All these huge boxes in the house , and he wants to play in the tiny one that we had before we moved ; ) . Haha ! Our Gramma lent us some air mattresses when we had our friends over in May . Oh , these were hilarious to use . . . haha . We literally had a " bed " room , with two of them in the library , there was no additional floor space ! To get anywhere - to the piano , a bookshelf , your spot on the bed - you had to walk across them , and anybody who was sitting on it would end up flying in the air . . . it was entertaining ! The day this picture was taken , though , Daddy was making sure they were packaged neatly before we sent them back with my Gramma for my aunt and her family to use when they visited her . The morning she picked it up : We went to my Gramma 's on the third to celebrate the 4th of July . My Aunt and her family were there , which was fun . We were very excited to meet our new cousins , and they got to meet Noah : ) ! We also celebrated the next day with our customary ice cream , sparklers and pop - its . And enjoyed the fireworks that the people across the street were putting off . They had a beautiful ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Tori posted this picture on her facebook the other day with the caption , " You have to guess which is which . " After I correctly guessed ( it was a hard decision for a couple seconds , but they are my brothers after all ; ) ) , she confided in me , " I tried to pick the hardest ones I could find . I found one where Peter has Noah 's worried face , and one where Noah is smiling like Peter usually is " . Do you know how weird it is to have what looks like the same person at two different ages living in the house at the same time ? ! We got to go blueberry picking a couple of weeks ago . It was so much fun ! Tori and I always race each other while picking , and it 's getting harder and harder to beat her . I 'm winning by less and less of a percentage of my pail . . . haha ! Josiah did really good at first - he knew ripe from green , and was a steady worker . . . until Daddy let him eat a berry . Goodbye help . Haha ! Southern Blues blueberries ARE the best berries I 've ever tasted . They even beat the ones we picked in VA , so I don 't know what the difference is ! Mama thinks they are grown with love , haha : ) . Peter was hilarious . Abbi took off her headband and he threw it . . . it landed in a tree somewhere , and we never did find it . A little while later he calls out , " Mommy ? Where is my pail ? " He 's over 12 lbs now , and he 's starting to get that sturdy , solid feel that makes babies so very squishable : ) . He is really starting to build up his motor skills . He reaches for everything - he loves the printer buttons : ) . This is how Josiah looks at him all the time . I love it . Like , I love Noah . And I love Josiah . But watching Josiah love Noah . . . . LOVE . Josiah got hurt the other day and gracefully sank onto the floor crying ( believe it or not , he is NOT the most dramatic member of the family ) . I came with Noah to make sure he was okay , and he told me what had happened , then asked , " Can I hold Noah ? " Cue instant smiles . I had to tell Tori that he 'd ever been crying when she walked by fifteen seconds later . ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ A sour cream beard . What could be better ? ( And for those of you who may wonder how anybody could get that messy eating ; this was totally on purpose . Lol ! ) This has been a running thing for Tori and Josiah since we moved . " Where 's your scary face ? ! " * eyes get wider and wider and wider and wider until she acknowledges it 's scary * Absolutely nothing says comfort to me as much as making and eating robust homemade food . Baking is like writing for me . If it 's something I have no choice but to do , it can stress me out ( hello late promised blog posts ) , but it 's the first thing I want to do when I want to do something just " for fun " . And all little people like to make banana bread . . . ago at my Aunt 's house . Seriously , y ' all , being close to family is an awesome blessing ! Tori and I ran into Dollar General before we got there . . . and then ran into a grocery store afterwards . While I can 't tell you all that happened at Dollar Tree ( oh my , it was too much ! ) , I will say that to explain how it went , I was trying so hard to act natural admitting that I didn 't know where the lighters were , that I couldn 't find the lighters I was standing in front of for three minutes . Yeah . we go into the grocery store for a snack for the little ones , a snack for the older ones , and coffee drinks . Mind you , this was AFTER our experience that afternoon . I wasn 't feeling optimistic . was wise this time . Instead of looking for one item on my list at a time , I just decided to start at one end and just pick stuff up if I found it . Lol . This worked for the snacks . Not so much for the coffee . I they sell bottled coffee ? " Well . Good point . I called Mama to ask her what she wanted me to do , and she told me to check the cold section rather than the front . There were none there , but while trying to tell her that , I saw some cartons , and we decided to get those . I headed back to the front telling Mama how things were going , and she asked if we could get water . I headed back to the back , got the water , and hung up . And then Tori says , " There 's the coffee . " Grrrrrrrr . Well , it was warm , so we wouldn 't have wanted it anyway . But Tori 's comment to that was , " With as long as we 've been in this