The toys are packing themselves!

The kids were helping me pack a box of kitchen things. M2 wanted to put this dog into the box. I told him we'd get a box started for toys next. He ran off and I could hear him barking, but didn't look for him for a while.

He kept the barking up for a while and I found him in the laundry room. The dog had found its box and was in a hurry to get packed up!

Almost moving day!

My parents decided to come back again on Friday so that my dad could get more painting done and my mom and I could work on other projects. Papa had to leave for a work conference on Monday, so it was nice to have extra hands while he was gone.

Our carpet was installed on Monday and Tuesday. It feels so cushy and of course makes such a big difference in how things look. We went with the same color for all of the upstairs (except bathrooms and kitchen) and the stairs. Then we picked a different color for the family room and bedroom downstairs.

Living room...

M2's room (same color as M.G.'s)...

Family room - the carpet is a dark blue and we went with a very light gray on the walls downstairs. The fireplace is big and ugly, but it looks better now than it did with the old paint and carpet.

Downstairs bedroom, which came with that teal shade.


Once the carpet installation was done, we had fun bringing over some toys and other odds and ends with Grandma B. (Grandpa had to go back to MN for work. After he left, M2 would still expect to find him every time we visited the new house!)

We cleaned out the kitchen cupboards and vacuumed up all of the carpet fuzz. I like the color of the kitchen counter better now with the new wall color and was happy to see that my dishes didn't clash as much as I feared. That table was left by the dumpster here at the apartment building! It's not in bad shape and will work as a kitchen table until we get around to getting something better.

Last night we drove part-way to MN to meet up with Grandpa for supper before he and Grandma went home. Poor M2 thought they were going to follow us home and cried "Grandma, Grandpa, new ouse" over and over.

Tonight Grandpa and Grandma M are picking Papa up at the airport on their way into town. This weekend we're going to try to move everything over to the new house. I'm having trouble realizing that we'll be living there next week! I better go pack more boxes!

"How does it feel to be getting stronger bones right now?"

Today I had to leave the room during lunch for a moment. When I got back, M2 had M.G.'s glass of milk and was tentatively taking a sip. He's finished off the milk in his cereal bowl a few times, but turns his nose up if you offer it to him in a cup.

M.G. has been pressuring him to try it because he is almost 2 and that is when she started drinking milk. So today she slid her glass over and was encouraging him all the way. He drank a few big sips before accidentally spilling it all over the kitchen and he had the biggest grin because she was egging him on.

She has great power here, we'll see if she continues to use it for good!

gobble, gobble

M.G. and I were watching a bit of a cooking show yesterday and they were working on a Thanksgiving turkey recipe.

M.G.: How do they make raw turkey?

Me: They roast it in the oven.

M.G.: No, how do they get the raw turkey to look like that.

Me: (Starting to play dumb.) That is how a raw turkey looks, they bought it at the store like that.

M.G.: No, how does the store make the raw turkey look like that?

Me: What do you mean? Without feathers?

M.G.: No, where does raw turkey come from?

Me: We buy it from the store.

M.G.: Where does the store get it?

Me: (gulp) They kill a turkey, remove its head, and take off its feathers.

M.G.: Do they do that for chicken?

Me: Yes, and turkey, goose, duck... birds like that.

M.G.: But, how do they kill it?

Me (or Papa, he was helping out by this point): They cut off its head.

M.G.: (after thinking for a while) If they do that for a goose, how do they keep the goose from biting them?

Papa: When they cut off the goose's head he can't bite anymore.
Me: He dies.

M.G.: But before that, when they grab him would he bite?

Me: They have a lot of practice, but perhaps they do get bitten the first few times.

Commercial break and the conversation moves on to other things.

The days are flying by...

My parents have been visiting since Friday and got quite a lot of painting and yard work done!

The kids have had some fun every day playing in their new yard, jumping in the leaves, and climbing the crab apple tree in the back yard. I did a horrible job at remembering the camera all week, so imagine lots of fall fun. They both tend to cry when they have to leave and when we arrive M2 yells, "Yay, new ouse, yay!!" Here they are on the deck...

Here is M.G.'s room without the stripes!

This is a partial view of the living room area. It had kind of a sea foam color on these two walls, but now is so fresh looking. (Again, blogger fail - I didn't take enough "before" photos of the old paint and carpet.)
The kitchen has become our command center. The "honeymilk" wall in this shot was previously the same sea foam green as the living room, even though it clashed with the counters. Loving it more already! We'll paint the rest of the walls soon.
Even without carpet, the house is looking and feeling so much fresher with painted walls and ceilings. The carpet is scheduled to be installed on Monday and then we can start moving in!

still in progress...

Not much new to report here. Papa and I had some rough food poisoning earlier in the week that has slowed down house progress. The kids have been getting up around 5:30 each morning thanks to the time change, which is making me sluggish.

I have slowly started to pack up our trusty moving boxes.


M.G. has been telling us that our next move should be to Maine! So, I don't think the idea of having our own house has quite sunk in yet.

In progress...

The weather is great today and M.G. is going to have so much fun playing outside at school.

We checked out the house this morning and Papa and Grandpa and Grandma M have gotten so much done. All the old carpet is up and they started priming some of the walls. 2 coats of primer later and you can still see those stripes in M.G.'s room!

Papa is going to try to do a little priming and painting in the evenings this week. We hope to move in on the 14th, but that will depend on the paint and carpet. I wish I could be over there painting too, but having the kids running around with wet paint and the carpet tack strips exposed just seems like a bad idea.

All of our things that were in the storage shed are now in our garage. We took quite a bit of furniture from my parents when they moved from their house to their new condo and I had forgotten about some of it until we saw it today.

M.G.'s bike and my childhood red wagon are hanging on hooks in the garage like we live there or something!

Halloween!

Grandpa and Grandma M are in town this weekend to help us with the new house. The 6 of us had some Halloween fun even with all the work that they and Papa were doing.

Astronaut M.G. being weightless. (Using Uncle Dave's old astronaut costume.)

Puppy M2 ready to go! (Getting another year out of this outfit.)
Halloween afternoon we went trick or treating at some of the downtown businesses. It took M2 just a few stores before he started to get the idea and would stop to point at his loot in between stops. He didn't master "trick or treat," but he'd say "thank you, thank you, thank you."

We also went to "trick or trees" at the public garden. It was a beautiful afternoon and we followed the pumpkin trail to learn about 8 different trees (and collect more candy, of course!)

After supper we took the kids over to the new house. We arrived just in time to put some ghost lights up over the door and turn the porch on as the trick or treating started. I handed out candy at the door while Papa took the kids trick or treating on our new street. He had to stop M.G. from shouting, "We're your new neighbors!" at every passing family. We did meet a few of our actual neighbors and all had so much fun. My favorite part was when M.G. was back from her trick or treating and having such a good time helping me answer the door. At one point she said, "My first real trick or treating!"

She had a rough time today with the time change, being up late last night, and wanting to know what Grandma M, Grandpa M, and Papa were doing at the house. But I think I forgot about all of that when she was picking out her candy after supper and insisted that we all try a piece.