Closing a chapter

We closed on our house on Wednesday and then Robby and I came back to the house to finish packing last minute things, take apart the kids' beds, and make a run with the trailer over to the new house.  The kids spent the night with Gigi and Papa so we could get all of these last minute things done.

Our movers were at the house yesterday.  Because we had moved so much ourselves, we didn't think it would take them that long.  We were wrong though.  Moving just takes a lot of time. While they moved, I cleaned, and Robby and I loaded down our cars with all of our clothes and belongings that we were taking to Gigi and Papa's house.  When the moving truck was getting ready to pull out of our driveway I felt so anxious.  Robby led them to our storage unit and I was left to lock up.  I took a look around at all the empty rooms and became very overwhelmed with sadness.  I was a wreck and just couldn't stop thinking about how this house is the one that our kids were babies in.  It's the house they are comfortable in and the one they called home.  There were so many wonderful memories there and it makes me really sad to know that chapter in our lives is now closed.

I am so excited about our new house and getting to really make it ours. I know that the kids are young enough that this new house is the one they will remember as "home" and the one that the majority of their childhood memories will be made.  The next chapter will be just as happy as the last.  It think this in between period that we are in just makes it easier to dwell on the past though.  That and the fact that I haven't really had time to let it all process yet.

The movers were able to skillfully place everything into the storage unit except our 2 refrigerators and our washing machine, which we put in the basement of the new house.  I had to laugh yesterday as it was all going in because the reason we chose to do a storage unit over the pods that are delivered to your house is because we liked the option of being able to get to our things with a storage unit.  Well that is just a joke because anything I might possibly need is buried about 25 feet deep in this sea of stuff.

Today the kids and I went back over to the house for the last time to get a few things we couldn't fit in our cars yesterday and so I could finish cleaning.  I wasn't sure how the kids would do seeing the house empty, but I don't know why I worried.  The first thing the did was run up to their rooms and see how it looked without their furniture.  Then, while I worked, they had a blast running around in all that open space.  When it was time to go they were excited to hit up the bakery for lunch and then were super excited to get back to Gigi and Papa's house.  I'm so thankful that this transition seems to have been a really easy one for them. Because I had them with me today, I was forced to hold it together.

Before leaving the house I just wanted to snap a few more pictures of the kids there...mostly for me to have as a memory, but also for them to be able to look back on, years from now.