The Last Two Weeks

Nora practiced being a big sister to our new friend's baby, Xander

(ps, all the kids were in diapers because they had been outside playing in the water table...i don't just let her chill in her diaper on playdate's at other peoples' houses ;)

we have painted A LOT.  There really isn't any use in showing you the downstairs color, because it's pretty neutral--and not much different than before--the current color is a satin finish instead of flat so the  kids won't mark up the walls so bad and the color is a bit "cooler" than the original. 

we also have painted the kids room (which will be in a post soon) and our master bedroom.  The master bedroom (shown below) is a super bright room so we painted it pretty dark, since it could handle it.  i love it and will get a better picture when the room is unpacked and finished. 

we hung up our welcome sign from 225 BSB (the unit Mike was a part of in Hawaii)  

decorated a little for the coming holiday even in the midst of our mess--cause the 4th is our favorite holiday!

bought a pool for the kids to play in...which of course they LOVE

we also went to Asheboro for the weekend to visit the grandparents, go to a baby shower for my cousin Sarah, and pick up some more stuff for the house.  The pics are slim from this weekend--at least mike took a few on his phone ;)

Nora picking Hydrangeas 

 playdough with Grandpa Sam

and then Mike and I took all day Sunday to go to the Charlotte Ikea to get some furniture to fill our empty and huge house.  The theme for this trip was storage...although i would love to have bought lots of other things i saw.  This store truly lived up to my expectations--one more perk of being back on the mainland. 

there's a cafeteria there with decent home-cooked food--and they have nifty little trays to wheel it to your table on.  for all of you reading this thinking, "why is there a cafeteria in a store?"  let me just tell you...it's that big!  a food break is almost required. 

the end picture of our two carts packed FULL and Mike in the back laughing at our 2 ft. long receipt. 

a little taste of what we bought.  Surprisingly putting it all together was fairly easy.  the piece below was the hardest.  In total we had 5 pieces downstairs and 6 in the twins room--Mike finished in 2 days. 

but even though we've been busy there's been time for some snuggles too.  and it's a darn good thing, because have you noticed how fast they are growing up?????????