshall taking over.
So happy.
The kids and their loot. We really need to work on evening things out next year. :)
As always, Christmas was good to the Leakes. We are so blessed. We enjoyed spending the remainder of our day talking on the phone and skyping with family and spending the evening with wonderful friends. A pretty much close to perfect day.
The next festivity of the morning was making sugar cookies. This is a tradition that I have carried over from my family and I love it. We always leave frosted sugar cookies for Santa and until Richard decides that Santa wants something else, we will stick with this. Marshall was an excellent little helper in the kitchen. He made sure that the first cookies we did were Y's. I'm sure that Santa appreciated that.
That evening we had a mouthwatering dinner with all of these wonderful people. It was so fun to host this dinner in our home. We are very grateful for wonderful friends to share this grand Milwaukee experience with when family is far away.
After our grand dinner party was over it was time to open Christmas pajamas! You will have to excuse little Bridget in these pictures. She came down with a stomach bug on Friday and by this point in the day she was going on outfit number five. Despite feeling pretty yucky though, she still managed some smiles and we think she's pretty darn cute.
Marshall proved to be a great little present-opener for Bridget this year. :)
Bows! This is really all a nine-month old needs.
Marshall and his "Cars" pajamas. So happy!
I love, love, love these next few pictures. Even though having two kids drives me crazy sometimes, I wouldn't trade it!
All done!
And finally, Santa Clause came to visit! These are two lucky kiddos!
Richard had to work Thanksgiving night (7 pm-11 am). He didn't get any sleep at all, despite being told that Thanksgiving nights are usually very slow. So, he got home at about 11:15, slept for 2 1/2 hours and then he and I started moving our kitchen. We were able to get it all done in three trips using our van.
I should have taken a picture of our living room before we moved. Pure chaos. But, here is a picture of the living room in our house after we had been living there for three days. Believe me, we had actually made decent progress in this room before I took the picture. :)
We are still not completely unpacked, but mostly. With a vacation and Christmas in between all of this who really wants to spend their time unpacking boxes?!
