U-haul Out of Trucks?!?!

Since when is U-haul out of trucks?!?!? Well, that's what the nice not-so-nice lady on the phone was telling me. I made a reservation last week for a 17 ft truck and they don't have one...not even close to Luverne. The closest one was an hour and 5 minutes away, according to mapquest. No thanks. I'm not driving over 2 hours to get a U-haul, are you crazy?!?

The biggest size was available in Sioux Falls, but a 26 ft truck for us is a little over-kill plus I don't want to pay for all that gas! The next smallest truck was a 14 ft truck and the closest one to us was over 45 minutes away! So before I canceled with U-haul, I wanted to make sure there was a truck somewhere that I could get, without driving a gazillon miles! I called Penske out of Sioux Falls and to make a long story short, was able to get a truck!

But here's the cool thing....the truck from U-haul would have cost $156 and with Penske it was $144 because I asked for the online discount. So they gave me 20% off the original price. Then after I was off the phone with the Penske rep, I called the actual office in SF to make sure my truck would be there since U-haul kinda freaked me out. The guy assured me it would be there and after telling him my sob story of how I'm moving by myself and my husband's already moved and I have 4 little kids, and how U-haul stinks, and how I have to wait for a driver to come get the truck, sob, sob frustrating situation, he said that he was going to knock down the rate to $99 for my "inconvience". Are you kidding?? Sweet! It was really an inconvience because of U-haul but if Penske wants to give me a discount too...well, hey, I'm not stopping them!

Plus, since U-haul stinks, they are supposidly mailing me $50 because I canceled with them because they didn't have my truck. That brings the total truck rental down to $49! Pretty sweet, huh??

So yesterday morning was spent on the phone with those places instead of packing...ugh. BUT, I still have almost everything packed so I should be set to go tomorrow!

And how was I able to get so much stuff done yesterday even though half my day was spent dealing with stinky U-haul?? Because Jen was kind enough to watch my boys for most of the day!! I brought them over shortly after 9am and she brought them back at 6:15! WOW! That was nice! Thank you Jen!!

I'm going to be canceling my internet tomorrow and I'm not sure how fast they will be with hooking it up in Seward so it might be a few days until I post again. I hear they have a new library in Seward with all the latest stuff so if I can, maybe I'll sneek over there sometime and use their wireless internet.

For now, I'll say "Good-bye Luverne---Good-bye Wendlands (Jen)---Good-bye Karen (our egg & meat lady)---Good-bye Crazy Acres (milk), Good-bye Clyde (great signs & cheap oil changes!)you will all be greatly missed!!!"

Now on to Nebraska!!!.......

"Visit the new GM dealership at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave"

I realized that it's been awhile since I've posted Clydes clever signs! Here are a couple I took in the last few weeks. (It was raining out when I took the pic above, sorry 'bout the blur). Last time we were in there, I told Clyde how we look forward to his signs each week and he says that he fights the city constantly to have those signs since it's illegal to have it up. I told him that if he were mayor, he'd change that law right? (remember he ran for mayor in nov?) and he said that they (city offcials) could change it but they don't because they say it's worked for the last 30 yrs so why change what's been working? Well, then he brings up that taxes that we paid 30 yrs ago and salaries for city officials 30 yrs ago worked just fine too so why don't we just keep those the same as they were?? Then, he said, they get a little snippy :) Gotta love Clyde!

He recently has a sign up that I didn't get a pic of that I wish I had. It went like this:

401k, 301k, 201k, 101k, okay-I'm broke!

(Jen, I put you in charge of taking pics of the signs each week and emailing them so I can post them on here! :)

Jen over saying good-bye...with Tiernan and Ariella

Did You Actually Think We Were Moving To Columbus?!?

HAHAHAHA!!!! That would be too easy!....to tell you something and then actually stick with it! HA! No, no, no...we can't be that simple! We, as of about 8pm tonight, are now moving to Seward Nebraska, not Columbus.

How'd we pull that off you ask?? Well, it went like this.....

I woke up this morning about 2:45am to see Nathan off. He left around 3am to go to work in Columbus. Once he got there, they put him on the 'hauling poles' crew that shows up for work in Milford, which is about an hour and 20 mins south of Columbus. Well, that won't work! He did not want to drive that far each way to work when his work days will already be 10+ hours per day, 6 days a week. Then he found out that even the guys that are showing up in Columbus will only be showing up there for about 6 more weeks, then they will move south as well. Therefore it only made sense to try to find a place in the middle-ish of the two show up sites...which put us about at Seward!

