The Leonard Family: March 2013

Sunday, March 31, 2013

Happy Easter!

We had a very happy Easter! It was a little different Easter for us this year since we just moved into the house and are looking for a new church. It was not really the perfect Sunday to visit a new church. :) We are hoping to find a new church really soon! We definitely miss St. Benedict's.
We spent the morning together as a little family! The kids played with all of the fun stuff the Easter Bunny brought them and we had a big breakfast together. After we got all dressed and ready we headed to Aunt Jennifer's house to celebrate with family. Aunt Jennifer had an egg hunt set up for the kids and the Easter Bunny even left a few goodies for the kids there too! Lunch was so good and we ate way too much! It was a fun time spent with family! Both kids were completely asleep on the 15 minute drive home!
Our afternoon has been quiet and really nice! Lucy is napping, the boys are snuggled in Daddy's chair watching a show and I am sitting here looking at the view out our big windows! Still LOVING the house and all the new things we are doing!
The rest of our weekend was really great! The Coopers came over Friday night to hang out on the pool patio and have dinner! We even got them to help put our new patio furniture together! The kids had fun and it was nice to hang out! Saturday, I got up and ran a race with some girls and then we hung out outside ALL DAY! LOVED the weather! Yard work and lots of playing!!! Daddy put new pine bark in the front beds and it looks so much better already! The Reilly's (without their kiddos) came over to have hamburgers with us! Daddy did a great job with the hamburgers on the Egg! And once again we recruited some friends to help..Chris helped us get the mount up for the TV! We are so excited they move in THIS WEEK around the corner!
It's been a very happy weekend! Only 11 days until our baby turns FIVE!!!!!

Finally a picture of the front of the house!

Fun Mableton girls before the Racetrac 5K!

How I spent late Saturday morning after the race!

Happy Kiddos at the front door

Laughing at something Daddy was doing behind me!

The Easter Bunny left some fun treats for us!

A new coloring book!

A new brush!

The Leonards on Easter!

Look! It's a balloon!

Notice anything new about me?!

Jack pretending to be a bunny!

And Lucy too!

Aunt Jenn and her bunny rabbit!

Poppa and Nunno with the babies!

Jack...post sugar high from dessert and treats!

Where did the babies go? We just have bunny rabbits now!

Happy Easter Daddy!

Again... sugar high!

Am I a bunny too?!

Sweet Caitlin!

I wish this was a video....Lucy was so sleepy and could physically not keep her eyes open on the way home. We were laughing and she was laughing but couldn't open her eyes!

How Daddy likes to spend Sunday afternoon!

Thursday, March 28, 2013

Just another day...

We are slowly settling into our new routine and enjoying getting to know our new house and all the fun things about it! The weather is finally getting a little better and we have gotten to enjoy the backyard!
Jack and Lucy are finishing up their first week at their new school and they have done SO GREAT! No tears and both have been really excited each day to go back to school! That makes us so happy! We get an email every afternoon about how their day went and what they did with their new friends! Both kids asked if they could please go to their egg hunts and parties tomorrow morning (even though I will be at home!!). They are going to go in the morning to enjoy their parties and then get to spend the afternoon with Mommy! Such a good sign to us that they are really feeling at home there!
We registered Jack for Kindergarten this week too! Is that crazy?! Our sweet baby is growing up! He will go to Vickery Creek Elementary this Fall!
I got to explore some new classes at the YMCA and got a good run in around the neighborhood! It is so pretty out here and I loved getting to see all around the new place!
We worked on Easter eggs tonight and enjoyed playing outside! We promised Jack as soon as it was pretty outside we would get to work on our eggs!

It's been a great first week settling into work and school in the house! We can't wait for more memories as Spring gets here! (I realize I haven't taken a picture of the front of the house! I will put it on the list!) Oh and did I mention we now have nice beautiful new tile in the downstairs bathroom.....you would think we were done with the whole sewage incident..but now that toilet isn't working!!!! Put it on the list! :) Hopefully we will have a clean fully functioning bathroom on the main level soon! Ha!

How cute are these little bunnies??!

Best buddies were SO happy to play together!

Kids are really growing up!

Daddy and Lucy enjoying the pretty weather on the back patio

Sweet Jack said he was just "relaxing" in the lounge chair

The back of the house with new paint!

Another shot of the backyard! Lucy's playhouse fits right in!

Daddy and Lucy relaxing! (Haven't replaced all the cushions yet..slowly but surely!)

"Coloring" Easter eggs after school! Jack had the best time and spent a lot of time to make the eggs just right! Lucy dropped an egg in the dye and then wanted another egg immediately!

Jack working hard on his egg!

