Peru, Illinois

We've been here a week! 

Devin drove last tuesday and wednesday...he drove through one of the biggest storms the midwest has seen in years. I had a hard time sleeping that night, but thankfully he made it here safe and sound. A little wet from a leaky cab, but safe. Then the kids and I flew Wednesday night, we ended up having to fly around three different storms on our way here. It was a little bumpy but I was not in fear of my life. Welcome to the midwest! haha! The kids were AMAZING by the way. Did great on the plane and made me actually open to the idea of flying again :)

It has been great here so far. 

The ward has been incredibly helpful and kind.

 The kids are loving it. 

We have a blue bathroom (blue tile on walls and ceiling and in the shower...crazy, I know) that Lucy loves. She kept asking for a blue house, thankfully she at least gets a blue bathroom. Everyday since we've been here Lucy will tell either Devin or myself, "I love our new house." I am SO glad!

Cole loves that there is a park across the street from our house. Before they went down for naps he said, "Please mamma, part?" We've been there almost everyday since we moved.

We have encountered new and abundant wildlife here. As I write this there are huge bugs tapping on our living room windows....you think they'd learn eventually.  Lucy has made a home for the gazillion rolly-pollies that live here. 

She loved them in Utah, but you see one every five feet you walk here, so, she now has a little home for her rolly-pollies.

 We have sadly killed probably close to 30 of them. At first we realized they couldn't just live in dirt...then we accidentally left them outside when it rained. I guess they are not good swimmers. We have also found that they go into hibernation if you keep them inside a cold house...Aaand Cole has learned what it means to "be 'soft' to bugs or else they die."

We went to the park with a few ladies from our ward on Monday and I'm pretty sure Lucy carried a rollie-pollie around for an hour.

 They are her friends and they tickle :) That is what she tells me every time. 

On a bigger note there are squirrels, chipmunks, lots of birds, we have robins, cardinals (love those ones), finches, you know birds. I'm getting bird feeders in a few weeks, I'm so excited! And for the kicker...we've got these living in our backyard.

Yup...groundhogs, marmots, woodchucks, call it what you may. This one is just a baby. I discovered them when I walked out to throw away a diaper, I glanced over thinking it was a squirrel. Nope, not a squirrel. The mom is HUGE! Okay, huge if you are expecting squirrels. I jumped and ran for the door, closed it, looked through the window and called for Devin. After a minute I realized it was silly to be scared of her since she was running away when she saw me...but still. That thing is big, probably 5-6 times bigger than the baby you see here. 

We are still in the process of unpacking and will need to buy more furnishing eventually, since we moved from a furnished apartment. We don't have a tv so we're not pulling out all of our movies yet. 

So our movie cabinet is currently empty....

 Or so you thought!

 Haha, these goofballs have been having a lot of fun exploring and playing. Finding the little nooks and cranny's I would never think of fitting into.

 Last but not least here is Sadie baby.
She doesn't really like her bumbo anymore. Unless, she has a non-stop flow of food to her mouth.

 This is how she tries to get out.
 Well that is all for now. We're excited to be here! Devin starts work on Monday...We've had him all to ourselves for 6 weeks!!! No school, no work. We'll see how everyone does when it's just mommy again. We'll see how I do when it's just me again :)