Yeah for preschool!

Ahhh. Preschool has finally started, and Kyle already loves it! Check out the couple of first day pictures we took above. He goes every weekday, 8:30 to 12. It's been much easier this week running errands with just two kids instead of three, and I can tell Natalie is enjoying having her run of the house while Kyle's at school. Unfortunately, we can't really go to the playground since it's already getting cold here--especially by our Texas standards. The TrailBlazer said it was 37 degrees when we drove Kyle to school this morning. 37! And I don't think it warmed up much from there. We should see a few more nicer days before the cold weather really sets in, but summer is definitely over!

It feels like Halloween should be our next project, but the next holiday here is Thanksgiving on October 13th. How lucky is Shaun that he gets a holiday for his birthday? I'm sure we'll celebrate Thanksgiving in our own quiet way, and then we'll start gearing up for Halloween. The kids haven't yet decided what they want to be this year. We better start thinking about it since it's only a month away!

Getting settled

We're finally in our new house and getting settled! Our shipment arrived last Thursday, and we've been unpacking, organizing, hanging pictures, and putting toys away. The kids were so excited to see the big orange truck drive up, and they were even more excited to see their things being carried into the house. It's really starting to feel more like home now--especially since my new washer and dryer arrived yesterday, and I haven't stopped doing laundry since! :D I'm thinking about doing some painting in the kitchen, dining room, and a few bathrooms, but that's going to have to wait until all the stuff is put away first.

The weather has also been gorgeous, and Kyle and Natalie are really enjoying their new backyard. We took some time this past weekend to do some driving and sightseeing, and it's amazing the way the ocean just sneaks right up on you when you turn a corner in some places here. We're trying to take advantage of the beautiful weather while it lasts!

We're in St. John's... but still waiting for our shipment!

We loaded all of our things onto the 'big orange truck', said good-bye to all of our best friends in Sugar Land, and boarded our flight to St. John's on August 7th as planned! After a prolonged (can I say I never want to see the Newark airport again?) but uneventful trip we checked into our hotel at 4 a.m., managed to get a few hours of sleep, and awoke to the drizzle that has characterized the weather in St. John's since our arrival. We were hoping for our shipment to arrive late last week, but it looks like it'll be later this week sometime instead. We've had three really beautiful days in the last two weeks, however, and the gorgeous days really do make up for the rainy ones! And the people here in St. John's are amazing. Everyone's been incredibly welcoming and friendly. We're all really looking forward to getting out of the hotel and into our new house and starting to make some new friends here in St. John's! Cross your fingers that our stuff gets here soon!

Ramping up!

Well, our plans to move are finally starting to fall into place. Shaun's found a sweet house for us to rent in St. John's, and we've tentatively scheduled our pack and load dates for our house in Sugar Land. We're packing up our house starting August 3rd, and we fly out of Houston for St. John's on Thursday, August 7th. But we have a lot of work to do in the meantime. Our house in Sugar Land isn't listed for sale yet. And Shaun leaves on Monday to spend a week in St. John's. But we should be able to get a lot done in the next week or so. Shaun's job is to start crossing things off of our St. John's to-do list, while mine is to start crossing things off of our Sugar Land to-do list.

Oh, and just a little update on the kids: Brandon's still the sweetest baby alive--good eater, good sleeper, and I swear he puts himself to sleep every night! Kyle's favorite thing to do right now is tell people we're moving to Canada. He has no idea what 'Canada' is, though. And Natalie's continuing to rule this roost every minute of every day! I'm getting a daily glimpse of what she's going to be like as a teenager.