Holidays, Boxes, Family, Adjustments, Work etc.

Whew what a month! We have survived "the move" with much help from friends and family and are about 80% settled.
We went to "close" on our house on the 19th and after 30 minutes of signing papers, we were told there was a discrepancy in "the numbers" and that we would have to come back and resign everything. UGH! So we left there really without anything accomplished but the go ahead to still move which was the main thing. The big moving day was Friday the 21st. We were totally blessed because the weather was gorgeous and we had some really great friends that helped Dave carry all of the real heavy things. I think that morning we had 4 pickups, a moving truck and 7 guys! That beats "2 Men and a Truck" anyday. I ran boxes back and forth from mom and dad's to our house and fed the troops some yummy barbeque for lunch.
Stacy came over early with the twins to "hang out" out at mom and dad's with Lauren, and of course Emma was in school. Mom got off of work early and also helped babysit/pack. I have some great pictures of our Runza luncheon we had with the twins that day. They had a fun day and Lauren definately enjoyed her little visitors.
Stacy helped me get the kitchen put together that night which took about 4 hours. Doesn't that seem crazy? Anyway that was a great task for us to get accomplished and it was much more enjoyable doing it with someone eventhough she made fun of me for several of my belongings. :)

We were so tired that night that when I asked Dave where he wanted to sleep, he said, "are you kidding, I'm going home to sleep." (mom and dad's)

Saturday morning we spent cleaning our "suite" at mom and dads. The rooms were all dusted and vacuumed and bathroom scrubbed. The furniture was even put back to where it was prior to our existence. I should have taken before and after pictures as the transformation was unbelievable. The rooms look a little empty now which is why mom doesn't make a point to go into any of the rooms. :(

Saturday was spent putting beds together and trying to make most rooms liveable to stay there that night. Of course Emma was thrilled to be there and to move all of her things there BUT, not Lauren. Poor thing did not understand what was happening and spent most of the day and Sunday asking for someone to take her home. She would stand at the front door and say, "mama, take Lauren home, take a nap." Ok break my heart!!! Then, patient Emma would yell, "Lauren, I told you THIS IS OUR HOME" and Lauren would argue back, "NO Emma, go home get apple juice."
That went on for several days and we did our best to keep routines the same and to give her plenty of apple juice so she would start to like our new place. :)
Saturday night Dave had to take Emma into the Urgent Care because she was crying that her ears hurt. (Lauren, Emma and I all had colds so I was not surprised.) Dave took her and they were in and out of there in 15 minutes but our less than favorite pharmacy Walgreens :( took 45 minutes to fill the prescription. Rediculous!
Monday, (Christmas Eve) Lauren was sick and running a temp to luckily we were able to get her into her doctor. Yep, sinus infection which means more medicine in the new fridge. Dave and I had to split up that day and run to the doctor and he had to finish up MANY last minute gift shopping. Thank goodness for gift cards. Anyway, again, we waited 45 minutes at Walgreens. UGH!!
We had mom, dad, and Brian over for lunch because I had gone crazy on the first grocery trip to Walmart and had tons of food. They helped carry things down to the basement and tear boxes down in an attempt to shove them into the dumpster.
Lauren was definately not up to going to church that night, so I took Emma to 4:30 mass. We got there at 4:00 and got one of the last seats, which put her on my lap for the service. The children's mass was nice and I quickly learned that Emma doesn't really sit still for more than a minute or two. That night we sat out cookies and milk for Santa and put the two girls to bed. Poor Emma could not go to sleep. She kept coming out of her room telling us that she saw something in the sky or that she heard jingle bells. I told her that santa would not come until everyone in the house was asleep including mom and dad. Then she got mad telling us to go to bed NOW!! We told her that we just had to pick up a few more things so santa wouldn't trip when he was trying to bring her gift in. With her hands on her hips, she decided that we were moving much too slow so she quickly grabbed things with us and moved them out of the room, muttering stuff under the breath the entire time. It was seriously so cute!

Santa did come over night and brought both girls "Baby Alive" and baby things such as a stroller, play pen, swing etc. We went to Dave's mom's house at 12:00 for pasta and salad which is always yummy.

That night we had mom, dad, Brian, Stacy, Ted and the twins over at our place for our Christmas. Thanks to mom and Stacy for bringing ALL the food for the yummy meal. I probably would have had to have picked up pizza if I had been in charge of food. Well that night before bed I nearly "lost" it, or Dave would probably tell you I did. :) Anyway, I had to go back to work the next day after being off for more than a month and I felt as if I didn't get a chance to sit and relax or for that matter sit and play with the girls and their new toys instead of telling them, "hold on a minute, let mommy just get this put away." I knew I had to go back but whew was I exhausted.
The first day back was ok, everyone "introduced" themselves to me as if I was a rookie! I still have the same cases sitting on my desk that I had in November! I quickly deleted 580 Emails and only had one voice mail message.

Saturday we enjoyed having our Kaup Christmas (well half of them) at our house for chili, snacks, and tons of candy. We played our famous gift game and I was lucky enough to get a Beta fish. EMMA WAS THRILLED because her poor little Hannah passed away a couple months ago. No one had the heart to steal it from us, which is good. We had goldfish food but were a little nervous that that could poison our newest addition to our family, so Dave ran to Walmart and got Beta food for "Andy." He is doing very well but we had to put him on the counter and not the table to lengthen his lifespan.

As soon as we get our internet working I will post plenty of pictures that are on my camera. I am at work typing this so I should probably get to work.
Hope everyone had a great Christmas and has a safe New Year. We plan to celebrate by sitting on our "you know whats" and watching football.