As of tomorrow, we moved exactly one month ago! This has possibly been the busiest month of our lives, but we are getting settled in and really enjoying having our own home!

Of course, I couldn’t let such a monumental event happen without sharing photos of the biggest mess we’ve ever made. Packing and unpacking seem to turn everything into a disaster zone…

… and you also find some pretty funny things in the process, like this Halloween wig! We didn’t get serious about packing up until about a week before the move, mostly because we were just going a short distance. The den became the official “box storage room”… … but soon enough, the whole apartment looked like this! Like I said, it was the biggest humble jumble of our things I’ve ever seen. We rented a U-haul truck to make this a one-trip, easy process. I think our truck was 24 feet long… and I was shocked when we filled every inch of it. I thought for sure we’d have extra space! The girls loved climbing up in the cab with Daddy once he got it home and parked!My mom-in-law came up for most of the week and helped with everything: packing, cleaning, moving furniture, unpacking, entertaining kids… you name it, she did it. I am so grateful for her help and how willing she always is to serve others.We loaded up the truck right around 5 pm on a Tuesday, and so many people from church showed up to help us! We had somewhere around 30 people who came, so we had the truck filled, driven over to the new house, and unloaded all in under two hours. Everyone enjoyed some pizza afterward, and I was thankful that the process went so quickly!My mom-in-law helped a ton with unpacking at the new house. Kaelyn wanted to be a big helper, too, so she started putting things in the pantry! Mom Irwin and I cleaned up the old apartment on the following Thursday morning. Together, it took us about 3 hours to vacuum, shampoo carpets, and scrub everything down. Once again, I was so glad to have help- it would have taken me at least twice as much time had I done it alone. My girls were angels, just playing with a random bouncy ball that was left behind, as well as reading a couple of books.Of course, I’m grateful that we could move on to somewhere bigger and better, but looking at these pictures of our empty apartment still tugs at my heart a little. That tiny kitchen where I made so many meals for our family, perfected my baking skills, and bonded with the people who helped me create those things will always hold special memories for me.

When we first moved in to our apartment 5 years ago, it seemed enormous. And it was- it was just the two of us, and we didn’t have much furniture to fill it. We grew our family there. It’s where we brought two sweet babies home, and watched them grow, explore, and learn so much.

Here’s to another chapter and making new memories in our new place!