Carys is 5!

Well, on January 17, Carys turned 5. However, we moved the following weekend, so I am just getting around to posting pictures from her birthday. Sigh!


5 is a big birthday at our house. When you're 5 you no longer have to take a nap, and you finally get to chew gum! Carys could hardly wait. Of course, she hadn't been napping since we moved in September. I just couldn't get her back into the routine. I figured that it wasn't worth fighting for 4 months.

But the gum was a big deal! Chase gave her a piece as soon as she got up.


We waited to open presents until Greg got home from work around 3:45pm. He'd been going from work straight to the new house to lay the laminate flooring. So, this was early for him. And what patience for a 5-year-old with a pile of present on the table!


Gerren gave Carys glow-stick bracelets.


Landon gave her the black Color Wonder paper.


Chase gave Carys a box of Bazooka bubble gum all her own...


and a bag of gummy worms. Thank the Lord for the Dollar Tree!


Finally, we got the presents from Mom and Dad. Gerren read the card to her.


Her first gift was a kid-sized Wii remote. She wants to play Wii with everyone so badly but gets frustrated when she doesn't do well.


We also gave her this Nickelodeon Wii Fit game.


She also got this new Veggie Tales movie, Sweetpea Beauty.


Her final gift was this supersized box of Playdoh, which I got at Walmart's Black Friday sale.


I put the Playdoh up right away since we were moving in five days. She was asking to play with it immediately when we were in the new house. I told her she had to wait until the boxes were unpacked. She asked every single day, and I would say, "Look around. Do you see any boxes?" The boxes in the house are now unpacked. The only boxes you can see are the ceiling fans which Greg needs to install. However, there is only one very narrow walkway through the garage. She's stopped asking to play with it, though, so I guess I'll have to give in and suggest it one day this week. :)

Yesterday, 12 days after we spent our first night here, I finally felt like at least the top of my head was above water. Ugh! It's great to be able to have a brand new house, but it comes with its own set of difficulties - like no window treatments or fans in the house. We had trouble with appliances we ordered from Universal Appliance and Kitchen Center in CA. Don't ever order from them!!! Pay a little extra and get them locally. We also sold all our bookcases with our house, so we had to buy new ones at IKEA. The school room in the house is much smaller than the house we designed, so I posted probably 100 books on Paperback Swap. It's good for me to get rid of stuff, but also hard with Carys just starting school. In the future, I will be relentless about getting rid of stuff she has grown out of (except the Sonlight books, I think I'll save those for the grandkids)! :)

There is still so much to do here, but most of that is stuff Greg has to do. Ugh! Ceiling fans installed, transition strips between the tile/carpet and laminate finished, board put on attic floor so some stuff in the garage can go up there, garage door opener installed, garage cabinets purchased and Greg's tools and junk sorted through and stored, garage floor sealed and painted, garage set up as music/weight lifting/toy room, front door painted, blinds for 2 front rooms purchased and installed (we were debating between blinds and shutters in those rooms, so we didn't do them when we did the bedrooms). We also have to decide what to do with window treatments for the sliding glass doors. Those are the major things he has to do. We need one more bookcase from IKEA. The builder has to do the landscaping. We have sod but no plants around the house. He is responsible for that.

It seems overwhelming to list it all, but we're so much farther along than we were 2 weeks ago. My house is neat enough that I can function. We managed to only miss one week of school -- a miracle! So, I'm getting back into a school, cleaning, cooking routine, and that makes life seem more manageable to me.

Greg STILL needs a new job. He needs to make more than poverty wages. And if he doesn't find a better-paying job in the next month, he's going to have to get a second job. We all HATE the idea of that. Please pray for us.