Pictures September 2014

Before we moved, I had the chance to get a picture session in with my friend Tina. I sure will miss having a friend readily available to capture my children at each stage of their lives. I love the images that she captured that day! I can't wait to frame some and get them up on our walls here.

-three good looking kids if I say so myself

-the girls love their brother

-my Peachy girl

-pretty Cream

-love my little smiley guy

-Shortcake is not so sure about this one

-we had to grab one with all of us too. just keeping it real, folks.

Shortcake: Seven Months Old

This post is a little overdue. I was hoping I would be able to locate the blue frame I use in Shortcake's monthly pictures so I could take some pictures before I posted this. However, it is lost in the box abyss somewhere in our basement. So, I will just post it and hope to find the frame before he turns 8 months.

Mr. Shortcake is growing up! He is getting more and more active and busy. He loves to grab things and see what they feel like in his mouth. Time to make sure the house is baby proof. He also lets us know when he is upset at us for taking something away. Thankfully he can easily be distracted.
He sits up like a pro. He can even reach for something and sit back up again. And while he can roll both ways he hasn't discovered that he can use this skill to be mobile.

We have decided to forego the purees this go around and have been offering Shortcake more table food and finger foods. He just wasn't that interested in being spoon fed. This way he gets to feed himself and I don't have to make the time to sit and give him every bite. I am somewhat following Baby Led Weaning, but also making it our own. He loves feeding himself and I am amazed at what he will all eat.

He doesn't sleep through the night most nights, but most nights he is only up once. I find it funny how with Peachy this would have driven me crazy, but I really don't mind. Chalk it up to realizing that as a parent you cannot be in control of everything.
One cute story for the month. The girls were gone for around a week while we were moving.
The night they came back Shortcake was just so happy to see them! He kept on giggling and smiling at them. So sweet.
As I already mentioned in another post, the little man also received his first haircut this month and got his first two teeth. (The middle bottom two.)

Peachy Is In Kindergarten

This little girl grew up and went to kindergarten this fall. It was a bit of a crazy start since the beginning of school landed right smack in the middle of the moving craziness. She missed the first week. We stayed at a rental house so that she could attend the second week. And then she missed all of the third week except for Friday.

Celebrating her first day with mom and dad at McDonalds.

In true Peachy fashion, she made the most of the rocky start and adjusted quite well. We just had her first consultation and the teacher said that she gets along with lots of her classmates and is doing great. Not a surprise, but still wonderful to hear. She loves going to school, as I knew that she would. One surprise bonus of the move was that the kindergarten she is enrolled in is still half day. That was music to this mom's ears. That helped to make the transition so much smoother for our family.

New Home Tour

W ell, don't just stand there, come on in! I would love to show you our new home!! Please keep in mind that we are really excited about the house and its POTENTIAL! I really can't wait to make this house OUR home.

The entrance is through the doorway on the this picture. You are looking at the dining area. Don't you just love the wallpaper and curtains? (Can you see where I already started to peel the wallpaper off in the right corner of the picture?) And how about the pink carpet? (We are not even going to mention that it is carpet, in the only eating area of the house. I am taking bets on how long the carpet will last.)

The window in the dining area looks out to the front yard. That is the garage you see to the right.

After walking through the dining area you come to the kitchen. While the the cupboards are a bit outdated, they are in good shape and there is plenty of storage room. The flooring and appliances are also in decent condition.

I love the extra little counter space next to the fridge.

Through the kitchen is the garage entrance. The former owners also had moved their laundry to this area.

To the right of the last picture, is a half bath, which shall soon be known as the bathroom formally known as the duck stamp bathroom.

Quack! Quack!

And just to the right of the bathroom is a door leading to the . . .

COVERED PATIO! One of my favorite parts of the house!

The second entrance to the patio is through the sliding doors off of the living room.

I love the size of the living room and the huge bank of windows.

Down the hall from the living room is the full bath on the right. Flanking the bathroom door are two full-sized closets. 

We found out on our second showing of the house that there was no bathtub in the house. We figure since the previous owners were older, they replaced the tub with a shower for safety. We actually asked for money off of the price of the house in order to add a bathtub.

