The First Snow!

It's definitely cold here in PA! This week has been pretty clear but last week we were pleasantly surprised to wake up almost every day to fresh snow. Here a gorgeous view of the snow from the kitchen. The view from the top of the hill is truly incredible! Kai and Charlie had never experienced snow before so watching them see it for the first time was so magical. Although Charlie hates to be cold, he's recently decided that he likes the feel of snow on his nose. And Kai just loves everything about the snow...even its name! He wouldn't stop saying pointing to the windows and saying 'snow' for 2 or 3 days as I recall. He hasn't mastered the art of making snow balls just yet but something tells me that he'll be a pro in no time!

Happy Thanksgiving!

So, I realize that I've been a total slacker when it comes to updating this blog :( This semester has been so incredibly busy and it seems like every time I thought about writing, I got caught up with something else. Life here in PA has been anything but boring, that's for sure. Here's a few highlights:

Kai's Birthday (October)
Our little munchkin is officially a little man! Kai turned 2 and I tried to celebrate the event with a birthday party at his daycare. That was such a bad idea! Kai had no idea it was his birthday and couldn't understand why Mommy was at school so he cried the entire time. Plus, it turns out that he still hates birthday cake and he refused to eat it. Well, at least I got some good pictures of the party. Everyone (but Kai) loved the cake and punch, especially since the kids usually get crackers for snack. Turns out that the parents weren't so happy because most the kids were on a sugar high when they went home. Oops, my bad!


Kai's second party was much better. The weekend of his birthday we went to Chuck E. Cheese with my parents and had cake at home. Interestingly while Kai is very social, he had a significantly better time at the 'family' only party. He even try some cake (which he eventually spit out)! My parents got him a new monster truck which made Kai so happy because he is all about trucks right now. He spent the rest of the night playing and running Charlie over with the truck!

Kai especially loved my mom's rousing rendition of 'Happy Birthday'! My mom doesn't have the greatest voice, but she knows how to have fun that's for sure. By the time we finished singing, we were all laughing so hard that we were crying! Kai tried to sing along too, which was even more hilarious since his words haven't fully come yet. But once they started, Kai and my mom just kept going, and going....they are two peas in a pod, I tell you.


Halloween (October)
Kai was a spider for Halloween and I don't think I've ever seen anything so cute as this little boy! Kai seriously loved this costume and it took me 30 minutes to get it off of him at bedtime. After attending a Halloween party, we all went to dinner and Kai beamed as people commented on his adorable costume. He was so careful not to spill any of his dinner on his costume....this totally blew me away since he usually makes every effort to be as messy as possible when eating! And sure enough, Kai still wears the spider hat around the house from time to time!

Kai's First Day at Daycare

Fortunately for us we were able to get full time daycare for Kai. It's only been a week but he has adjusted quite nicely. His teachers say he's a ball of energy and is very compassionate. When a kid in his class cries, Kai feels compelled to pat the child's back and give'em a big hug. He's such a sweet boy!

Kai's class is very small (6 children) and the facility is state of the art, which we love. Clearly Kai loves that it has a sandbox - he never misses the opportunity to pour sand over his head! This picture was taken by the assistant director of the daycare on his first day. We didn't know this at the time but it is standard policy to send pictures of all the new kids during the first week of class to reassure parents that their kid is ok. I can't tell you how much it warmed my heart to open my email and see Mr. Kai smiling back at me. I think our little man is going to be just fine :)

Getting Settled, Finally!

We are finally getting settled in the new house and into new routines. I've been heading to campus attending orientations and preparing my classes. Gus and Kai have been hanging out at home, completing projects on the 'honey do' list. Gus starts work in September so this is his last chance to hang out and sleep late. In the meantime Kai keeps him on his toes!

So here are a few pics of us making the new house home....

~Kai getting his monthly haircut from Daddy


The newly decorated living room. This room is crying out for paint! Notice Kai's club chair next to Daddy's chair!

Here's the other side of the living room. This is my mom's favorite spot in the house. She sits there and reads for hours. This is also the space where Kai and Charlie love to play, wrestle, and read while we watch television.

Kai's room is the first room we finished. The color of the walls is really off in this picture for some reason. In person the wall is a bit more blue - not so pale. The closet wall (not shown) is navy blue to match the navy valances. His nightstand and trundle bed arrived soon after I took this picture.

This is the media room in the basement but for now it's Kai's playroom. We are drywalling the other side of the basement and when it's ready that space will be Kai's new playroom and this space will be Daddy's space for his games (X-box) and toys (big screen tv). We are hosting Thanksgiving this year so we've got to have this room ready by then...Go EAGLES!

