Our New Home

It is finally time for the big reveal of our new home.  We moved in right before Christmas, and it is so perfect.  I am excited to decorate and plant trees, but after a major step like this, we are going to take our time and do things gradually from here moving forward.  After all the time, emotion, and money put into this house, we can honestly say that it was so worth it.  We are in love with the way it turned out. 

I want to sincerely thank my loving husband, Jake, for funding my dream and turning it into reality and for supporting and encouraging me along the way.  Thank you to our builder, Jake Ray with True-Built Construction, who has turned out not only to be a exceptional contractor but a true friend as well.  Thank you to all the workers on our home, especially our superintendant, Todd, who graciously put up with me throughout these past several months. And thank you to all of my friends and family who stuck around and stayed excited for me even when I hardly ever saw them and only talked about the house every time I did!

Here is our country house:

           

Thanks for visiting!

She’s a Natural

Bella’s has turned into some kind of dancer that I was expecting to see for a few more years.  She has talent, but it isn’t the kind of talent that comes with hours and hours of practice (which has its own merits, to be sure!).  There exists a type of talent that you’re either born with or you ain’t – and this girl was born that way!  I don’t usually get to stay and watch Bella’s dance class, because I take Ari to physical therapy at the same time, so her moves came as a surprise to me.  I half expected the awkwardness of a… well, a little girl.  But to put it mildly, Bella moves like a woman.  Her booty rolls could turn any head :). 

It needs to be said that maybe I should have given her more credit.  She was blessed with the lion’s share of athletic ability of my kids – for instance, she can do the splits while riding a two-wheel bike… one handed.  She can outrun any boy her age that has dared try her (and many older ones).  She is a stunter in cheerleading, and the owner (her private coach) calls her “a natural”.  She was swimming underwater like a fish by the time she was two years old.  So, she’s cool like that, and I guess it was only a matter of time before she started looking too sexy while dancing (despite being the most modestly dressed of all the dancers in her class, I might add ;)). 

Yeah, I’m proud of my little sassy mcsassafrass, cutie patootie, one-handed wonder for sure.

And I just have to do a throwback pic of baby Bella doing the splits (after putting on her ankle bracelets).

Last Lantana Thanksgiving

These past few months have been wild.  We completed a remodel, sold our Lantana house, moved, and we are finally settling into our perfect little country home (I still can’t believe we did it!).  I haven’t had any Internet for a very long time, which also has a lot to do with why I haven’t posted in quite a while.  As much as it kills me to skip out on annual traditions, we did that a lot this year, because of all that moving during the holidays entails.  Something had to give.  We didn’t take family photos (yet), and I haven’t sent out any holiday cards.  Don’t feel left out if you didn’t receive one.  You’re in good company. 

But we are here, and we have not moved far, and things are really good.  Busy.  Happy.  And good.  This is us (the best I can do for now):

We celebrated our last holiday in the Lantana house just two weeks before the big move.  We kept it simple, and I will always remember it as one of our sweetest Thanksgivings.  There is something very warm and tender about knowing that you are doing something for the last time.  Jake’s mom and dad made the trek down to the valley to spend it with us, knowing all along that they’d be returning in just a couple weeks’ time to help us with moving.  We felt so happy to have their company.

Here are three photos of these people that I love.  I couldn’t choose just one, because none of them is really good, and yet, that’s what makes each one perfect.  This is my awesome, loving, real family.

Liam loved everything about his dinner.  We ate a smoked turkey, bacon and leek bread stuffing, roasted red potatoes, balsamic glazed Brussels sprouts, cranberry sauce, sweet potato casserole, and homemade blueberry cobbler and pecan pies.

Bella made me a pilgrim bonnet.

We ate at the big table with the doors open so we could feel like we were dining outside.  We love feeling like we’re outside, even when we aren’t.  Twyla looks so happy that she could cry.  I feel that way quite a bit, although I hardly ever show it.  But then again, that’s why I do the blogging thing; to keep a record of the feelings that go with the memories, so that I’ll always have them, even after both have long since faded with time.

We made a grateful tree, and each wrote on the leaves things that we have to be grateful for in our lives.  The tree was heavy laden with leaves and gratitude.  Among the things my children wrote on their own were:  love, new house, rainbows, my room, cousins, appreciation, food and water, life, family, markers, Grammy and Papa’s house, my bed, good food, my bed, friends, and the Lord.

When our lives our this full, feeling grateful and giving thanks come pretty easily.

Bathtub Baby

Liam is my most complex baby out of the four.  He is full of emotions, to the extremes.  He is my most cuddly baby.  When I sing him his favorite lullaby “I Love You Forever” every night before I lay him down, he completely melts into my arms and strokes my hair and face, while looking adoringly into my eyes or rubbing his chin into my neck.  He is so easy to love.  And yet, that seems to be the only easy thing about him these days, as he is pretty clingy, very stubborn, and has me “wrapped around his finger” as I’ve been told.  He may pull my hair out (literally) or throw a three hour tantrum over not getting to eat the blackberries out of the carton at Sprouts, but how could I stay mad at that face?

Right now, he loves making funny faces to get a laugh (he’d do anything for a laugh or applause), walking across the room (finally), giving kisses (even to Ari, his nemesis and competitor for my attention), riding on his four ride-on cars, animals, taking baths, his Aden + Anais blankets, stuffed animals, playing in the dirt, avocado, fruit, pasta, and broccoli, throwing his food and sippy cup on the floor, saying “oh no” right as he is about to do something naughty, chatting with Gabe, climbing everything, playing with a ball, and dancing to music.  He dislikes running errands, when I talk to other adults, when I talk to other kids, when I put him down, and a number of other things that mainly involve when I pay attention to something other than him :).

I still love this crazy but oh-so-cuddly and cute cubmuffin.