Where are we?!

Here we are!

{Peek-a-boo is big at our house right now}

I'm so sorry for the long blog hiatus, that is if anyone is still reading to apologize to!

This is what we look like. Bean has two more teeth and is running all over. J is talking up a storm, pretending, and constantly looking for a misplaced Lightning McQueen. I suppose it's clear we haven't quite gotten to potty training. I do want y'all to know that we do leave the house with clothes on. This particular morning is a rainy November day in the seventies. Naturally, J and Bean had to run around in the backyard until soaking wet and then make a towel fort {or "fork" as J says}.

Seventies in November, you say... thought we moved to upstate New York? Well, yes, we did. Which brings me to my great excuse for the blog hiatus: we moved. Again. The long and short: we had a wonderful summer up in NY, no plans to leave. The people were kind, the weather was nice, the recycling program was outstanding. No complaints. Then, M received an out of nowhere call about a job... and a month later we have bought a home, and moved our things 1000+ miles {again} South. It was all good. We are thankful. {For the record, M is not dragging me around this great nation. I was up for both moves, and he would have stayed put if I hadn't been.}

The kids were awesome. Truly awesome. We stayed in at least 6 different places {hotels and houses} in 3 weeks and they never woke up in the night. Of course it was a little stressful at times, but God really was kind to us in the details of this move.

The past month has been packing, driving, living out of hotels, cars, and happily accepting the hospitality of family and friends, M starting his new job, closing on a house, and finally, unpacking! Thank you everyone who made it a smooth transition for us.

I hope to have before and after pictures of our house soon. Soon probably meaning this time next year... I'll really try not to be gone so long again!

For now, I'll leave you with the front runner for our Christmas card picture. No? ;-) Ah, well, maybe a Luvs ad then.

{Their hair is wet from playing in the rain, not dirty.}

Tigers, Monkeys... and the Zoo too

Today it rained. I didn't have any pressing errands, so we just enjoyed not leaving the house. We got a little bored around 10. Problem solved.

{No Beans were injured in the making of the above photo}

It bought us a good 30 minutes of entertainment.

Then I had to call in Lightning McQueen.

Look at that expression... Don't believe for a second that she's not trying to annoy her brother.

Sunday night, Mike's company had a family night at the zoo. A good time was had by all. I do think we'll hold off one more year on that zoo membership... J was way more interested in pretending to milk the ply-wood cow than the ELEPHANT 2 feet away, and then was more interested in the button that opens the door than he was in the monkeys... but, hey, he had fun! And he did pet an elephant. And referred to the penguins as "Pingu".

This is J with Emily and Mike. Their family has been wonderful to us since we moved here.

That's all from us today!

What we've been doing up here...

Sorry for another long delay in blogging; the house pictures have been on the camera for weeks. When the kids are napping I usually need to be calling some municipal department or at the very least unloading the dishwasher...

We had the boxes out in about 3 days {boxes make me anxious}. I could say, "oh, the house is not done..." but, I honestly don't know how many more pictures will make it on the wall in reality.  Renting will be my excuse for now. I'll think of another one if we buy.

My biggest decor goal {if you can call it that} was to sew some happy curtains to replace what appeared to be large "doilies" in the kitchen and Bean's room. J had nothing covering his window, so I need to do something quick.

Front door and kid TV room. {Still need to make curtains in this room, there is a huge window to the left.}

Happy curtains for a purple and turquoise kitchen. 

This is, without a doubt, the cutest picture of the curtains.

I was able to cover up one of the purple surfaces with leftover fabric from Bean's curtains. {see "tablecloth" below}

Bean-bop looking small in the great room. This is the best picture I have of that room.

On to her room... all the bedrooms are STARK white.

There's a window and changing table on the wall to the left. Here's a close up of the curtains, I think that fabric is too cute. I probably could have made them longer, but it was 44", so I was able to turn it and get a lot out of the yardage. {Four panels and a table cloth for $35 to be exact. Very excited to have a JoAnns.}

Roosta's room... again, STARK white.

Curtains. The awkward cropping of this photo is so you won't notice that the curtain rod is sagging and in need of being replaced!

The best part about the kids curtains? They are blackout.

Our room.... has a bed and a dresser in it. Oh, and some vertical blinds that make me think of staying with someone's grandmother. But, they are REALLY attached so I won't mess with that.

The first weekend we were here involved unpacking and curtain making.

The second weekend we went to one of the many state parks that has a "lake beach".  TEN minutes from our house, I love all the outdoor activities for kids around here.

{IPhone pictures... excuse the quality}

{Yes, AP does look like a clown. I forgot her hat, so I went a little overboard on the sun screen.}

The playground was amazing, too. I didn't get a picture because we were lugging around a tad too much stuff.

