Fire & Marshmallows

While I was on vacation with the boys in August (more on that some day, I hope), Mason took on the giant project of landscaping.  We had it all planned out before I left, but there were a few surprises when I got home, including...  a fire pit!  

 It's been a while since then, but now that it's finally really feeling like fall and getting dark earlier, we decided it would be a good night to try it out.  The boys were SO excited... especially when we made a special trip to the grocery store for s'more supplies :)  Kaeden talked about marshmallows for the rest of the evening.  

Here's Kaeden, checking out the fire building from inside, after dinner:

The fire pit:

Ryan, helping to keep Kaeden from getting too close:

Time for some marshmallows:

Somebody's ready to roast a marshmallow!

He didn't really get it close enough to the fire to toast, but he didn't seem to care.

And trying some s'mores too!

Kaeden's first ever s'more

S'more face!

 The funny thing was that neither of them really liked their s'more that much - Mason & I ended up eating most of them (aww, shucks).  The boys just kept going back to the marshmallow bag for more marshmallows... and didn't even bother to toast them!  Kind of defeats the purpose of the fire, but oh well.

And then they went insane, running around the yard, screaming at the top of their lungs.  Good thing we don't have many neighbors! 

All in all, a successful evening!

Pumpkin Patch 2012

Another fall, another visit to the Pumpkin Patch for our family.  This time, we had Uncle Bret, Auntie & Atticus along as well, which made it extra fun.  

Ryan's annual growth photo (Kaeden was not in the mood):

First stop: hay maze.  The boys just loved chasing each other through it:

Award for most loved activity (at least by Ryan & Atticus) this year goes to the corn crib.  They had two of them this year... one for older kids and one for younger.  Of course, they all had to go in the older kids one since Ryan was too big for the 3 & under one.  It even had slides.  So much fun!  

 

Ryan was in absolute bliss the whole time.  I think he would like to live in a giant pile of corn. 

Kaeden was not so into it and only agreed to enter if buffered by Daddy:

He did get in on a little bit of Ryan's craziness:

 

Still, they spent a good bit of the time watching:

 

And eventually, Mason took him over to the younger kids one, and he got a little more adventurous... but not much!

 

Next up was the slide.  Everybody liked that!

  

 

Sweet moment with Daddy

  And then came the hay ride.  Atticus was quite happy, waiting for the ride to begin:

We decided to try sneaking in a family photo.  The boys were a little distracted:

During the hay ride, we got out to explore the corn maze.  It was all going great until Kaeden fell and got a bloody nose/lip.  He deteriorated pretty quickly from there on out.

Even so, we took some time to check out the cotton field and pick some cotton.

 

And getting to sit on a big tractor revived Kaeden a little bit.

 

But it didn't hold him over long enough to get any kind of decent pumpkin photos this year.

 

Oh well.  

 Thanks for another fun day, Ganyard Hill Farms.  We'll shoot for 5 years in a row next year :)

And, we're in.

No, we didn't get lost on our way to the new house. We've just been SO busy. But, we are in! The last month has been absolutely crazy, but at least we are past the most intense parts now. And we are very thankful to finally be in this home that we have been working so hard to make real for the past year and a half. Praise!

I have a lot to catch up on, so bear with me...

The house was officially finished on March 15, so even though we weren't actually moving in for another week, we decided to have a little celebration out here that afternoon.

The media/exercise room was a big hit for all of the boys (Mason included, of course!)



Auntie very sweetly got us balloons to celebrate :)

and we had celebratory pudding pie on the back deck!
We opened our first box (toys, of course!)...

...and it didn't take long for the great room to looks like this:

We also got to see the bathrooms totally complete, clean, and uncovered for the first time:

Mason had been busy filling up the attic with as many boxes as we could, so here is a look at the attic at its fullest point:

March 22nd was moving day. We had been busily moving boxes and things all week, but the movers came that day to take all of our furniture, and we brought the remaining essential items over. It was the first night we slept in the house.

Thanks to my amazing mom (and sister-in-law), who let us use her van all week as well as watching the kids most of the days so that we could focus on the move, everything went very smoothly. We worked really hard, but it was satisfying work. I had a few emotional meltdowns about leaving the old house (it was, after all, where we moved in after we got married and where I brought both of my babies home from the hospital... I have a lot of memories wrapped up in that special home), but I was able to push through, and since arriving at the new house, I really haven't looked back all that much. I am so thankful for the 7 1/2 years we spent there, but I'm also looking forward to many, many more wonderful memories here at the new house :)

Once the movers got all of the furniture in place, Mason & I finally took a break to eat some lunch. It wasn't our first meal at this house, but it sure was nice to be able to eat at a table!


This is what the house looked like when we moved in :

And this is what the inside of the house soon looked like - boxes & toy chaos!

I actually became quite fond of our "box pile" - at its finest, it was much, much bigger than this, but I forgot to take a picture then.


Here are the boys checking out their furnished rooms for the first time:

One of the best things about those early days (aside from having lots of family around to help!) was having lots of "projects" for Mason & the boys to do - there were plenty of things to put together, and little boys like tools.

Our new furniture for Ryan's room (as well as some others) arrived a couple of days after move-in, so we had fun setting up his new room all over again. Here's what it looks like now (more or less):

... and some of our other new & exciting furniture:

That first week or so was a stressful, busy time for sure, but I have so many great memories that I want to write some of them down so that I don't forget them. Here goes:

- driving down our driveway on moving day and seeing a deer in our front yard

- baby turtles!

- sitting out on the front porch with Mason after the boys went to bed, checking our email (we didn't have wi-fi at first) and looking at the stars.

- waking up to the sun rising over the creek and seeing the silhouettes of the trees through our bedroom windows

- watching the kids dance and play in the rain

- the red buds:

- our first dinner party to celebrate Bunny & Mason's birthdays; eating out on the front porch!

I have to say that we do already feel completely at home here, and despite all of the work and stress and small irritations, we are thrilled to be here and enjoying the house very much.

And we even have grass :)