This last picture is of my favorite space, the sitting room/office off the master bedroom. It's nice to have a quiet space to do work. This room is also great b/c one of us can stay up to watch tv and not have to worry about disturbing the other. Since this picture was taken I've hung my favorite PB red drapes and put a small leather ottoman/cube between the chairs. I'm also contemplating an area rug for the sitting area just to make it more cozy.

We are really enjoying the house and each other. Next week classes start and Kai will attend daycare. The following week Gus starts work, so before we know it, life is going to get really busy. But until then we are having a blast putting the house together and meeting new friends.

We're In!

It's official...we're homeowners again. The closing went by very quickly. Our mortage consultant, realtor, and closer from the title company are all good friends so they basically chatted the whole time while we signed a zillion papers. After we closed they hugged us and gave us gift certificates to our favorite restaurant and store. We couldn't have asked for a better closing.

The first day of moving however, was a different story. Long story short, Kai got away from my mom (who was watching him while me, Gus, and my dad painted the upstairs rooms) and knocked over a gallon of paint on the laminate wood floors and the carpet. Needless to say, I burst into tears! Fortunately, my wonderful and wise dad came to the rescue and managed to get up all the wet paint. He got some acetone for the carpet (which worked beautifully) and told us to use soapy water for the laminate. It took a good 2 hours to get it all the paint off the floor but I am thrilled to say that the floors look like new - or at least how they looked before the accident. Honestly, you'd never know we experienced our own personal Exon Valdez spill! I've never been a fan of laminate (I prefer the real thing!) but they turned out to be an excellent investment.

Despite the setback, we were able to paint 3 rooms in a day. Kai's room is light blue with navy accent wall. We painted our bedroom the same color it was in the old house, and we painted the bonus room off of the master bedroom. We've decided to make that space our personal tv/office space. Tomorrow the our furniture will be moved in and the new living room furniture is also suppose to arrive sometime tomorrow. So far, all of our appointments (cable, radon mitigation company, Culligan) have been on time. Let's pray that we continue this trend or we'll be sitting on the floor come the weekend!

7 days and counting...

We close on our new house in less than a week and it's killing me! I can't wait to move and be settled finally. Besides the new house is just so cool! Oh, did I mention we are buying a different house?Long story short, negotiations fell thru on the other house. We saw this house the same day we formally withdrew our offer and we just 'knew' it was the one. This house is perfect for us...3260 sq ft, 4 bedrooms, 4 baths, a finished basement, a bonus room, and a 3 car garage. We'll have plenty of room when we have a second child, which is something I thought was lacking in the other house.

This is the view when you first walk in the house. The entry to the formal dining room and full bath is on the left, and the staircase and entry to the living room is on the right. The laminate wood floors go throughout the dining room and the kitchen. The sliding doors lead to the deck and backyard.

This house also rocks because of my favorite space....the kitchen! I'm no Paula Dean but this space inspires me to try! The custom cherry cabinets look sleek but cozy with the dark granite countertops and I'm loving the black appliances. And we're keeping the bar stools. SWEET! I can't wait to cook Thanskgiving diner in this kitchen. I also love how it opens up to the family room and I have an amazing view of the town from the kitchen (the house is on the top of a massive hill!).

We thank God for blessing us with this house. Had the sellers not accepted our lowball (but fair) offer, we would never be able to afford a house like this. It passed inspection with flying colors (it's less than a year old) and neither one of us feels like we had to compromise anything on our 'must have' lists. This house is truly is move-in condition. Granted, I still have plans to paint! I can't wait to start decorating (I've got my colors all set) and Gus can't wait to get his riding mower and big screen TV for his "man room" in the basement. We truly believe this will be an awesome place to raise our family and we couldn't be more thrilled! Now if only the next 7 days would go by quickly.......

In other important news, Kai and I have taken to coloring to pass the time away. He's been out of daycare since May and we're constantly finding new ways to entertain him. He is a ball of ENERGY so for us to get him to sit down and engage in an activity for a period of time is amazing! Gus gets a little grumpy about Kai's inability to color inside the lines, but I don't mind! I think I heard somewhere that that's the sign of a creative genius:) Needless to say, our home is less than tidy with boxes and toys all around. Also, try to ignore my embarassingly odd shiny pants:(

It's so hard to say goodbye to yesterday....

After 6 long months on the market, 1 failed offer, a $10,000 price reduction, we closed on our house today. As happy as I am to have sold the house, I'm just realizing how much I am going to miss our first home. I mean, it's the first place we bought as a married couple, where we raised our little pup Charlie, and where our darling Kai crawled for the first time, took his first step, and said his first word. All these months I've been dying to get rid of this house, and now I realize just how many memories it holds. Here's to an amazing 4 years!

