So thankful...

We had a really nice Thanksgiving weekend.  I didn't take many pictures, but I snapped a few.  We gathered at my Ann Ann's (when I was little I didn't realize everybody was calling her AUNT Ann.  So, she's always been my ANN Ann).  It was very fun and she was so sweet to have us all to her home. 

Here's Brock wrestling with his second cousin, Jack...

 "Someone" went into a turkey coma about 5 seconds after the meal.  Seriously, he was out like a light! Gotta love that tryptophan!

The Sisters...Ann Ann and my Mom

  After we left Ann Ann's, we went to our house for a bit where Doug raked a huge pile of leaves for Brock to enojoy...so much fun for him!

 Later, we went to Mom's and had a little late Birthday celebration for little Chloe who turned TWO on Nov. 10th...where, oh where has the time gone??!  She was just born a second ago wasn't she??

We gave her a new shopping cart full of groceries, and her brother set up a grocery store in Mom's kitchen.  She was loving it! Notice the purse on her arm...such a little girl!



Allie and her sweet family...

Snuggling on the couch with our precious ones watching Bedknobs and Broomsticks.  They were LOVING it!!

When we got home again that night, Doug set out to do one more project.  For some reason, there are two air vents in our GARAGE! We think the original owner had it set up like a workshop, and wanted to have it heated in the winter.  Unfortunately, that means that heat is pouring out into our garage and right under the garage door. So, my super duper handy-man blocked the vents so that no heat gets out!

Oh the joys of an old-new house! :)

On this Thanksgiving, we are so thankful for all of God's blessings including our sweet family, wonderful friends and house to call home and a million other things...

very thankful!!

Movin' and Groovin'

Moving is a terrible thing.

There's just no way around it. I've moved in town and I've moved out of state, and either way it's just a nightmare...plain and simple. You might as well just toss your entire house upside down, shake it up about 10 times and toss it all out in the yard. That's what the entire process feels like to me!

I think in some ways, in town moves are worse than far-away moves.  In town moves end up going something like this:

"Oh, we're driving near the new house, let's take a load.  Here, grab this baseball bat, set of silverware and the coats out of that closet."

No ryhme, no reason...just getting it all there in as few trips as possible.

But the beauty of our move has been that we've a had almost a whole month since closing to do lots of work around the empty house like...

Painting our bedroom...

 Painting the lamp post out in the front yard, along with the shutters and front door...

If we've learned anything, it's that a little bit of paint goes a long, long way!

Then there was the night when we decided to remove the fireplace cover and found about 35 pounds of dirt, leaves and other yucky stuff inside.  That was a major cleaning project!

 But the most major project to date has been dealing with the green wash that the original owners felt would be wonderful for covering EVERY surface of the living room and kitchen with...even the ceiling fan!!

As beautiful as it was...it had to go! :)

 This is Cerrando aka "Shorty", the man who took away the green...our hero!!  There were a couple of times that my phone would ring while out in public and it would be "Shorty" calling.  It's just not that often that I answer my phone(and if you know me, you know I don't know how to whisper) and say, "Oh, hey Shorty!!"

 We are so happy to be free of the green in the living room.  And yes, if you look above, you see that we painted our bedroom...green.  I don't know why it's different, but it just is!  The next big project will be freeing the green in the kitchen...all in good time.

We also did a mailbox redo...new box, new paint and new numbers!!!

Doug's most recent job has been cleaning out the gutters on the roof.  I'm pretty sure they haven't been cleaned out since...ever.

So, all of that happened before the move in....

On November 20th, after nearly a full month of working, cleaning, fixing and painting our house...we moved!

We hired two movers to help for the first two hours.  They moved all of the really big, awkward stuff, like our bed...

 We were also blessed to have some incredibly sweet friends help us move the rest of our stuff including the Goodyears and the Bowmans!! Thank you so much for giving your time to help us!! We are so thankful... 

 We even had some very sweet little helpers...

It seems, though, that no matter how much help you have you still end up with things looking like this...

and this....

But eventually, you start getting a few things put together...

and it starts to feel a little more like home.

Oh, and no pressure, but...

Welcome to the neighborhood and by the way...we're having a Christmas Yard Decorating Contest!

Hmmmm...wonder if they want to come help me find my underwear and then we can talk about yard decorations!!