It takes a village.

Dear Hadley & Coen,

When you were 16 months and 3 weeks old respectively, your mom & dad had this nutso idea to buy a house and move across the state...Sounded easy enough at the time. But had it not been for the help of your extended family, mommy (and possibly even daddy) would've lost it!

It took a village.

Gramma Joyce started it off by driving daddy's rickety Jeep over the pass for us. She was pretty cute driving as close to the steering wheel as she could get (Gramma J is not very tall, even less tall than your mommy :). 

Mom & Dad and Grandma Vicki & Poppa Bruce (and let's not forget Uncle Ryan & Uncle Pete) moved a lot of boxes and furniture into the house while Grampa Lor chased Hadley around the yard for hours on end. It took days and days of unpacking to get everything in its place and even more cleaning to get the house sparkling.

We unleashed Gramma J & Gramma Vicki on the yard...and between the two of them weeding and pruning and trimming, they must've spent 48 hours total. That was just the beginning (there was a LOT of cleaning up to do in that yard)! You two are going to love having a yard to play in when you get bigger.

Grandpa Guy & Grandma Allison came the next week to help. More yard work ensued (all yard tools a move-in present courtesy of Grandpa Guy :) there was edging and mowing and watering and more pruning and trimming to do...and they rocked it. Not to mention the job Grandma Allison did on the oven. They put together your furniture for your rooms, got the playroom all set up and changed a LOT of diapers and fed you a lot of crackers.

There are just not words to express how much our family came to our rescue - we couldn't have done it without them, and we are so grateful to have such a beautiful and comfortable (and clean!) house to settle in to and get the Walla Walla chapter of our life started. When you grow up you're going to find out that you have the most wonderful grandparents of any kids on the planet. Really.

We love you two little stinkers - someday you'll thank us for pulling off this major feat. And in the mean time, THANK YOU to all six of H&C's grandparents - you are the BEST.

xo A&S

Some photos of the move & the new place...

The view on the drive - I love E. Washington

Hadley LOVES outside

Check out the moving truck

Grandmas & Babies

Babysitters :)

A LOT of boxes...

Swingin

Coen enjoying the weather

The front

A work in progress - the living room

Kitchen


Hadley's new playroom!

A break to watch the ducks...

And push little brother in the stroller :)

Some furniture assembly


The Woodrow Wilson Room (long story, another post)

The Dining Room

Grandpa entertaining the peanut...for the 11th hour in a row!