New blog

I'm going to try a new blog home and see if it is easier to post from my iPad. My new blog home is www.jmhsmith.wordpress.com. I have tried making it a link on this post about 5 times and it won't show up, so I apologize, you will just have to type it in;). Case in point....I'm tired of blogger! Hope to see you there!!

We moved

A month and a half ago;). This is our new house. We are enjoying it so much and very thankful to have a bigger back yard to enjoy with HG. When we moved to Republic, we decided to rent while our house in AR was still on the market. We liked the house, but it wasn't what we wanted to buy. We were satisfied with renting it long term, but our landlord unfortunately went into foreclosure and so we had to move out and find a new place quickly. Josh found this house on Craigslist and it had 3 pictures of the house. Our new landlord lives in a different state and was going to be in ten showing it a week that we were out of town. So, we signed a 3 year lease sight unseen, but we still had peace about it.


Before we could move we had to say goodbye to 822 Rachel







HG was really digging her new dining set up;)





This is the ginormous bubble wrap Josh ordered. We actually had two of these. Rolling it out and running on it became a major source of entertainment.





This is packed with love;)


The move was seamless and HG kept saying 'new house, new house'! We have really been enjoying the new space. When we finally got to see the house in person (3 days before we moved in). We were presently surprised at the quality. Here is the kitchen.






And hearth room


Living room


And Josh's office



Soon, I'll post some with furniture. I'm working on getting HG to sleep in a big girl bed so I can re-do her room. Until then, the walls are bare, but she sure doesn't seem to mind. Speaking of big girl beds, she is actually on her second day of sleeping on the air mattress during her naps. I think after a week, I'll try it at night. I know she would be fine going to sleep at night on it, but I'm not ready. All in good time;)


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Sunday lunch

Bonny recently got some work done on the plunge pool at the lake house It is AWESOME! We headed over there after church last week to grilled out salmon and swim.





When we got there, HG needed to go exploring with miss dotty(a new stuffed animal compliments of Glam).





Checking out the pool. This didn't last long before she insisted on her bathing suit.





Making water handprints with Glam





Seeing a helicopter.





Swimming with dad;)











Grilling... Thanks to Grandpa Ger for the salmon.

Coats

Hadley sure likes her coats;). Because of packing, she has found coats we had put away, and therefore she begs to wear them. I beg to take them off;)











Like my mom said, ' good thing Josh keeps your house freezing cold'

Moving

We are moving on Tuesday and there has been ALOT of packing going on around here with lots of help. HG loves finding things to play with. Packing has been way easier than I anticipated because Hadley is very content with anything new to play with. In this particular packing day, she was a happy camper with her hat and glasses.





She even found key chains that she turned into earrings;)


Now, I'm hopeful unpacking will be just as fun, if only I could remember where I packed her 'earings'.

True love

Awhile back, Gram and Papa stopped by on their way through town to meet us for lunch after church. HG was pumped, and something in these pictures tells me she isn't the only one;)

Library time

HG and I found the best kept secret in Republic, the Library! It is a new library that is nice inside and they have a fun story time on Wednesdays. I was surprised at the quality of story time. The librarian has a weekly theme and reads 2-3 stories. The kids sing songs, play games, dance and then end with a craft. It is the highlight of Hadley's week. I ended up teaching Hadley the days of the week because she would ask every day to go to library time;). Now she just says everyday, 'library is Wednesday, mom'!





This particular day, the theme was Fox's. She got to color and add stickers to decorate him. It was right up her alley.





They do the hokey pokey every week and after the first week of not know it, we started practicing at home. Josh even bought the song on iTunes and we dance to it. Her favorite part is to put her head in. Now, she is a pro at it and I think that's her favorite part of story time. The whole time the librarian is reading she is saying 'pokey mom, more pokey mom'.


Playing with a few toys before story time starts.


Playing on the computer, aka, pushing buttons as fast as she can.


Checking out her artwork.

Still..

 ...trying to pick the highlights of the summer to catch up and get back to more current things.  I'm the type of person that if I get too far behind, I don't want to just move on, I want to go back and spend time catching up.  The only problem with that is I think I have too much catching up to do and I never seem to spend the time.  Its a full random circle..lol.  I also haven't been taking many pictures.  The few that are still on my camera are going to be there awhile, my sweet honey packed my cord to the camera, so I can't upload.  Oh, BTW, I haven't mentioned it on here, but we are moving in a couple of weeks.  We are super excited and when I can get my pictures uploaded I'll share all about the move and new house pictures.  How random was all of that?  It has nothing to do with my pictures...moving on!

In July, my mom brought the cousins to visit.  HG is absolutely in LOVE with her cousins.  They are so sweet to her and do anything she wants.  She like having someone to boss that will listen :)   

Mom and I decided to take the kids to Wild Animal Safari.  It was so much fun and we found out it was perfect for all the kids.  

On our way...cute Chloe

Little Kate

Mom getting animal food

The white tigers were awesome

Cole and the parrot having a conversation.  He got him to say hello;)

Feeding the bunnies

Not sure what we are looking at, but it makes me smile.

Feeding the baby giraffe.

HG in 'weee' heaven.

A picnic lunch before the bus animal tour.. HG and the Sun chips are busy:)

First time on a bus

In heaven feeding the deer.  That is Chloe's favorite animal.

A little Iphone to pass the time..lol

The animals get really close...kinda gross if you ask me, but the kids really liked it.

Can you see the camel's head?

It was a little long for sleepy HG

But, she had no problem being entertained by gram.

Kate feed a yak, I think?

If you are ever in Strafford, MO take the time and go to the Wild Animal Safari, it is way worth the time:)