Welcome to LV

For those of you not so great at US geography (like myself), Louisville is along the northern border of Kentucky, so when you cross the Ohio river from Indiana into Kentucky, you're essentially coming into Louisville.

Our place is pretty easy to get to from the interstate. I'm not so excited about learning the interstate system here though as its I-64, I-65, I-264, and I-265. I'm sure I will be confused for a while!

Here's seeing our new place for the first time!

That night we unpacked part of the truck. The next day a guy Eric knew brought a friend and together we unloaded the rest of the truck. They were such an awesome help!

Luann was such a blessing taking care of Malachi and lining all of our shelves with shelf paper - a job I seriously dreaded!

Malachi did pretty well with the chaos even if it meant eating on the floor!

Better pics later. For now, this is what our living room looks like! And as you can maybe tell, there's no lighting in the living room or either bedroom. 

Travels to LV

We were incredibly blessed by God on our trip to Louisville. We left around 8 am and arrived about 11 hours later plus an hour change into the eastern time zone. 

Luann was great at entertaining Malachi in the back and even helped drive part of the way.

Malachi did so well! I think a few things helped: prayers, an active day before, and lots of new things to play with, look at, and eat.

We had overcast skies most of the morning, but it got up into the 100s by afternoon and evening. 

Finally coming into Louisville we hit bridge construction. Stopped traffic. It wasn't too bad though since it was later in the evening. We were just excited to finally be there!

Last Week in DSM

Last week we finished packing up our apartment.

My mom came for a few days to help, and then our neighbors and Eric's mom helped at the end. 

And of course Malachi "helped."

Eric and I were able to go out one last time to celebrate our 4th wedding anniversary!

Finally the day came to load the truck. We had some great friends come over and load all these boxes along with our furniture into the U-haul. I seriously (seriously) did not think it would all fit, but after some answered prayers and great packing skills of my husband and friends, they got it ALL crammed in except for Eric's big desk chair.

The next morning we took off around 8 am with Eric driving the truck and his mom, Malachi, and I in our car. Louisville, here we come!

One last thing I wanted to share - our friends Travis and Andrea bought us a huge box of diapers and wipes (along with a couple new toys) for us to use instead of cloth until we get a washer and dryer. So nice of them!

Activity Boxes for Our Drive

Being that we are going to be traveling in the car for about 12 hours with Malachi on Friday, I've been looking online and talking to some friends about things to keep him entertained and happy. One idea is to have busy bags of new and old toys or just random things to play with. 

We had some computer boxes and a couple sturdy bags that I didn't know how to use, so I decided to fill them with randoms such as pipe cleaners, dollar tree toys, and clothes pins along with books, straws, stuffed animals, and a wallet with fun things in each pocket. I still want to add a snack to each one and am hoping they help on the long drive. 

M is Growing Up!

In the past week, Malachi got his hair cut...

and went to the dentist!

He hated his haircut (Sorry, Kelsey!) and cried the whole time! The dentist was a little better, but once they started looking in his mouth, he cried and cried too. He did love picking out a squishy ball from the treasure box though on our way out!

Malachi Update

Malachi is now 15 months old, so a quick update...

The first exciting news is that he's going to have a cousin - a boy cousin at that! 

When we were in MN at the end of March he got to eat his first kolache!

 Significant because of my family's heritage and that we often call him Malach the kolach. 

His new sign is "help" which often gets used when he wants to go up or get onto something.

Playing in his room - with the toy of the day (grill brush) and in his jumper that's too small. :)

 His best friends (besides his mom of course) are definitely the neighbor kids. 

This is also the face he has been making lately - my sister calls it the "cod fish".

 Visiting our relatives in Pella for a few days.

Stats:

Clothes: 12-18, 18-24 months. Into size 5 shoes. Can finally wear the Reeboks he got for his birthday!

Food: Eats whatever we eat unless it's salad. Doing better with the green vegetables. Discovered my neighbor got him to eat green beans by putting butter and salt on them. Ah... Loves Trix and strawberries. Getting tooth number 13!

Sleep: Sleeps all night from 7:30 pm to 6 or 7 am. Still taking two naps - 9:30 and 2 each for a little over an hour.

Activity: Loves to climb and explore everything. Everything. Likes going down the twisty slide at the park feet-first on his belly.

Speech: Ma-ma, da-da, nae-na, ball

Personality: Really outgoing most of the time but has been very clingy lately. Because we're getting ready to move and he can sense a change? Or because he's getting teeth?

Likes:

Food - Trix, strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, and cheese quesadillas

Toys - Non-toys like the silicone grill brush, a funnel, bag clips, pots, cell phones

          Real toys like his school bus, percussion set, and wooden puzzle

Books - Max Lucado boxed set

Games - hm... I don't know

Dislikes: Playing in a room by himself for very long. 

More Packing

Packing continues. I feel like we're making good progress, but it always takes longer than you think. The "last few things" turn into another 10 boxes. My mom is coming next week to help which will be nice. I'm saving books and Tupperware for her and then hoping she'll want some grandma time with Malach so I can work on stuff in our room. 

 Why the pic of a roll of tape? Because it's almost gone! The first roll is almost used up, and the piles of boxes and tubs grow. I'm so glad we reserved a big truck. 

14 days and counting. Yikes!