store , we could have put them in funny . Why can 't I ever need to ' run into " a store I know where stuff is ? " , I moaned . Then I thought a moment and added , " Ya ' know . . . like . . . . We started noticing that a lot of our stuff seemed to be missing , and so Bethani and I went out to the garage one morning to see what was out there . We had been told that nothing else would fit in the house and leave us room to walk , so things had been left in the garage . We were also finding out that a lot of boxes had the strangest labels for what they held . We were finding laundry room items in the bedroom boxes , and other strange things . The most questionable was when I noticed that our kitchen corner baskets seemed to be missing . I couldn 't find them , but knew they couldn 't be in a box of their own , so I was worried how much else we might be needing space for in the kitchen that was rapidly filling up . While in the garage I found a box labelled " library baskets " . I almost threw it to the side , because we didn 't need them in the house , but I decided to open it just because I knew that the baskets wouldn 't take as much space as the box , and we badly needed space , haha . I also figured , a box with two baskets in it wouldn 't take long to unload . I opened it , and there , in the library box , that was in the garage , I found the kitchen baskets . Like , ? ! ? ! ? ! ? ! ? ! How they ended up there ( they had to have carried them upstairs for some strange reason and just thrown them in any available box when they realized they still had them ? ) we still aren 't sure ! I was hoping to find my stationary / cards and whatnot that day . . . five days in the new house and I had already thought of mailing three cards . As this box of cards was not found until this week ( Daddy found it in the " printer " box ! ) , I 've discovered I 'm bit obsessed with mailing letters . While I was in the garage , Andrew and Tori were putting Mama 's secretary back to rights . Tori found Mama 's cards , and apparently discovered a card for a nephew ( Mama has no idea where this thing came from , haha ! ) . Later that afternoon , I sat down to read my bible , and tucked into the pages I was reading was a card with mama 's handwriting . I thought that was unusual , but also really sweet , so I opened it right away . I knew this had to be the doing of Tori , especially when she came in and asked me about it with a grin , but she insisted Andrew had something to do with it . I 'm still not quite sure how it went , but I do know that they both had a hand in it , lol . And they got Mama to write on it , to hide their trail ( badly ; ) . ) Tori tried to convince me that she foraged Mama 's handwriting , and I started reminding her of all the reasons this was impossible . . . and somehow she took this as a reminder to myself , and she 's still convinced that she made me believe her ( and she has admitted she didn 't ) . Lol ! So , I 've become her favorite nephew , which she reminds me of often , lol ! This little prank was payed back , though , when she realized I 'd found more games in the garage , hahaha ! She had unpacked the game / movie closet , and she was sure three boxes before the end that she couldn 't get any more to fit ( she did , nicely , though ) . Someone offered to finish it for her near the end , and she was like , " I have come too far to not finish it now ! Everybody better be careful of this closet when I 'm done . I 've spent so much time with it , it 's going to be like my baby " , haha : ) . So when I brought in more movies , she got to work putting them away , and I hear " We have too many books ! I MEAN GAMES . I MEAN MOVIES ! ! ! ! TOO MUCH EVERYTHING ! ! ! " , haha : ) . I thought it was funny since the movies were the only thing that Peter was sorry that anybody had to spent the time packing up ; ) . Since our move in , we 've been learning how to use the stove ( come to find out the large burners also have a smaller burner size within them , and you have to make sure you 've turned the knob to the right side , or eggs won 't cook ) , cleaning and unpacking more and more boxes , helping Josiah put a Yoda ( or , as he named him , " Soda " ) figurine 's head back on ( so . many . times . I was about ready to just glue it on by the time his own toys were unpacked and he gave it back to Tori ) , and wading through lots of packing paper , haha . The little ones spent a whole evening jumping in paper and building box houses . . . they turned the boxes upside down and crawled under them . But not until they had , as Emmi said " Made air holes " . As she stabbed the poor box with a pen . Only Emmi would think of something like that at her age , haha ; ) . While we may not have had that many books , I 've mentally been calling them that after the mover 's observation as the truck was being loaded up , haha : ) . As soon as we got the kitchen mostly unpacked ( it was the most needed room of the house ) , we started unpacking books ( they were the most numerous amount of space - taking , easily emptied boxes ) . Mama and I had to move the shelves before anything could go on them , and as Tori walked by , we heard " Deja vu " , hahahaha : ) . ( New readers may need to read this blog post to get why this comment threw us all into laughter ; ) . Thankfully there were no books on the shelves this time ; ) . ) The first box that I pulled pulled books out of had a book titled " After the Boxes are Unpacked " . Kind of jumping ahead of things , but I thought it was funny : ) . What was even funnier was that