home sweet home

last wednesday was moving day.

we were amazed by how many sweet friends came to load the truck.

even cooper got in on the action!

little sawyer was a big help!

we had magicians in the truck.  when 3/4 of the truck was full, i was pretty sure there was no way it would all fit.

but it did!

after filling 26 feet of uhaul

 (and a few cars)

with all our possessions,

we were hungry!

our sweet friend, sonja, at chick fil a

provided food for all our friends.

it was just what we needed!

cooper and the kiddos in our empty living room.  

it was strange to see our home empty again.

it felt like we had just moved in.

a lot of life happened in that home.

we spent the night on an air mattress.

(note for the future... when moving, leave one blanket out to sleep with! 

 it was a cold night with no covers except a damp towel!)

we left bright and early the next morning,

ready for our new adventure.

the best news of thursday was that we had stowaways!

late thursday night,

my brother, jakie, and one of my besties, jen,

decided to come with us for a few days to help set up.

while 2 extra hands were invaluable, 

it also really helped to not drive away from fresno feeling like we were leaving everything.

it definitely helped make for an easier transition.

and we were excited to share our new life with such special people.

after a long morning in the car

(and some cat pee in jakie's car... sorry jake!)

we finally arrived at our new home.

we had our walk through and then backed up the truck to unload.

at 3:00, we were once again amazed by the amount of help that came!

our new church family really came through, 

bringing hands to help, supplies and snacks,

and prayers for our new home.

it was done in 40 minutes!

i had a moment where i looked around at my things in this house,

with people praying over my children's rooms,

and i felt overwhelmed at the enormity of what had just happened.

as soon as our new friends had left,

we started unpacking!

jakie and jeff got to work putting furniture together.

jen & i worked hard on the kitchen.

i don't know what we would have done without these two!

by midnight thursday night, we had unpacked the kitchen and put all the furniture together.

friday morning, we headed out to ikea!

we had to buy kids furniture and some serious storage.

it was jen's first time going.... that made it even more fun :)

we enjoyed a cinnamon roll before jumping in to almost 3 hours of shopping.  

whew!

after that,

the girls went to target and the boys headed to boy stores.

we met back up and got hard at work.

that night, our new friend, corrine,

sweetly brought a delicious dinner and her helping hands.

we worked until midnight again on friday night.

and pretty much everything was put away.

saturday morning, 

jen & i worked on decorations while the boys hung the pictures and curtains.

jakie & jen left around 1:30 on saturday.

when they left, the house was basically finished!

less than 48 hours.. that must be a record :)

we could not have done it without them.

it was hard to see them go.

luckily, we had our kids to distract us :)

my super wonderful mom & step-dad had kept the kids at their house in fresno

wednesday-saturday.

that allowed us to get things ready child-free

and have the house waiting and 'normal' once they arrived.

i cannot begin to describe how helpful this was for us.  

it would have taken SO much longer with little ones underfoot.

my sweet mom drove the kids down on saturday.

the kids were so excited to see their new house!

(the kids with 'gramma fresno' and my older brother, aaron)

would you like to see it, too?

come on in!

when you enter the house, 

you walk right into the dining room straight ahead, and the living room to your left.

dining room (the stairs are just to the right)

'storage' area to the right of the front door

(i love ikea)

living room when you look to the left after walking in the front door

view from the stairs

the kitchen

(i should also post a picture of the two shelves in the garage which are my extra kitchen now :)  

if you turn right after walking in the front door,

you'll go to a little hallway with charlotte's room and a full bathroom.

charlotte's room

we got this little crib off of craiglist for $75!  it is little but perfect for her room.

i got her toddler bedding from target.  i love the owls!

the colors matched all the accessories we already had, which was perfect!

the room has built-in shelving, perfect for toys & books

i found vinyls at target that matched her decor.  

they really jazzed up the mirror-painted-white closet doors.

inside her closet is her dresser/changing table & clothes

across from her room is the downstairs bathroom

i already had everything for this room :)

if you travel upstairs,

you'll find the kids' new bathroom

we went with the brown shower curtain with bright colored polka dots, and used the bright colors throughout the rest of the bathroom.  

across from the bathroom is jackson & bella's room

i knew i had to get all new, skinny, tall furniture for this room

(thank you ikea & walmart!)

i decided to use a lot of accessories from their old playroom and go with bright, fun colors.

i think it turned out super cute!

a little nightstand to hold a lamp & their bible/devotional/pray book

jackson's bed up on top.  

thanks, cori, for the great idea of book shelves and little lights next to their beds!

bella's bed down below

thank you, stacy, for sewing all my pillows!

the book/toy corner

i love the covered corkboards to put their art and pictures of their friends up.

we got this super cute sun from ikea.  

(along with pretty much everything else in the room!)

my awesome brother put it together.  

we don't have overhead lighting available, but i think it just makes the ceiling look so fun!

just past the big kids' room is the master bedroom.

i miss my orange wall.

i think it needs something over the bed... it still doesn't feel right to me.

ideas?

i need to get some of our 10 year anniversary pics in these frames, stat!

master bath

sweet earring holder some of my precious friends made me and helped me fill.

finally, the back patio.

i have big dreams for this place.

i envision swooping white lights & cute seating.

(gotta save up for that!)

our living room is so tiny... 

i'd love for it to be an overflow of the living room so we can have more people over.

we've actually set it up more since this pic.

jackson's fountain is in place and running!  

we're waiting for labor day sales to get a shelf outside to put all the art supplies on.

hope you enjoyed the tour!

while we were basically 'finished' on saturday afternoon,

we have been so busy with all the extras.

100 trips to home depot.

spending a small fortune to refill our fridge/freezer at costco,

organizing the garage & closets,

getting jackson registered at his new school,

and spending time with our kiddos.

we've been trying to find our way around and explore all the fun things in our area.

like the beach

and fountains 

they're everywhere!!! and huge!!!

 and merry-go-rounds

it has been a busy week.

(thank you for all the texts, emails, and phone calls, and facebook messages.  

i apologize if i have not responded to them.... i hope to do it soon!  i have been a bit overwhelmed by it all.)

to be honest,

i'm not totally sure if the reality of it has hit me yet.

it kinda feels like someone took all my stuff and put it in another house.

like a really weird vacation.

but jeff started work this morning.

and jackson starts school next thursday.

little by little,

this will become our home.