the first week

Tonight I walked over to the neighbor's house to repay her for a trip to Costco.

It was the first time I'd stepped foot out of the house since Monday.

And I've been perfectly fine with that. 

The kids have been thrilled to have space again, for running, riding bikes in the unfinished basement, and playing together. 

For the first three days Kent and I almost never even saw Nick and Ellie--they spent the whole time in their new room or down in the basement. It was glorious. The condo we rented for the past few weeks was beautiful and clean and comfortable, but it lacked in just space. We are all breathing easier now that we're not clambering on top of each other.

Today Nicholas and Ellie comandeered the master bathroom, pretending to be inventors and fighting invisible bad guys at the same time. While they played, Christian slid across the floor from room to room, tapping doors with his fingers, opening drawers, and finding new ways to get himself stuck under chairs, half-inside boxes, etc.

And I sat on the couch and read a book.

All those months of stress and chaos and now we're finally here.

It's been a week of stay-at-home do-nothing-but-play bliss.

On Sunday we spent the morning rummaging through boxes, suitcases, and all through the house trying to find all of our Church clothes. I will admit there was even some yelling and throwing of boxes. But we finally got everyone ready, and we stepped out the door to this:

Our poor mini-van, entrenched in about 10" of snow. Our street had not been plowed. 

Kent attempted to shovel the driveway around his car, but even still we wouldn't be making it out of our neighborhood.

So we scooped up the kids, and came inside to have our own little "at home Church" meeting.

And I took a picture.

First Sunday in our new home, and miraculously, this was the first and only photo we had to take.

A few more pictures from our first week here:

 The first night. Boxes everywhere.

 Our realtor was absolutely positively amazing. On top of everything else, he left us little gifts throughout the house. A basket of lotions and bath soaps in the master bath, a beautiful book in Christian's room, a ladder (!), and a basket full of essentials (motrin, tissues, paper towels, scissors, markers, paper, plates and cups, batteries, tools--everything we needed on move-in day.)

 Nicholas took this picture of me in the middle of a string of nearly 100 blurry pictures of Ellie's bed.

 Today the kids went swimming in my bathtub. I think Christian got more wet than they did by the end...

 I think the children would actually prefer us to leave the basement just the way it is. It's the perfect place for exploring and getting out some energy!

 And this little critter has found two favorite things about the new house.
Sneaking off to my bathroom to turn on the bathtub,

 And wedging himself between the baby gate and the stairs.

 We installed a new gate yesterday, and I think he's kinda disappointed he can't do this anymore.