The Mortier Home

It's been almost three weeks now since our move! While we miss our old neighbors and some things about town home living, we are loving our new home, yard, and neighborhood. Below are some pictures of the new Mortier Home in its various stages of set up. :) 

Here's the five us us on the porch on closing day! The girls were so excited, especially about the swing set in the back yard (which you'll see below). 

Moving day brought the biggest Penske ever which we managed to fill, despite all of my (what I thought were quite successful!) purging efforts! The girls headed to a friends' house with Aunt Caroline but they enjoyed some pre-moving fun in "daddy's truck". We live close to a Penske rental location and they get so excited every time they catch a glimpse of one of daddy's trucks. ;) 

We were SO appreciative of all our church friends and family who came and helped us move. I'm still overwhelmed by their kindness. Not only did they help move the furniture and boxes, but they helped unload and set up the beds, kitchen, bookshelves, garage, etc and cleaned our old place! I couldn't imagine the day going smoother or more fun, actually. I was disappointed because it was supposed to rain, but it just misted which kept everyone cool and was probably preferable to sunny, hot, and humid! Here's part of the moving team having lunch in our new family room right after move-in. Thank you wonderful friends!

Now for the tour (with what pictures I have…as I look at them now I realize that they're not great, but hopefully they'll give the idea!) - we still have a ways to go, but we're excited about the start!! 

Here's Nathan's garage. It's not huge but it does fit both cars! This was night 2 in the new house so he was quite happy to get them both in. Don't be deceived though. They've been in the drive way most of the past three weeks as the garage is used for projects and as a staging area. :) And yes… we have three babies and no minivan. I am sure I will love it someday, but for now I'm thoroughly enjoying my accord. ;)

As you walk in the front door….

Living room and dining room (aka playroom)

Nathan is convinced we have DBAS - doll bed acquisition syndrome. ;) You'll note the crib, cradle, canopy bed, and bunk beds on the left. ;) LOTS of time is spent in this room. We love the big window - quite the change from our last play room which was in the middle of our town home and really didn't get any natural light. Also, I didn't clean up before all these pictures... I thought about it, but then I decided to be realistic. We have three small children and just moved and I still have to make dinner before naps end! :) Sooooo you can just imagine how amazing it looks when it's all cleaned up. ;)

Someone is feeling quite grown up these days and loving the new play room... :)

Downstairs half bath

Breakfast area, (both empty and full of my high school girls before half of them left for college! :( You can also see part of the swing set through the windows:

Family room (not the greatest pictures but the kids are pretty cute! ;))

    

This is all I have of the kitchen so far. Someone is thoroughly enjoying the fact that the child latches haven't been installed yet in this kitchen. ;)

Here's the full swing set and part of the backyard and patio. We LOVE the patio. It's pretty new and quite large. Unfortunately by the time we moved in and went to get patio furniture, everything was sold out. I guess that just gives us more time to think and plan and save for when it comes back in the spring. :)

Guest room (aka Aunt Caroline's room since she's already lived in it 2 weeks :)). It has pictures and curtains up now, but this was pre-picture hanging and it doubles as Evie's napping room and since she's asleep right now, better pictures will have to wait. :)
Julia's Room:

Evelyn and Grace's room. Nathan and his dad put up the crown molding the day before we moved in. I love it and can't wait for them to put it up in our bedroom now…… :D

Our room, closet and bath (please ignore the chaos, much work still to go :)).

That's all for now! We look forward to hosting many of you in our guest room in the future! :)

Happy Memorial Day!

As we've enjoyed our long weekend, we have remembered all the sacrifices of the men and women who make our life here possible. So thankful for them and for the country we live in!

Friday was spent at the beach with Grandma and Papa and Great-Grandma and Great-Grandpa Mortier. Such a fun morning, so much so that we forgot to take pictures! Saturday was Jamie's (one of my youth group girls… I've been with her since 8th grade, how is she graduating already?!?!) graduation party. Since Jamie lives in NN we decided to take the girls to the Virginia Living Museum beforehand. They have a new dinosaur exhibit that the girls enjoyed. We also got there just in time to see them feed the otters and beavers!

This next picture cracks me up… Julia’s delighted look as she got a big handful of Gracie’s hair and Gracie’s surprised response!! ;)

The food was so good and the swing set so fun and the company so great that we once again forgot to take pictures of the actual graduation party! Trust me though, we all had a blast. :)

Today was our first trip to the pool this year! I bought them all matching swimsuits to make it easier for me to keep an eye on them. Gracie and Evie also have almost matching floating to help me even more. :) This was Julia’s first pool trip ever and she loved it. After splashing around a bit she settled in her stroller and slept the rest of the time. She seriously is the ideal baby! :)

We wanted to share a few other pictures from this past week…
We went strawberry picking… again… they are so good and so sweet we can’t stay away!

We practiced taking silly selfies to send to Aunt Katie ;)

And just enjoyed the lovely weather we’ve had with our three favorite lithe girls!

Life Lately...

We take lots of pictures all day long of our three girlies, but sharing them is a whole different issue. ;) Here's a brief update on our life lately. It is full. It is exhausting. It is wonderful. It is hilarious. We laugh all day long. Sometimes because the alternative is crying ;), but usually because life is full of so much adorableness, hilarity and joy.

Julia continues to get more adorable by the day (despite the sad fact that her thick, curly dark hair is slowly starting to fall out. :( Hopefully the new hair will come in faster than it did for her sisters ;)) Evie calls her "sweet cider half drunk up" (like Pa in Little House on the Prairie) and goes around saying "Julia is just the cutest! Julia is A-Dor-A-Ble!!!" Grace and Evelyn definitely get her to laugh the most.

Sweet Julia has also learned how amazing cords are…….. (and she's moving, this is nowhere near where I set her down!)

We've had popsicle parties on warm days (or at least days that were supposed to be warm...)

Gracie's picked up doctoring...

We've taken trips to the Mariner's Museum. Evie loved the hurricane simulator, Gracie was terrified. Gracie did love this masthead in the museum lobby and called it the bunny all day.

We've made several Busch Garden's trips… One mommy/Gracie date, one family trip, and one friend trip so far. 

We've entered the Frozen craze and go around singing the songs and reenacting the movie. We've also been to a Frozen party with 13 little Elsas and Annas running around. 

We got a Virginia Living Museum pass and have enjoyed trips with friends (and mourned the fact that the wonderful friends are moving to CA!)

We had a St. Patrick's Day lunch with friends. All four girls tried jello jigglers for the first time with mixed feelings… ;) This picture shows how close Gracie was willing to get. She *may* have poked it, but not I'm not sure touching it actually happened. ;)

We went to several Easter Egg hunts where Gracie's competitive, survival-middle-child streak came out and she made out like a bandit and Evie got between 3-5 eggs… but they were all pink and/or sparkly ones!

We attempted a family Easter picture but Nathan didn't quite make it in and no one was quite looking in the same direction ;)

We've learned about selfies! 

I had an amaaaaazing birthday date with my wonderful husband! (thanks Mom and Dad M for watching the girls so we could have our day! :))

The girls have practiced getting dressed and picking out their own clothes… with mixed success ;)

Great-Grandma and Great-Grandpa have visited from Oregon!

We've fully embraced spring and all the flowers and sports and picnics that come with it. :)

And we have tried to live every day to the fullest with these three wonderful babies! :)

Thanks for wading through this loooooooooong picture post! Hopefully I'll be able to be more consistent in posting again soon. :)