First Days of School

David is happy to be in 3rd Grade.  This year will bring the added challenge of participating in the Gifted program 4 days a week.  He is still a voracious reader and creator of things from paper.

Matthew is so excited to start school, although everyday he complains about not being able to eat lunch at school.  Next year he will be thrilled to be at school all day.  At our parent orientation we learned that PreK is the new Kindergarten and Kindergarten is the new 1st Grade.  Matthew is happy and ready to learn.

Yesteryear Festival

Saturday we explored the Yesteryear Festival over at the Cape Fear Historical Complex.  It was so much fun to see a cannon fired (toward traffic) and old muskets fired (also toward traffic).  The wood worker was fun too, although Matthew was too short to turn the wheel it was fun to watch David.  My favorite part was watching the Fife and Drum corp march across the foot bridge and perform their songs.

Brian

July 27th:
I am in the throes of packing the house.  I have to admit that this has been very difficult, probably the most difficult move I have had to prepare for.  I am so thankful that my wonderful brother, Brian, came up......

I LOVED this picture!  Yes their heads are a little cut off but I was hold Benjamin while taking this picture.

October 6:
Brian wanted to come up for the last weekend we would be in Idaho.  It was so nice to have his help doing some of the jobs that normally Dustin would have done.  I even made Brian his very own "Brian-Do List".  I am so grateful for the help he gave me but also for the time he took to play with the boys.  They enjoyed playing in the water in the backyard that last Saturday afternoon.

The tornado has hit home

Well, there have been rumors of tornado like activity and now there is proof.

We are in full swing of packing mode.  The house is a complete disaster.  The only order in our home is in the room where the packed boxes end up.  I was fortunate enough to have Dustin's mom, Sharon, here for the week to help me get some packing done.  Honestly without her here I don't know that I would have gotten much done - the task was seeming so daunting, especially with an almost 3 month old in the house.

Sharon pushed me to get boxes packed without being overbearing about it, she helped clean cabinets as they were emptied and would finish off boxes I started but had to put on hold to feed Benjamin.  Sharon was able to play with the boys when I just needed a good nap and helped the boys (Matthew mostly) with their chores to help keep the chaos to a minimum.  I don't know what I would have done without her!

I will be so glad when this is all done.  I want all the packing and major cleaning to be done this week.  Once the truck is loaded there will just be the cleaning of the carpets and we'll be out of here!  I have known that this time was coming but now that it's here the time is just flying by so quickly!

With Dustin in North Carolina this week, I have been getting nightly calls telling me about things around town.  Yesterday Dustin did a fair amount of exploring Fort Bragg and Fayetteville.  He found us a new frozen yogurt shop like Kiwi Loco.  This new yogurt shop for us is called Sweet Frog, I love the name and look forward to trying the shop out.  We are so excited to move and start a new chapter of our lives.  It will be fun to make new friends and get back together with old friends.  We are going to be living in a new part of the country with a completely different climate and we couldn't be more excited about it!