April 2015

My parents bought a house just down the road from us and moved to Idaho!!!  My mom moved first while my dad stayed back in WA to finish up some things there.  

 We had a flood upstairs that flooded our downstairs and started our adventure into remodeling the house.  

 This is our old formal dining room that we never used as a dining room but as a tumbling room for the kids since there was nice plush carpet....LOL.  This is is where a lot of the water damage happened.  Five rooms in our house were flooded!!!  Two upstairs and 3 down.  

 These lovely fans got to be in our house for a good week running day and night.....it was very loud.

 This is looking into Mark's office that got a good amount of water damage. 

 Here is a picture taken from in our homeschool room looking into the formal dining. 

We had a chandelier hanging in this room that became water logged and fell out of the celling the moment one of the workers touched it. 

All this water damage was from ONE load of laundry that emptied onto the floor and not in the hose....it wasn't running water, just the ONE load draining!  We never in a million years thought we would have this much damage.  

House Hunting

 My parents were just here for a quick visit so they could house hunt!  It was a fun few days.  What made it really fun was that they found a house, put an offer on it and it was accepted!  Their new house is just a half mile down the road from us. We can walk there!!! 

We walked through a good amount of homes.  My dad inspected all the homes with a fine-toothed comb.  This particular home he's looking at was a major NO....HA!....it's interesting how you just know right away if it will work. 

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Here is their new home!!!  

Isn't is darling?  It's perfect for them and just a really sweet house. 

After all the house hunting my dad and mom got to relax and play with the kids.  

Here's my dad walking through the field next to our house with the kids.  

We are so excited to have neighbors!!! 

Answered Prayer!

Pray without ceasing. 1 Thessalonians 5:17

God hears the prayers of the righteous and He has answered us!!  We have been praying that my parents would move to Idaho to be near our family since the day we moved to Idaho.  And it's official, my parents are moving to Idaho!!  We are so excited and praise God for this opportunity to have grandparents close by again.  We used to live six blocks away from them back in WA state.  That was a very special thing we had. We moved to Idaho a little over 2 years ago and that was the hardest decision we had to make because that meant leaving behind such amazing, godly grandparents who were our biggest supporters and literally a part of our family and still are!  It was all part of God's plan though to move and now He has opened the door for them to move near us.  Here is a link to my mom's blog. 

Time's Up!

(My amazing parents!)

Grammie-goo's Visit

 Here are the kids waiting so eagerly to see Grammie-goo.  This is always so exciting to try to be the first one to spot her.  Since it's winter and the passes are snowy and icy my mom flys.  It's an hour and twenty minute flight vs. a 9 hour drive.  Not too bad! 

 Getting excited!!!

 We see her!!!

 This is the part I always get emotional at.  We haven't hugged her since Thanksgiving and it's just so nice to hug again. 

 My mom helped me organize my kitchen cabinets.  So helpful!!! 

We planned back in the fall to go to the Boise Philharmonic with Lulu and Levi.  So my mom planned her trip around the date we were going to go with our church homeschool group.  

The Morrison Center in the background where the concert was held. 

 We got there early!

 Lot's and lot's of reading time with Grammie-goo!

Vacation to Mema's Barn

 We left early in the morning on our trip to central Oregon to visit Mark's mom.  

 We stopped in Burns, OR for some breakfast.  

 When we arrived at Mema's the kids got to open their goodie bags she had prepared for them.  

 Silas had a blast walking in the walker around the barn.  

 An older family picture.....Mark's the youngest.  

 Mark's mom made her famous cream cheese brownies.  Yum!

Bath time!

 We took the kids bowling for the first time at the little local bowling ally. 

Our pet frog for the week.

Roadside picnic on our way home.