New

Well, this month has been kind of insane. We got all kinds of new things!

Our first purchase of the month was this beauty.

We have had the same couches since we got married. They were passed down to us (for which we are eternally grateful) from Jacob's parents and had been in use for a total of about 18 years. They had definitely seen better days.

On one Saturday when I was feeling particularly terrible, Jacob was a wonderful husband and took Emily and Edward out all day. In their wanderings, they went to the furniture store and looked at all the couches and took pictures of their favorites. I got to look through the pictures at home and then go to the store and spend only a few minutes trying out my favorites. It was fabulous.

My brother Scott helped Jacob pick the couch up from the store. When they brought it in the house, it was completely wrapped in cardboard and plastic. Of course, the kids are jumping up and down saying, "What is it? What is it?" Scott's reply, "Maybe it's a camel."

Our couch is now and forever, Fred the Friendly Camel Couch. Don't try to tell my children it's not a camel. It obviously is. If you want to go somewhere, just have a seat on our couch, tell it where you want to go and it will take you there! They definitely have good imaginations.

Shortly after that, we decided it was finally time to trade the truck in and get a minivan. We have been wanting to do this for a couple years now. Three kids in the back of that truck was not fun!

I love it. That is all. I just love it. There is so much space, the seats fold down super easy, the doors open by themselves, my kids are already learning to buckle their own seat belts now that they can see the buckles, I could go on and on.

We also did something new and booked our first vacation for just us, no kids. Actually, you could probably consider it our first vacation, period. All other vacations have been taken to visit family and friends.

In June we will be taking a cruise on this:

Fancy, huh? (Jacob has a fancier looking picture somewhere on this computer, but I can't find it and I'm too lazy to download one of my own.) We'll be going to the Eastern Caribbean for 7 days. I really don't think it's sunk in yet. In fact, it may not sink in until we get there. Until then, I'm trying my best not to stress about leaving the kids for that long. I'm also having lots of fun planning what we're going to do. So far we have decided that we will definitely be ice skating, mini golfing and spending time in the pools and hot tub while on the boat. And eating....probably lots of eating.