Back to School

Creed was all smiles when it came to starting preschool this year.

 We had the chance to meet his teacher the day before school started.  He was shy, but I can tell he loves his teacher already.

 The next day he told me that he was a little bit nervous, but he didn't hesitate to jump in the car when our neighbor Davis and his dad showed up to carpool. It will be interesting to watch their friendship unfold this year because Creed spends most of his time pretending to be a princess and is used to playing with all the girls in our neighborhood, and Davis hates girls. The first time I met him he was crying because the only seat left in church was next to a girl, and he would not sit there because he hates girls.  In the car on the way home he kept asking me to change the songs because they were too girlish (any song with a girl singing is "too girlish"). Should make for an interesting year.

 I'm also feeling a little unsure about the preschool.  There aren't too many options here and this particular school seems so strict.  Creed's already reading a bit so he's up for a challenge, but there is no playground, there wasn't a toy in sight in the tiny classroom, and when I asked Creed what he learned on his first day, he told me, "We just learned that you sit in your chair and you be quiet and you never talk."  Hmmmm, I'm feeling nervous about this.  He's only four afterall.

I can't tell you how much I've stressed about this.  Is it normal to worry so much about preschool?

Davis and his dad picked Creed up a little early so we took first day of school pictures after school. I had Creed write his name on a paper with his grade and year and hope to do this every year so he can see him develop (an idea I can take no credit for because I swear I saw it somewhere on Pinterest)

I love that kid!

You've had a birthday, shout hooray!

I turned 31 yesterday.  30 was a wonderful but trying year full of multiple moves, job decisions, renovations, and Ollie's seizures.  I'm looking forward to a little more stability this year, which will hopefully afford us a few more adventures because we have some plans up our sleeves.

The day was filled with simple gifts that made me smile.

Delicious chocolate cake that my mom made (this is what was left of it)

 Thoughtful gifts from friends.

 And this was my favorite gift from Larry because if I have the pleasure of spending hours a day playing cars with the boys, I should at least be able to be the car I want to be, right?

Our House - The living room

We still have so much work to do on this house, but I thought it's about time to start showing you around, and why not start with part of why we chose to buy this house. When you come up to the stairs from the entryway, you walk into our living room. This terrible picture is the only one that I took that show you how much light comes into the room.  Those sliding glass doors are eight feet tall.

 The furniture is way too small for this room, but they are the leftovers that we're hoping to replace down the line.  What I really wanted to show you is all the character in this room.  That spiral staircase leads up to a loft library.

 The other side of the room is feeling pretty empty.  That huge, empty wall above that red dresser is begging for some great artwork.

 Next to the spiral staircase is a fireplace.  The stone continues up into the library where there's a second fireplace.

 I'll miss having a mantle to decorate for holidays, but I love that big metal hood.

 And here's a few pictures taken from above.

 But the real seller?  The view outside those sliding glass doors.  Did I mention the house is on the side of a mountain?

We love to sit our on the balcony and watch the sunset.  Every bedroom has a balcony too (just what a mother of two little ones needs).  The living room balcony connects to the master bedroom so it's extra long.

And that, my friends, is our living room. So far.  I'm a little embarrassed that we haven't accomplished a little more in there since we've moved in, but we don't spend a lot of time in there, and we have the rest of our lives to work on it, right?

I hate being so far from some of our family. Especially since I'm dying to hold Candice's new baby Sebastian,  Marissa is due in the fall, and I have yet to meet my nephew Max! Creed doesn't get to see his cousins often, but he has a newly discovered bond with his cousin Cole thanks to Iphones + Facetime.  This morning Cole called Creed.  They chatted and giggled for a while, then they played Club Penguin online together while still talking to each other via facetime.   They do this regularly.

Then Creed suggested they watch a movie together.  They opted for Tangled.  We turned it on at our house and Cole watched in on his phone.

 Grant even made a brief appearance.

They watched the whole thing. THE. WHOLE. THING. 

They crack me up.

Four hours on the I-Phone and we're feeling a little bit closer together.

I have too much stuff

When we put over half of the things we own in storage, we thought it would be for a month or two; it turned out to be over a year.  There were a few things that I missed (sewing machine, winter clothes . . .) and we even had to rifle through the storage units looking for a few of them (oh yes, I said "units" as in more than one because we had that much to store).  But you know what? I didn't miss a lot of it, and I found myself thinking that if we could go without all of it for a year, we could surely pitch a lot of it.

Until I started unpacking the boxes.

Hello Robert Sabuda pop-up book collection!  You have swiftly become Creed's new BFF.  He spends hours a day with you and shows you off to our guests.

 Hello rows and rows of shoes and awesome storage racks!  You make me smile every time I stand before you pondering what to wear. I just wish that Creed didn't love you so much because you're becoming a little worse for the wear.

 Hello extra dishes, that I completely don't need, you're making life around here a bit more exciting.

Good think we have much more space in this new house.  Could you part with such dear friends?

Steppin' Up

One totally unnecessary improvement we made before we moved to our new house was to put in new staircases.  Craig Crittenden of Third Dimension built the custom cabinetry for our kitchen (he was amazing by-the-way).  We mentioned to him that we loved the staircase he put in the last home he worked on with Geoff Tice, and he commented that our staircase would be a great candidate for something similar. He included a bid with the pricing for our cabinets and the price was too good to resist.  He's still experimenting with stair-building, and I asked him to try something new so he gave us an amazing price so he could build up his portfolio.  There are many other projects around here that we are saving up for, but I'm so glad that we went ahead with this one.

 The old stairs were average carpeted stairs

 The new stairs are made of three inch thick walnut and they sort of look like they are floating.

 They come up from the stone floor in the entryway to the living room

 and they continue up to the bedrooms on the other side of the house.

 I love how much light they add to the entryway, and as an added bonus, we were able to use some of the carpet we tore out to patch holes where we took out a doorway and extended the hallway to the laundry room upstairs.  I don't know what we would have done without it.

We still need to touch up some of the paint around them, but I'm so happy with how they turned out.

He's an adventurer

Have I mentioned how much Ollie likes to climb

 and climb

 and climb

 and climb

Zoiks!