Sweet Music

For the past two years our piano has been stored at Levi's parents house since we didn't have room for it. On Saturday Levi, David, Isaiah, and Andy brought it over to our house. It is the piano that my brother and I played as we were growing up. I remember many hours of practice, recitals, and contests we both were in. Those are a lot of fun memories for me. I hope the boys will take an interest in music of some sort too. Right now there is a HUGE interest!!! Over and over again all day long I hear "Mommy can I play the piano" (Marcus), or "Pano?" (Carson), or Cole just points at it. It's kind of cute. It has been years since I played, but I figure it's like riding a bike right? You never completely forget? We'll see. I'm going to get some music out this week and see what I can do. :)

This New Life

Wow, this week went by really fast... Last Sunday we had an amazingly joyful day of celebration! (I may expand on this more at a later date, or maybe not...I don't know, while the internet is an awesome thing it also creeps me out a bit too) Let me just say that in the past year and a half we, as a family, have strived to live life very differently than we have ever done before. We were, quite literally, headed down a path of destruction in so many ways. It was painfully obvious to both of us that we needed to draw near to God, straighten out our priorities, and seek out our families and friendships who would support us in this wholeheartedly and prayerfully. We have purposefully tried to seek out God's will for our family, and taken time to focus on and love each other the way Christ intended. We've spent so much time in prayer together, and the Lord has been so merciful...I feel it is nothing short of a miracle all the things that God has done and is doing. He absolutely answers prayers, maybe not always the way you want or expect, but he is always faithful to answer. If you have been praying for us (about anything and everything), we THANK YOU from the bottom of our hearts.

As I was saying, this week went by really fast...Monday Levi started his rotations at the hospital and had a busy, but really good week. It will take a little adjustment for all of us to get used to this new schedule, but so far it is going well. The boys and I headed to the gym every morning last week and I have enjoyed classes and getting to know some new people. The boys have been playing there every morning for an hour and have seemed to like the time there. Our house is looking more and more like a home...I still need to get some pictures up and things decorated a bit, but that's on my to-do list this week. Since we've been in our new town we've spent quite a bit of time with friends and family, which has been a huge blessing and so fun to pretty much know that whereever we go we WILL see someone we know. The past year in SD life was the complete opposite...which for a season in life being off on your own has it's place, but we're so thankful now to be here.

One funny and I'll end this post...Marcus and I were reading about the Tower of Babel this week. I told him that the men building it thought they could build it as high as the heavens and took great pride in themselves for what they had done. They thought they were better than God and that was NOT good. The picture in the book showed a tower with some windows in it. Marcus laughed and said, "Mom that's silly that they thought they were better than God...He would have remembered to put screens in the windows!" ;)

NEVER A DULL MOMENT AROUND HERE!!!

Goofballs

The boys were really being goofy when I was trying to get some pictures the other day. It's amazing how silliness is so contagious around here sometimes... Deann came over on Thursday to help Levi and I give the boys their first "at home" hair cuts. She helped supervise our efforts while we did the cutting. I am happy to say that we'll be saving money on haircuts from now on, as it seemed to be a successful experiment. I love fresh haircuts on the boys too, so that will be able to happen as often as we like since it is now free. It is pretty incredible too that this was the first time that none of the boys cried during a haircut.

Two Words...PING PONG

Do we look tired or what???
And now we're all going to drive 8 hours...
Levi and David
Amanda cleaning windows
Levi's Mom working hard
Carson playing with the kitchen set in the yard...hoping it's not going to get packed next

Cole supervising the move
Marcus

Our Dads
David strategically planning how to pack the truck
Boys busy playing while we load the truckAmanda keeping the boys entertained

Enjoying the party
Cool Dude
Is that a piece of gauze? No, it's Marcus and his blankie!
Playing at the park
ColeBirthday boy, also known as "baby boy A"
Birthday boy...also known as "baby boy B" Loving our new home

