two little monkeys

Two little monkeys caught jumping on the bed.  

Our move to Athens has turned out to be the best possible thing for Evaleigh and Avett.  It has been heart warming to watch them grow in to not only better siblings but friends.  They stay up past their bed time giggling in to the night and chatting about who knows what that sounds like the most exciting conversation. John or I have to pop back in with reminders to "go to bed!" Sometimes gentle and sometimes not so much.  We love to look at each other with a grin as we hear them over the monitor concocting plans or laughter making the lights spike to their highest frequency. We smile at one another with an indentical silent thought that this is just about the best thing in the world.  The first few weeks we let it go on in to the night some times as late as 11pm.  Once we let them experience the joy of room sharing it was time to get down to business.  Now most of the time they are asleep within 20 minutes or so.

They are sharing and growing together.  If Avett gets upset Evaleigh will offer to give service and will slowly run his cheeks as he sits in my lap until he calms down.  Then they start to laugh all over again. 

Avett loves her so much and if Evaleigh is ever in another room he asks me, "where's sissy?".  She is one of his absolute favorites. 

We love Athens and are settling in so well.  We've made some friends, found some great food, and we love our little apartment.  We are so happy here.

the garage

I've been trying to get myself and this home organized.  My mother comes home from her mission in exactly 6 weeks! She will be home Christmas Eve and we are all starting to get pretty excited over here! 

There is so much to be done and I am trying to catch up on some of the outside work since we've finally had a few days without rain.  Yesterday I spent over an hour blowing leaves off of the driveway.  With all of the rain and the lack of maintenance we had developed a pretty thick coat of packed wet leaves.  It was oddly satisfying to work to get them all cleared away and to see the concrete freshly unveiled.  The kids played in the camper completely keeping to themselves the whole time.  I would stop occasionally to bring them a snack to keep their blood sugar high and their minds occupied while playing in the camper.

Then we cleaned out the garage and I broke down about 30 cardboard boxes.  Then simplified everything.  It felt so good to declutter.

So tonight we waited in our freshly organized garage for daddy to come home while running around and peering out the window at our twinkle lights that have been on the Bla-bla tree for over a year now.  The kids took turns on the pink bike, which Evies legs are finally almost the right length for.  They practiced good manners and sharing.  Until the end when they got hungry.  I fed them meatloaf which they love!

When John was close we turned off the lights and sat on the couch in the dark as quiet as could be to scare him.  We all practiced saying "boo!" at the same time and they were so excited.  When John walked in we gave him a good scare followed by lots of giggles and a big group hug. It is so nice to have so many places to escape to on this home.  It constantly keeps thing feels new and fresh, we sure will miss that when we move to Athens.

Love my very wiggly noisy funny busy bodies and that they go along with my silly ideas. ❤️