Relaxation

We ordered new furniture for our back porch.  We have a sofa, 2 chaise lounges, 2 chairs, 3 small matching cube tables and a nice big rug for the seating area.  It's such a relaxing space to sit, have a drink, catch up after a long day and watch the kids splash in the pool.  We see lots of afternoons and evenings spent here with friends this summer.

Hoppy Easter!

We spent Easter at church.  We LOVE our church.  Pastor Joby hit it out of the park with his sermon. If you want to catch it, you can view it here: Resurrection Sunday - 7 Deadly Sins: Pride.  

After church we went to our friends' house for Easter dinner.  We feel so blessed that someone took us in after a week of having boxes delivered to our house and no functioning kitchen, was such a gift.  The Barquilla's are such incredible people and we're thankful we've become friends.  Their eldest daughter has been in Ra's class last year and this year and they get along well.  Their youngest is in 1st grade and is a brunette version of Sissy.  

It was such a wonderful day for us to reflect on God's promises and the grace and mercy he bestows on us.

Neib Gifts

Not only did we receive meals and offers for playdates, our first gift was this from neibs 2 doors down.  Gluten Free cookies and 4 koozies for the family!  Miss Toni has a cute tree swing in her front yard that she's given Sissy permission to swing on anytime she wants.  Sis has taken her up on that offer multiple times already.  We really are blessed!

So mUch To do...

So much to unpack...

The movers packed up and moved our apt stuff first then they brought this truck:

6 crates - 2 loads...all from storage!  Our guest room, office & garage looked like a storage unit!

PURGE is the WORD for us.  We've donated some things, thrown out a lot of stuff and are going to try to sell some of our unneeded furniture.  Our house is big, but not as big as our house in Utah with a 3 car garage and full unfinished basement to store our "extras."  Ugh...

On the bright side, my friend who teaches my kids' PE classes offered to bring them home from school the day they movers were packing us and brought dinner home with my kids.  Later in the week when the big truck showed up one neib offered to bring over coffee while I was checking boxes off the truck and another offered to bring us dinner.  Later that same day a different neib came with her kids to let them all play while I unpacked...We are so blessed with such nice people on our street!

Celebrating

Yesterday was the official closing on our new home.  It has been a VERY long year for our family.  It was filled with headaches and hurdles just with building this house, but that journey has come to an end.  There are a few things that our builder needs to come back to "fix" and complete, but he's got 2 months to get the punch list we create finished.  3 of our 4 master bathroom sink light fixtures don't work so that's a BIG issue for us.  The painting was finished yesterday and the dishwasher was fixed as well.  The pool guy and the landscaper are both coming back this weekend to finish up some things.

Closing was a headache which shouldn't surprise us with the track record we've had with this house.  Our HUD statement changed FOUR times yesterday morning!  It was the bank's fault but at least it's complete and over with now.  After the 3 hrs it took to sign the papers, get the correct HUD, go to the bank to get a check in the correct amount, we decided we needed to celebrate with some Bloody Mary's.  It was nice to sit down and enjoy the moment.

After we finished our drinks, we headed back to our apt, we packed up some of our stuff - dry food, clothes, Andy's Saranac beer, etc to take over to the house.  They are coming today to pack up our apt.  It's currently 8:45 and they are supposed to arrive between 8-10 am.  I can't get use to "Southern time."  I'm so used to getting things started early and finish early.  At least we have what we need at the house to keep us functioning this week.

Pray all goes well with our move this week.  It's going to be chaotic and overwhelming for sure.

Cocktail Tree

Our citrus cocktail tree is blooming and it smells incredible!  This tree is grafted with different types of citrus fruit.  There is only one Meyer lemon on it at this point, but the tangerines, grapefruits, limes, oranges and tangelos are all blooming!  Can't wait to harvest them!  Our blueberries are starting to grow as well.  We have 15 blueberry bushes and my kids can't wait to just jump out of the pool, pick a few berries when they are hungry and then jump back in!  Next weekend our landscaper comes back to finish putting in our raised beds and I'll get to finally plant our veggie garden.  Gotta plant some strawberries too. 

First Plunge

This weekend we've been busy cleaning our new house - I can't believe how dirty it was left.  I guess that's what happens when you push the builder to get done ASAP.  We've cleaned all 5 bathrooms, wiped down every flat surface, vacuumed and mopped every floor, washed down 3 of 4 porches, cleaned the summer kitchen, washed down the garage, hung towel bars, TP holders, etc.  Our kiddos have been pretty well behaved for the most part so we decided to reward them with an early swim in our new pool.  

