Wonderful Aunt Katie and Uncle Dave and Grandpa Cutler came from Dallas to rescue us! They brought food, laughter, fun, and lots of elbow grease. Katie packed my piles into suitcases, cleaned bathrooms, and played with the baby, while Grandpa and Dave cleaned up the house and ran errands for us. We might still be there if they hadn't come to scoot us out of there!
This is Grandma and Grandpa Cutler reading the Cajun Night Before Christmas to the boys--a Cutler family tradition. What a relief to get to Mom and Dad's house where the fridge works, there's lots of toys, and lots of love. Katie and Dave and Kimmy were already there, and Amy, James and Max arrived later.
This is Russell watching the packers pack up our air shipment on our last day in our house. Both Isaac and Russell have been so brave about this whole thing, and did amazingly well without toys for a week in our nearly-empty house. They mostly just ran around outside and inside and improvised toys out of boxes and junk!
Sadly enough, our beloved harvest gold fridge broke two days before we moved. I've been praying for the ugly thing to die for a long time, but I wasn't quite prepared for it. Isaac filmed a 3-minute inch-by-inch tribute to the thing, and I called all my friends to come over for free food while I made chicken, rolls, and frozen vegetables for breakfast!
We had to say goodbye to our beautiful Martha Washington Duck. Robin and David came to visit and we took her down to the creek for her first and final swim there (I think the water level was finally low enough that she wasn't afraid!). She is living now with the Mellors in our ward who will take good care of her. We will miss our loyal friend.
Graham tried out the bouncer this week for the first time and loved it! He also rolled over, put his pacifier in his mouth, and laughed all within a matter of days! He is endlessly happy and smiley.
The moving truck drove off with most all of our stuff. Russell was especially impressed with the sheer size of the thing. We only filled half of it, but we've certainly got lots more stuff than when we drove up to the house five and half years ago with a little U-Haul! Russell has said several times with gravity since the truck drove off, "The moving truck took our trains to India." And then Isaac chimes in, "Yea, we won't see them for a long time!"
The great thing about moving is that you find long-lost stuff--like the mouthpiece to our bugle. We barely had time to enjoy it and practice our bugling talents before it too was carted off to India. Luckily we've got some of those Legos in our air shipment so we can build towers in our empty house!
It was such a relief to finally arrive at Grandma and Grandpa's house in Dallas and settle in to the Christmas fun. We are so glad to have this stopover trip with our loved ones before we face our adventures in India!
We will miss so many of our friends in Austin. We wish we'd been together enough to take pictures of all of them, but here's our next-door-neighbor Chloe.
And here's Joseph Wells. The boys didn't get a chance to say a formal "goodbye" to Joseph, Jacob, and Serena Wells, but we will surely remember them and keep in touch.
Grandma and Grandpa were so sweet to get bikes and trailer for everyone from a garage sale so we could act like Americans and ride our bikes around the neighborhood (okay, I didn't see any other Americans around doing the same thing . . . I guess we're aiming for another generation or another state or something!)
Here's Graham as happy as can be at Chuck-E-Cheese's. Grandma, Grandpa & Amy took all the boys there one day while I was on my way home from my Musikgarten training.
Here's the posse of Cutler boy cousins amazingly all sitting together at once for a photo! We loved getting to know Max and Spencer. Watch out, boys . . . I think Ellie might give ya'll a run for your money when she's old enough to take her place in the cousin play.
Grandma was so sweet to the boys and me--reading to them when they were happy or sad, finding just the right toy for the moment, letting them cook with her, watching them while I went shopping for American goodies and did my Musikgarten training and taking us to fun places like the place they print money in Fort Worth and the Dallas Aquarium.
The family pile! What a great sport Grandpa was to let us all invade his house for three weeks straight!
We all had a great time doing another great American Saturday activity: yardwork! Only with Grandpa Cutler you get the added bonus of great power tools for the job.
Graham, Max & Isaac tired, but ready for more at Chuck-E-Cheese's! Unfortunately, I don't have any photos of Amy, but our stay in Dallas was all the better because Amy came all the way from Michigan with her cool little guys to play with us and help watch the boys while I did Musikgarten training. Thanks, Amy! We also had so much fun with Mark & Cherie and are so excited for their new GIRL on the way. Mark and I carpooled into Dallas a few days while I was doing my Musikgarten training and one day we got stuck on the freeway for several hours because of flooding. We sang songs, told jokes, it felt just like the good old days when we were little tikes telling dorky jokes only Gurneys got. I wish all of us could live next door to each other somehow . . .
