moving day - wednesday

"crunchy mango" snack
in the apartment after
the long drive.

mason was fine as long as he could be in physical contact with me in the hotel bed. so when i got up with maddux at 2:30am mason woke up and starting calling for me within 10 minutes. thankfully, madelyn sleeps like matt and didn't hear any of it. i was so afraid of oversleeping (and had mason practically on top of me) that i don't think i slept for more than an hour at a time for a total all night of around two hours. on the plus side, i was awake early enough to take a long shower before hitting the road and mason (or anyone else) didn't wake up during it.

matt and i loaded the van while derek stood outside the room while the kids were still sleeping. once we were ready, and the van was warm enough, we loaded in the kids. i think that we actually got on the road around 5:30 or 6am. the drive wasn't too bad. we had lucked out with the weather because we didn't have more than flurries the whole drive and traffic was fairly light the whole way too. we only stopped twice, which i thought was pretty impressive. (i think that it was on the first stop that i learned what didn't make it on the truck when they started running out of room! i knew it was serious because matt said that his coffeemaker almost didn't make it either.) madelyn and mason dosed a little while watching movies and maddux slept. and maggie rode in the back of the truck. she was totally fine and did great on the trip. thankfully, she loves the cold and would spend hours just laying in the snow.

mason checking out a
hiding spot in the kitchen. 

we had to be in ohio by 4pm to get the keys to the apartment before the office closed. i think that we rolled in at 3:30pm. with the time change it took us around 9 hours. all three kids started crying while matt was in the apartment office and i went in to see how much longer they were going to be because i could just drive around to help them calm down. we just all really wanted to get out of the car and eat (we didn't have lunch because the stop was too sketchy so we just had a light snack). mason was even signing "all done" over and over at one point.

once we were in the apartment, everyone was happy. madelyn ,mason, and maggie were just running around happy as can be and maddux was nursing contently while matt got the tour from the 'sales' guy - mike. we got the van unloaded and matt and derek set to unloading the mattresses off the truck. (mattresses and the nursery furniture were the only large items to come on this phase of the move.) we ordered pizza and had a picnic lunch on the floor. mason wasn't too sure about eating on the floor but madelyn was very excited.

madelyn with her "babies" - new and old

as the apartment filled up with our boxes and the kids were melting down, we decided that we would go up to chick-fil-a for dinner and then toys-r-us for 'house-warming' gifts. i love cfa and we haven't lived anywhere with one since college. i am really too excited about it. madelyn has asked to go back everyday since we have been here so i think she liked it too. toys-r-us was crazy but both kids had a good time selecting their special "new house" toy. i had promised madelyn that she could have a new toy when we moved and she told me that she wanted a "red ariel doll". she settled on a baby ariel that came with a crown, blanket, bottle, and story. mason selected a firehouse with siren, truck, dog, and man. in all $25 spent and it provided at least an hour of quiet playing when we got back to the apartment - worth every cent! besides madelyn being over the moon about her doll and telling all of us, even uncle derek, thank you for it and that she loved us and it.



maggie's post by the
front door.



since we don't have guest space here, derek slept in the nursery on mason's mattress and mason slept in our bed while maddux slept in the pack-n-play in our room. madelyn slept in what will be her and mason's room.

all in all, a pretty successful moving day! the apartment isn't huge, but there are three bedrooms, two bathrooms, new paint and carpet, and it is very convenient to stores. matt thinks that maggie is the happiest of all about this arrangement; she gets walked multiple times a day, gets to be in the main living space, and will get scraps from the kids. our goal is to keep as much of our furnishings and items in storage as possible until we move into an actual house, hopefully, before next christmas! love.