Move in Day!

I kick myself now because I was too busy that day and didn't get many pictures! Thanks to my mother in law for snapping a few.

We had quite a day getting the 4 hours from Jack's parents to our new place. We were halfway to the house, in the middle of St. Louis, when Jack says over the radio "I think I've blown a tire!" Oh crap!! Sure enough - there was a shredded tire on the trailer. We were almost to the on ramp to take the by pass around St. Louis. (Not such a good place to change a tire) So they decided to limp along to the nearest exit and change it there in a much safer location. You would not believe how many people were backed up behind our 35 mph caravan (the speed limit was of course much higher). I didn't see how many fingers we received - oh well, at least we made it to a safe location. Jack and his dad got busy taking the shredded tire off and putting on one of 2 spares we were prepared with. Well once they got the spare on, they realized that it didn't fit! Thankfully, we had pulled into a church parking lot and a gentleman came out to check on us and said that there was a tire store just down the road. Jack's sister happened to be caravaning with us and had room in her car to throw in the old tire, so off they headed to the tire store for a replacement. Thankfully after going to 2 tire stores they were able to get the tire replaced and put back on the trailer. So 2 hours later we were back on the road!!

Our crew eating dinner! Both of the trailers were unloaded at this point. Jack's mom was so kind to prepare lasagna and the works to heat up so we didn't have to worry about what we were going to get for dinner that night for everyone and it worked AMAZING!!

Oh what a mess!!! Looks like we have LOTS of work to do!!!

The baby's room and more than just his things in there!

A huge THANK YOU goes out to everyone for helping with the pack up, move out, move in and unpacking!! We couldn't have done it without everyone's help!!

Once we get the house all put together I'll do a post with the finished look!  No promises on how soon that will be - we need to order furniture, etc so once everything is in I'll take some pictures!

Moving Day!

Well the day has finally arrived!! We are loading ALL of our stuff into 2 trailers and heading back to the good ol' midwest! We had great help on our move out and couldn't have done it without all our friends and family there to break their back for us. Katelyn had 2 of her best friends come to play - all 3 girls kept each other busy and occupied. At the end of the day they were all exhausted!

Just to clarify - the Army WILL hire a moving company to come to your house, pack your goods and move them to the next location. However, the Army will also pay YOU to move yourself. They pay you as if you are self employed. So when you do a full move they will pay us 75% of what they would pay a moving company and then we'll get to put it on taxes the next year and recoup even more of that 25% they took initially. BUT, aside from the money, one of the main reasons we move ourselves other than we have the means to do it is......nothing gets broken and if it does, well then it was our fault. We have too many friends who have nightmare horror stories about their moves and we don't have to worry about that. I've never had to file a claim with transportation and from the sounds of the process - I'm one lucky girl!!

Lots and Lots and Lots of boxes!

Grammie did lots of traffic directing with 3 little girls and a car!

Katelyn and Esmee out for a drive!

The Whites and us! I sure miss them :(

7 Months at this point

{31 Weeks, 5 day}

The trailer is getting full!! And we still have SO much stuff left!

Even Katelyn helped load!

Helping Daddy figure out how to put the plugs back in the washer.

A little pooped! She almost fell asleep on Pops' lap.

ONE clean, empty house!!!!!

Ready to pull out - Missouri here we come!

We left Hinesville, GA at 11 AM (EST) and arrived at Jack's parents house in MO at 1:15 AM (CST) It was a LONG drive but so much better than stopping at a hotel somewhere and trying to get the suitcases out and what not! Katelyn was THE.BEST.TRAVELER.EVER!!! I could not have asked for a better 2 year old especially to have one that had to be stuck in a carseat for 15+ hours!!! She's a Johannes after all! :) This will be the first of many moves for her. She was pretty eager to help this move, but I can imagine that eagerness will fade fast the older she gets.

Packing for the Big Move

I told Katelyn that we needed to start packing for our big move. She got very excited!! (She talks daily about moving to Missouri and says that we are moving that day - such a goofball!) She started bringing me bags from her playroom and started filling them with random toys that she wanted to take. Then she got her shopping cart and shoved them all in it. She would push it around the living room, through the kitchen and back to her playroom all while seeing other things that she needed to take and trying to find room in her cart for them. Ohh and don't let me forget to mention she did the pushing while carrying her baby in her carrier on the other arm. I was laughing so hard - she looked like a homeless person with all their possessions in their shopping cart! I love this little girl to pieces and her imagination right now seemed unbelievable!

(When she woke up from her nap she was kind of cranky, so I told her I needed her help with packing up some of her books. Suddenly the crankiness was gone! She is all excited to pack boxes and is A LOT of help - maybe too much. But no complaints here. In a move or 2 she'll be complaining about moving and packing so I'll take it. I was only trying to pack books away that she doesn't read right now or has grown out of and she was wanting to put them ALL in the box. I can only imagine what we will find in random boxes. I guess it doesn't matter, as long as it all makes it to the next place!

She was so proud of this box and decided it needed to be decorated with princess stickers!
There isn't any question where this box belongs!

And just because this is such a cute picture!
(Can she get any cuter?!?! Ok - maybe I'm a little biased!!)

"Be careful Babies, Hold on!"

Jack's parents made the dreaded trip from MO to GA the weekend after the wedding to take back the Monte and 4 Wheeler. Katelyn was in heaven seeing grandparents for 2 weekends in a row. Hopefully she'll get really spoiled by being able to see them often in MO!

Jack brought our trailer over to the house and we unloaded all the empty boxes out of it and into the garage so we could start the packing process. Katelyn was enjoying pulling her babies around in her wagon and taking them into and out of the trailer. As she went down the driveway and up onto the trailer ramp she would always say "Be careful babies, Hold on!" It was pretty darn cute!

Katelyn making sure they have it all under control!

Using her wagon to haul a load into the garage.

The new truck hooked up to the trailer.
The trailer is so long I couldn't get back far enough to get it all in the shot!

One of her trips in and out of the trailer.

And of course the weather didn't want to cooperate!
But what's a rain storm without Katelyn out playing in it!?!

She got some air!

And here are all the boxes....empty, but hopefully not for long. About 2 months and we'll be midwest bound! Hallelujah!