Moving In

Let's see what it looked like when we were moving in! Let me remind you, we were in the midst of starting a new school, still working our regular jobs (yes, no time off was taken), and trying to keep up with our regular lives. It was a bit hectic to say the least!

Holy boxes! So this is the sight of our future toy room.

This is the same room with an angle from the front door/entry way.

What's all the blue tape might you ask? It's all the imperfections I was talking about! From texturing issues, paint, you name it, we had it!

Our entry way from the front door. Yes, everything is white!

Our New Home

Well, to say we have been busy the last few months is quite the understatement. The same weekend we closed on our home, we were at the Strawberry Music Festival. We had to clean out our old home and make it rental ready. Thankfully we found renters fairly quickly and so far, cross our fingers and pray, they have worked out well.

So here we are, our first brand new home and it is a blank slate! Something I love, and not hate, but let's just say, it can be overwhelming how much there is to do to a brand new home! First of all, since it's brand new, I expected it to be perfect and well, it wasn't. Since they build these homes so fast and furious, there are tons of minor imperfections to be done. So here we are, 4 months later with problems we are waiting to be "perfected." But all in all, I love our new home! I love the layout, I love the space, I love that it's new, I love my new kitchen, I love my pantry... the list goes on and on!

So here it is... 4 months later. Our brand new home! It still sometimes feels like a hotel since everything is white but I'm feeling the itch to make it ours after a few months. It took some time to move everything over and get everything situated, but we are and hope this year I can put everything in it's place! Slow and steady wins the race, and let's just say, this is going to be one long race!

First Day of School

We started the first day of school in August 2015. Even though we were living at our "old" house, we commuted for about 2 weeks before we got into our new home. Ashton had to transfer to a new school and took some time to transition from Valley Oak. But we are now fully at Dry Creek Elementary.

Ashton's 1st day of 2nd grade

6 years, 11 months

Violet's 1st day of Kindergarten

5 years, 4 months

Tim's 1st day of Preschool (at Dry Creek Elementary as well!)

4 years, 1 month

We're Back!

Well, let's just say a few things have happened in the last 6 months! I will work on updating pictures and our family happenings soon. We had a great Christmas. We traveled up to San Jose to spend it with the Besmer and Renfer families and back down to Santa Maria to visit my Mom's mom, Nanay. She is 88 years young and is sprite as can be. We are so blessed with all 4 great-grandmas and 1 great-grandpa!

The following week we traveled to see my Dad's mom, Great Grandma Perta. The kids love seeing everyone and of course, getting lots of love and presents!

And our biggest news of 2015... yes I realize it's 2016 now, is that we moved into a new home. So the last 6 months has been dealing with all of that. Moving, renting out our old home, moving into a brand new home and making it our HOME! We love it and will update soon on our progress. It's fun having a blank slate but oh so overwhelming!

Last Day of Preschool for Violet

So, next year I will have two kids in "real" school, one in preschool, and two remaining in daycare. Violet did well in preschool this year despite being a little shy. She learned most of her letters, her numbers, and the sounds to the letters. We need to get her more comfortable with being able to tell the teachers what she knows. She loves to color and draw, especially mermaids, rainbows, and princesses.

Last Day of 1st Grade

Wow! That year went by quickly, that's for sure! Ashton learned a lot this year. He has excelled in school with little help from Mommy this year. He is very intelligent. We worked on maturity issues this year, such as, sitting in our seats, not getting up to talk to his friends, but I am very surprised how well he did. He always got >90% in his spelling tests, usually 100% and always 2-3 "challenge" words. He passed his 60 addition, 60 subtraction, and 100 plus "Math facts." He has learned to read and last tested, he was passing AR 2.6 and 2.9 levels - which to us non-familiar to the AR program - Grade level (2), month 6-9. He loves to learn about History - he loves maps and enjoyed learning about presidents. He is ready to take on 2nd grade! I'm hoping to encourage his love of reading this summer!

My Mother is a Baker - Violet's Preschool Perfomance

It's the end of the year performance time. It's going to take awhile to upload all of her songs, but this one is a fun one!