I got a call from him this morning and it started like this, Nathan says "Well, uh..." and then he kinda chuckles.....NOT what I wanted to hear. So, 3 days before we are moving, we (again!) don't know where we will be living. I dreaded having to start my search online for real estate in Seward, if there were any rentals, yada yada yada....but it was a lot easier than expected! I only had to make 3 phone calls!!

Nathan was able to check out a place tonight and after some 'himming and hawing', he decided that he would tell the guy we would take it. What is it you ask??? (you guys are asking a lot of questions tonight!! :) First, I'll say that it's a.....HOUSE!!! Whoo hoo!! Then I will say that it was built in 1965 and it has 4 bedrooms (3 up, 1 down), 2 baths (1 up, 1 down), all appliances (including a washer and dryer!), a huge rec room downstairs (that Nathan said would be perfect for the boys!), tons of storage space, a 2 car detached garage and a car port right off the house, and a yard! Sounds great to me!! Nathan's worried that I won't like it or something, but I think I can handle it, especially with the laundry room and rec room!....sweet!

And the guy even let Nathan move in tonight so he didn't have to pay for a hotel!! AND the Columbus guys are giving us our deposit back...that was very nice of them.

The only bad part about this house was the price, it's more expensive than we would like to pay, especially for a rental....but I think having some more space, having a little yard for the kids to play in, having my own laundry room, having storage space, a garage, etc will make up for it....at least for a little while :)

So I think this is where we will be staying :)

Gettin' there....lots of messes!!

What did Ariella do while most of the packing was going on today??

...this... :)

What did the boys do while most of the packing was going on today??

...this... :) The closet was all cleaned before Caedmon and Brayn got in there...ugh..


I let Caedmon and Brayan have their nuks and blankets today hoping they'd be good for me...

...little stinkers... :)

Trying to keep them entertained with a movie. And don't ask what Tiernan is trying to do...the splits maybe??

Right after they found Daddy in the cupboard while playing hide 'n seek...that tricky Daddy!

Sweet Ariella with our midwife Joy (oh, by the way she was 8 lbs 14 oz and 21-1/2 inches long!..my scale was off at home....AND she even peed ALL over me at the appt. I had to go out and run errands with a completely soaked lap on both sides and I was even wearing my 'cute butt' jeans since I was going to see Joy, of course! hehe! (read this post if you have no idea what I'm talking about!)

Cool dudes at Grandpa's!

Getting checked over by our chiropractor...she's all good!

Hanging out with G & G!

Let The Fun Chaos Begin!!

Going, Going.....

....almost Gone!! We are moving!! Nathan talked with his GF (general foreman) and was told he was starting in Nebraska on Monday! So that is great news!!....the not-so-great news is that I am, once again, left to do all the packing....with all the kids. I'm going to have a BUSY week ahead of me!!

So here's the plan....Nathan will go down early, early Monday morning and start work. He will be able to get into our duplex on Tuesday to stay for the rest of the week until we get there on the 1st. He will just pack the basics and sleep on the floor (poor guy) but it's what he did when we moved to Luverne the first time, so I guess it just comes with the territory :)

This next week will be spent by me doing all the packing and trying to keep our MLK (many little kids) occupied so I can pack....without all of them unpacking all the boxes. This might be my biggest challenge by far! Then my parents will come down on Thursday to help me pack up the u-haul and we'll head down to Columbus on Friday. Whew!

Right now we are at my parents house. We got here yesterday and have been running errands, etc that needed to get done before the move...oh, and visiting of course because once we are moved, I have no desire to drive 7ish hours in the van with 4 kids, 4 & under....no thanks. So it might be awhile until we come back to visit.

OH!...and just because I'm sure you are dying to know, I went to a garage sale in Luverne the other day and guess what I found?!? The first 3 DVDs in the Love Comes Softly series! I was so excited! I love that series and JUST told Nathan (like 2 days before I went to the sale) that it would be so cool to find those cheap somewhere like a garage sale....and voila!...they were there!! $5 a piece! That was my deal for the week! Today I went to a few around St Cloud and found some cute stuff....including a brand new pair of jeans for myself that I really like!!

