Us at home

 "Mom, I'm bored.  There's nothing to do.  It's too cold outside and Matthew and Melanie are playing together without me..."

 Matthew is reading!  He is sounding out small words...but he'll read on his own just for fun sometimes!

 Daniel is devising some trouble to get into...he an interesting combination of clever, trouble, thoughtful, helpful, hurtful and fun!

 Evelyn and I still like hanging out together...but she's needing my company less and less these days.

 "Mommy can you take a picture of our old house so I can see it?"

"Do you like my picture Mom?  I want to send it to Grandma and Grandpa!"
(Doesn't she think they see enough mountains already?  And doesn't she know any mountain pictures will be liked by me? ;)

M7

It's my birthday today!

 Since we celebrated Matthew's birthday on Saturday, he got to do cards and presents shortly after breakfast!  Otherwise...it's after dinner when Daddy is home!

 Melanie had to make sure Matthe didn't miss any of the flaps on her card!

We saved a bit of icing for Matthew to decorate the last bit of the cake with.  Hard work, but fun!  

 Matthew's birthday guest was a girl, and she has the same first initial and last name!  They chum together at church and run around outside-tag, racing...

I obliged and made the treasure hunt.  They had seven clues, and had to read them out.  They did a pretty good job of sounding them out...but Melissa did get left in the dust a few times when the clue was read out and Matthew didn't explain where they ought to look 'cause she didn't know the house well enough...but she'd get there eventually.  The treasure was the "goody bag" type stuff, which could be enjoyed early. :)  And of course, siblings got a share of candy too!

We are very thankful for Matthew, and having had him in the family for 7 years already!  Time sure flies by, and he is getting so much older!  He is our sensitive one, good at making new acquaintances, mechanical minded, goofy, distractable and fun!

Settling in a bit more

 The play room is good fun for the kids...and now that all but two or three buckets of toys are available, less work to clean up at the end of the day too!

 Chores are longer these days...but the kids haven't been complainin' too much.  I'd given them fair warning. ;) 

 Jennifer is pretending to be sleeping...she does a LOT of pretend play now, often with pretend people, or with dolls...and she always is a girl she knows, one older then her.  Usually Katie, or Jessica, sometimes Melissa or Abbey...

 Matthew wrote a letter to Grandma and Grandpa about his birthday plans.  He asked how to spell words, but often sounded them out himself!  He'd found the paper in our "new to you" (aka, left behind in the house for us to rummage through) filing cabinet and thought it'd be perfect for writing a letter.  He'd also found one with a scroll design as the border that was for me to write his birthday treasure hunt on, or so he informed me!

 Nathan and Melanie organized the drawer a bit, and looked for treasures while they were at it.  I think Melanie did most of the work...right up her alley!

 Copying an airplane design...

 Story time before bed.

 Finished product beside the copy!  Evelyn is coloring very carefully. ;)

Daniel and Jennifer often teamed up outside to play.  Jennifer would play anything Daniel suggested as long as she could be Jessica while they did it. ;)

 Melanie and Matthew made a fort...and found some bricks which they made an oven with.

Which left Nathan with Evelyn.  (The kids most often split up in twos!)  She didn't handle the cold so long, so they fooled around inside instead.

Goofy Nathan is copying Evelyn.  :p

Sliding hill

 On the far edge of the rocks there is a long stretch of hill, and perfect for sliding!

 The kids tried it out a bunch the first few weeks, then moved on to other things. 

Once a friend came over and took tube, which made sliding even funner.

The kids never slide very long when they go, but may be frustrated with the crazy carpets that are past their prime and breaking at the handles. ;)  It may be the last week to do it now...Jennifer wanted to go yesterday!  She'll go down by herself, but needs help mounting her sleigh, and holding the handles properly is very important to her!  Evelyn doesn't like to go, even with me...and is resentful when watching...maybe next year she'll like it better.

kiddoes

Water water everywhere

 And all I have pictures of is frozen water!

 Even it it's pretty cold outside, I send all the kids out for fresh air.  The bigger house makes them run more, it seems, and get rowdier quicker inside. 

On the subject of water, we have begun to learn that if you see water pooling anywhere, to immediately seek out the source of the water...as it is more likely than not a problem that ought to be fixed as quickly as possible!  About a week ago I was stepping in a puddle in the kitchen and after seeing if any child of mine had an explanation of where it came from.  None did (though they felt somewhat accused of wrong) and the cause turned out to be a tiny leak in one of the hoses of the reverse osmosis system in the cupboard under the sink.  Then two days ago I went off to pick up a used bed for Evelyn I'd found on Kijiji and wondered why there was such a stream over the driveway.  It was almost thawing that day...could it be melting off the roof that quickly?   When I returned I thought the same thing, then promptly forgot about it.  But thankfully an hour later that evening I was in the garage hunting for something and heard what sounded like a tap turned on full power.  And there on the floor of the garage was water...and in the corner I could here it just a gushing!  Philip was now so experienced he had the water tuned off (and we had leftover pieces from last project) and the burst pipe found and patched in about an hours time.  So we could turn our water back on and go to bed. :)  The storage room downstairs where I had boxes of kids clothes was wet, but that could be fixed without damage.  Now we know why they ripped out the carpet in that room!  It was a mystery, which we now have solved!