the very LAST box I unpacked happened to hold a book titled " At Home in South Carolina " , haha : ) . The first chance I got after the books were unloaded ( which happened to be while snuggling a sleeping Noah , which made it even better ! ) , I settled down with Jasmine Baucham 's " Joyfully at Home " . It 's always an encouraging read ! It was fun reading it this time , though , because she had her baby that week , and it was fun to see all the dreams she had that she was surrendering to the Lord . . . and now he 's fulfilled those dreams in ways she couldn 't see then : ) . Josiah lost no time in settling down to enjoy his own unearthed treasures , either . I found him playing with his beloved box of cars before I even knew that Andrew was unloading the toy boxes in his room , haha : ) . Those first few days were interesting . . . Daddy was shopping for one day at a time , we were constantly moving boxes just to find boxes that we could actually unpack , and the days were so short , lol ! At one point I decided that I NEEDED some solid food , so I decided to make myself a microwave egg . After I cracked it , I discovered the salt wasn 't unpacked , or easily found , so I had a rather bland egg , lol . And I discovered I 'm pretty needy when it comes to my afternoon snack . . I often eat popcorn ( Mama has told me I 'm addicted several times , lol . . . ) , but didn 't have time to make it during that first week , and we didn 't have any of the other " normal " treats ( or ordinary nap times for the little ones to sneak them during . . . lol ) . At one point , I scrounged through the kitchen , and ended up walking out with a spoon of whipped cream and chocolate chips , and announced to the world , " We have none of the staples of life . " Mama asked what staples were , and I informed her , " Steak or ice cream . " Which even I find odd , because I rarely eat , and never crave , steak . Daddy came home bearing ice cream , which truly proves how much our parents take care of our needs AND our un - needed needs ; ) . I had Tori very disturbed a couple nights ago , though , because I was just laying there , thinking of ice cream ( coffee , ice cream , popcorn , robust homemade meals ( think : lasagna ) , and chocolate anything - but - bacon , those are my five food groups , not necessarily in any order ; ) ) , and I just started laughing . When she asked what was going on , I told her , " I was just thinking of that first week here . WHAT made me eat cool whip with chocolate chips ? ! " It seemed so needed at the time . . . now , with our full pantry and fridge , it seems like the most unlikely thing for me to do , and I 'm kind of surprised at myself that that even crossed my mind to substitute for ice cream , hahaha ! Tori just kind of shook her head at me and went back to her book , haha ! She 's rather used to me by now ; ) . We went to Ihop for breakfast the next morning and did some shopping before we went to the house to get some cleaning done . Andrew threatened to get chicken nuggets for breakfast , but decided to get a stack of large pancakes . Mama has been reading the " Little House " books during our nightly read aloud , and we just finished " The Long Winter " . When everyone gasped at Royal Wilder eating 21 pancakes , Mama told them that they were probably " about this size " , as she showed with her fingers . " Probably about three times the size of the ones Andrew ate at Ihop " . When you thought about it that way , nobody seemed to think it was that much anymore , haha . But , while Andrew did enjoy his pancakes , I actually heard him lamenting his choice later . . . " The only place I didn 't get chicken nuggets was at Ihop . . . " he told me . Lol ! Daddy set the washer up before we left for supper , although someone was supposed to come the next day to do it . It was nice to get the clothes going then , especially since the guys who were coming the next day to level it broke down and we ended up being an additional stop for someone else after his own shift ! We went to our favorite Mexican restaurant for supper . It 's nice to be back home and just KNOW that those familiar , memory filled , homelike places are around , even when we 're not there , haha . It was nice just to be sitting there , snuggling Noah and eating our favorite cheese sauce , laughing about chicken nuggets ( which we hadn 't even realized until this trip could be found on a Mexican menu ) and just enjoying sharing our thoughts . Just walking across that parking lot was cozy feeling . . . haha . The next day we worked on unpacking the kitchen , and Mama and Daddy went out to grab some items we needed . They brought supper back , and Josiah was disturbed by the toy in his kid 's meal . He pulled it out , and I saw him look around like , " Is this normal ? " . Then the other little ones opened up theirs and got so excited , and I could see his face kind of go , " I guess I should be excited too ? " And he started showing it to everybody and get excited , haha : ) . He and Peter got matching toys , and that was how we first discovered that Peter has a detective side to him . Peter has always been one of those poetic , head - in - the - clouds people . When Tori asked Andrew why he had something in his box the other day , Andrew told her he hadn 't put it there , and Peter piped up , " Maybe he was just looking up at the sky . . . thinking . . . and just picked it up and dropped it there without seeing . . . " . And that pretty much sums up the way he goes through life . He 's typically tender and comes up with the