Moving Up

Our new house.

My moving elves taking a break.

Landon spends a portion of every Saturday unclogging the pump and grooming the pond.  Rather than resenting it, he has grown fond of his pond baby and warned me he wants one at our next house.

Dane participated in an on-line kindergarten prep course.  We lasted 3 days. 

Chloe cuddling with Finn

Dane and Finn strutting past.  They know they look good.

Sibling time.

I asked Jocelynne and Chloe to wash some doors we found in the attic.

Pretty soon, like Tom Sawyer, they had others doing the work for them.

The boys enjoying the Gravitrax set from Grandma and Grandpa.  They're able to make endless configurations of track design for their marble racing (when Finn doesn't swipe it all down).

I painted some rusty patio furniture I found online and made a hangout for the gang.

Enjoying the parks that finally opened back up.

Brothers

Taking a Sunday stroll through Celery Bog.  The girls like this photo because it looks like Finn's leg goes all the way to the ground.

Dane hitting the jackpot on his birthday.

Joss putting away the groceries and looking cute (with Landon photo-bombing).

We went above and beyond the plain-box piñata for Dane's birthday.

As Dane gets ready, Logan's staking out a strategic location to maximize his candy earnings.  

5 years old!

 

The next week, Chloe turned 13 and made her own piñata and brownies.  She even did the dishes and a load of laundry before we all woke up that day.  Becoming a teenager doesn't seem to have reduced her awesome-ness.

I changed out of my pajamas and thought it was picture-worthy.

Although Covid-19 dashed any summer plans we had, I feel the last couple of months have still been too busy.  Eric, Landon's good friend here, is a realtor who thought that we were too cooped up in our last house.  When Landon started working from home in March after campus was closed, I began to agree with him. At the beginning of May, Eric emailed a listing he was excited about, and we soon saw why.  The house was over 1,700 square feet and had a small office space for Landon.  We moved in June, and I haven't caught up with my To Do list since then!  We finally handed the keys to the old rental over last Friday, with the inside and outside of the house scrubbed and beautified.  It's nice to be down to cleaning only one house.

The kids were supposed to start school next week, but the date has been pushed back to 8/20.  Half of the kids groaned and the other half cheered when I told them the news.  I still haven't bought their school supplies yet because, deep down, I'm doubting they'll really go.

I was called to be the 1st counselor in the young women's presidency the moment our new ward heard we were crossing into their boundaries.  Now I get to hang out with the girls during youth activities, which we recently got permission to start having again (but outside, wearing masks, no more than 15 people, etc.).  

Finn is still doing (online) speech therapy.  He has progressed to 2-word phrases, the most common being "my phone!", which he says when I try to take my phone from him.  He can also say a full sentence: "I eat Dane!"  He thinks it's hilarious.