Goodbye Summer...

I am not sure how it is September already… our little baby will be ONE and her biggest sister will be FOUR in just two months!! I have no idea how that happened. It seems that we blinked and summer was over. June we knew would be crazy with VBS followed by a close friend’s wedding. This was Evie’s first year officially attending VBS. At the end of the first day she begged to PLEASE do it again! She was very happy to hear there would be a whole week like day 1! :) It’s always a crazy week and busy couple months leading up to VBS, but this was my fourth year coordinating and it is definitely getting easier!! It’s more fun too now that my girls are starting to be able to fully participate and enjoy it. :)

The week after VBS Aunt Katie came to help during Miss Annette’s wedding. It may have been the most fun wedding I’ve been to (besides our own ;)). Evelyn thought it was the best day EVER and was completely in her element. :) Since I was in it and she and Miss Annette are good friends, she was quite pleased that she got to participate in several different events… and wore a different dress to each. :p Her “tea party dress” for breakfast with the bridesmaids, her Cinderella gown for getting ready with the bridesmaids, a random dress of my choosing for he ceremony, and the lovely lacy dress and cinderella slippers you see in the pictures below for the reception. ;) (I’m not sure why the pictures are showing up so small…)

Over July 4th weekend we headed to Ohio to celebrate Granddad’s *80th* birthday. It was a quick but very fun visit with everyone! 

I thought after this that our summer would sort of slow down and I’d have my typical July VBS-and-everything-else-I-was-in-charge-of-or-participating-in-is-over slump BUT…… mixed in with beach trips, pool parties, Busch Gardens adventures and eating ice cream in Colonial Williamsburg, we ended up buying a house and moving (as you can see in the post below :))!! We’ve been looking for a while but were thinking we’d need to wait until next summer. However, the right house in the perfect neighborhood went up and we put an offer in the day we looked at it. The last two months then have been a flurry of packing up, moving, unpacking, hosting family, settling in, painting, home projects, cleaning up the yard, getting poison ivy EVERYWHERE, and overall loving settling into our own home (minus the poison ivy everywhere part…).

And now, here we are and it is September. Evie started a little preschool class last week of which she is QUITE proud. Gracie talks up a storm, almost talking as well as Evie, and Julia desperately tries to keep up with the older two, finding nothing as offensive as being left out of their games.

Tomorrow begins ballet, tap and music class (I’m teaching tap in addition to ballet this year… youtube and google are majorly helping me out here), Wednesday begins BSF, small group has started, MOPS is next week, I made the first big batch of soup of the season today, I’m thinking about orchard trips, and our Pumpkin Day field trip is on the calendar! While our summer didn’t look quite like I was anticipating, it was SO good and better than I could have even imagined. I can’t wait to see what adventures this fall holds!

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!