New Home

We are absolutely in love with our new home.  Though there has been lots and lots and lots of work to do getting the house to feel like "ours" and there is still lots and lots and lots more on the horizon.  We have plans and slowly it's all coming together.  In the meantime we're just loving all being under the same roof together and having so much fun with our new space.

 

Happy to be in our new house!

 

 Of course - she does still occasionally end up in her parents bed

 A favorite toy -- her own feet

 

 

Sweet gal trying desperately to crawl

 

 

 We neglected to take any before/after photos as we've been working.  But here's a "before" carpet shot from North and Quorra's play room.  Pop on over to North's blog for a before shot of the green shag carpet that was in our family room -- ug.

 Also some "before's" -- wall paper removal!

Yep -- the below wallpaper was once in our home...

  "After" shots will surely be in future blog posts.

 

 Here's Quorra gazing at a light we (by which I mean Alan and my dad [grandpa]) hung.

  

 Bonding with her big brother (wearing his cowboy hat)

 

 

And speaking of bonding siblings -  now that I work from home, I occasionally catch some really interesting sights.  Like the one below -- who knew they were so sisterly?!  I think they are happy to be in our new home too.

 

 

 Quorra picking up North from daycare - she's a pretty popular gal.

  

 Lounging around at the Bloomington Farmer's Market

 

 

 

Alan has been having fun getting to hang out with the kiddos every day -- even those when I'm on a business trip.  I recently went to Boulder, CO and while I was gone it appears Thor and Captain America had a showdown in our house while Quorra looked on.  Alan texted me these photos while I was away.

 

 

Our giggly gal

And of course -- here are some photos of our house (not taken by me--I downloaded them from the listing)

 

 

 

 

Our favorite part of the house so far -- the back yard -- with a heated pool!  While we'll be closing it for winter soon, we're still swimming in it nearly daily this autumn (granted, we have the heat turned ALL the way up).  It's been so lovely this summer to be able to jump in each night after work.  Though immediately after we moved in, we discovered a leak so, that was a bit of stress.  It's fixed now though.  Quorra is still coming around on the idea of it but North has taken to it like a fish.  He even jumps off the diving board with his swimmies on.

 

 

 And there is a really lovely side garden -- though admittedly thus far we've used it very little.

 

 And behind the house we own about an acre of woodlands!  Here's the top of the hill where the woods begin.

Oh my...it's been a while

Where have the last couple of months gone?!  Oh right....I started a new job, Alan and I had several weeks of living apart in there, we moved, updated a number of rooms of our new house, started the kids in new daycare/pre-school, I had a few weeks of business trips, and there was all the usual household stuff (laundry, feeding and bathing children, etc)....and no time left over for updating the blog! Which is unfortunate because in all of that time Quorra has been growing growing growing.  She now rolls every which way, smiles constantly, jabbers loudly and often, makes desperate and focused efforts to scoot about.  And she may or may not say "hi".   Her caregivers say she does and she certainly says something that sounds like "hi" when she first sees someone after a while but--it's a bit unclear yet.  I'll post a video sometime soon of her greeting.

In the meantime, let me attempt to catch up on blogging by posting the photos taken between my last post and now.  Below are some pre-move photos.

 Sweet smiley gal hanging out in our old house in her bouncy seat.

 

 

There were many nights like this before the move....North and Quorra both sleeping in my bed somewhere around 3 AM.  While not an ideal sleeping scenario there were times when sanity had to prevail and we all needed to just get some ZZZs wherever it was most convenient.  I have to admit--while they were grueling at the time, I now miss them.

There were of course lots and lots of ridiculously cute outfits that she got to wear approximately 1 time before outgrowing them.

Sweet, smiley girl in one of her brother's old shirts.

 Hanging out in my bed. Snuggly, sweet kids.

 

 

  Before out move we did head back to Indiana for my first week at my new job (with Teach for America).  I had to travel to Kansas City for 2 days - while I was gone I needed to be around other adults who could watch the kiddos overnight in my absence.  We headed to my parents and Alan was able to get some time with them.  We also snapped some cute pictures with our camera one evening on grandma and grandpa's porch.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After visiting with grandma and grandpa, it was back to Virginia for me and the kids for a few more weeks.  Almost everything we owned was packed up so we tended to hole up in my room, hanging out on the bed, playing, and watching tv.

 Sweet girl!

 

 Rolling around

Speaking of which....here's a video from one of her early rolls (July 8, 2012):

Last picture in Virginia - after all of our stuff was already packed up.  We'll miss the house that was our home for 2 years.  Where North changed from a toddler to a little kid and we brought Quorra home from the hospital.  And we'll miss the people we met, jobs we had, restaurants we enjoyed, and museums we loved.

But now we're having Indiana adventures.  And I'll post some pictures from those soon...