{iPhone Rewind} :: March

Maddie and I got to enjoy a fun girls' lunch at Panera :)

Baby shower for our sweet friend Hannah

While Maddie and I went to lunch and the baby shower, the boys enjoyed their own lunch at Pot Belly!

Sometimes I wonder if they're actually listening during school...but then I'll find random notes taped to the wall and realize that they are listening and that they believe me LOL! {this is what they learned in sinsse = science}

We got to serve with Generosity Feeds again, helping to pack 10,000 meals for our community!

We said goodbye to my Honda Pilot, so I needed to clean it out. Definitely a past life, in more ways than one! I also cleaned out CD's haha!

I went looking for the second set of keys to the Pilot, and came across an extra set of keys from one of my brother's old trucks. It was also from a past life, when we were all back in Dallas, and we saw him more often, and it just made sense for us to keep an extra set for him. I sat in my basement reminiscing sweet times, crying over a silly set of old keys. It hit me like a ton of bricks. I know grief does that, but it definitely came out of nowhere and derailed my afternoon. 

We bought a new {to us} Telluride! Considering that the Pilot sounded like a tractor and barely made it to trade-in...we're thankful for the Lord's provision.

A Portrait of Aiden, age 6. A hat from the local garbage company. Orange glasses. A Blippi shirt. Pooh Bear by his side. Holes in his pant knees from lots of play. #timeslowdown

The kids are loving the new ride...especially the sun roof!

Our Community Group had a Pi Day celebration- complete with pizza pies, dessert pies, and Frito Pie!

Sweet gifts from Maddie, left on my dresser :)

We drive by this spot multiple times a week, and we are always on the lookout for this gopher/marmot/groundhog friend. The kids were so excited to finally see him again and asked for me to pull over so they could watch him eat!

Showing our St. Patrick's Day spirit! We learned the legacy of St. Patrick and made green smoothies.

I absolutely LOVED studying Revelation with these ladies {not everyone is pictured}. I was so proud of them for sticking with it!

They did a 2-week project to repave the cul de sac, and it was EXCITING entertainment around our house!

Having lunch on the porch, watching the repaving project :)

Aiden and Maddie finished their first grade math book! They'll finish out the year working through their second grade math book!

Mike found Maddie's doll house family arranged in a family hug. And I love everything about this.

Telling Daddy about his library book. With his upside down dress up hat.

...Hello Virginia!

After a whirlwind of preparations, we were finally ready to hit the road for Virginia! My parents were able to join us on our cross-country travel, which was a HUGE help. I planned and packed a ton of road trip snacks and activities for the kiddos, all in an effort to keep everyone entertained and happy on our 20-hour trek. Grandma and Papa drove the SUV we rented {for storage, really; for our stuff from the past week + the days on the road trip + the stuff we couldn't pack in a POD}. And our little family of 5, and Sasha, drove in the Babymobile. 

The first day, we headed out just after 7am {after a very sweet surprise send-off from Granny, Grumpz, Uncle Bryan, and Aunt Lindsay!}, and drove through Arkansas and Tennessee. The kiddos did great, since the excitement of being with Grandma and Papa and actually heading to Virginia was running pretty high. We only had to stop for meals and a few potty breaks in between, but overall we made really good time. We stayed at an Airbnb in Jackson, TN for the night to rest up for another long leg of the trip.

The second day, we got up bright and early again, this time driving through the rest of Tennessee to Blacksburg, Virginia. We had the perfect traveling weather, no traffic, and the most beautiful views. We basically had tree-lined roads the whole way, and then we had tree-lined roads through the hills. It was definitely fun to drive through such a beautiful part of the country.

If you look closely, you can see evidence of the M&M's the Grandma snuck to her :)

We made it!!

Since we had 2 long days of travel, we decided to stay 2 nights in Blacksburg to give the kids a little break before making the push to our final destination in Northern Virginia. We stayed up in the hills of Blacksburg, at the Wandering Goat Lodge, and we were blown away by the gorgeous view. We arrived just in time for sunset, and the colors were spectacular. Of course, the kiddos were all too happy to just run and move after being stuck in the car for 2 days :)

I'll share more about our stay at the Wandering Goat Lodge in another post, but we were grateful for a little rest and fun in the middle of our road trip. Aside from birthday fun, we had plenty of time for reading books, watching the deer, and running around, getting out all that pent up energy.

After a full day of rest and birthday celebrations, we were ready to make the final trek in our journey. On the fourth day, we didn't have to leave quite as early, so we enjoyed a leisurely breakfast, and then we traveled the last few hours to Chantilly. We got checked in at the extended stay, where we will be for the next couple of months, and we were all grateful to be off the road. It was a long trip, for sure. But we are so thankful for the good travel, with little to no hiccups along the way.

We made it. Hello, Virginia!

{iPhone Rewind} :: April

Not an uncommon look for him :)

We have really enjoyed our Koala Crates!

Enjoying the new book Grandma and Papa sent him in the mail...while waiting for brother and sister to go potty

This is where I live. Wandering goats...

With my old lady fur baby :)

Love my Snuggle Bug

Just relaxing on the blanket with Mama

So proud of his construction LEGOS

I love this little girlie!

Dude's got things to do...and he wants to make sure he looks good doing it.

He wants so badly to be like his older brother and sister. Every time we're in the bathroom, he will climb up on the stool to try and wash his hands.

Introduced the twins to Candyland! 

Daddy built a little tent for us to enjoy picnics and Daniel Tiger under :)

Reading time with all my babies

He wants ALL the balls

We have spent a A LOT of time dressing up :)

Siblings bonding over...toots. Yep. That's right. They sit and giggle about toots now.

So I definitely broke the side mirror on our Pilot while backing out of the garage. Not my finest moment. We were able to get a few other maintenance issues taken care of at the same time, so hopefully we're set for awhile...

We have loved all the amazing weather and have spent a lot of time playing outside!

Digging up dirt and pulling up grass/weeds has become his favorite pastime...

Maddie's favorite pastime has been collecting rocks...

He whips out the "cheese!" as soon as he sees my phone. But I gotta hurry to catch it :)

She kept saying she was Jasmine {from Aladdin...she's never seen the movie, just a picture in a princess book}. I think she's confused between Jasmine and a nun :)