Matt has lived here going on twelve years and I’ve been here just short of nine years. Saying goodbye is hard. So many amazing memories. But for me saying goodbye to the house isn’t the hardest part. It is the backyard. My favorite tree of all time lives in our yard.

It is gorgeous and huge. I love to lay on the trampoline with the kids and stare up at it. Watching it fill out in the spring with the early morning sun shinning through its branches is one of my favorite things. I will be sad to say goodbye to it.

As we are packing and talking about our new house, we are getting more and more excited about the change.

You have seen a preview of what we are planning for Reagan’s room and our dinning room, and you know we are really excited about our new place. As excited as we are, I want to fully embrace the saying “goodbye well” stage and let the memories and sweet moments flood my head.

I had the idea that we could paint pictures of our house to stimulate conversation about what we love about our home. These moments and the paintings are something we can take with us to our new home.

Caleb wanted to paint the front of our house complete with the basketball goal and our car out front. J wanted to paint the backyard with all our play stuff, so we stared out the window at our tree and talked about its size and shape and he painted that as the first part of our backyard. Reagan just wanted to paint. 🙂 Matt actually did a painting too, but I forgot to capture him in action as I had already started dinner when he started his painting.

I have not painted a house tribute portrait yet, but I plan too. I love how all these came out and I know they will be something special to hang in our new house. After the paintings dried, I sprayed a clear varnish protectant on them.

One of my favorite shots of everyone posing with their paintings is this one…

 I love my little family!

Have you had to move with kids? I know I briefly told you in our Packing Boxes (part 1) that my four-year old is showing signs of nervousness with all of this moving talk and changes happening. I was hoping this activity of talking, intentionally playing, and processing our life would help him.

Two more weeks! We can do this! I am thankful for my mom taking the kids for most of tomorrow, so I can run to Hobby Lobby by myself and attack packing this place up without cute distractions. I hope you are having a good week!