moving day

we made it.  finally!  moving day arrived.  we were all so excited, especially oakley.  he shrieked as we pulled into our new house's driveway.  the truck arrived shortly afterward.  we were happy to see our stuff again.  it was like Christmas..."our couch!"  "our bed!"  "my pots and pans!"  "my vatume teener!!" (vacuum cleaner)  it was fabulous!  oakley asked about one toy during our time away.  his vacuum cleaner.  really?  yes, really.  he played with that toy for easily 45 minutes after we found it. 

don't they look thrilled?

slam dunk!

matt and brian had the truck more than halfway unloaded by noon.  the truck arrived at 8.  they were superstars!  my dad and paula helped us out by picking up oakley's big boy bed from nebraska furniture mart.  oh, and they brought us lunch.  yum.  jimmy johns.  then they helped finish unloading the heavy bedroom furniture and such.  the truck was empty by two.  then, we had a house full of disassembled furniture and boxes.  everywhere.  

i have spent almost all of my waking time during the past week unpacking boxes and trying to get organized.  it's crazy how much a little more space makes.  i feel so much more put together at this house than we did at our last house.  it feels great.  we pretty much just have to hang pictures and such, then it will really feel like home.  oakley has been amazing during the unpacking week.  he loves unpacking boxes.  in fact, before his nap every day, he said, "mommy, can we unpack boxes after nap?"  umm...sure??  i realized it's like opening presents for him.  i would open the box and he would pull out each wrapped item, unwrap it and squeal with excitement, "look mommy!!"  then i would put it in its appropriate place.  we have had a lot of fun.  it's crazy what he remembers from our last house when he sees a familiar item.  he's amazing.

books!!  you can see his big boy bed behind him.  he's so proud and is a champ sleeping in it!

reconnecting with his books

opening a box with "mine very sharp knife" (cardboard hacksaw)

"mine firetruck!!  wee oh!  press dees buttons, make noise!"  loved the excitement

hiding in the little cubby in the entryway.  a strange touch, but o fits in it perfectly...as does his vacuum cleaner.

"helping" unpack the kitchen

oakley has a playroom in the basement.  i love having a space for his toys.  and he's so proud when he plays by himself downstairs.

brian has completed his first week of work at children's mercy.  he is really enjoying it so far.  he loves his boss and co-workers.  he has had the opportunity to tour the downtown and south hospitals and his boss even said she's setting up a time for him to shadow the helicopter people.  i do have to say, i am a little jealous of all the neat things he's getting to see/do at the hospital.  i've been very interested to hear about what he did at work each day.  i'm so glad he loves his new job!

between unpacking boxes, i've tried to do a few fun things with oakley to give us a break.  he's been needing a stool in his bathroom for going potty and brushing teeth/washing hands.  i found a plain stool at michael's and let him pick two colors to paint it.  we had so much fun!  he loves using his new stool.

before

during

couldn't resist the cute feet

after.  i'd say he's quite the artist!

we also had a playdate with some friends at deanna rose.  it was great to catch up with stephanie and dawn.  the kids had a blast playing together, too.  it was the first chilly day and made me look forward to fall...changing leaves, hoodies and jeans, and a fire in our fireplace!  i'm not a fan of the cold weather, but crisp air is nice. :)

vivian, madden, vincent, oakley

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he's obsessed with tractors

today, we did a lot of cooking.  i'm not sure if it's the cool weather that's making me want to bake/cook or if i was just wanting our house to smell like cookies.  either way, oakley and i had lots of fun.  the cookies were probably the worst ones i've ever made.  ever.  maybe it was the 1/2 cup of vanilla oakley spilled in them??  (ok, it wasn't 1/2 cup, but it was waaaay more than the recipe called for!)  or maybe it was the crummy oven.  the cookies at the back of the oven burned while the ones in front were still raw in the middle.  a little disappointing, but the gooey ones were pretty good. oh well, i guess it will take a few times of baking to figure out the oven.  we decided i'm going to make our own bread now, that way we know what's in our bread.  it's so much better tasting anyway.  it helps that i have a bread machine, too.  fabulous.  i made french bread to go with the homemade chicken noodle soup we had for dinner.  it was so yummy!  i'm probably going to freeze some because i made a humongous pot.  YUM.

aren't they horrible?!

well, that pretty much sums up our week.  now for some relaxing this weekend.