And speaking of those jeans....I will tell you about the funniest thing that happened to me today...or to me ever really now that I think about it...Ok, so after I bought those jeans, I sent Nathan a text about how I found them and that they made my butt look good so he'd like 'em (cause that's important, right?? :) Ok, so I sent it only to get a text back from my midwife saying that she got a text from me that she thinks was meant for someone else!!! HA!! Are you kidding me?!? I did NOT just do that! I laughed and laughed and texted her back saying that yes, it was intended for Nathan. She confirmed that I do have a cute butt though :) HEHE.... I told her at least I gave her a good laugh today!! :)

Well, I need to get going...baby girl wants to eat and the potato dumplings need to be made! Sorry no pics this time, I need to take some of my kids & Grandpa and Grandma so I'm sure there will be some soon.

Pray for baby Stellan

www.mycharmingkids.net

Slackin'

I will admit it....I have been slackin'.....slacking on posting to my blog....not slacking as in like not doing anything because lately, I've been doing everything but slacking!!

The days are flying by (speaking of which, in 2 days Ariella will be ONE MONTH! How crazy is that?!?) and I often find myself wishing I could clone myself a bunch of times over just for a day or two so I can get everything done!!

I finished going through all our totes of kids clothes and getting rid of what we don't need. Whew! That was a lot of work! But it paid off, literally, since I took a few totes to Once Upon A Child and they bought a bunch of stuff, paying me in the triple digits! Yay!! Since that store is crazily (it that a word?!) busy, it took them 2 hours to go through my stuff. My original plan was to go somewhere else during that time, but since it was just me and Ariella, I thought I would first just peek at the girls' clothes. Well, to make a long story short, we never left the store :) And actually, those 2 hours went by extremely fast when my mind was preoccupied with looking at dresses that I could buy instead of just wishing. I ended up splurging on 4 dresses and a couple pairs of tights. I'll have to post pics of them later because they are adorable! And since the total for that stuff came right off the total that they owed me, I didn't have to spend any money (technically)...so all the better!

Well, the line Nathan has been working on is offically finished (it was done last week) and today he is driving some equipment down to Nebraska. There has been some question to whether or not Nebraska is actually where we will be going (are you surprised??) but he should know for sure by the end of the day today....hopefully.

And...I'm pretty sure we are the only people on the face of the Earth that are moving in a little over a week but has yet to know where they are moving to! It's an exciting place to be, let me tell ya!

Ahem.

I've posted a couple pictures since Ariella's been born of her in her sling. Well here is another one and I just want to say how much I love this thing!!! I would recommend it for anyone who likes to carry their babies, especially newborns, but needs their hands free! It is from Kangaroo Korner and it's called a Fleece Pouch. (and don't worry, I didn't pay full price for mine... I bought it on ebay! :)...although now that I have it and love it, I think it's totally worth the price!) Ariella loves the sling as much (or more!) than I do and will instantly settle down if fussy and then a few minutes later will be fast asleep. The sling is comfortable and since she's snuggled in there so good, I don't have to keep one hand on her when I bend over or anything, she just stays put!

(Nevermind the fact that I am, again, taking my picture in the bathroom mirror when there was (obviously!) someone home capable of taking my picture....ahem...) This is what the sling looks like, and yes, Ariella is in there :)

(of course I couldn't get the pics to move around like I wanted...) This was taken yesterday a couple mins after I put her in the pouch.


Before saying "Good Night!" last night

I think I have found a way for Ariella to take good naps during the day! She has been wanting to either be awake for most of the day or sleep while being held. Of course I would love to just sit and rock her for endless hours while she sleeps, but since I have 3 other little hooligans to take care of, that just isn't an option :) She does nap quite a bit in the sling, but the other day I moved her from her sling to her pack n play and layed her on her tummy....she slept for 3 hours straight! I did that again yesterday with the same result.

Doesn't she look so comfy?

Tiernan playing with their sunglasses

Enjoying our time together at the park....a first for Ariella!

" Enough with the pictures, Mom!"

Snuggled with the little blanket that Sobiechs gave her!

I'm sure there is a bunch more that I wanted to post, but right now I can't think. I will end this post now and I will have to post later if I think of anything. :) I'm off to make some waffles for breakfast (actually just heat them up since my dear hubby was so kind to make them yesterday!). Have a super Monday!

Wordless Wednesday

Happy Easter!!

(Sorry I can't get the paragraphs to seperate...ugh....)

Whew! It's almost 9:45pm and it's about time I sat down to fill in what's been going on! This post will be about a few things, so stay with me! :)

(There are pictures at the bottom!)

First, HAPPY EASTER! Hope you all had a great day with friends and family to celebrate the resurrection of our Lord! We started off the day with church and then lunch at Olive Garden before heading home for nap and a lazy evening. (Well, lazy for the kids...I've been keeping busy with cleaning, sorting, organizing, purging our apt of stuff, etc!)

