Settling in and pictures

Sorry this picture is sideways, and i'm too computer illiterate to fix it.
Naaman and Kyra looked cute their first day of school. They ride their scooters since
we live so close--only 0.2 miles away!


Kyra outside our house on the first day of kindergarten. she wore a dress since her first day was only 1 hour.


Kyra with her friends Natalie and Gillian at a dairy farm back in June. can you believe
we had to wear jackets?


the basement needs a paint job but has been great for hanging out with
students. I've been making lots of popcorn these days:) My mom and stepdad gave us their awesome, 25 year-old sectional sofa. love it! thanks guys!


basement guest bedroom featuring my great aunt's antique bedroom suit. can't wait to have out-of-town guests!


we love our kitchen, even if the faux granite countertops don't actually match the backsplash:)
the cabinets are beautiful and so is the new tile floor


view from the kitchen into the eat-in area, laundry closet, and soon to be office/Rudy's mom's guest room since she can't go downstairs. we're going to put up a wall and french doors for privacy in that area


our bedroom is actually smaller than the girls' room, but the bed David built for us has allowed us to be dresser-less. the closet is quite small, too, but we store all our off-season clothes in the basement. We love the floors and the cozy feel


I think this little bitty master bathroom is my favorite room. Rudy put in the vanity and cabinet, and we decorated with our stuff from Austin. It's just so cozy!


Naaman's room will eventually have a Pokemon theme. I had to place a blanket around the leg of his bed so I wouldn't stub my toe every time I walked in. His room is very small, and his bed legs angle out because it is actually the top bunk of a full-twin bunk bed set. He loves having his own space:)


We went ultra girly in the girls' room. they share the bottom bunk of the bunk bed set. The butteryfly curtains pull back to reveal pink, sheers with sequins:)


the hall bath is quite pretty, too. It actually has a bathtub.



We decided to follow the IKEA "bold, not beige" idea in the upstairs living room. Our purple couches fit in nicely with the colorful pictures and rug. The 1960's wood floors are a little creaky, stained and uneven in places, but we love them.


So we are almost all moved in--only a few boxes left inside the house. (The garage will have to wait until Rudy has more time.) Lots of you have been asking for pictures of the inside of the house, so I finally took some tonight. Too bad you can't see the windows and pretty lighting during the day, but I had to take the pictures while I had the time:) We are in love with our house! We haven't even thought much of our beloved home in Austin since we've moved in. I have to admit to being completely overwhelmed by all the unpacking and the feeling that I've been dealing with organization and boxes and renovations for 7 months. At least this house was almost all redone when we moved in. We just had to add some storage in the bathrooms, paint a few walls, pick out all the window treatments(ugh), and hang the pictures leftover from our Austin house staging to make it pretty nice. The Illinois State students have been hanging out at our house a lot to play games and stuff now that we live only a mile from campus. Last night we hosted our first home group, and it seemed to be a great success. I think we actually fit 40 people pretty comfortably in our basement before breaking down into smaller groups for discussion all over the house. I honestly don't know how the kids slept through everything, but they did. Yea God! He is answering prayers here. We think one girl even came into a relationship with Christ during home group last night.
The kids started school this week, and it's going fairly well. Kyra made friends right away, but Naaman has been struggling a little to fit in to second grade at a new school. The school is seriously overcrowded, and some of the teachers seem to have yelling issues, especially in the cafeteria. I've been going to lunch to make my presence known and to help the kids feel more comfortable. Poor Naaman has been sitting at the peanut-free table all alone despite our encouragement for him to find non-peanut eaters at other tables. I think he's just too intimidated to find somewhere to sit in that tight cafeteria where he doesn't have to be afraid of peanut exposure. It's hard to have no friends and a peanut allergy. I've been sharing my own experiences from being an Air Force brat, but my heart breaks for him. I just hope we don't have to move again anytime soon.
I received and accepted a job offer at a local hospital and am fairly excited to start back to work. Unfortunately they wouldn't hire me unless I could work 24 hours a week instead of my usual 16, but we have a good childcare arrangement. At least only Kelsie is home now. She is adorable and reminds me a lot of Naaman with her ability to strongly focus on a task at the age of 2. Tonight she actually worked on a puzzle for an hour while we watched a movie with the bigger kids! She did the cutest victory dance every time she completed it. then she'd start again. Too cute! I hope to start work in the next 2 weeks, but they haven't given me an official date yet. Let's just hope I pass the drug screen and physical:)
We hope to update again soon. Love to all!