Our new house mostly put together

These are out of order because they came from two memory cards and I accidentally did the second card first.  :P  So there you go.

Here it is all set up except for decorations.  That's my next job.  I have a few boxes left to unpack and I need to go around with a hammer and nails and figure out where I'm going to hang our pictures and stuff.

Kitchen (with awesome island!)  

(Seen through the door is the office and hallway to entry)

Look at all my cabinets!!!!   Look at my glasstop stove!!!  (One of the things I was going to miss about moving)

Pantry!!! Backdoor more cabinets and coffee area

 gas fireplace (so easy all but one of my children can turn it on..this may be a problem down the road...so far they haven't discovered how to do it but the light switch to turn it on is low and a simple click)
Look!  Enough room for the whole family to eat!
Yes, two boxes in the corner.  Those have pictures and things I need to put around when I figure out how I'm going to decorate this place.

More seating on this side of the island.  Now I need two more stools.  :)

Other side of the kitchen
Hallway, you can see the playroom "door" in the hallway to give you an idea of layout

the landing you see above the table leads to my room/bathroom

you can also see a sliver of the stairs and front door

*Our house has 4 levels.  I LIKE stairs, but I know a lot of people don't.*

Looking down the hallway:

To the Left:  steps down into the playroom, steps up into the bedrooms/school room entry way and mini hall to the guest bath
To the Right: in mini hall:  coat closet and laundry room and entry to garage...

BTW, I have main level laundry!  Yay!  No more trips to the dungeon wondering if it's done yet only to discover that it isn't done so I have to return in like 5 minutes.  :P

Red room seen on the right is the office

 Office

When we moved in we thought the wall was blue...until I hung the red and blue curtains.  Now it is deff purple.  :)  LOL

I kind of like it because it makes the office darker (which is nice for computer screen viewing.)  Brandon is not fond of either red or purple and deff not the combo.

Brandon's desk/bookshelf/whatever side of the room.

My books.  Family game shelf.  Diaper bag.  Yes.  Noah's diaper bag is sometimes pink.  Yes, I own a blue one, but hey, I'm the one who carries it and sometimes I want a little more pink in my life.  ;)  LOL

 My desk with awesome Brandon awards on top.  :)  I love him!!!!
My chair has a blanket because I was cold.  I guess it's pregnancy hormones or something but I'm always the opposite of everyone else right now. 

Seen beyond the office is the playroom stairs and stairs to the bedrooms (for idea of layout)

Entry way (can't actually see the front door in this pic but it's to the Right (?  do you call center of pic to the right?)  just past the awesome picture of me in the swing.  

My girls were hanging coats and dresses for me in the hall when I called them to lunch so the job is visible in the pic.  

French (?) doors lead to living room.

 guest bathroom

What can I say, I just love these pictures

guest bathroom

16 weeks

cool light on the ceiling of the office

 I LOVE how open and light and airy this place is.  That is DEFF something I wanted in my "dream house"  "someday" but got now!  :)  God knows my heart so well!

BTW this pic makes it look dark.  It's soooooooo light in my house!  I LOVE it!

looking up to the loft (school room) from the kitchen

 see, more light!  and open air!  :)  

entry 

view from my livingroom 

lilac!  :)  Oh it smells wonderful!  (Also something God knows about my heart!)

 down to the playroom.  Bad pic.  Didn't turn on the light first.  Oops!

That first door on the right leads to the "crawl space" and the closet you see beyond it is the toy closet.

*I could have taken these pictures after we cleaned up for the day but I wanted to get this on the blog so I just let them play.  It's a little messy.  *

Playroom corner 1

Playroom corner 2...toy closet and stairs shown 

Playroom corner 3

 Playroom corner 4

What you can't see is the fact that this is not a true basement.  The ground outside is about level with that ledge running around the room.  It makes this room light and airy too.  :)  (But at the time of day I took this pic, the sun was pouring in the windows so we had the blinds closed because it was too bright for the camera to take pics of the actual room.)

 My awesome husband won all these awards (and probably a few more plus he has several awesome coins not pictured) 

He's awesome!  I love him!

Also, picture of Alaska.  :)  By my brother in law!  I love this!  

 loft/school room as seen from entry

 another angle I guess

My year round flowers.  They make me happy.  ;)  Even if they do collect spider webs and leaves.

 My awesome front porch

 view of my street, my yard, my trees, my car, my two car wide, four car deep driveway...

I don't really know why I took this picture.  

