Petal catch up

Here goes my catch up blog....

One thing I love about Petal is its awesome playgrounds. I mean these things have 3 story tall tunnel slides that make ME scream when I go down them. Love it!!





We had the pleasure of attending Ben's cousin "Little Tom's" wedding a few weeks ago. He is the nicest guy you will ever want to meet. I am thrilled for him and Mindy. I was a little nervous about sitting in the ceremony with all 3 kids. I did wind up walking out with Sidney once, but overall they did great. Sidney tells me the story every night about the beautiful princess (aka Mindy) who had on a beautiful dress and then they played a song and then she got some cake and then we could have some cake. Love that story. We also got to spend some time with Uncle Bobby and Aunt Angie. My kids love them. I don't think Linlee would hesitate to go live with Aunt Angie.



One of the perks of moving closer to home is that I can participate in hometown things like WA homecoming. It was a special one and they were commemerating past homecoming queens so I actually got to walk out on that field that I drug my feet leaving on the last game of my senior year. I had a great time seeing some old friends.




I got to take Sidney on a field trip to the Hattiesburg zoo with Conner's kindergarten class. It was very fun! He has a great class.



catch up part II coming soon....

Life at the Berteau House

We are so thrilled to be getting a house with a swimming pool!!! Until then, we will enjoy our time in the kiddie pool at Grandma's house. This is Sidney "floating". We also invented a new sport.....extreme slip n sliding.


These rest are just random pics.
Sidney and Grandma played in the makeup.

Sidney playing Wii bowling.

Linlee at her 1st gymnastic lesson.

Conner standing out in the crowd...

Wearing out the Tooth Fairy

Over the course of the last month, Linlee has lost 3 teeth. Two of them are the all important front teeth. The first one came out pre-move.

Because she was missing one of her front top teeth, the other one "stretched its legs" a little and moved over toward the center. It was driving me nuts the way it was hanging crooked in the center of her grin.

I was VERY glad when Ben decided to pay Linlee to let him pull it. She sports the snaggle look as well as you can when you have no teeth in the front.
Hopefully they will grow in nice, pretty, straight and quickly!!

Major Lifechange

We had gone all summer with no offers on our house. I had resolved that we weren't moving and was getting ready to start school in Memphis, buying school supplies and uniforms for both situations during the summer just in case. Thursday afternoon Aug 5th we get an offer! WHAT?!?
Friday August 6th my parents came up to take the kids back with them to have a few days of play time before school started since we really didn't think things would work out.
Saturday August 7th the kids get packed and head out with my parents not knowing if they would be coming back or staying in MS. I didn't really mention that possibility to them when they left because Conner is a bit sentimental and would have probably gotten upset. By that afternoon, we had a contract on our house!!!! We immediately go into "pack the essentials" mode. By Sunday afternoon we were on our way to Hattiesburg. The kids get to Hattiesburg on Monday afternoon and got up to go to school on Tuesday morning!!!!! By Saturday we put in an offer and signed a contract on a house in Petal, MS. A LOT changed in a few days!!! I never thought it would. Needless to say, that week was the MOST STRESSFUL of my whole life.
Grandma and Grandpa are gracious enough to let us bunk with them until we can close on our new home. 5+ weeks in someone elses home is quite a test for all involved. We are only 3 weeks into it, but I have to say it has gone extremely well!

Now back to starting school:

The kids were very excited! Poor Conner didn't know he was going to Kindergarten until practially the day before he started. He took it like a champ though. They are going to the school that Ben went to as a kid. Some of the same teachers are there as well as the headmaster. Very strange feeling for Ben and the teachers I am sure. Linlee and Conner looked so cute in their school uniforms.




So far everything is going great for them. They have both made friends quickly. Neither one got upset when se left that first day. I was very proud.

Siblings, Friends and Family

After this post I will finally be caught up with blogging. I have been 2 months behind for a while. So, this summer we have spent ALOT of time swimming next door. One morning I decided to take Madeline with us to the spray park. Sidney is not a big fan of actually getting in the spray water (she loves the pool though!). The older kids loved it!



We spent the days around the 4th with friends. We had a wonderful cookout with the Marlars. Avery and Leyton are getting so big! I just love their white blonde hair. Sidney loves playing with them.




A few days later we took our slip-n-slide over to the Fish house and let the kids, joined by the Sumner girls, have a blast getting wet.
Look at all those kids!!!

The Sumners will be adding a new member in just a few more weeks!!

This past Friday we took a trip down to Alabama to visit my parents for a few days before heading to Hattiesburg for some school meetings. We had fun swimming nearly all day Saturday, eating watermelon, playing in the jumping house with Ava and Maleigh and riding the 4 wheeler with Papa.


We then drove to Hattiesburg to visit Grandma and Grandpa. I helped take the kids bowling for the 1st time. They all loved it, but Linlee and Sidney got tired of it before the rest of us. Conner could have bowled all day. In fact, he scored second highest out of all of us with a 96. He really got into it.



We also went fishing a good bit.






Ben and I came back last night and left the kids to spend a few more days down there. I think getting out in the boat and slip-n-sliding down the hill are in the plans for the rest of the week. It is weekends/weeks like this that help reinforce our decision to move. If it is not in God's timing to happen this summer, maybe next summer we can get back home. We shall see.

Living in Quarantine

A few months ago we had a leak in our refrigerator that got under the floor. We thought we had it taken care of until we noticed that our wood floor started showing signs of water damage. Late June we decided to get it taken care of.

Because the whole dining room and den area is wood, it all had to be sanded and restained. We lived 10 days with the house in disarray. It was sooooo much fun having to crawl throuh zippered plastic each morning from our room, which by the way held 3 rooms worth of furniture.

It is finally done and looks great. We also had our backyard (which was basicallly a dirt farm) beautifully sodded.



I think this will really help in the sale of the house (hopefully).

Berteau Fashion Show

Poor Conner. He is always the odd man out in just about any group we get together with. So, what other choice does he have when it comes to his sisters playing dress up?? He tries to join in. I encourage him not to put on the fairy dresses so he pulls them off an invents his own character....Captain Underpants. It was hilarious, especially when the other 2 joined him. I don't think I will post those pics for privacy purposes, but I will keep them for future use.....:)