sweetest ideas or thoughts , but Josiah does notice more than he does usually . So we were amazed to see how he handled the situation the next morning when he decided that he wanted his toy back that he had given to Josiah . Mama told him that he needed to get Josiah 's first before he took his from him . Everybody pitched in to look for it , and Abbi found it and brought it to Mama . Mama called Peter and gave that one to him . Mind you , they are identical . " I want mine , that 's warm from Josiah 's hand . " * switches with Josiah * " See ? It 's warm because he has been holding it for a really long time . " The fourth of June was an exciting day for all of us . Not only were we moving in , everything had happened so quickly that we children hadn 't even seen the inside of the house yet ! It 's still amazing to me how the Lord worked it out , and certainly showed his hand in the whole thing ! Also , we 've already been blessed by our landlord . He had to fix the sink disposal a couple weeks after we moved in , and when he got here he spent the whole time he was fixing it talking to Daddy and asking about our family . He told Daddy that he 's been a christian for several years now , and always wanted more children . When he was done with the sink , he told Daddy he 'd be right back , and then went to the store and got us some fresh fruit - and a lot of it . It was so sweet ! As soon as we got here - our new home ! - Mama lead everyone on a tour before the house got too full and we 'd be in the way of the guys unloading the truck . It was nice to finally see all the spots that Mama had been talking about for the past month , haha : ) . Then we headed out to pick up some groceries ( and get Josiah and Abbi out of the hallways , haha ! ) . When we got back , Mama started cleaning the kitchen , and I took the two little boys into the pantry to " clean the walls " - a . k . a . , once again , to get them out of the path of moving furniture , haha ! They were too cute " cleaning " the wall with a couple of baby wipes . Peter spelled his name with the damp cloth of the wall , and he and Josiah vied with each other over my attention and who could jump and hit the wall the highest , haha : ) . They might not have helped too much , but it was certainly more entertaining than it would have been otherwise ! Especially since that pantry was a mess ! I think the last child who lived in the house must have thought he was a monkey , because there were what looked like crayon marks COVERING the wall , all the way up to the ceiling ! Everything was unloaded in double quick time , and then the house was really ours . Ours to unpack , as well ; ) . Haha ! We were just settling down and deciding to think about supper when the doorbell rang . We had no idea who it could be , and Daddy went and answered it . In walked Aunt Amber and Aunt Tessa , with a cake and a decorative wreath that Aunt Amber had made , and a " Welcome home ! " . We had no idea they were coming , it was such a pleasant surprise : ) ! We gave them a tour of the house and the yard ( which is really nice ! ! ! ) , and then they went out for supper with us . It was so awesome to have family just " drop in " . That 's kind of hard to do six hours away , but we 've already seen various members of our extended family several times in the five weeks we 've been here , which is just a joy to my heart . I 've missed this closeness so much while we 've been in Virginia ! They hadn 't even decided that they were going to come over until that morning , but I 'm so glad that they did , because it just made it feel official that we were home : ) . About a year ago , my best friend and her sister came for a visit , and we took them to Jamestown . Before we went , Mama read aloud from " The Light and the Glory " some of the experiences those first settlers had . And , after telling of some of the hardships that they experienced , it shared how things got slightly better . . . and then continued , " BUT , Virginia was still Virginia . " I 'm not kidding , Mama had to have laughed at that for three minutes solid . Who am I kidding , she still laughs at that . Just not continuously . Haha : ) . While VA is beautiful , the weather is nicer than here , and the friends we made were a blessing , things usually didn 't go well whenever we tried to do anything VA - specific . For instance ; both times we went to Jamestown , our car broken down ( thankfully easily fixed - but still , it did ) , and you can never seem to get where you want to go from where you are . Mama 's favorite story , though , I think , is how , when those friends came down again with their family a couple months ago . . . both welcome centers were closed . Lol . So , our last day in VA , Mama had planned to pick up some Chick - fil - a and have a picnic , and then visit Hollywood cemetery . We were supposed to have plenty of time , but everything took longer than expected . We had to pick something up from CVS ; but every one we found , of course , you couldn 't get to from our route . Daddy finally found one , and we headed on to find a ckick - fil - a . The nearest one was past Bryant park , and it was so late , Mama decided that we should probably just eat in the car on the way to the cemetery . And then the GPS said " Arrived " . And we couldn 't find a Chick - fil - a . And at that , Mama sighed , laughed , and announced , " It 's true to the very end . Virginia . . . is still Virginia ! ! ! " We did eventually find Chick - fil - a ( a teeny tiny one ) . And we did have a good lunch . And we did get to