Sweet boy!

And why not just eat dinner outside since it is sunny!

Sunset from the backyard! We are just loving it!

Saturday, March 23, 2013

Getting Settled!

The Leonards are in a new house! It is so exciting!!! It is WONDERFUL to be on this side of the move! This time last weekend was COMPLETELY insane..and this weekend it is just slightly crazy. We are really settling in to our new life in Cumming and enjoying exploring the new house and back yard! We are so happy to be the four of us in a new home!

Last Thursday was one of the more physically and emotionally draining days we have had together. Steven and I have both had our fair share of hard times, but moving our family and all that comes with that was tough! It all really started at 4:55am when I walked into Total Fitness for my last cycling class. The gym has meant so much to me and I dreaded the last class. Stacey had my bike all decorated and a card from the trainers! A balloon and everything!!! Lauren rode beside me in class and had a playlist just for me... TEARS. Gracious.....The movers came to Vinings Vintage around 9am and we spent the ENTIRE day helping movers get our stuff in to TWO trucks. YEP...we had one truck scheduled and five guys... they had to send for another truck. 1.5 hours later the truck got there and we got it ALL loaded. We pulled away from the house for the last time (TEARS!) and headed to Gainesville. Steven picked up the kids at Woodchase for the last time (TEARS! I had already cried the whole way to work on Wednesday morning just overwhelmed by it all.. I told him it would be better if he got them!) SO...two hours of traffic for both of us later we got to Gainesville and crashed with Poppa and Nunno! (Did I mention that both cars were so full of stuff we didn't have the option of leaving one car somewhere in Atlanta because neither of us could have fit...) Friday morning we headed to Atlanta for 2.5 hours at an attorney's office closing on both houses. We met the new people moving in and met the really great guy we bought the new house from and it was fun!
We got out JUST in time to meet the movers at Buckingham! One of the trucks broke down on 285 on the way to the new house...They finally got done around 8pm and we had our first beer on the deck (the weather was amazing!!!) Saturday went pretty well...I moved around boxes while Bubba and Steven went to get everything out of our storage unit.. MORE STUFF!!! Sunday was when things got really interesting. Steven ran into the kitchen yelling that there was water in the basement! WHAT??!! The main level bathroom (with the door conveniently shut at the time) was overflowing..the toilet...all over the floors.... tub full.... of SEWAGE?! OMG!!! We called every plumber we could find and no one could come on Sunday. So we turned off the water and did our best with no water for over 24 hours. Ugh. So... Monday (like something out of a movie) around 5pm (MUCH LATER THAN OUR SCHEDULED FOUR HOUR WINDOW) a plumber shows up... he starts with the bad news...all within about an hour of the kids coming home, friends being over, painters running around...oh and tornado sirens going off!!! They told us it would cost $5,000 and they would need to tear up the front yard. He described the hole to be about the size of their van. So.... a small freak out later... at 11pm we decided to cancel the service and get another opinion. 8am (may I mention on time!!) another plumber comes out and says our lines in the yard are fine and we don't need to do anything! Are you serious??!! BUT that our bathroom is damaged. So..another call and an Emergency Water Remediation company comes out... they rip out the hardwood floors, sanitize everything and set up blowers and dehumidifiers. (fun huh?!) BUT during all this we continued to work and unpack boxes..slowly we were getting settled!
Today is Saturday and we had such a great day at the house. It was just the four of us and we played and unpacked and hung pictures and mirrors. We had happy hour on the deck and enjoyed the new house! We are really happy with everything (despite the sewage!) and can't wait to make so many memories here!

We had SUCH great help with family this week! We are truly blessed and appreciate it all! Poppa and Nunno kept the kids over the weekends while we got our stuff in the house (and unexpectedly dealt with a plumbing issue!), Grandbubba came up to be such a help with Steven on so many things, Nannie came up and completely took over unpacking the kitchen, Neese and Mimi came up to help with the kids, unpack and clean...and Poppa came to help with lots of projects and hanging pictures on the wall! It was just amazing and so happy that we got to share this with family and friends! It is a VERY memorable experience! What did we know 9 years ago moving out of apartments just the two of us! What a change!
The other fabulous part about this whole experience is that Elizabeth, Chris, Morgan and William are moving in around the corner in 11 days! We could not have made that up! How fun!

I didn't do a great job taking lots of pictures of the progress because it has just been insane with people in and out of the house and a little overwhelming.. but here are some pictures from this weekend! We had the outside and a good bit of the inside painted, new carpet put in...and a large sewage clean up! :)

Lots more pictures to come.. but here are a few! We still have a long way to go and lots of boxes in pictures but at least a quick update!