Preliminary Pictures

Here are our first pictures of our house.  I haven't taken any upstairs yet, and we haven't painted anywhere, or even finished decorating because we're waiting to close so we officially own the house :)

 Living Room

 Our new chairs!  The pics on the wall are just random, not what is actually going to be there.

 Kitchen--we'll be putting down new tile for floor, back splash, and possibly counters

 1/2 bath on main floor

Basement:

 We will be making a curtain to cover up our storage, and the dresser on the right will be refinished and go in our bedroom

 Our study area in the basement

 Full bath downstairs

Big Lots Run

We finally found the perfect chairs at Big Lots!  They have Latin, not French, writing on them, and they are a good size for our living room.  Liv had a lot of fun in her cart with her tiger and a really soft pillow we found at Big Lots.  I will be posting pictures of the chairs in the next post, which I realize should have gone here, but hey, I already have so many pics here.

 The boxes to the chairs proved to be chair enough for Liv

I realize this is a random photo, but look how huge my braid was!

Last Morning at Burberry Lane

Here are our last pictures in our old place:

 Liv just woke up and isn't sure she's ready to move

 Liv found the teacup and saucer I painted at Jennifer's birthday party in LA

Liv's favorite toys lately are her chapsticks :)

50 Most Common Words on Our Blog

Moved in!

With the help of our amazing friends, we were able to move into our new place!!  Liv was a little confused with the old and new house because they look exactly the same layout wise.  Old house has been the one with our things in it, and new house seems to be whichever one is empty at the time. 

We really could not have made the move in the time we did without all of the help we received.  Dan Castellano came, and then Jeph Simmons, followed by the Abbotts, Clint Cottam, and Coady Brownstein.  Everyone was so wonderful!  And it was so fun to get to see our friends. 

Bonnie not only watched Liv for us for hours, but she and Adam also had us over for dinner, and it was delicious!  We had some yummy sandwiches (on delicious bread with bacon, lettuce, tomatoes, and turkey) and a beautiful trifle for dessert!  They even sent us home with leftovers, which made a yummy lunch for today.  We are blessed to have so many wonderful friends!  And Liv just loved getting to spend the day at the Walton’s.  She kept asking to sing the duck song that Bonnie had taught her, and she has been asking to go to Lydia’s house quite a bit today.  It is so nice living across the street from them!  One of these days, we will return the favor of all the babysitting and wonderful food J

As we were packing, hauling, and unloading our things, we couldn’t believe how much stuff we have!  Having an unfinished basement where we can store things does not encourage a simple existence J  We need to get rid of a ton of our things.  We had piles of things in the kitchen, front room, and basement this morning.  Amazingly, we already have most of it put away!  I got the kitchen finished while Tyler took the basement on, and we tackled the living room together. 

The move wasn’t completely problem-free: Liv broke a fluorescent light bulb, which sounded like a bomb had gone off; she managed to find some pens while I was downstairs grabbing something for her—I heard “Circles, drawing, circles,” and of course came back to a wall that had been scribbled on; and she threw some canned beans at me while I was organizing the pantry (didn’t see that coming, but boy did I feel it!).  Even with the few little crazy things and the not-so-exciting unpacking, things have gone really well.

And despite those things, Liv is a really good helper.  When I was cleaning the cabinets, she came and asked for a paper towel.  When I gave it to her, she started wiping it down with me.  And when we were taking the last load from the car, she was so happy she got to help by carrying in little things.  She would take them up to Tyler and say, “Here you go!”  We would tell her she was such a good helper, and she would come back and say, “More! More help!”  She would get the biggest grin when she knew she was helping, and we could tell she was so proud of herself!  I love that she likes to help out.

We’re looking forward to closing on the house so we know it’s really ours!  The appraisal was today, so it shouldn’t be much longer.  Then we can start painting, tiling, and decorating!  I love that Tyler knows how to do all of this!

We don’t have internet yet, but it should be set up this weekend.  Until then, I’ll get whatever I can posted.

We're moving!

After MUCH anticipation, we are finally moving!!  We won't close for a couple of weeks, but we worked out a (ridiculous) deal with the sellers.  I probably should have been posting about all the crazy hoops we've had to jump through throughout this process, but I thought that would be depressing to read back over later if the sale didn't go through haha  Needless to say, everything that could have gone wrong, did go wrong, but we were able to fix it all, one phone call and email at a time.  We have spent way too many days checking our email every five minutes for news, but it will all be worth it once we close on the house!  We are really happy with the location--it is on a great bus line, we have awesome neighbors (the Waltons), and there is a walk-out basement to a grassy area!! Yay!!!  I will have to post pictures once we have it somewhat set up.