the cemetery . So it wasn 't a complete disaster , lol ! Tori wanted to know why it was called Hollywood cemetery , and nobody could quite answer . Mama read the pamphlet Daddy had picked up , and was relieved to find out that it was because there had been a lot of holly wood trees when it was opened . " That makes it so much sweeter , " she said . We walked for the first little bit , as Mama figured everyone would be sitting enough later on . But , lets just say that the little boys are not big on the whole idea of " walking " . And are heavy . And Josiah had been cranky for about two months at this point ( the boy needs his naps , and I think too many changes happened a once ! I 'm so glad that he seems to have become himself again over the past month ! ) . And then , I shifted Josiah 's position while I was carrying him . And it made him so upset ! So I put him down , and told him he could walk until he would let me carry him nicely again . But he wouldn 't walk , and so Daddy took him , and told him as soon as he walked he would pick him up . And I have not seen anything like Josiah 's " pleas for mercy " before , haha ! Where a two year old gets the idea to kneel down , clasp his hands , and wail for what he wants , I 'm not sure , but get it and execute it he did , and it was priceless , haha . But he finally saw it wasn 't working , and just got up . When he 's done with something , he 's done , there never has been any unwinding for him , haha ! Daddy went back for the car , and I tried to figure out the map to meet him ( which was pretty humorous in itself for a while ) , and we just drove the rest of the way , haha . After we left , everybody was tired and hot , and we stopped to pick up some milkshakes and coffee , and Daddy made reservations for our hotel . This was easier said then done , because it seemed that all of the hotels were booked , and his ipad was running low on battery . The drive was actually really nice down . We listened to our customary cd which we were able to find in between the house hunting trip and when everything was packed up ( " Bob and Larry 's " On the Road Again " ) and ate our traditional Twizzlers , and spent like an hour looking for our usual road - trip Arby 's ( " per Andrew 's request " - he 's as big a tradition lover as Mama and I ! ) . Daddy finally decided that if he didn 't pull over and get something now , everything would be closed before we found one , so he decided we 'd just have to grab something else . And the next exit just happened to have an Arby 's , haha : ) . We finally got to SC , and Daddy pulled into a hotel parking lot . It wasn 't ours , but nobody could remember where he had found rooms at , so he took his ipad in and plugged it in long enough to turn it on and find out where we were headed . We got into our room , and it was actually really nice ! It had a kitchenette , and a full fridge , which was nice with all the food we had had to bring ourselves ! Josiah was so funny , he LOVED the picture of tomatoes on the wall above the kitchen sink - " Bisketti ! ! ! " ( spaghetti ) he pointed out to everyone : ) . As I mentioned on the day , our movers came to pack us up on Emmi 's birthday , the first of June . We were so thankful that we didn 't have to do it all ourselves , and I have to say it 's pretty amazing how much they get done in just a few days ! ! ! They were out of the house by about 4 in the afternoon , confident that they would finish the next day , and then Mama and Daddy headed out to go pick up supper and dessert , and a little surprise for Emmi , who had been told that we would celebrate her birthday after we got settled ( we celebrated it last week , and I 'm thinking she got a pretty good deal out of this whole " can I share a birthday with Elise , now it 's really my birthday , now we 're having our real family party " thing , haha ! The little stinker even convinced us to decorate for her a second time , haha ! ) . While they were gone I took some pictures for a photo challenge I had signed up for . . . which , by the way , I did ( fail ) pretty well to keep up with . Lol . I blame it on the move ( we were without internet for a while , so of course I couldn 't upload them ! ) . . . but I 'm pretty sure it would have happened anyway . Lol ! I 've thought of doing these things before , and never have because I knew I would get behind and just get discouraged , but since some girls I knew were heading this one , I thought , why not ? And then I didn 't really do the whole daily picture thing . But , I did TAKE the pictures . . . eventually . . . so maybe that counts ? Haha : ) . But when Daddy went to light it , there was a little problem . . . it wouldn 't light . It had less fluid left in it then we had thought ! Daddy came up with the brilliant idea to use our gas fireplace to light it . Andrew brought him a stick , and he lit it in the flame ( eventually - it took a while ) , and then lit the candle , haha : ) . It worked well , and Emmi 's mini party was saved ; ) . She also got an Anna doll to replace one of the ones she lost last year . Where those things went , we can not tell ! And where we can find the baby one she had , we also have no idea . It 's the strangest thing ! The next day was clear , bright , and hot . I felt bad for the guys loading the truck ! One of them asked Daddy , " You must read a lot . How many books do you have ? ! There must be a hundred and fifty of these boxes ! " Lol ! It wasn 't THAT many . . . but we do have a lot of books , especially when you consider that any box that HAD books