Accolades for the eldest.

Jack's reading has taken off this year. At the beginning of the school year he tested at a mid-second grade reading level. By late fall he was testing at fifth grade level. He may be able to read at that level, but it doesn't mean he's interested in fifth grade topics--or long books.

However, he's plugged away. His teacher has recognized his desire to be a six-, now seven-year-old boy and has really encouraged him to find books that excite him but also push him just enough. I've loved to watch him learn from the books he's reading. Some days he'll ask me about The Revolutionary War, other days he'll tell me how Egyptians took the brains out of mummies (well, pre-mummy, I suppose).

There's another girl in Jack's class who has been with him since preschool. Caitlin. She reads at his same level, and they have been wonderful for each other. Jack came back from Thanksgiving break with a pile of books he'd read. He was bragging to her about how he was just about to earn nine accelerated reader points. She retorted in a sassy tone, "Well, did you CHOOSE to read them? Or did your parents MAKE you?" (She was also the one who warned me against selecting the mango creme Girl Scout cookies when I gave her my order..."They taste like chapstick," she said.)

I love her. I hope they go to the prom together.

Mrs. Gartung, his teacher, asked us to come in this afternoon for a special surprise. She had custom cupcakes made, bought ice cream, and asked the principal to come and present Jack and Caitlin with trophies, inscribed with their names. The whole class clapped and cheered for them and then partied outside.

Jack was on top of the world.

I'm feeling sad as this year draws to a close. His teacher is incredibly talented. I love helping in the classroom and watching her teach. She brings out the absolute best in Jack. She texted me this last week: "I know Caitlin and Jack are going to be something amazing when they grow up. They came in with the skills and ability, but I don't care. I am still hanging onto them. I will always be their first grade teacher. I will be so proud when I go and find Dr. Jack and Professor Caitlin. I am so honored to have that privilege. They are and always will be my kids too. :)"

That made me a little weepy...can you blame me?

Here are some picture from the afternoon.

Micah patiently waiting...or, rather asking me when he can go play on the slide.

Nathan patiently waiting. He was actually being patient.

Where's dad? I'm sick of you telling me I can't play on the slide...

The best part about this picture is the fact that almost every single kid is staring at Allan. He walked in and one kid stood up and shouted, "HOLY COW, Jack! Your dad is TALL!!!" Then they all got giggly...including Jack.

Ladies first...

Jack's moment...He was blushing, by the way. How far we've come. Last year he had to visit the principal's office. Now the principal visits him.

Caitlin has her pose down.

Posing with Mrs. Gartung outside at the end of the day.

Six months.

A few photos from the past few days.

First rice cereal feeding.

Success!

The mood was right, as was the lighting, clothing, and color scheme. Oh, and bathed.

I'm a wee bit obsessed with his eyes. They are so precious.

I squealed when I pulled this off of my camera.

To say we love Nathan is an understatement. Someone asked me today if he's the happiest of all my babies. I told her that to the best of my recollection they've all been squealy, smiley, giggly babies. Am I a lucky mom or what? 

Three brothers.

Nathan at almost four months.

Micah at almost five months

Jack at five months

Four months.

Gah. Where does the time go?

The new house.

On 12/13/12 we closed on our new house. Most people would say "first house," but that implies there will be a second. I can tell you that after going through this move, I'm planning on dying in this house. My kids can pack all of our stuff and move it out after I'm gone, because I sure as heck am not doing it again!

I kept putting off taking pictures until everything was unpacked and organized (maybe even fully furnished??....oh, silly naive Buffy). Then I realized no one would ever see the house if I did that. So here you have your incredibly honest tour of our new place. I snapped all these pictures in about five minutes (hence the awful lighting in some of them). Boxes, unmade beds, dirty dishes, everything. Just pretend you've come for a visit and I didn't have time to clean up the place before you arrived because I was being an amazing mother to my children instead of worrying about extraneous boxes. Okay? Okay.

Here she is. No boxes in the front yard at least.

What you see when you walk in the door (loft on second story is playroom). We don't want to mess too much with this room because it's so bright and open. We love bright and open.

I turned around and took a picture of the front door.

My favorite corner of the house. Also where we put our Christmas tree.

Supposed to be a formal dining room, but we've made it the music room.  I'd rather have three boys playing piano in here than dripping spaghetti sauce all over white carpet.

Down the hallway from the living room you have the family room (the baby swing is THE most important item of furniture in here).

View of family room from the back door. Just to the left is the kitchen...

eat-in area/laundry folding table (ha!)

I plan on adding a bit of color in here....someday (too tired right now).

Office (we're still downstairs). Guaranteed to be unpacked last.

Our staircase. I'm grateful that it's in sections. Maximum number of stairs that you can fall down equals five. I should know, because I did so just last week. While carrying almost 40# Micah.

View from the playroom/loft. Just scary enough to keep the kids in check.

This was the state of our playroom for an entire month. I just got it cleaned up and organized (oh boy, that felt good). It only took me thirty minutes (that part made me feel dumb that I'd put it off so long).

Master bedroom. We do have sheets. It was household linens laundry day (that sounds very Martha Stewart). But we don't have any other furniture. If I could still do a cartwheel, I'd do cartwheels in this room. For right now, I'm enjoying the vast unfilled space.

Master bath. I love that tub. I could gain two hundred pounds and still love that tub. Off to the right is a room where the toilet is (putting a picture of the toilet on the blog just felt wrong) and a sizeable walk in closet with super high clothing rods. I struggle a bit to reach. It's as if the closet was built for Allan.

Upstairs hall with linen storage. It took me an entire month to get around to unpacking those boxes, and it only took me twenty minutes.

Two older boys' room. They don't spend much time in here as of now. Maybe if I spruced it up a bit it would feel more inviting.

Guest Bedroom, which has much to my chagrin turned into the Lego Room.

The nursery. Most likely to be the second to last room to be unpacked. It's not very motivating to unpack/repack baby clothes boxes when your baby grows out of a handful clothes every day it seems.

Parking for the RV we will never ever own.

The beautiful storage shed. Quite possibly Allan's favorite feature.

The green space. Not too big, but definitely not too small.

Side yard where we will someday have a small garden.

Back view of house with the "tunnel tree," as Micah calls it.

We feel incredibly fortunate to have found our home. I'm still pinching myself. Before we moved in I kept saying "It's not our dream home, but it meets our needs better than anything else we've seen." Once we moved in however, it instantly felt like ours and I realized that my dream home is wherever I can comfortably raise the current and future members of our family. We have such abundance, and I feel quite foolish to have said it wasn't exactly what we wanted.

Come and visit! I'll pick up the Legos off the floor. Promise.