New House

It's official, we are permanent residents of North Carolina. Technically, we were residents 3 1/2 yrs ago when got our NC state driver's licenses, but now we are home owners in this state and have an address that will not be changing in 6 months or even 1 year (Lord willing). For those of you that had to cross out our address year after year in your address book...if you have any room left in the "H" section of your book, you can write this one in ink! And I'll msg. the address to you all personally so it's not published on the world wide web for everyone to see!
Our house is 3 miles from our current rental house in Waxhaw. It's about 10 min. from Adam's job, so that is a huge blessing. And we already know 3 families that live in our new neighborhood from prior relationships w/ MOPS or mutual friends.
So onto doing our "favorite" thing, or so one would think b/c of how many times we have moved in the past 3 1/2 yrs. But we both really hate moving and are not looking forward to the whole process, but are looking forward to being in our new house. We now have a true extra/guest room, so PLEASE come visit us! (although we have to work on our furniture supply...having never lived in a place bigger than 1200 sq ft, our new house will be a little empty furniture-wise at first. but I am scouring Craigslist and watching for sales, and just waiting)

Tot School

~Wyatt is 3.75 years old. Levi is 2.5 years old~

Once again, it's been awhile since I posted anything about our Tot School (soon to be Preschool Corner for our soon-to-be 4 yr old!). We have done fun things pertaining to Letters G, H, I, J, and K since my last Tot School post, but I only have pictures from a few of those. One of the letters that we enjoyed alot was J because we were on that letter right around Christmastime. We did lots of fun papers and crafts with 'J is for Jesus' as our theme. (printables all coming from Confessions of a Homeschooler's blog. We even put together our own stable complete with Baby Jesus in the manger and a star on top. (but no pictures...boo hoo!)

Here is a pictures of Levi trying to arrage some inchworms (for Letter I) in order from biggest to smallest.

Levi did a "complete the pattern" activity. If you click on this picture, it will show larger and you can see that his patterns were the 3 Wise Men, and Baby Jesus in the manger

Wyatt has been doing extremely well with watercolors. He gets frustrated alot when he is coloring with crayons and gets out of the lines. But for some reason when he paints w/ water colors, he has alot more control it seems and stays in the lines more easily (see Candy Cane picture below)

Wyatt completed a "puzzle". I printed this picture and cut it into 6 squares and he had to put it back together.

More Fun with "K is for Kite" theme.

These kites were from the Resource Center and were a big hit! Great to have something tangible to go along with the theme and great for re-inforcing (Wyatt) and teaching (Levi) numbers!

Take 2!! Levi's eyes are now open, but Wyatt is doing some pirate moves!


LIFE SCHOOL

Just some everyday "teachable" moments we get to share with just everyday LIFE!
I'll save the info and pics about our BIG NC SNOW for another post, but here are a few. Adam was out of work for 4 days due to snow and ice. The first day was really fun with lots of soft snow, then it got icy and "too crunchy" to play in. The boys were bored, but needed to be outside to get some energy out!! I put some food coloring into 2 sprayer/squirter water bottles and sent them out. Not sure if you can see well from this picture, but we had blue and green snow/ice all around our yard! They had fun! They also learned how to walk in snow and be careful on ice when they were walking with Daddy up our snowy street. (notice the trash can lid in Adam's hand. our southern sled!)

New Year

2010 is over. While it started off with a bang of bad news, it ended with some very promising news (to be disclosed in a later post...and NO I'm not pregnant)! A year ago, we found out that our landlord had gotten foreclosed on and never even bothered to let us know. Yes, the house we were living in, and had been paying monthly rent for the past 10 months was now owned by the bank, and we would have to move within 6 weeks. Finding a notice of a Sherrif's Auction on the door of your rental house is pretty shocking in and of itself, not to mention that that was the first place we had lived since moving to NC that finally felt "permanent".

We would have loved to rent that house for 5 years (our home in FL that never sold due to the housing market crash was limiting us from buying a home at the time). We had incredible neighbors, it was a great neighborhood, had a great fenced-in yard that backed up to woods, the boys had their own room (which was HUGE for sleeping habits of toddlers), I was finally making friends and enjoying living in NC (which was also HUGE b/c the move to NC and the subsequent 18 months was a little hard for me to say the least). Oh, and to add to the shock of how we found out about this, and to the disappointment of leaving that specific house/neighborhood...add to that, the "hassle" (not sure what word to use here) of moving...AGAIN...that was our 4th move in 2 1/2 yrs.
BUT as I think back on the past year, there are so many blessing for which to be thankful! At times I questioned why the Lord even allowed us to even rent that house if we were just going to have to move out after 10 months. I almost wished we had never gotten to live there b/c now I was going to compare any future housing options to that and be disappointed...BUT living in that house/neighborhood ended up bringing many blessings from the Lord.
While I would have never wished or desired to pack and unpack as many times as I have since Aug 2007, each place we have lived since coming to NC has "made me who I am today" (isn't that a phrase that you hear alot??...best way I could think to describe it although cliche). I've gotten to know many different areas, the pros and cons of different neighborhoods and parts of the town, and learned where lots of different stores and businesses are located. And most importantly, I have made all types of different friends (mom friends, friends for my children, dog-sitter friends, home-schooling friends, etc, etc) from all the neighbors that we have had. And most specially of the most importantly, I made one of the closest friends that I have ever had. A Christ-loving girl that is my age and has the same age kids. God is good!

And now the house that we moved to...another rental. We didn't have much choice b/c of the short amt. of time due to the lack of notice from the landlord (I need to let that go, I know!! But I still can't get over that!)
Thankfully, we were able to stay in Waxhaw and at the same monthly rent. But, the house was much smaller, the boys had to share a room once again ;-(, it was surrounded by trees (horrible for allergies--this is the girl who had to get allergy shots as a kid, and stay home from school b/c I couldn't see out of my eyes...so 50 oak trees covering my house is kind of a big deal for me), and other little things that just weren't my first choice. At least we were just renting it.

But there are lots of things that I must list that I am so thankful for and will be sad to leave:
the nice wood floors throughout, all of the extra custom cabinets in the kitchen, everything being so 'close' in the house b/c it's all on one level, the window over the kitchen sink letting me watch the kids while they play on the nice deck, the storm doors so I can let some sunlight in (I'm def. a "solar-powered" gal), closenss to Harris Teeter, less house to clean, and another neighbor who has become a great friend even though they moved to another neighborhood.
And I must list a few more things I love b/c I went into so much detail about the negative earlier...I just really like the town of Waxhaw in general...found the best re-sale kids clothing shop ever...Sweet Repeats, and discovered MOPS (Moms of Preschoolers) at Waxhaw Bible Church and made lots of sweet Christian moms there!

This is getting very long, so I will end with the following that I cut and paste from one of my favorite websites: Life as Mom She said what is my heart and what I desire.

What’s does the future hold?
I have no idea what will happen in the new year. I imagine that some things will change, some will stay the same. But, I know that I want to approach the twists and turns that are sure to characterize the road ahead with the right attitude.

I want to trust that God is ultimately in control. I want to remember to hold things loosely — what do I have that He hasn’t given me?
I want to laugh often and love much.
I want to say yes, be all there, and enjoy today.
Will these things guarantee that my year is a happy one? No, there’s no guarantee to anything in life.

But, I think if we expect the unexpected and prepare our hearts and minds to tackle stumbling blocks with determination and a good attitude, well, I think it can be a happy year.