So, Friday morning at about 7:40am, we left for Nebraska!! I had the boys sleep in their clothes and made banana muffins the night before and got a bunch of fruit, etc ready so the kids could just get up, have a few muffins and jump in the car...and that's just what they did! We drove straight thru to Columbus NE (Ariella slept the whole time!). It took about 3 hours and 20 mins, so not too bad! The drive home went just as nice and ended with Nathan and I playing the ABC game with words on the billboards...he won...and he was driving...pathetic... :(

We had 3 places that we were going to look at. 1) a duplex (cheapiest) 2) a 4 bd ranch home (second cheapiest) 3) a 5 bd house (most expensive). We called to look at the house first. The house was "on the other side of the tracks"....literally....and they say that phrase for a reason... This was in the part of town you'd rather not be walking in at night. Run down houses, junk and garbage take the place of the grass in the yard, and lots of minorities. We pulled up to the house and I jumped out to take a look first while Nathan stayed in the van with the kids. The guy showed me around the house, and yes, it was fairly big. There was 5 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms and 4 flights of stairs...plenty of places for the boys to play hide and seek. BUT...it was a dump. It pretty much matched the rest of the houses in that area. It made our place in Garner look like a palace...and you know what our place was like there!! So, this was a big fat NO!

The second place we looked at was the duplex. I'll spoil the suspense for you and just say that this was the place that we will be renting. After looking at that house, pretty much anything would be better than that, so this duplex looked fabulous to us! :) It's an okay size, not huge but not tiny...probably about the same size as our apt is now (minus the walk in closets). It's a 3 bedroom, 1 bath place with a nice size laundry room right off the kitchen! THAT will be nice! It's been 2 years since I haven't had to pay per load or since I could access a washer and dryer without having to leave my kids (or take them all with me) or coordinate doing laundry when Nathan's home! Anyway, the place was fully remodeled 2 years ago with all new flooring, paint, etc and the guys who own it also own a heating and a/c business so that aspect of the duplex should be very nice! He said it's very energy efficient and even has an air purifier! It also has an attached single garage. I don't have any pictures of it right now, but i can guarantee you i will post some when we move in!!

The third place that we wanted to look at, the 4 bd ranch, was already rented. I was a little disappointed because I had made sure the guy wasn't going to rent it out before Friday since we were driving from MN and he said that it would be available. But when I called him, he said that he wasn't going to show us because he was going to choose this other lady to rent it. I thought that was a pretty easy answer though....not going to be that one!

The thing that's interesting about finding the duplex is that it was never on the list that I got from the realtor. We found it this way: Remember that guy who I talked about a couple posts ago about having 100 rentals in town?....Well, he took note of my name and number and called me back the next day with a couple names of people who might have a rental. I thought it was very nice of him to call me back with some info. Of course none of those were open, but he did say that he drove by a place earlier that day with a 'for rent' sign out in front. He thought it was owned by the heat and a/c guys so he gave me the number to their store and had me go from there. I called and the nice lady put me through to the voice mail of the owner. He called me back and said that he did have a duplex and it was available! Whoo hoo!! The strange thing?...there wasn't a sign out front when we were there on Friday....hmmm...

We think it was a total blessing from the Lord that Mr. Jones saw the sign that day and made a point to call me. It was because of that, that we found it! So we gave our deposit and we were on our way!

We stopped at the park (the pic from the previous post) and ate our picnic lunch before heading back. We also stopped at Walmart in Columbus on our way out of town and got a plug in for our laptop so the kids could watch a movie...great idea! :)

How's Columbus for a town?...Well, it's about 25,000 people, with lots of Mexicans. We felt like we were the minority at most places we went. It has a Walmart, a new Hyvee (grocery store), Dollar General, Family Dollar...everything I need...hehe :) But really, it has most things ya need. It will be different being in a big town compared to Luverne and Garner, but it will be nice not having to drive 30-45 minutes to get to a Walmart, etc! But the bad part is just having the business of a bigger city. Our duplex is on a pretty busy street, so that's a bummer, but what do ya do??

