Markers, Pictures and Sand

As we were moving our house was in total disarray and the kids were allowed to do some things that I would not normally do.  The fact that our bed was in the living room didn’t really help the situation either.  Vincent called it a couch bed.  All the kids enjoyed jumping on it and the dogs were happy not to have to walk upstairs to go to bed.  

A very messy living room/bedroom days before we moved

Radiator Dancers...they tried building a bridge to the bed

Cecilia's "tatoo's" as Vincent called it

Silly girl

The silly marker kids

With all the boxes that were around Vincent started making little tunnels.  Then Brad helped and we had a tunnel that went through 3 rooms downstairs!  Brad and Cecilia got stuck in there once.  Cecilia put on the brakes half way through and Brad couldn't move.  Brad sent Vincent upstairs to come get me to help.  I sent Vincent in the exit to retrieve Cecilia and Joel went in the entrance to "help" too.  I had as much fun as the kids did playing in the tent tunnel!

Striking a pose

Cecilia thinks he is hilarious

The start of the tunnel

Thru the dining room into the foyer

Thru the foyer into the office

Thru the foyer into the office and into the living room

Some of the things the kids decided to do on their own were climbing on the radiators and jumping from the radiator to the couch bed.  They also found the box of markers that didn’t fit in the craft box.  I started letting them decorate our moving boxes.  One day when we were doing that Cecilia started drawing on a box and then on her leg with the purple marker.  Joel was in bed and Vincent told Cecilia that she looked beautiful. Cecilia smiled and kept coloring.  Vincent then asked if he could look like Cecilia too.  I told him that he could draw on his leg and that was it.    Then I took a phone call and Vincent took the purple marker to his forehead, cheeks, ears, and legs.  Cecilia and Vincent were quite the purple mess!  At first I just laughed about it and then I panicked that maybe the purple wouldn’t come off completely and I didn’t want it on the kids for Kasi’s graduation!  I got it mostly off and after a shower that night they were good as new.

Brad was the first one to live in the house

One guy, one very large house

Then he got married to Kelli....

and they got a dog (Bristol), but Kelli was away at school so it was just the two of them.

The wife came home on weekends and then for good after she graduated veterinary school.

She brought another dog (Maisy) home with her.  And a horse (Ray), but he wasn't there for the photo.

Then the happy couple had a son named Vincent

Two years later they had another son named Joel.

Two years after that they had a daughter named Cecilia.

And sometimes Cecilia ran into pictures when she wasn't supposed to.

She learned it from her brother Joel, who had to hug Bristol right that second.

The day before we closed on the house we took the kids back to pick up the last few things and let them say goodbye to the house.  They weren’t sure what to think about it being empty and we took a few last laps around our indoor race track.  I wanted to get pictures of all of us in front of the house in the order in which everyone arrived.  Vincent was our photographer for some of the pictures (any that Brad and I were both in) and he did a great job!

Putting sand on your head is not a good idea, no matter what!

So much fun letting Joel in the car after playing in the sand...at least he isn't eating it

Kind of the hill

The kids couldn't resist playing in what was left of the sandbox one more time!  They brought a lot of sand with them.

She made it to the top!