Settling in

 Matthew got stuck doing dished since he refused to do a simple chore earlier.  He seemed to enjoy doing the extra work better.  (Philip got the dishwasher running about a week after moving day...and my dry hands were very thankful for the break for the soap and water!)

 Melanie loves the sunroom when the sun is shining!  If it's not, that room is quite cool, plus the other rooms down the hall there.  She took up "mothering" during moving week and I'd see her carting Evelyn on her hip like I do or her keeping Jennifer entertained when she was getting in my way.

 Daniel and Jennifer liked to play swimming games in the room which houses a piano and bench, a lamp and a box of books.  Melanie started the game, and they came back to do it over and over after that.

Nathan was pleased to have at all the Lego, and to have tonnes of space to build, and a door to shut out the little ones if they were being a nuisance.  I think he is one of the kids who most appreciates the extra space here.

moving week pictures

We hummed and hawed about a moving company, and ended up doing it ourselves.  Some quotes we got were really reasonable, and lots of reviews on line were about being underquoted...and then a reputable company said they'd need two trucks and their price tag seemed more realistic too...but also more than we wanted to pay. :p

 We got a storage unit when we put our house on the market to declutter, so we packed our storage unit to the ceiling 8x10 feet, and hoped we'd fit all that was left in the largest u-haul we could rent.  We booked the truck a day early so we could load at our leisure.  But still, the last stuff took a long time to get in, we were only just done loading when we had keys to our new place, and an hour after the new owners got keys to our old house!  Brian helped us out on Monday loading up the heavy funiture. We thought we were halfway done after that.  The last "little bit"took forever.  And we needed all the spare room in the van (after the kids were dropped off) and all the spare room in the car, and the truck was packed to the ceiling too!

 And it was noon on moving day just when we were gonna have a quick lunch (KFC) before dropping the kids off when Evelyn threw up a tonne all over me and her.  I was thankful we had laundry facilities for a few hours more!  (Our new laundry appliances weren't coming 'til Saturday, and moving day was Tuesday.)  And thankful that I had some clothes that wasn't packed too deeply in the rtuck either.  It felt heartbreaking dropping off a weak and ill girl when her life is topsy turvy, but I check that one off my bucket list and hope to never need to do it again.  I fled the goodbye scene and went back to pack the last "little bit". 

 By the time we arrived at our new house it was almost 6.  A church friend beat us to the house and was ready to clean a bedroom and bathroom for us so we could sleep in a sanitary environment.  But first Philip had to turn the water on!  And she recommended we call up friends to help empty the truck.  By 7 we had a crew of teenagers and a Dad and they had the truck empty before 10!  I went off to pick up the kids and see how my "baby" faired.  She was weak and glassy eyed and happy to go "home".  She was so happy to see her crib (which she didn't get to use the previous night) in our new house.  What a help the croud of last minute help was!  We were so grateful and relieved to have that truck done, faster than we could ever have done!

 Since we couldn't turn the water on (the house had been winterized) until we owned the house, we also had drinking water brought in while our water waited to be tested for e-coli and other such...it's well water, so we wanted to be safe, especially with the kids.  Besides, we were dropping like flies with the flu as it was!  Everyone but Philip got a turn, and was out for a minimum of a day.

 On Thursday we emptied our storage unit (still had the u haul) with all the kids helping out, and our good church friend and her son helped us with the unloading at home.  Saturday was appliance delivery day.  The washer and dryer were left laying out, since we neglected to measure the doorway into the laundry room, and the very big washer and dryer couldn't fit, even with the door off the hinges.  The frame had to be taken out, plus a bit...and then we squeezed it through.  But not 'til the next wednesday, and after a few failed attempts of the delivery people coming back to install them...and me getting very angry, and us doing it ourselves after all that.  The washer only had to be "lifted" an inch, and wasn't quite as hard to "lift" after all.  And pushing it over the floor was manageable as long as we mopped it damp first.

The kids settled in, some faster than the others. ;)

They helped with some unpacking, and when they got into trouble they got to "do a box of books" in the library until the bookshelf couldn't handle any more.  The day I put the mat out in the library the kids all hung out in there absorbed in their lost and found books.

I didn't take much else for pics that week, mostly because the flu was rather a distraction!  I am very thankful for the two ladies that helped me out with laundry that first week when I couldn't do it at home!
(Can you notice that the air in the new house is rather dryer than in our old house?  Check out our hair!)