Just past the bathroom is the master bedroom. It only has one standard sized closet, but with the closets outside the bathroom, we figure we can manage. (We were spoiled with our large walk-in in our last house.)

Just around the corner from our bedroom is the second bedroom that we are using for the girls. (Yes, you are quite right, this is the second type of paneling you have seen. And yes, the curtains are gorgeous!)

The third bedroom is around the corner from the second and across the hall from the master. (Shortcake finally is getting a real room!)

The basement stairs are off of the garage entry area. 

As you can see, the basement is unfinished. We have big plans for this space.

We put our washer and dryer to the right of this picture where the homeowners originally had theirs. (And yes, that is a toilet sitting there in the corner.)

I saved one of my favorite parts for the end. The yard rocks! This is taken from under the patio.

The front is great as well. Oh, and as an extra bonus, the sellers left this great doll house that the original owner made for his granddaughters.

Add another project to the list!

Finding Our Home

Here it is, our new home.

When we started looking for a home to purchase in our new location, we had certain qualifications in mind. We were getting a bit tired of our split level, so we wanted a rambler or two story home. We knew we wanted at least three bedrooms, but four would be better. We wanted a two plus car garage. We wanted to try to purchase a home close to the school Peachy is attending which is connected to the church we joined. We didn't necessarily want a house that had been updated by someone else. We were excited by the idea of making it our own rather than paying for someone else's work and taste. We loved our old neighborhood, but the fact that it was new construction meant that there wasn't much for mature yards. We
With those ideas in mind we looked through MLS listings that our realtor sent to us and narrowed the list down the ten houses we wanted to see. Since we would be coming from out of town, the realtor arranged for us to see them all in one day. It was a long day of looking at houses. A really long day, but in the end we had found a house to look at again the following day. While we got an offer accepted on that house, we ended up not getting it because of issues with the inspection.
So, it was back to looking at houses. This time we saw six houses in one evening. When we left this house I was thinking that I really liked it. So we scheduled a second showing for the following day and wrote up an offer on the spot.
By this point we realized we would not be able to meet all of our criteria in the price range we wanted to be in, but this house hit lots of them. It is a rambler, it had not been updated, it had three bedrooms and an unfinished basement to make a fourth, and it has a great yard with landscaping and mature trees. The location is about a ten minute drive from church and school, but it does lessen Mr. Cherry's commute time a bit. It has a two car garage, and Mr. Cherry was really hoping for some room for his projects, but again the unfinished basement should help.

I will share a home tour with you soon. There is lots of work to be done to make it our own, but that will be fun. (Right? Right?)

Shortcake's First Haircut

Before

Being that Shortcake was A) born with an awesome amount of luxurious locks and B) born under the male persuasion, he ended up getting his first haircut well before the girls received theirs. (It really was time to cut or wait for Locks of Love.)

We opted for a grandma cut while were visiting a few weeks ago. I held the diaper clad boy on my lap while grandma wielded the comb and scissors. It actually went very well.

Don't let the expression here fool you, he really didn't mind it.

He handled it like a champ and grandma made speedy, but good work of it. I do have to admit I was a bit reluctant to cut his hair so early. It felt to me like dying the girls' hair.

See!

It was his signature look since birth, like the girls' were red heads. In the end, I was super happy with the cut. I didn't think it was possible, but it makes him look even cuter!

Selfie with momma after

Catching Up

Wow! What a crazy and eventful two and half weeks it has been. Here is an overview of what has all happened since we last "talked".
-Cream turned three
-Peachy started kindergarten
-Shortcake got two teeth and his first haircut
-We packed up one house
-We closed on our new house
-We moved into our new house

Now we are:
-All living in one house! (With all of our stuff under one roof. With the exception of the few items that we missed in the move.)
-Living in a sea of packing paper and boxes.
-The proud owners of two homes. (Hopefully that will change soon.)
-Unpacking and organizing.
-Dreaming of all of the changes that we hope to one day make to our new home. I see lots of wallpaper stripping, painting, home improvement store shopping, and making our house our home.

Throughout all of our changes, our family and friends have been awesome. I don't know how we would have done it without all of their help and support.