in it was labelled books , even if it had more , say , blankets ! Daddy explained that we homeschool , and , yes , do like to read . Later , the driver apparently told Daddy that he knew we were going to have a lot of books - " All the LifeWay managers do , " he explained , haha : ) ! They were really nice , though , they got it all done in record time , and they were really kind to all the little ones , even though they were constantly standing in the way , haha . They especially seemed to like Josiah , all of them ; and , while it might have just been his age , Tori took notice of this , because , as she told me , " It 's almost like they except him as one of his own . " Ever since he could walk , he 's been moving furniture around the house , and we 've always said we won 't be surprised if he becomes a mover when he grows up , so she took this as comical confirmation ; ) . He was very disturbed when they took the table legs off . . . it was the only thing that bothered him , but boy did he get into that , haha ! It reminded me of when Bethi was terrified when , during our last move , the handles were taken off our fridge . Mama mentioned that it was just as much like Emmi , who , during our move to VA , didn 't worry about any of her toys or anything , but " Who took our WASHER ? ! " Once they were almost done , we started cleaning . . . windows , counters , everything . One of Daddy 's friends stopped in to say goodbye , and the truck was closed up and headed to SC . Then we headed out for supper and back to the house to finish cleaning it . It was a pretty intense night . Most of us didn 't go to bed until 4 a . m . , and all of the little ones were obviously getting sick . After I had cleaned the bathrooms , Mama gave me Noah , and I went and sat on the living room floor with him . One by one , all the little ones , Bethi to Noah , fell asleep , flung against the wall , on the floor , across the fireplace . It was pathetic , lol . They would wake up eventually , cold and sore , and most came to me crying and fell back asleep . . . and eventually I had the five youngest all laying on my lap or shoulder in some way or other . It was kind of humorous , but I felt so bad for them because I knew that if I was uncomfortable not sick , they had to be miserable . I could hear Mama and Tori in the kitchen cleaning the fridge while I sat under all those little people , and it took them a while . . . but Mama was so proud of it when she was done . I have to admit , I 've never seen a even slightly used fridge that looked so brand new clean ! Daddy somehow managed to fit all of our cleaning supplies , suitcases , food , and random items that hadn 't been packed , into the car , and we went to go get a few hours of sleep . That little booklet was titled " Flower Tales " , and if this experience had happened at that point in time , it most definitely would have been included . . . That Friday morning , we packed up the hotel and got in the car to head back home . This sounds simple , but , believe me , it takes a while , haha ! As we finished , Mama watched an older couple bring their one load of suitcases out , thrown them in the trunk , and drive away , and she 's like , " Just think . That will be us one day . Someday we 've not going to have all these people to pack for . That 's going to be strange . " Daddy answered , " Dear , that 's never going to happen . You 're never going to want to go anywhere unless we 're doing something with the grandchildren . " Hahaha ! We pulled out of the parking lot , and Daddy called his mama to let her know we were on the way . He took a curve , and all of the sudden there were frantic whispers of " The plant . Were is the plant ? Is it by you ? Daddy ! Daddy ? ! ! ! ! " Let me back up a moment . Several months ago , my Gramma shared on FB a picture of some flower pots decorated with handprints made into flowers , hinting she 'd love one . So . Cue the " lets make one for both sets of grandparents " project . With so many people , so many hands , we decided some people 's would be finger prints made into insects , some would be hand prints made into flowers , and we would use Noah 's foot to make a bird . Cute idea in theory . Idea of terror to carry out . Suffice it to say that Noah 's " footprint " became a squirrel on one of the pots . And Josiah asked if one of the ants was a pig . So we made them with love , if not perfection . Bethi and I put some flowers in them , and they were loaded into the car to go with us . One was dropped off at Grandma and Grandpa 's the first day . The other had to wait to go to Gramma and Papa Nate 's that last day . During the week , we had been keeping it watered every night by pouring the water bottles that weren 't finished but nobody wanted because nobody knew who 's they were on it . And every time we would go anywhere , the pot would tip over . Multiple times . We were constantly repotting that thing with dirt from the van floor . So , when Daddy took that curve that Friday morning , Mama and Andrew instinctively reached down to catch the plant . But it wasn 't there to catch . So we had to head back to the hotel , where we had left the pot on the sidewalk to let the water drain a bit before we put it back in the car . We were very relieved to find it wasn 't smashed , because that 's what we expected after all the trouble that thing had gotten into ! We finally got to hand it to Gramma ( It 's out of our haiiiiiiir ! ! ! ! ) and get her awesome hugs ! Noah was so fussy , but Papa Nate rocked him and he was so happy , it was