New House!

We have moved! 

We took the plunge and finally became home-owners.  Yay!  I wasn't sure if it was ever going to happen, because we were just having too much fun being care-free renters! 

Well, actually, we moved two months ago, but I've just been too busy with all of my painting projects to stop and blog about it.

We closed on April 29th and moved in on May 25th, giving us a few weeks to get a few things done around the place.

There really is a lot to be said for renting.  You have a landlord, no home improvement projects, no yard work, and no responsibility basically.  Just get your rent paid on time, and you are good. to. go.  But where's the fun in that?!?

So we opted to shake things up a bit.  

No, we didn't buy a fixer-upper, but anyone who knows me, knows that where there is a wall to paint, paint it I shall!  

SO, that's what I've been doing.  For the past two months.  Painting.  And painting.  And painting.  I'm almost through with the front rooms in the house, and then I'm moving on to the back! 

My poor mom has endured the painting of five rooms and a hallway, the repainting of two rooms, and my oh-so-fun indecisive personality that I got from my dad (thanks, Dad!).  Which means I can't pick out a paint color to save my life!  It gets on my own nerves, so I know it must get on hers.  But she's been a trooper, and I really couldn't have gotten it all done without her help.

Really, the house didn't need much work, but we did decide to have the floors refinished and like I said paint every room in the house (my idea) . . . I think Jonathan's slowly getting on board :)

The previous owners were stupid kind enough to leave us a brand new, SUPER NICE, washer and dryer.  SWEET!  I'm not sure what kind of money you have to have to leave an $800 washer and an $800 dryer behind, but it's obviously more than we've got, so we were stoked!  Our old washer would drop tiny pieces of rusted metal into the load if you accidentally dropped the lid, so needless to say, it's nice not having to worry about that.

I took a few "before" pics just so we could compare later.  I forgot a couple of the rooms, so I'll have to make sure to take some for the Before and After post, which should come sometime around Jack's third birthday.  Oh, well.  No one ever said home-ownership would be easy or that we would get everything done in a week.  Who am I kidding!  I'm just hoping to get it all done in a year!  

Debi Mestre, our realtor, handing over our key!  She was great, and I would recommend her to anyone!

I believe this was the day we had our home inspection done.  Here are the boys just waiting to get the results!

Dining Room:

Living Room:

Hallway/Guest Bath:

Bedroom/Nursery:

Master Bedroom:

Front Yard:

Front of House:

I'm missing a picture of one other bedroom, our kitchen, a hallway/landing area, our sunroom, our downstairs laundry/storage/future play area, and our backyard, but I'll make sure to snap a couple and include them in a future post.

Ok!  Gotta go!  No time to blog when I've got all this painting to do! :)

Florence, the Zoo, and Jack's First 4th of July!

We have been on the road these past few weekends and have had a lot of fun!  Last weekend we drove up to Florence to attend a wedding for a friend of Jonathan's.  The wedding was beautiful and the reception was so much fun.  The reception was at Turtle Point Country Club, and it was so nice, because it was such a nice night to be outside.  We enjoyed good food, good music, good company, and a beautiful view of the water.  What more could you ask for?!?

Before that though, we spent the day with Mummi and Doc!  We took a nice stroll around Diebert Park with Mummi and fed the turtles and then took lunch out to the new lake house and ate out at the boat house with Doc.  We went to church Sunday morning and then stopped for our usual Ricatoni's lunch before heading back.  

Our little man isn't crawling yet, but he is finding ways of getting what he wants.  He came.  He saw.   He conquered.  And then he was happy.

Last Tuesday, Laura, Kate, and Henry came to town, and we all went to the zoo!  I can't even remember the last time I went to the zoo.  I think, though, that I enjoyed it more this time as an adult than I did the last time I went as a kid.  I can't wait until Jack is old enough to appreciate it!  Until then, I'll just "ew" and "ah" to myself :)

Train ride!

This past Thursday was the 4th of July!  We had planned on spending the day at Mac and Babs' house enjoying their annual 4th of July pool party, but unfortunately they had to cancel it due to the weather.  They did end up having a few friends over to barbeque, so we enjoyed some good food and good company and then headed off to watch the Thunder On The Mountain fireworks!  The 4th of July is probably one of my favorite holidays, and this year it was especially fun, because it was Jack's first!  We weren't quite sure how he would like the fireworks, but he loved them!  Just couldn't take his eyes off of them and "talked" the whole time.  So glad to know he enjoys them as much as I do!  We spent the night with Mac and Babs Wednesday and Thursday and got to spend some good quality time with them before heading off to Florence again!

Ok, so I went a little picture takin' crazy on this boat ride, but this first-time-mommy felt she had to capture every moment . . . please forgive me :)

I mean, really??  Does it get any cuter than this?!?  I LOVE those chubby, rolly, baby legs!

 So, I'm thinkin' I need to get a boat . . . it just knocked. him. out.  He literally fell asleep within 5 minutes of boarding the boat and then fell asleep sitting up.  Poor thing!

The waves did get a little rough at times . . .

Fivin' Dad!  

Virginia, is a natural on the water.  So relaxed!

And here he is asleep sitting up.

The kiddos had a good time, and the parents did too.  Maybe it'll stop raining long enough to get some lake time in again this month!