**Side note** While I ran into Walmart to get the plug in for the computer, I walked past the infant/toddler clothes since I picked up diapers too and I saw some super cute little girl dresses. This is what thought ran through my head "Oh, those are so cute! I hope someday I have a little girl so I could buy something like that...." Then it hit me! I DO have a little girl and I CAN look at that stuff to actually BUY!!! But since all the fam was in the van waiting for me, I just glanced at them for a few seconds and smiled and walked away. I'm still not used to having a little girl. I often think I have a boy that I'm just putting in pink :) But I assure you, Ariella IS a girl! :)

Speaking of Ariella...do you know how much she weighs?!?! I weighed her last Sunday, 8 pounds...remember? Well, I weighed her today, one week later, and she's 9-1/2 pounds!!! Holy smokes girl! A pound and a half in a week!....3 pounds in 3 weeks!...what a little pig! I told you she eats like her brothers!! She's even big enough now where Nathan doesn't mind holding her because she's not "as fragile" :) My baby's already growin' up!

Oh, just an FYI: Nathan thinks he'll be done with work this week and that we will be signing a year lease with the place in NE (we don't have much choice, that's just what they do there since the rental market is so hot). And speaking of that, if you need work, move to Columbus!! Everything is growing there that every business is insanly busy and people are moving their like crazy. It's an extremly hot market there right now. Also, because of that, the owner of the duplex told Nathan that if he needs work next winter after the line is done (they are saying that it's going to be done in December) and before the next one starts, that he's got at least a years worth of work that needs to be done at his other sheet metal business, so Nathan could work for him if he wanted/needed to. What a blessing!

Well, Ariella didn't fall asleep until about 12:30am last night so I'm a little tired today (although I got to take a 2 hour nap!!) so that's about all for now! Have a great night!

Ariella in her cute dress she got from her Aunt Christine! I thought it wasn't going to fit for awhile but she's getting bigger a lot faster than I thought she would!!

(sorry the pic is turned!....her booties say "Thank Heaven...for little girls" :)


Sweet Angel


Taking a pic of these 4 (especially the older 3!) is a lot harder than it looks!



Kisses for sister!

Our four blessings!


Sweet Easter girl


Before we went to church.... (after this picture I changed my clothes to match the rest of the family....white button up shirt and a jean skirt :)

Brayan was throwing a small fit and in the middle of it, he backed up into a pot that was on the floor (don't ask me why it was in the middle of carpet...ask the kids!) and he actually fell right into it! He got stuck in it and that didn't make him any happier...Nathan just had to snap a picture! :)

Hanging out with Daddy in the afternoon on Easter, watching Veggie Tales and singing along!

Coming Soon...NE!

I don't feel like typing much tonight...busy day and I'm tired!!! (plus Ariella is eating right now so I'm only typing with one hand!) But I wanted to post something for y'all tonight! I'll type out my update tomorrow about our crazy, quick, adventurous successful trip to Nebraska yesterday!!

Sorry, can't get the pic to turn!! But can you tell her double chin is getting bigger? :)

The playground a couple blocks from our "new" place in NE

I told Tiernan that he could have a snack when the big hand got on the 12. He stood on the arm of the couch and watched the clock exactly like this for 20 minutes....I'm not even joking!

The boys got into Brayan's room which has a lot of stuff in it right now with getting ready to move and all. It was organized.....Amazing what the boys can do in less than 2 minutes!!

What a mess!

"Uh....BOYS?!?!!!!

Ariella hangin' out with Mom, eyein' up that banana :)

Again, sorry it's turned...... So sleepy

Peace & Quiet?

Well, this was going to be a Wordless Wednesday, but there's too much stuff going on with us to remain 'wordless!' :)

Right when I start thinking we can't possibly have any stuff that we can get rid of because we just went through our stuff 5 months ago, I find 'stuff'! We have the back of our van full of 'stuff' to go to the goodwill! I'll hopefully be able to drop that off tonight on the way to church so I can load up more! It's such a good feeling to not have any more junk than we need!

I encourage all of you to do some Spring cleaning and go through old boxes (and even new ones for that matter!), closets, drawers, etc and get rid of anything that you can live without. You will feel incredible when you're done!!

Yesterday, the boys went to Jen's house for the morning hours to give me some much needed peace and quiet! ...but the time went all too fast!! I dropped them off a little after 9am and then headed to the store quick and to visit the 93 yr old lady who still works everyday at her store that she owns on main street. She hasn't seen Ariella yet, so I thought I would take her there for Margaret to see! Once I got back to our apt, it was already a little after 10!

I struggled with what I should do with a quiet apartment and only about 2 hours to go....should I sleep? Should I try to get stuff done? Should I just sit in my glider rocker and snuggle with Ariella in the silence? ....decisions!... But I decided to use the time to call people in Nebraska to see if there is anything available to rent. Bad idea!!!