 Crawl space

 but after ducking initially under the foundation, you don't really crawl.  You sort of walk like a hunch back.  (which hurts pregnant hips so I don't suggest doing it much if you have lots of relaxin in your system.)

stairs going up to kitchen and stuff

Seriously!  If you hate stairs, this isn't so bad for having 4 levels I only end up with like 25 steps so it's only like 2 flights of stairs in a normal house.

 I didn't need this picture, but I guess to give you an idea of layout

At the top of the stairs
Kitchen to the Right, Office to the leftish (more straight ahead)

entry to the Left

 From "my" landing looking down at the entry

from "my" landing looking up toward the school room and the kids rooms

  Master bath--It's what you'd see first if you went in my bedroom door

*Awesome huge tub*

 master bath --doors on the right are Walk in closet and toilet/shower part of the bathroom

 Toilet part of the bathroom

took this pic to show you it's in a kind of arch connected to my bedroom with no door.  The two doors you see are the main door to my bedroom and the door to the toilet/shower

 toilet/shower

I don't know what it is but this makes me feel like I'm in an expensive hotel.  LOL Guess that shows my experience with expensive hotels, but hey, I like it somehow.  It's a HUGE feeling shower, not too cramped and it has a "fancy" feel somehow

 Walk in closet

* I used to have to change my wardrobe out and store whatever I wasn't wearing in the garage but now I can store everything.  No more wondering if I'm quite into the maternity clothes yet, because my non maternity clothes are getting tight at the belly...*  :)  This makes me happy.  But now I have to buy a few more hangers.  LOL

AND 

Brandon can hang all his every day clothes, AF uniforms, etc in here...

This makes him happy.  

No more going to the dungeon every morning at the utmost ends of the house to find everything he needs.  

He is, however, ironing his clothes in the garage currently.  LOL I need to fix that for him somehow.

master bath looking toward the door and "my" landing.  Stairs going up to school room

My neighbor has this awesome tree

This picture doesn't do it justice, but when the sunlight hits it just right it is crimsom and white.  :)  I want one!  It makes me think of the blood of Christ washing us white as snow...and it blooms so perfectly around Easter.  

Anyone know what it is?  

 A slightly better picture, but still bad.  To see the tree from my house I have to take the pic out of my bedroom window (which is a little dirty on the outside.)

linen closet...with room for my vacuum

 Master bedroom

with random candle holder in the corner waiting on me to hang it somewhere

 master bedroom

wall behind dresser has bathroom behind it 

door you can see leads to stairs/landing

candle holder hanging on random nail already in the wall

 master bedroom

I need more hangers to hang these uniform items for Brandon

and no, the hangers in that gray tub don't work.  They are baby sized and fall out of the neck of the adult size garments

 even my bedroom is so airy and light

 Noah loves my bears

coat closet

it's still halfway a mess

upstairs (kids) bath

Isaiah calls it the green bathroom

but the cabinet is clearly blue and the floor is blue and white

and we only hung the green curtain after he started calling it green (I think in the dark the cabinet top looks more green to him)

that or maybe he is hoping we'll paint it green when we paint his room

 shower...this has a story

 If you are family/friends with a chance of staying overnight, listen up!

YES you can turn on this shower.  But it took us asking the owner to figure out how to do it.

Simply turn on the water.

Then pull down on that little circle part on the tip of the spout where the water comes out.

That's all.

There you go.

Now you can shower at my house.  :)  No bath's required.  LOL

 My house has these neat little "nooks" where we can decorate someday

I'm not sure what we'll do for it, but I'm excited to think we can do something there someday

 another by the front door

 another in the kitchen

 our awesome yard

Noah playing on the patio in his socks.

Yep.  That's me.  Once I noticed he'd discarded his shoes somewhere, I was on the look out, but um..yeah. Didn't realize they were in the house.

"I don't want brother in MY car" he's thinking.

 Side yard

Playing ball with daddy

It's an awesome huge yard with enough shade to have shade somewhere at any time of the day.

We have genuine turquoise in our yard.  It's down the side yard in a little pile but Isaiah really likes the "green" rocks and a few of them have found a home on the side where the kids actually play more.

 playing ball (her favorite barbie watches from Noah's swing)

 good thing I baby proofed the gate latch.  He's smart enough to figure it out.

 "What are you doing in my swing"

"Go lay in the grass barbie.  I don't want you in my swing."

 playing ball (more of the yard) 

I'm so glad it's big!  That was another thing about moving that I thought I'd miss was my big shady yard 

BUT

now I have a big, shady, GRASS-COVERED yard.  :)

(with in ground sprinkling system!!!!)