Here's their first plunge:

They are sooooo happy we put in a pool! That means I'll be happy come summer so they can wear themselves out everyday swimming!

My Funny Girl

Latest Kendallism:  

Mom, I want to ride a bull!

Oh my, can you picture it...21, in a bar, riding the mechanical bull?  I don't know which scares me more, the mechanical bull or a real bull!  She's brave enough to do both. 

You've Got Mail!

Sound like an old AOL add?  It should!  We haven't even moved in yet, but we've got mail!  It was actually addressed to us, not just junk mail...We did get some junk, but it was a great surprise to go to the house today to find mail waiting for us!  Starting to feel real...

K's New Friend

K made a new friend today while we were at the house.  We were hanging up the mailbox when she rounds the corner with a very satisfied look on her face, ready to introduce us to her latest find. She loves animals of all kinds, even the reptile variety.  Hopefully lizards is where she draws the line.  I've already had nightmares of her picking up snakes and getting bit!  I love that even though she dresses up in skirts & dresses with fancy shoes, she has no problems getting dirty and catching lizards!

Our Own Fancy Nancy

Today was the Storybook Character parade in kindergarten.  K decided to dress as Fancy Nancy.  She loves reading Fancy Nancy books.  I was happy she chose an easy character to dress up as but that we also stayed away from the princess stories and Barbie stories.  

Here she is before we left for school.  We took special time to do her hair in a Fancy Nancy style.  This is a dress that my mom made for her.  She loved it and got lots of complements on her dress at school.

K and her BFF at the parade

Trying to get 22 kids to all look at the same place at the same time...

Her hair do before it gets destroyed at recess and PE!

She was rather upset that mom made her change into her uniform after the parade.  There was no way I was letting that dress on the playground or wearing it for PE!  She had fun though.  

Is it April 14th Yet?

From yesterday's visit to the house...

Landscaping is DONE!  I love the way it turned out.  Blair Bennett from Bennett's Landscaping was fantastic to work with if you are in need of a landscaper.  I believe they do landscape maintenance too.  Email me if you want his number!

This is our pool!!!!  We also loved our pool company.  RD Gray is the owner of Island Pools of Jacksonville.  He's great!  He built the pool and did all our paver work too - driveway and around the pool.  He's going to come back and take out the grass and replace it with the same Travertine that's around the pool.  If you are interested in building a pool, I highly recommend RD.  Check his business out HERE

This is going to be my new kitchen...This is the kitchen I've been dreaming of for the past year.  After our cramped kitchen with little to no counter tops, this is going to feel like a mansion.  For those of you who saw my kitchen in Utah, you know how much counter top space we had there so this will be a very welcome change after the past year.  I can't wait to start baking, canning, freezing, cooking!

Steph

Kendall For President

As I was walking through the halls at school today I came across this hanging on the wall outside of K's room.  I can't tell you how much this little girl just warms her Momma's heart.  I will vote for her if she decides to run for POTUS one day.  We need a person in charge who will praise God.

Ra's Got A New Look!

Today we picked up Ra's glasses.  He's been dreading this day for weeks.  Thankfully he's amazed at how much better he can see and he loves the instant sunglasses from the Transitions lenses.  I let him pick out whatever he wanted.  He ended up with a X Games pair that is gun metal gray with a red stripe on the side.  Sadly they didn't have orange or he'd have picked that for sure. He's nervous about the reaction from the kids at school tomorrow.  Praying that it goes well for him! 

Field Trip

Friday was the KDG field trip to the Jax Zoo.  It was supposed to rain but thankfully the rain held off and the sun was out instead!  We got lucky.

Sis and 5 of her girlfriends got to hang out the entire morning.  It was so nice for them to spend some time together and for me to hang out with their moms who are also friends of mine.  The girls had a great time.  They got to ride the train, touch the sting rays and visit the other animals.  

The new tiger exhibit was a big hit.  K insisted: "Take a picture and send it to Daddy.  He loves tigers!"

After we were finished at the zoo, the 3 moms took our girls home and went for lunch together before we had to pick up the big kids.  Ironically all three girls have 4th grade siblings.

It was a fun day for all of us.  I'm so grateful I can go with Sis on her field trips and spend time with her and her little friends at school.