my parents came to visit us for the weekend, and we had a lot of fun! we went out to eat, swimming, to the park, shopping, and went on lots and lots of walks!



they left today, and we were sad to see them go...



seriously though, despite her crazy dance, Liv has been saying all day "i miss nana and bapa". good thing they will be back in July!

I went and got some flowers today. I have no idea what I'm doing, so no critics please, but here is what I did today...

my number one fan, is my sweet Avery.

every morning she gets on my computer and checks my blog to see if I have updated it with anything! (Hi Avery!)

So, here is a post, all about my number one fan and her swimming lessons this week!

Avery has been a tad hesitant in years past about the "noodle". Having it tied around her waist was not something she liked! Well, now she thinks it's a blast!!!


yesterday, they did a "noodle train" in the deep end. this momma's heart was beating fast as she and her friend Cassie broke off from the train, and were hanging out in the middle...


and today, she floated in the noodle, all by herself! she left the wall and "swam" to her teacher!


and then tried her "ice cream scoops" back to the wall! I was so proud of her!


they played a little game later, and she was out there just paddling away!


she just loves being able to float around by herself!!! What a change from last year!


she also says that she did like "30 or 40 bobs or something..." today! wowza!


SOOOOOO proud of you Avery!!!

today was day 2 of swimming lessons! Avery was very excited to go, and made sure to tell me "if i do a good job on my back float, make sure to get a picture for your blog!"


at this point in the lesson, the teachers were putting noodles around the kids, and Avery has never liked that. I was a little nervous...


But, without a care in the world, she let go of the wall, and joined in on the train! They went all the way to the deep end! I was so proud of her today!!!


Later this evening we went to the outdoor pool for the first time since it opened!


Liv jumped in and picked up where she left off last year!


and Avery had fun swimming around too!


we're hoping to go to the pool tomorrow, since it's supposed to be a nice day!

today was the first day that I didn't cry missing Piper...

I thought about her a lot today, but no tears...

hoping this means that little by little life will get easier and less sad without her...

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we've been keeping busy here at home.

i spent a lot of today organizing the girls closet and playroom...





I've been busy organizing all our stuff out in the garage, and we finally are able to park a car in there!



Avery wanted to help today with decorating, so I let her put some stickers on their bunk beds!





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Avery also began swimming lessons today! She did really great, much different than our experience 2 summers ago!





and I took Liv with me today, and hopefully I won't have to again....she was suck a stinker...

it's been an emotional couple of days here at our house...

first, Avery finished 1st grade on Friday!


she got perfect grades, and we are so proud of her! excited for summer to be here, and swimming lessons to begin next week!

also, yesterday, we found a family for Piper to go and live with. We have been wanting to re-home her for some time, but I just have never been able to go through with it. There are several reasons that we wanted to find a new home for her, and i don't want to go into all of them...

the family has 2 little girls, similar in age to our girls. both the mom and dad were SUPER excited to have a dog, and it is just a great situation for her.

but, it sucks. it really really sucks. saying goodbye to her, handing her over was so stinkin' hard. i did the ugly cry numerous times today, and i just hope that i made the right decision for our family. the new mommy and i have been emailing and texting all day, and so far Piper is doing good. she has even sent some photos for us to see, which has been helping.

anyhow, here are the last photos of Piper that we have from this morning...




sigh....i sure hope this gets easier...

little by little we are getting settled....

we love our new house...i mean, we really love it...

we're getting more and more organized and it's feeling like home more each day!

earlier this week the girls went exploring. back beyond our backyard is a very large dirt pile. they named it their mountain, and like to go and climb it.


yesterday a big dirt truck came and dumped some stinky dirt in our yard. today they spread it out around the front, back, and sides. maybe, just maybe, our landscaping and sod will be coming soon....one can hope, right?


and tonight, we had playdough time on the deck. pay no attention to the little poo here and there...


in other news, school here is ending on Friday. We found out yesterday who Avery's teacher is, and we are so grateful that the teacher is the one we had hoped for. Avery's school goes above and beyond to make families happy, and this family is one of them! :) A wonderful little girl is in her class, too, and both her mother and I are sooo excited for them to be together!

Also, Avery had a STAR reading test done at the end of April, and we just got the results from that. She tested at a 4.8, which is similar to that of a 4th grader, 8 months into the school year (basically 5th grade, right?). We are so grateful that she has continued to enjoy learning and that she is excelling! What a proud mom and dad we are!!! Keep it up Avery!!!

we're still knee deep in "stuff", but I think blogging is more enjoyable than unpacking boxes!

Here is what we've been up to today!

still unpacking, enjoying our new furniture, and dragging our sister around...

making a mess in our room while mom tries to organize the closet...

master bedroom is still untouched...


loving the space we now have...


i found some sod and made Piper her own potty patch...ha ha ha!


playing and throwing rocks in our mud backyard...

discovering animal tracks...



and picking up leftover nails and such from construction...

well, we're here. we're in the new house. we've been here since Wednesday, and i am just now able to sit down, upload my photos, and share our photos! bear with me, this will be a long post {mostly for my own memory...}

we closed at 9:15 on Wednesday morning. then, we loaded up our "stuff" and went over to look at the house and get some pictures, of course!



{we had some church girls with us at the time, too}







girls' bedroom...

master bedroom, with Liv in mid air!





the "unfinished" room...



daddy's office...

lower family room...

under stairs storage, also known as "the secret hiding place"...


I wish I would have taken photos of moving day. it was quite the fiasco. rainy, cold, muddy and icky. we were incredibly blessed to have the help of our amazing church family. the move took about 5 total hours of back and forth, back and forth, etc.

after the move, we went back, as a family, to pick up Piper (ha!) and to say goodbye to our old house. it was more emotional than any of us thought it would have been...


so odd to see it empty. no more memories of us there, at all...{except the purple wall...ha!}


in this photo you can see Avery starting to come towards me in tears...it was an emotional meltdown, and then the water works began for this momma too...


daddy tried to comfort her, but she just needed to cry it out. Liv was not affected at all. she is her same ol' 3 1/2 crazy self, and is going with the flow...








{tear...} the girls room....







then, back to the "new house". it was late already, and we were all spent-emotionally, and physically. we found what we needed to get by for the night, and then we all sat and watched daddy put together the girls' bunk bed. they ended up falling asleep right here, watching daddy! Of course they were moved, and we survived the first night. Avery even said, "I think I'm used to this room now."


Thursday morning, no phone line, no television....just the four of us, in this new house, with all this mess....


daddy got their bunk together!


the master bedroom still has a loooooong way to go. Our king bed will be coming in a week or so!




Piper is doing fine. Fine, as in after 1 minute in our new house, she pooped on the carpet. She's learning her way around, as we are. She really enjoys the deck!


so, that is moving day for us. we're knee deep in work around here, so not sure the next time I'll be blogging!