I was supposed to relax during the time I didn't have the boys, but I got myself more stressed instead! I made 42 calls during that time frame, yes...42!, with pretty much every single one saying the same thing...."it's already rented" or "we don't have any available" or "good luck with that since everything that I know of, even the motels, are all full" etc etc etc.....

I called someone from all the surrounding towns, probably within a 45 mile radius of Columbus and they too are all full. There was a house that was for rent about 45 mins from Columbus that I got from a realtor that was just posted. I called about it and they said that because they've had so many applicants that they are showing it for the last time yesterday afternoon and then making their decision after that. I also spoke with a guy who owns over 100 rentals in the Columbus area and he's full (of course) but he said that he gets at least 10 calls a day from people looking for a place to rent. Seriously, it's THAT crazy!!!!

BUT....I was able to find a guy with a house that has it still available yet but he is super picky about who he rents to so even though he's had a gazillon people apply, he hasn't rented it out yet. He told me that we can look at it on Friday while we are in town. I'm ready to sign for it even without seeing it. I don't even care anymore, I just want a place to live!!!! But this house does sound nice, it actually sounds pretty perfect so we are praying that he really likes us (we will leave our kids in the car!! ...hehe) and that he'll offer to rent to us!!! He would even take care of the lawn work, which is something that was in our "wish list" since we don't own a lawn mower anymore etc. Plus, he pays for the garbage, water and sewer, which is way more than any other landlord was willing to do. PLUS, the price is decent. Oh, and it's a 4 bedroom ranch house so sounds like it would be enough room for us!!! Sooooo, we will just wait and see....but prayers are so appreciated!!

There's also one other house that we will look at. It's a 5 bedroom, 2 bath split level home but it's quite a bit more expensive than the ranch, but at this point, we don't have too many options. So we are praying that one of these (preferably the ranch) will work out.

We could also rent this big, fully furnished house for $2400 a month....ah, I think NOT! But it was nice of the guy to offer.....they usually rent it out for $700 per week. Yikes!

So anyway, all those calls with maybe 2 options....so we still plan on traveling down there for the day on Friday and check them out. In the meantime, I'll continue to get rid of 'stuff!' :)

8 pounds!!!

Our little girl is becoming 'not so little' anymore!!!....(okay, she is still little, but it won't be long before she's not!) I weighed her last night on our digital scale and she is exactly 8 pounds! That means that in 2 weeks, she's packed on over a pound and a half! She's already eating like her brothers!! (a lot!) :)


Last night I swaddled Ariella in the Miracle Blanket for the first time. Since it's kind of an awkward blanket, I wasn't sure how I'd like it, but since I know of people who swear by it, I thought I'd give it a try! I wrapped her in it and she almost immediately fell asleep (which I guess isn't unusual for her so I didn't think much of it)...but she fell asleep around 8:30pm and we went to bed around 10:30pm and she was still sleeping. I laid her in her pack n play bassinet, figuring she'd be up in a few minutes once she realized that she wasn't in my arms, but to my surprise, I was able to crawl into bed with her still in the pack n play! She didn't even move a muscle! She was still all snuggled in the blanket at 3am when I decided to pick her up and try to feed her!! She had slept thru that whole time! Then once I fed her a little bit, she was fast asleep again until 6:45am this morning when it was my idea to feed her again! I guess she liked the blanket!! I'm excited to see if tonight is the same or if it was just a fluke thing. They say that because of the way that the baby is swaddled, that they'll sleep for longer stretches at a time since they don't wake themselves with their movements, and that was definitely true for Ariella last night!

I've started going through every single box of stuff we own and, once again, getting rid of stuff we don't need. I'm sure we are the only people that I know of that goes through their things (and I mean everything...every cupboard, every dressser, every box in 'storage', everything) every few months to get rid of more!! :) One good thing about it is that I can guarantee you we don't have any 'junk'....if we don't use it on pretty much a daily basis, we don't have it!

We are still planning on moving to Nebraska but I have yet to talk to anyone that gives us any glimpse of hope of finding a place down there to live! I think we are going there on Friday to check things out. Either way we need to be out of this apartment by April 30th so we hope that we can find a place and that the next job will be starting by then!

Nappin' with Dad

My, what big eyes you have Ariella! :)

How Ariella snuggles with Mommy every night!

So sweet

This was not prompted...it's what the boys always want to do with her....kiss her!!

First attempts at all 4 together

...again :)

Little toes...