Thankful.

We have had a great Thanksgiving weekend! We've enjoyed the time together with family and had lots of extra time working on organizing the house. 

We've had some nice housewarming gifts brought over, including this basket from my parents loaded with goodies!

On Thursday, we ate dinner with the Hughes family and it was absolutely delicious. Robin and Laura did a great job doing all of the cooking! YUMMY! Madeline always loves seeing her cousin Dane; she is basically a "monkey see, monkey do" girl. If Dane runs a lap around on the kitchen, you can bet there is a pint sized blond chasing after him. If Dane sits and stack blocks, Maddie is right next to him making her own tower. The kids played hard all day and then we had a great meal together.

That night, Laura and I went shopping and had a great time finding all of the deals! I had told Chris I wasn't going to buy much, but I came home with a car and a cottage, both for half off. Whoops.  I actually got caught up in the moment, I think. We ended up taking the car back the next day b/c we decided Maddie wasn't big enough to ride it and/or appreciate it.

On Saturday, my mom kept Madeline for the day while Chris and I did a lot of the loud jobs (towel rods, hand towel circles, door stoppers, etc). She had a wonderful time making a gingerbread man. She was so proud of her cookie!

On Sunday, my cousins Connor and Preston came to visit the new house. The boys are much older than Madeline but were so so sweet with her. They dressed her up like a doll and played in her playroom with her. She was sad when they left and kept peeking around corners saying, "Where's Preston? Where's Connor?"

We had a wonderful weekend surrounded by family - a great way to spend Thanksgiving. We didn't get to see all of my family, but I know we will soon. I'm so thankful for a healthy and supportive family, a loving husband and our brand new house where lots of memories will be made.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We're In!

On Saturday, with the help of some great friends and family, we moved into our house! It took us right under 6 months to build, which is pretty great. The house wasn't completely finished (painters were still in action) but we got our official CO "certificate of occupancy" and all inspectors (plumbing, HVAC, general, etc) gave us clearance to move in, so we did! It was a super hectic week with lots of panicked phone calls between our contractors and me and Chris, but Maddie never seemed stressed! Here she is at a Scentsy party with my mom:

 

 

I took some pictures but the lighting was off on my iPhone for some reason - thank you so much to our friends and family who helped! It was a lot of heavy lifting!

 

We had two pods that looked like this:

 

We got everything out in a few hours and then spent the rest of the day Saturday and Sunday just organizing and unpacking.

 

In the new house playroom, there are two little closets that are Maddie-sized. She calls them her tunnels and love to play inside them and run between them. Last night we arranged all of her stuffed animals on the wall. Then she had to put them all to bed.

 

Laying them on the floor and saying "Night, night. Lay down! Go to sleep."  

 

Everyone got to take a nap next to each other, except for these two, who got put in the thinking spot. Madeline said "no bite!" to each of them and then seperated them from the group. Evidently we have some biters amongst us...

 

On Sunday, we had no food in the house so we went to Panera for our celebratory breakfast. Madeline ate her standard favorite- the french toast bagel.

And yes, I realize she has Justin Bieber hair here. I cannot get her to keep her hairbows in all day!

 

This week we've been unpacking and settling in. Madeline woke up the first two nights but is now sleeping great. Once the house looks a bit more together, I'll post pictures.

 

Happy Thanksgiving!

 

 

T- minus one week?!

So, as of right now, our plan is to move in to our new house on Saturday. But, we have A LOT to do. We've been telling our movers, aka our friends, to plan on the 17th, but there is so much to do, we won't know for sure if we pass inspection until later in the week. Partially because, as of Friday, our house looked like this:

The good news is that we got all of the hardwood floor down - what a project!! Now we've got to finalize the plumbing, finishing the painting, put up the front porch railing, put on all of the door knobs and light plates....um, I think I'm still forgetting things. All of those jobs are different contractors and all say they will be done by Wednesday, so fingers crossed!!

Chris smiling as he cuts one of the last pieces of hardwood.

We have been working around the clock. Saturday night, Chris and I were at the house until midnight putting down the laundry room floor, evidence below:

 If I look tired, I am. 

Chris has pretty much been at work or at the house the last 2 weeks; I have gotten to have a lot of special time, just me and Madeline. She is getting very into the details now. 

We had a tea party yesterday and she had to line up the donuts and tea just right for the 2 babies.

When I told her she only had a few pennies left for the fountain, she took her time and slooooowly threw them in. Of course, she then turned to me and said "more pennies please" but that's a different story. People, send me your pennies!

We took a little trip to the doctor on Friday because she had a red mark in her eye - she got scratched at daycare- and she had a rash on her back. Neither were anything to worry about - thank goodness! And we got a free ear check and I'm so happy to say tubes are looking good and ears were clear.

 Enjoying a snack while waiting for the ped. I have found that cheerios come in quite handy at the doctor's office.

This week we're going to be super busy wrapping up everything at the house. Chris doesn't even know I'm awake and blogging, or I would have been put to work already! :) I'm going to go get to it. Enjoy this beautiful weather!

I DO IT!

Madeline is 22 months old, going on 22! She is VERY independent! Lately, everything is "I do it" or "I get it." She insists on doing nearly everything by herself. 

Like... climbing up the steps to big slides

Or climbing up the slide backwards

She had to hold her own Halloween bucket...

OK, seriously, so she's my daughter, and I'm biased...but was there ever a cuter watermelon?!

She wanted to help daddy with the hardwood floor

It's a lot of fun watching Maddie master language. She was a late talker due to her ear infections but has caught up and is now saying more than most of the kids in her daycare class. She knows all of her shapes, the alphabet, and is putting together short sentences. I cannot believe she'll be 2 next month!!

Chris, our dads, and some great friends have spent the weekend putting the hardwood floor down. Here's a picture of the dining room, in progress. I love the floors!! We are so blessed to have such great parents and friends who are willing to help us with this very big job!!

While the guys worked, Madeline and I had a lot of fun together. Here she is sitting with her grandma's kitties. She loves them!

Running around the park!

Tomorrow, Madeline and I plan to spend some time with baby Hudson and we can't wait!