The Big Move!

Well, with the addition of the twins we outgrew our first home!

We moved into this house on the weekend of our first anniversary and it served us well for the past 14 years! We brought all of our children home from the hospital to this house and it was really sad to say goodbye! 

Well I guess not really goodbye because we aren't selling this house, we plan to rent it out, but still we won't be living here any more! 

Leading up to our beach week with family we self quarantined for almost two weeks! During that time when we couldn't go anywhere or do anything we spent a lot of time packing!

The babies were not so helpful most of the time. 

Slowly but surely we got all the non essential things packed up and ready to go!

We are definitely going to miss a lot of our neighbors and church friends!

And also our long walks around the lake!

Our new neighborhood has lots of areas to walk, but no lakes and exotic wildlife to check out.

We were very fortunate to have my brother come stay with us after our beach week and help us pack up the week leading up to closing and move us into our new home! Grammie and Abuelo also joined us for the moving weekend to help with the twins and moving all of our stuff!

Once in our new home we had several new neighbors come over and introduce themselves as well as Finley's friends from tennis come by!

Finley and I have been taking tennis lessons in our new neighborhood for the past 6 months since our old neighborhood club shut down so we have several friends already in the new hood! One family brought us these beautiful flowers!

Hunter exploring his new surroundings.

One of the walls in Jackson's room is a chalk/magnetic wall! So fun!

David and I are back to having regular date nights up at our new tennis club! It is just a few minutes down the road from our house and Finley can also easily walk or bike to tennis!

We feel so very blessed to be in our new home!

Everyone has their own room and we even have a bonus/play room as well!

We also have an official home office for school and on days when David works from home.

We are also very excited about our huge backyard with lots of room for the babies to play in!

Now we just need a playground set for them!

They love going up to the fence and watching people and dogs walk by.

Loving the sky views from our back deck!

It has been a crazy and stressful month packing and moving but we are so blessed to have had so much help from friends and family! I am also so glad that we were able to get moved in and settled before Finley and I both start back to school. We've been working hard to get unpacked and getting little projects done around the house. We absolutely love our new home!

 

Topsail Island 2020

A few weeks ago we made our annual trip to Topsail Island with our family!

With the Corona virus still running rampant and giving my mom's high risk scenario I wasn't sure this trip would happen!

We decided to play it super safe. We all quarantined for ten days leading up to our beach trip and also all got tested for the Corona virus.

Everyone tested negative but we still took some extra precautions!

Because so many of Michelle's shows and commitments were cancelled she, Donovan, and her girlfriend Aliza were able to join us for the whole week!

Grammie and Abuelo, who were originally supposed to be in Hawaii, were also able to join us for the whole week.

This year's beach trip was a lot easier than last years! 

Still so much work and poor Jackson was super clingy and needy, but overall we still had a great week!

The babies enjoyed digging in the sand and splashing in the water. 

David and I got to spend a lot of one on one time which was so nice and needed!

David caught this crab and the boys kept trying to hold it! Brave fellows!

It still shocks me that we are a family of five! I'm still getting used to it! LOL

Finley insisted on putting on his own sunscreen and always put on a little too much!

My dad's "shark bite" is healing well! So glad he is on the mend!

Finley spent so much time in the ocean this year! He loved riding the waves and trying to catch them all the way in.

A rare moment when Jackson was happy on the beach. About half way through the trip he started having diarrhea, we later found out he had strep throat, and was pretty miserable.

My dad is super into pickle ball these days so we decided to give it a go!

It is fun but a big adjustment from tennis! I kept missing the ball because my paddle was so much shorter than a tennis racket!

The grandparents were eating up the babies who they have had to stay away from for so long!

The boys also enjoyed playing with Uncle Donovan and Auntie Michelle! Although Hunter was always a little wary of Donovan and kept his good eye on him...

I love my siblings!

Poor Jackson wanted to be held by me almost 24/7! He was killing me by the end of the week!

Finley found a dead crab and really wanted to eat it. Luckily we convinced him that wasn't a good idea. Hunter kept throwing it back into the ocean.

Game nights with masks to be extra careful!

And the indoor mask wearing didn't last but a few days before we gave up on it! 

You can't beat these views!

We spent a lot of time on the beach playing bocce, corn hole, and other fun games!

His shirt says "Winning is in my DNA". How appropriate!

Bucket head Hunter! This kid loves to wear hats!

So incredibly grateful to be able to get away from the normal routine and spend time with family for the week! I also really needed a break from the stress of packing and moving! More on that to come! No one got sick other than Jackson with strep so we are calling the beach week a success!