This past weekend was a little lazier but nice. Played, grilled, tried a new church we liked, ate a lot of Marshmellow Treasures, watched The Green Lantern, took baths in the sink.

The baths in the sink have come about because Bean has started to track in quite a lot of dirt being on all fours.

So that's the news from up here!

Wegmans, Arriving, and Moving In!

The whole time we were making moving arrangements all we heard about was Wegmans. "Wegmans is amazing... best grocery store on the planet... Oh, you'll love Wegmans! Wait till you see Wegmans..." and so on. It was quite fitting that we saw about 5 trucks as we were entering the city limits. And yes, it does rock that much. I could do a whole post on Wegmans. There is a whole aisle dedicated to rice dispencers. The beer section is the size of a CVS. They have bulk foods... Organic food... Prepared food... It's like Whole Foods meets Publix meets something else awesome. I actually had to take a break from going because I was so overwhelmed that I almost cried looking for walnuts.

Annnyways. We made it!!!

Pretty ride in. Real deal Christmas trees on the side of the road!

We drove straight to our new (rental) house and neighborhood, which we'd never been to. Very exciting, we love the area! Below is our street. {We stayed in a hotel for 3 nights until the moving truck arrived.}

We made the most of the hotel pool and breakfast until we could move in. And Bean-town cracked. us. up. Her personality has exploded. She is blowing kisses, pointing, cruising and saying, "bye bye, mama, dada, ba-ba (bottle) and ni-ni". No doubt a communicator.

 We arrived Sunday, Monday was July 4th, M started his new job July 5th, and the moving truck arrived on the 6th. It was a whirlwind, but went so smoothly. I was a little (extremely) apprehensive about handing the kids and the moving truck without M. God was kind to me, it went great. Nothing unmanageable. 

Our Toy Story 2 purchase that morning was a big part of our success. 

J's room

The boxes piled up. I find this so stressful.

Living and dining area, the door on the left leads to the kitchen, straight ahead is the garage.

Bean's room straight ahead, J's is on the left, our room is on the right at the end of the hall. Hall bath with the pocket door across from J's room.

Family room, off the kitchen. Sliding doors to backyard.

Kitchen, laundry space to the left.

Do not fret. I'm going to find out ASAP how you too can achieve this kitchen look.

Seriously though, besides a few 80's mishaps (which I plan on embracing), the house is great. A quiet street, HUGE great room, and a kitchen window that looks out into a private backyard. Our old house, though dear it was, was missing those things.

Here's the backyard. AKA home for all the larger toys. {the landlord is having someone come out and fix the landscaping soon. It's just overgrown.}

Backyard to the right

Backyard to the left.

Patio area

Garage is straight ahead, sliding doors to family room are to the right.

I have updated pictures of the house unpacked and {mostly} settled that I'll post on soon!

Oh, and because I know how much grief we'll get in the winter- it was 75 degrees at 11:30 a.m. today. :)

Dunder Mifflin Scranton

Disclaimer: if you don't like The Office, this post might be one to skip.

M and I were probably way too excited that the route to our new home included a stop by Scranton, PA. The setting (yes, it is actually shot in L.A.) of The Office. We made the most of it. 

I know. Wrong sign! Here begins our trivia... the "Welcome to Scranton" sign featured in the show's opening credits is now showcased in the Steamtown Mall. {Yes, THE steamtown mall where Michael Scott has a heart to heart with the women of the office about Jan.} The sign was replaced because too many fans of the show were stopping on the side of the road to take pictures.

On our way to the Steamtown Mall, of course we were going to go, we saw the "landscape" also featured on the opening credits. However, it is obviously green and not snowy this time of year.

The Steamtown Mall is literally next to an old train yard, and the food court has a playground, arcade, etc. J had a great time while we ate some Nathan's hot dogs.

Then we made our way to the Scranton sign. Kinda felt like we were fulfilling some kind of ultimate fan journey or something. To be honest, the setting of the sign was a little anti-climactic. We didn't care. We might have come across a tad touristy. Which I don't imagine is a regular occurrence in Scranton, PA.

Yup. Still taking pictures.

Maybe this will be like having a picture in front of the Huxtable house or something for J and AP. 

On our way out of town we got the final picture that made our tour complete:

Well, it would have been fun to stop by Poor Richard's, but it's in a bowling alley and not really a "family" kinda place.  So we skipped it. Apparently up here "in the north" people don't leave their kids in the car and they make them wear shoes.

I kid. Southerners don't leave their children in the car.

Montgomery people, you would get some odd looks. ;-)

That concludes our Scranton tour! All in all, looked like a nice quiet place!

Stay tuned- we're almost there!