Marcus and DaddyDeann and Jenny
Rock stars

Ok, so first off, Levi and I are hooked on Ping Pong! We moved into our new home and there was a nice ping pong table stored in our basement storage room...so we are using it! It's so much fun, but very addicting! I have to admit that our house would probably have been "put together" much more quickly if we hadn't spent EVERY afternoon down there, while the boys are sleeping. I also have to admit that we are pretty competitive with each other so there has been a lot "friendly" comments made between the two of us. I can just hear the conversation now as Levi goes into clinicals on Monday, "So what did you do on your two week break?"..."played PING PONG?" Ha ha! Someday we will get to the beach for a vacation, but for now it's ping pong. We even went so far as to DVR the Olympic's ping pong tournament at 4 a.m. just to see if we could get some pointers...

Very strange I know.

I posted lots of pic's of various things over the past few weeks. Since my Mom had knee surgery recently, her job during the move was to be camera woman...she did a great job! Have a great weekend!

Roller Skating and Apple Pickin'

The boys enjoying a nice evening
Cole

Marcus
Carson enjoying his apple

Rosana (Levi's cousin), Marcus, and Jenny
Marcus getting psyched up to skateMommy and Marcus
Deann, the birthday girl, and friends
Daddy and Marcus

On Saturday afternoon Levi and I took Marcus roller skating for the first time. For Deann's 30th birthday she wanted to go roller skating, have a cookout, and play volleyball. It was a really fun afternoon/evening! Marcus had never been roller skating, but took to it like a champ! He really had a fun time and several times asked us if we would let go of his hand so he could skate by himself...It was a hit and I believe we'll be going back a lot! It's so weird to do something like that, that Levi and I haven't done since we were pretty little kids, and then go back and experience it all over again with our own kids. It brought back a lot of fun memories.

The rest of the pictures are from the boys on our back deck eating apples they picked off the tree in our yard. As you can tell they really enjoyed them!

Getting Settled

Kelly men

Papa Ballew and Marcus
Levi and the boys
Splashing around
Throwing rocks in the lake
Having fun
Kelly boys
Cole and Carson

The Kelly men and their tools
Finishing putting beds together
Little boys in big boy beds
Cole and Carson
Marcus in his new loft bed

Our first week in the new town has been a lot of fun for all of us. We've been busy unpacking and getting everything situated...which is taking longer than I thought, but we're getting it done. The boys have been on cloud nine to be here and see other people (besides Levi and I) on a daily basis.

Carson and Cole have adjusted to big boy beds just fine. We were a little worried that it would take a while to make them understand they have to stay in their beds, but usually it only takes a couple times, each night, of telling them to lay down or get back in bed. The first time they took a nap in their big boy beds I went in to check on them and they were both gone! It scared me to death. Then I noticed the closet door opening slowly and two little heads peaking out at me with the biggest smiles on their faces! It was kind of cute. Other times I have caught them going down the slide in their room...yeah, that's right...there is a slide in their room attached to Marcus' loft bed. That's almost like torture making 2 and 3 year olds stay in bed when their new room is so fun, huh? :) Anyway, it's going well, actually much better than I had thought.

My Mom and Dad left on Thursday, and it was sad to see them go, but at the same time it is nice to know we are much closer now. I'm sure we'll see them more often...at least that's what we're hoping for! We had a really fun week with them. On Thursday morning we took the boys to the lake to play for a while. They loved throwing rocks in the lake and splashing around.

One final thought...don't you just hate it when your own words come back to haunt you? The other day I was getting on to Marcus about something, or trying to get answers as to why one of the boys was upset. I asked Marcus a few times for some answers and he took a long sigh and said, "Mom, just don't worry about it!"...yep, he got that one from me. I found myself saying that a couple times a day when I've tried to answer "why" questions (from my 3 year old) for the millionth time. Although I secretly thought it was kind of funny, it made me really stop and think about what I say and/or how I say it.