Home Sweet Home

We are now in our new home and are loving it! The majority of our boxes are put away, our furniture is somewhat situated, and we've even changed a few light fixtures. This house is perfect for our family - lots of space for Ethan and Bailey to run inside and out, wonderful friendly neighbors, and plenty of storage space for us.

The pics throughout this post were taken today in our yard. We put Ethan in his Christmas outfit, hoping to take advantage of the beautiful weather and get his Christmas pictures taken right here. We were not so lucky. The little man just wanted to run like crazy and barely stopped for any pictures. Note the tantrum in progress below. At least his outfit is cute...

We have had a very hectic week. Wednesday was moving day. We took Ethan to his babysitters and met up with AJ's parents and our great friends, the Hornick's and Aaron. We slaved away for hours - the guys loading the truck and making trips, and the gals cleaning our new home. They took Ethan home with them while AJ and I worked with a few more friends to get the last of everything. Mike, our old neighbor, stayed until late evening helping, and by the end of the night, we had a somewhat livable space. Now, 5 days later, it's amazing to see the house box free. We have a lot of style things to do (and by style, I mean de-wallpapering EVERY room in the house), but we are taking our time to make good choices we will be happy with for a long time. The first changes we will be making are: carpeting our basement, replacing our ancient washer and dryer (the say 'maximum capacity', which apparently meant washing one outfit at a time when the units were made in the 60's...), getting a new couch and dining room table, and painting E's room. No biggie, right?

Thursday, we had a wonderful day filled with loads of family and loads of food. Ethan had a great time playing with his cousins, especially "F". She amused him for 20 minutes just running in circles and letting him chase her.

Friday, we closed on the townhouse. We had hired piano movers - only two of them were able to move our piano up from the basement in only 10 minutes. I guess that's why they were $300. Well worth it. After it was out, we did a final walk-through, and it was very surreal seeing the place so empty. While we were doing that, my mom spent the day with Ethan in our new place. He and Bailey spent most of the day like this...

By 3:30, we had more company. AJ's whole family came up for a tour, and then we headed back to Cranberry for a Kovall family photo. Talk about insanity - try getting four kids under the age of six (plus six goofy adults) to look normal in one photo. It was hysterical watching the kids pose together. I'm not posting the shots we ordered. Those will be coming to some very lucky family members shortly :-)

We had a great dinner at Red Robin, followed by a LAME (sorry, Jennifer) movie date with AJ's sister and her husband. AJ opted out of seeing New Moon. I read all of the books and really didn't like any of them, but I only get to see my sister-in-law a few times a year, so I toughed it out for her :-) The movie was meant to be taken pretty seriously, however, it was so completely over-the-top ridiculous that everyone, and I mean EVERYONE, was laughing hysterically throughout the whole thing. At least Mat and I were entertained! And, we had a great talk analyzing why Twilight sends an awful message to teenage girls and sets a standard that girls can only be defined by the boys with whom they are seeing/obsessed with. Keep in mind, this rational conversation took place while Mat and I were waiting for Jennifer to come out of the bathroom...

Saturday was an interesting day. We finally went grocery shopping and had to go to the local Walmart. Now, AJ and I have always hated Walmart, mainly because in Cranberry, it tended to attract some very odd and trashy clientele. We found much of the same in Center, only of the older, slower moving crowd. Great. Not to mention, I ran into TWO students. I think we may drive the 20 minutes into Cranberry from now on...

It's hard to believe that tomorrow is our last day of Thanksgiving break. It went by in a blink! I have a giant stack of papers to grade tonight because tomorrow is a big day - we close on this house AND I have to go to grad class (my last of the semester). Maybe being back in school will slow things down a bit! And, keep AJ in your thoughts - he posted the musical cast list online a few days ago (note how he does it over break so he doesn't has to face the immediate fall-out). This is always a dramatic time and involves lots of crying girls. I'm sure there will be a few tantrums for him next week.