Back to school

We took Mattea to her new school this morning. The kids in her class were at circle time. She walked right in, took off her coat and sat right down in the middle of the circle. It didn't take her long to feel comfortable. We got the low-down on the routine from Miss Lindsey and then we took off to register the boys for school. After some paperwork at the Admissions office, we went to the school and got a tour. The boys have been assigned to the "A" track. The "A" track is just coming off from a 3-week break, so the timing is perfect. The boys will be in school until May 30th then they will be off until July 9th. They lucked out with that!!! Hopefully, they will do great things in their 1st 9 weeks because after that, they move on to the next grade! The boys are much less excited than Mattea was for her first day at a new school, but they will be just fine.

There's no turning back now!

The movers arrived this morning around 8:30am. There are just two of them and they don't look like bodybuilders or anything, but they work very well together and make everything look easy! The weather today couldn't be better. It's 50 degrees right now, but it feels even warmer than that. It's a beautiful sunny day. We met some more new neighbors and they continue to be very friendly (and mostly from the Midwest so far!). The boys are playing with a boy named Jacob. We met his sister, Renee and little brother, Jackson earlier this morning. The boys share a bedroom that is decorated in Star Wars, so you can bet we'll be checking that out for some good ideas for Joshua's room.

Anyway, all is going well so far. All of the boxes are getting stacked up all over the house and it's looking pretty overwhelming! But, we'll get out what we need and then just plug away at the rest. I'm looking around at all of this open canvas and wondering how best to decorate. I'm weeks away from that, but I could use some ideas. So, who's going to come out here and help me figure that out??? : )

We'll keep you posted on our progress. I'll send pics as soon as I come across my cable to download pictures!!!

The Dolan's have arrived!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We have arrived! We got here earlier this afternoon and drove straight to our new house. Since we don't own it yet, we took the kids around the back and walked the bike path down to the playground. As we were walking back to the house, our realtor called to check on us. He wanted to know if we wanted to get into the house. We answered with a resounding YES!!! So, the kiddos raced in, took off their shoes and went to discover their rooms. They wandered around the whole house and took it all in. They pushed buttons, peeked in closets and made plans for how they wanted to decorate their bedrooms. Everyone is happy with the house and we can't wait until tomorrow morning when it's all ours!!!

One of our new neighbors stopped down already to meet us! She has a 3-year old daughter who spotted Mattea and insisted her Mom bring her down to meet us. We were absolutely delighted to find that Mattea would have a playmate in the neighborhood. We got the lowdown on the neighborhood and it sounds like a fabulous place to live! There are a TON of boys in the neighborhood which is why Katie (Mattea's new friend) was so excited to see her! The boys will have new friends in no time. We even found out that one of the neighborhood families are HUGE Star Wars fans!

We drove to Mattea's new school to show it to her. She said, "That's my new school?" We said "Yes, it is." She said, "Well, drop me off!" We told her it wasn't time to go there yet, but she was insistent that we drop her off. It was pretty funny. We might have to stop by tomorrow and let her meet her teachers and new friends! We also drove by the boys' new school. There weren't any requests from the boys to drop THEM off! Shocking...

So, it's been a long few days and Jeff & I are both exhausted. We're at his apartment now and plan on having an early night. We'll set up the air mattress and have a big slumber party. I would imagine that Jeff & I will be asleep before the kids tonight.

We thanked Aunt Kelly many times during our trip since her well-packed travel bag kept us fed and happy with snacks, drinks & movies. Grandma Judie came through with some Dora activity books for Mattea, too. When we arrived safely in Aurora, Colorado, we thanked Daddy for getting us here safely. He did ALL the driving.

This weekend will be a busy one, so we wanted to make sure we let you all know that we arrived safely. We may have the web cam on sporadically this weekend, so feel free to ring us if you see us online.

We'll talk to you all soon!!!

Love,
Jeff, Tracy, Alex, Josh, Mattea & Indy Dolan

This is what life is about!

These are the moments I treasure...

Joshie's Question of the Day

"Mommy, how many seconds until my birthday???"

Alex is AWESOME!

While we were on our cruise last week (I'll blog about that another time), Alex was a HUGE help to Grandma & Grandpa and Lindsey. I heard rave reviews from all of them about how very responsible, mature and extremely helpful Alex was. I already knew this, but it was so nice to hear. I am so proud of the little man Alex has become. Tonight, I was a wee bit crabby and Alex picked up on that pretty quickly. He sprung into action and became my "cleaning service". He went into each of the bedrooms, closed the door and did his thing. When he was done with the bedrooms, he went down and picked up the kitchen and the living room. Seriously... he rocks!!! So, that is why I say Alex is AWESOME!!!! Without him helping me out, I would be crazy!

Joshie's Question of the Day

"Mommy, how many minutes are in a day?"