cute : ) . After we visited for a while , we headed on to Granny 's and Aunt Donna 's . While we were getting ready to leave Aunt Donna 's house , Daddy checked Mama 's phone , and there were two texts waiting . One was for the first house , saying it was no longer available . The other was for the second house , letting us know that they excepted Daddy 's offer . It was really neat how it worked out : ) . We stopped for coffee and milkshakes , depending on the person , to celebrate : ) . I got caffeinated . . . it was delicious . I usually drink decafe , and * always * , that late at night , but you know what , we had a long drive , so I could afford to stay awake , haha : ) . We got home at about 5 a . m . on Saturday , I think . I 'm not even telling you how late I slept the next day . . . but it was too late considering we had birthday preparations to do for Bethi 's birthday the next day . And as soon as her party was over , I found I had an order for 22 bookmarks , 21 of which I had to make , to fill in 24 hours . Yeah , it was a pretty crazy week , haha : ) . But it was really awesome to get to make those memories , and I 'm still just amazed at how God worked out our getting this house : ) ! Mama and Daddy decided that we 'd stay the extra day so we could go to the zoo . They figured since we were still in the area , they 'd check house listings one last time . . . and there " just happened " to be another house listed that looked promising . So , we drove by that day , and Mama and Daddy put an offer in for this house as well . It was soooooo much fun taking the little ones to the zoo ! Peter had been , but was way too little to remember it . And Josiah and Noah had never been ( though , since Noah slept the whole time , I don 't know if that even counts ; ) . ) ! It was cheaper to just buy a year pass for our family than to pay for each of us , so we 've had fun telling everybody that we had a zoo membership before we had a house , haha ! Peter was ESPECIALLY excited to see the giraffes and zebras . It was ALL he talked about looking for until we found them : ) . We were telling Josiah about some of the animals he would see , and he seemed most interested in the bears beforehand , but once we were inside , it was obvious that his favorites were the monkeys . He kept asking to go back to one until we would find another : ) . Both the little boys wanted carried constantly . . . and once we had passed the zebras , Peter lost all motivation ! He just laid down in the koala bear house like he was going to take a nap . Both of them were sooooo sweaty and tired within 15 minutes of arriving . . . . I think living in the cooler climate of Virgina has rather spoiled these two , hahaha ! Riverbanks has changed a lot while we 've been gone ; they 've had to move the animals around making room for new ones , so everything is shuffled . They 've added otters , and brought the seals back ! ( And they have a new baby koala . Tell me that doesn 't make the entire visit worth it no matter what else you miss . ) Not to mention , for me , it was just totally awesome to go to the zoo with my glasses . We didn 't know I needed them until a few months after we moved to VA ( one of the things I will always remember as a part of our VA experience is going to be finding out how pretty sharp bark lines and clear stars look ! ) . Fur lines . Tiny fish . Meerkat markings . You can see all this stuff , so much better , from so far away , when your vision is up to par . It 's beautiful ! And though some people I 've told that to have told me how sorry they are that that 's the first time I 've seen it , the truth is , it is so much fun to experience this stuff and know how much to appreciate it . Like , I could have grown up seeing all this stuff perfectly fine , and it would have been fun and all . . . but the excitement of knowing how it 's not to be taken for granted is so much fun ! ! ! We spent the night chilling in the hotel room , eating chick - fil - a , or chinese food , depending on the person , and talking about all the fun we had had that day . Peter could NOT stop telling his stories over and over and over . Once he was cooled off , I think the trip was well worth it for him , haha : ) . It was so much fun : ) . " Nevertheless , I must go on my way today and tomorrow and the day following , for it cannot be that a prophet should perish away from Jerusalem . ' O Jerusalem , Jerusalem , the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it ! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings , and you were not willing ! " - Luke 13 : 33 - 34 - It 's so beautiful , how often Jesus points to the sins of those who made his sacrifice necessary . And then makes it clear that even these have not changed his love for them . . . how he would be willing , even now , to except them into the kingdom if only their hearts were not made of stone . While going to his death for the sins of mankind , all he can say is that he WILL do his Father 's will . . . and he longs to give them the comfort that only he can give . How many times have I pushed through my " thorns in the flesh " , never thinking to give him my burdens , feeling that if I could just get this or that settled on my own , I 'd be fine ? But looking at the love that he shows for those who are struggling with sin , blindness and pain . How could I not give him my deepest love , service , and confidence ? ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Wednesday was spent with more " window shopping " for houses , and Mama and Daddy looked at the interior of one house that looked really promising . It was actually in an area that we had looked at moving into several years ago , and not too far from our old house . Mama and Daddy actually put an offer in , so that was exciting , even though we knew it might not work out . Daddy also gave our hotel room 's toilet a free repair on the fly when he noticed it was leaking ( and not by our fault . . . haha . We can be rough on things , but not usually that rough ; ) . ) . . . that 's our Daddy for you ! He had not a tool with him , but he still left things better than he found them , haha : ) ! Abbi did too . . . she dug all kinds of things out from under the nightstands , lol . Our nights were pretty late the whole trip , but they were really pleasant . . . several nights Daddy picked up coffee before we headed back to the hotel , which was delicious ; ) . We would go back and get the little ones ready for bed , then I would pile with them on their " bed " ( the sleeper sofa ) and read them another chapter of " Under the Lilacs " . Then Tori and Jo - Jo would listen to the Piano Guys on the MP3 player while I had my shower . This was pretty much their favorite thing to do the whole trip . . . they were so cute , sharing the headphones and enjoying it together : ) . If we had stopped at Starbucks , I would warm up the rest of my coffee and come to bed . Jo - Jo would share his earphone with me for a bit , and I 'd do some reading and bible study . . . I don 't much care to spend days in a hotel , because it 's so hard to keep our mob quiet while we 're doing pretty much anything . But nights in a hotel are totally different , haha : ) . I 've always loved the closeness and quiet they seem to breath out . We weren 't sure at this point what the next day held . We had been planning on starting home the next morning , but we had been so busy through the week that we hadn 't made it to the zoo yet , which was something we had really been hoping to do . Mama and Daddy and TPosted by and he just walked away . We had a hard time convincing him we were joking , haha ! He actually did it a few more times on the trip . . . I don 't think he likes this cup , hahaha ! The next day we spent looking at a few houses . Noah was sooooo sad all day long , he wouldn 't stop crying . We eventually discovered that if we had the air conditioner on full blast and I held him next to it for a few minutes every time Mama and Daddy got out of the car , it helped a bit . . . but for the most part he hated the car rides . He had been such a good car baby up until this point that we were shocked ! He still seems like a pretty laid back passenger for short trips - but it 's as if he knows when we 're planning on a long trip , because he starts crying instantly . I haven 't figured out how he knows the instant we get in the car how long we plan on being gone . . . We stopped at our favorite Mexican restaurant for lunch ( it was soooo delicious ! ! ! Although they 've changed one of the dishes , which was slightly disappointing ) , and then we headed out to our favorite park that we always go to afterwards . We were walking through , asking each other " Do you remember when we ate that picnic here , or here ? Remember when they put in that path ? Remember when we found this ? " . It was sad to realize that the younger three haven 't had those constant trips ingrained into their backstory - we 're excited to fix that in the future ! It 's hard to realize that the entire park was so flooded last year , with the creeks as empty as they always are . And I 've been amazed to find that SC has a TON of Red Flowering Gum Trees . I have loved these trees ever since my Aunt pointed one out to me - I call them Dr . Suess trees , because , why not ? They look like his clovers , haha : ) . I had only seen one in SC before we moved ( she pointed it out like a month before we left , haha ) , and I thought VA had more of them . . . we move back here , and I discover they 're everywhere here , too . I don 't know if I just notice them now because I know what they are , or if I couldn 't tell the difference between them and crape myrtle from a distance before I got my glasses , but I chuckle at myself every time I see one now ! Later that evening , we stopped at Coldstone for some ice cream . We got there shortly before they closed , but they were very kind about it , and we very much enjoyed our ice cream ! We were going and sitting down with ours as they got done , and we took up pretty much all the tables once we all had our ice cream . . . and we had five of us at one of the two - seater tables , haha ! Tori and I had all the little boys , and I may or may not have been giving Josiah enough of my ice cream after he had finished his to give him danger of a sugar crash , haha . I 'm constantly letting the younger ones drink my coffee or share my snacks . . . sometimes I think I 'm more of an aunt than a big sister to these little people , haha : ) . I realized on this trip that all my favorite things fit very nicely into the trip ; I was able to bring my bible and books , fuzzy socks , blanket , and journal ; we listened to music and had plenty of family time ; there was ice cream and coffee ; and I had plenty of opportunities to spoil and read to the little ones : ) . It was so much fun : ) . Saved by grace alone , blessed daughter , older sister to 8 , homeschool graduate , and owner of Under the Tapestry on Etsy . I love words , and hope that Christ may receive glory by my sharing them here with you . And I would love to hear from you in the comments !