Fun Catch-up

I had to take this picture of this independent cute kiddo. He did the styling himself 😀

We went to Watermelon Day at the Durham Museum and enjoyed playing and seeing the pigs eat frozen watermelon. 

When I was at BYU I took classes from and worked for an awesome professor, Dr. Eula Monroe, who is retiring the end of the month. I was invited to write a tribute to her and send a picture showing how I am using my education degree today. Dr. Monroe is a big believer in ice cream and would occasionally send me running to the Wilk to pick up a couple scoops for each of us. I had to take a picture of my kids eating ice cream for her tribute. 

This crazy kid wants a picture with the Target dog every time

School Started

School started last week which means our house is quieter, Lydia and Andrew get more attention, and we miss Abby and Sam all day. They both got fabulous teachers and love being back to school. Those of us left behind had to drown our sorrows with a day at Marbles Museum and played to distract ourselves. But how could we be too sad with the excitement of my big kids?  Look at those excited smiles!

Labor Day Weekend

We had a super fun Labor Day weekend with lots of time outside. The humidity of NC disappeared for the moment and we spent hours outside. We went to a really fun Pokemon party with friends, hiked along 2 of the Eno River trails, had fun sibling play time at home and the park, and got to see our house!

A Weekend with the Zs

We spent a fun weekend celebrating Andrew's birthday with Grandma and Baba Z. We explored one of our favorite places here--the Durham Life and Science Museum. It's so much fun and has a great variety of hands-on learning and playing opportunities. 

Thanks for coming and spoiling our sweet, crazy, one in a million Andrew!

Building a House

We are building a house in Chatham County, NC. It means all kinds of things to us right now--patience with temporary housing, excitement in seeing it go from dirt to what you see below, frustration that it is taking way to long, flexibility with planning, joy in envisioning what we will do. That only names a handful of the feelings of the last 2 months. So far we love NC. We have been impressed with friendly people, less traffic, fun activities, and new friends. We went and saw the house this morning and it looks great!  Our general contractor even let the kids add something a little extra to make this house their home:

VA to NC Transition

We left Virginia on the last day of school. We had packed out and cleaned the house so I had a few hours to fill with Lydia and Andrew not in our home. It was a great day so we played at the library, played at the park, and had a picnic lunch. One of my good friends met us to say goodbye and then we rushed off to pick up the big kids and head down to Williamsburg. 

Abby's awesome class memorized Martin Luther King's "I have a dream" speech. You can watch it here: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=cdbgGfY8mnE

We went to Busch Gardens on Saturday and had a much-needed family fun carefree day. Roy and Sam went on all the scary big people rides while I hung out with everyone else and had a great time together. We took Andrew on his first train ride, which failed to impress him. 

The girls were so cute and invited Andrew to do the hot air balloons. They all had the best time!

And then we were back on the road after church to come to our new, but still temporary home in North Carolina. 

Here's what our house looked like in June:

Then they poured foundation about 3 weeks ago and we got this dropped off:

And then, thankfully, all this happened this week and this is what the house looks like today: 

We can breath a little easier as we see the process continue. We also completely recognize and try to express gratitude for the guidance and help we have received along the way. This experience of buying and selling in VA, Roy changing jobs, moving to at least 2 temporary housing places, and other hard experiences this summer has taught me more patience and how to better trust Heavenly Father. As crazy and annoying as it has been at times, I have also felt that He has been lifting is every single step. This is one of those times in our lives that I feel the truth of "we've proved Him in days that are past". He has helped us in the last few months and I know He will keep doing so.