 Front of house from back in March? when we came to look at it

 Awesome front porch and two car garage

 Down the yard (from the gate) March?

Sarah volunteered to watch the crew for us while we went to look at houses...all day...I don't know if she fully knew what she was getting herself into.  This is what I sketched for her as we drove home.  Her souvineer of the day.  

She's taped to the ceiling with duct tape.

There is a child escaping through the window

another with war paint

another building a fire

another eating unsafe things

and the last child handling sharp objects

(if you are counting and have forgotten/don't know...that is our four plus Sarah's daughter.  It was probably a mess for her.  Poor Sarah!)  :)

*Looking ahead at the forecast, the day of the move was supposed to be 86*.  I was worried it would be super hot.  As the day drew nearer and nearer, a cold front came and set in making snow days and cold days and driving that 86* down....so .....

   

 here is like a day or two before the move.  It's like 20* and it's snowing

 The before...snow on the ground when we woke up.

Got the truck the day before the move.  By 10 am, the snow was melted and it was like 68*

(We got the biggest Uhaul they had and we used every last inch of it plus any extra seats left in the 3 car caravan.)

 View from my living room...see those trees?  I was so sad to move and leave a couple of similar trees at my old house.  Flowering pears, I think.  But again, God knew my heart.  On the day we moved in, these two trees were in full bloom and did they ever smell awesome!  IN MY YARD!!!!!!! :)  I'm super uber excited about all the little blessings God put into this new house to make moving a little less painful.

*Now I'm just waiting for that awesome church blessing and that nearly next door neighbor/best friend.*

Kathryn D.  I miss you sooo much!!!!!

 My living room

 I love this room

It has a "rustic" feel to it.  :)  I LOVE it!

My willow tree people

 Still have to add the DVD player in this pic

I just LOVE this room.

I love how my already owned white stuff matches the white trim

Spice drawer.
I may never go back to a spice cabinet

no more shuffling (well, only a TINY bit) because it has like 3 spices that lay on top of the others

Best Idea EVER!!!!

Brandon's favorite picture

 Coat closet door on right, laundry room straight ahead

 laundry room

 out of laundry room into the garage

 "My" landing 

(in case you think I've claimed it somehow, I mean "my" as in it leads to my/Brandon's bedroom)

Little nook showing on the side that is housing all my pictures/candles/etc right now until I hang them

 School room  and school closet

If we ever wanted to, we could get this converted into a bedroom because it is wired to be a bedroom, we are told

Down the hall toward the kids rooms, linen closet on the left, kids bathroom on the right

school room looking out toward entry and toward my bedroom

school room looking down at kitchen

back when I was still unpacking everything

 Girls room

They are sooooo excited about the pink walls!

re used our stickers from the old house

girls closet

didn't have the clothes in it yet in this picture

door to hall

 boys' room

Isaiah is NOT excited about the pink.

We are going to paint it green and blue.

His request. He likes green and Noah tends toward blue or orange

But for now, they have to make due with the green comforter

 and their old dinosaur stickers

to the hall

 their closet

looking back down the hall toward the school room 

more school room

My view of them

We are using this table laid across two boxes temporarily

there is another on the way

 toward the stairs

 awesome huge school closet

 school closet

more stuff in school closet

school room (their view)

Doing school

We were learning about pictographs in our Saxon Math.  :)

We had to graph the family.  We put the new baby on the line because we don't know if it is a boy or girl yet.

Emma put her new baby in the girl section.  She's in denial that it could be anything but a girl.

Abby's 

Our neighbors have a tree fort

Scary!  You wouldn't catch me on that thing!  Yikes!  I'm afraid of heights!!!!

 I made jelly worms!

(Mix jello with extra gelatin, add a tiny bit of whipped cream while it's still hot to make it less translucent, pour into straws, squish out.

Abby and Noah LOVED them.  Emma and Isaiah were a little leary that they might be "real" worms.  Emma even kept worrying because it was "wiggling".

 Abby's new haircut

from the side

short

she loves it

This was as short as I could convince myself to go

my lilac in full bloom

What they do while I cook

They are sitting on stools or standing on kitchen chairs and playing Uno Moo

I love "my" car

I'll *hopefully* post more everyday pictures soon.  When I grab a moment around our new schedule.  :)  I'm loving this new routine!

If you are a COS friend, know that I miss you!!!!!!