Celebrating a Birthday, School, and More Destruction

We have been in a constant state of upheaval this past month - or as I like to think of it as our "new normal". The transition of moving to my parents house mixed with the stress of home renovation, mingle with starting school has been a little difficult on the kids. They love being with the grandparents, but not playing with their friends everyday is starting to wear on them. Poor Molly, being the only child home, hasn't found her niche quite yet; she has been sucking her thumb nonstop (not to mention she is no where near wanting to potty train). But we are trying to make the best of things, and I think with a little more time we will all transition nicely into our temporary home (or else we will all end up crazy in the loony bin).

Jacob, Alexa, and Luke on the 1st day of school.

Wednesday, August 27th, my baby Molly turned 3 years old. I celebrated the day by working. Molly celebrated the day by getting in a car accident with my mother. Everyone is fine, but the car is a complete loss. Somebody pulled out/backed up into my mom and hit the passenger side of her car. A few things happened that let us know God was definitely watching over Molly during the accident- 1st, Molly was suppose to be in a booster seat in the back passenger side (where the car was hit), but my mom decided to put her in the toddler car seat (located in the middle of the back seat) this time for the short ride, and 2nd, Molly happened to have a blanket that she was playing peek-a-boo with that shielded her from all the glass. She was a little shook up, but not a scratch was on her.

Here is the damage to my mom's car.

This is the back seat of the car.
You can see the glass didn't reach the middle seat due to the blanket.

We celebrated Molly's birthday a couple days later with a family dinner consisting of my family, my parents, Kenn's dad and brother, and Grammy Johnson. My mom made an awesome dinner (shepherd's pie, rolls, salad and fruit), and my chocolate zucchini cake with ice cream were a big hit. Molly received some dress up clothes, fashion Polly's, books, puzzles, and stuffed animals. The most popular present by far was the Disney Princess scooter from Grandma and Grandpa Lalliss (I hate it when the grandparents upstage the parent's presents).




Molly is showing us that she is 3 years old (I'm not sure where she learned to show 3 fingers like that, but I thought it was pretty cute).









This picture is more for my own memories- the place mats shown were my Grandma Ballard's (now inherited by my mom). In all my years visiting Oregon, a meal at Grandma's house was never eaten without these place mats being present.

This is Jacob and Luke's wrapping job
(almost a full roll of tape was used for this project)
Luckily it is the thought rather than the presentation that counts!

The rest of the pictures are Molly at her birthday dinner

Our Molly Pops is the little "Cheese" of the family and is always doing something that makes us laugh. She is soooo smart- she knows all of her colors, letters, numbers, and animals/sounds, and she can do way more sign language than most of us. Molly is one of the few kids I know that looks forward to church each week so she can go to Nursery. I am glad that Molly chose our family to be a part of and that I can be her mother (she often tells me I am her favorite Mommy). She is the perfect finish to our family. We Love You Molly!!!

P.S. Due to the length of this post, I will show updated pictures on the progress of our house next time (something for everyone to look forward to).