We got the keys tonight at 6:30 and have been cleaning and moving.  It's all vacuumed, and I have put at least three hours worth of elbow grease into scrubbing out the kitchen (the Seller somehow forgot to clean before we moved in...).  But now it is looking much better!

Liv was good to entertain herself through the cleaning and moving, and she even came in and helped me clean for a second.  I was scrubbing the front of the cabinets, and she said, "I need towel, too!"  So I gave her a paper towel, and she started scrubbing the cabinet next to me.  It lasted about 10 seconds, but it was really sweet.  We put her in the apron Aunt Dani got her, and she looked pretty cute and ready to clean!

Library Outing

We met up with Bonnie, Lydia, and Rafe at the library today, and it was a ton of fun!  Liv and I got there a little early so we could turn in our books and DVDs.  She was so sad to have to put the Little Pim DVD in (it's a bilingual DVD for teaching her Russian, and it stars a little panda).  She kept yelling, "Panda, panda!"  Even when we left, she remembered that we had put it in the drop and wanted to go get it back out.

Liv loves playing with the puzzles at the library and with the trains and other toys.  She especially loves the cat pieces off of the puzzles.  She never wants to leave them when we're done.

We got to make little bumble bees at the library, and Lydia and Liv got to play in the children's area.  They had a blast!  They were coloring, stamping, sending letters, and putting on plays with puppets.

Bonnie brought lunch for everyone (yes, she is that awesome), so we had a little picnic in the common area.  Liv was a bundle of energy and loved exploring everything.  It was crazy trying to keep her off of the stairs that go to sliding doors that would release her into the wild (aka street).

We had a great time at the library and wondered why we don't go there more often.  Now I know what to do during those cold winter months (and hot summer months for that matter)!

 Trains!

 This is what Liv looks like when she says "choo choo"

 This is Liv's purse/basket (depending on what she's in the mood for calling it)

I put the camera in my pocket after that last picture, and she said "More pictures!"  So here it is :)

Pinwheels

Tyler made this awesome pinwheels yesterday out of some books we were going to get rid of (they are actually on Russian literature, so they're pretty sophisticated pinwheels lol)

Splash Pad

We finally went to the splash pad, and it was so much fun!  We were watching Jo, so she and Liv got to go together.  My camera died two pictures in, so I had to switch to my phone.  I don't have internet on my phone, unfortunately, so I (read: Tyler) needs to upload them to the computer.  Pictures should be coming tomorrow (here are a few, but there are way cuter/way closer ones to come)!

Sunday Dinner

We had a great time at dinner with the Abbotts and Erica and Jake.  We made Italian Chicken and noodles, and I finally tried out a yummy recipe I found for Reese's Peanut Butter Cups.  They were super rich, but oh so yummy.  We took some over to Kayleen and Jordan, and Liv got to play with Jo for a minute, which she thought was pretty great.  She was so sad when Jo had to leave after church, so it was nice they got to play.  We're hoping our friends Lydia and Bonnie get feeling better soon so we can go see them, too!

Walks and Bikes

We found a really cute bike for Liv at the garage sale.  She has had a lot of fun pushing it and riding it.  We also went on another walk this morning, and we tied her little blanket on like a belt.  She decided it looked cuter up on her waist.

Liv has started calling things cute.  There is a little bear bank (like a piggy bank, but a bear) in her room, and she saw it today and wanted to hold and pet it.  She kept saying, "It's so cute!"

 Modeling her cute belt

"Tigers" and Dogs

We decided to stop into a few yard sales yesterday, and Liv saw a cat at the first that she called a "tiger" and followed around.  She pretended to feed it a toy apple and even gave it a hug and a kiss.  She was so sad to leave the cat when it was time to go home.  She kept saying, "Here kitty-kitty," after she realized that's how I was calling it over.  We got a cute video of her dancing around because she was so excited to see the cat.

We went to the park a little later, and there were some cute little dogs there.  Liv got to pet them and loved when they would follow her around.  She kept looking over her shoulder so proudly as she saw them following her.

We went for a walk in the evening to go see the horses, but they were already back in their stalls and not out in the pasture.