A boy and his dog......

People always laugh when we tell them we have two kids, Kai AND Charlie, but these pictures really help make our case. Kai loves Charlie so much and would be so lonely without his best bud. They are the "Two Amigos" for sure! Now if I could only stop Kai from eating Charlie's food.......

Let the games begin!

It's official...our baby is no longer a baby :( Kai is potty training and it is going fairly well. The biggest struggle so far has been getting him comfortable with a daily routine of using the potty in the morning. When he wakes up the first thing he wants to do is eat breakfast. However, I have learned the art of distraction and have found that putting on a Backyardigans DVD helps him forget his tummy long enough to sit on the pot!

In all seriousness, I am truly amazed at how quickly he is growing and how he seems to change just a bit every day. Watching him learn to put a puzzle piece in the right spot and run around the playground following the older boys with wild abandonment just fills our hearts with so much joy. This baby...little man...is such a gift and we thank God for him every day.

We got the house!

Well, it looks like we're going to be home owners again! The sellers countered our offer and we just signed the paperwork accepting the counter offer. We are really happy with the house and the sellers are quite generous. We requested some unusual items - their entertainment center, riding mower, bar stools, extra refrigerator in the basement - and they agreed. They're also selling us (at an insanely low price) their dining room set which includes 6 chairs, a table, and a matching buffet/hutch. I'm particularly happy about the dining room set because my budget for new living room (leather!) and family room (crate and barrel sectional!) has increased! The first thing I want to do is paint the exterior a nice neutral taupe or tan, and the shutters black. We used those colors for our house in Florida and it looked awesome. Also want to paint the interior a great neutral color - Benajamin Moore's Shaker Beige (thanks Amy!!)

The pictures posted here are from the MLS website. The decor is not my style for sure but the house has great bones and fantastic layout. This is the living room which has new carpet and the entertainment center we asked for in our offer. It is solid wood. I will paint it black to make it a bit more contemporary and modern. We are also going to put a leather sofa and 2 chairs in here using the current layout (minus the coffee table) and replace the light fixture. It is a pretty big room so we'll use this room mostly for entertaining - no kids or dogs allowed!

This is the family room/kitchen. I love how it the kitchen opens up into the family room. It will be so much easier to keep an eye on Kai when plays indoors. The new C&B sectional and chair will go in this room. Check out the built in desk! This is the perfect place for Kai to do his homework when he gets bigger! I also like the stone fire place but the screen has got to go. We have a dining set very similar to the one in the picture that we'll put in this room.

The kitchen is on the other side of the room. I am changing out the brass knobs as soon as we get the keys. I'd like to restain the cabinets (cherry) and get new countertops (corian or some stone material) in a year or so. We also need to update the refrigerator and stove to match the new dishwasher and over the range microwave. I can't begin to tell you how excited I am to have an over the range microwave! I also love the color of the appliances...they were white in our last house and it was a pain in the backside to keep them clean! Oh, I'd also like to re-do the floors..again we had white floors in our Florida home and keeping them clean was impossible!

This last picture gives you some idea of the backyard and side yard. We're going to replace the wooden fence with a slightly taller vinyl fence, and extend it to the back of the property and the other side of the house. The fenced in area will be Charlie's space to run, play, and do his business! That still leaves about .28 acres on the left side of the house for Kai to play and have a playground set. The 2 car garage has enough space for the cars and a workshop and it has windows, so it looks like an extension of the house. I also love how the garage doors are on the side of the house, not the front.

So, now the fun begins. Inspections are set for next week and if all goes well, we are scheduled to close on or before July 30th (somewhere around the 15th would be ideal!). The house appears to be well maintained (it was built in 1989) so we're keeping our fingers crossed!

Our first post..coming to you live from the Keystone State!

We are finally settling in here in Lewisburg, PA. After days and days of cleaning, our rental home is starting to look (and smell) decent. We rented a refrigerator and air conditioning unit and can finally rest comfortably in our humble (and I do mean humble) abode.

We put an offer on a house yesterday and will know by this evening whether it is ours or not. If the sellers accept, we'll close on or before July 30th which gives us plenty of time to get settled before the semester begins. The house is really cute but the exterior definitely needs to be painted (can we say school bus yellow). It is a little over 1900 sq. ft, 2.5 baths, has a living room, dining room, family room that opens into the kitchen, and has 4 bedrooms. It also has a lot of land (.86 acres) so that Charlie and Kai can run wild!

In other housing news, we are set to close on our home in Tallahassee on June 25th! Selling that house has been such an answer to prayer...our buyers are nice people, the inspections have gone so smoothly, and we have a fantastic realtor who has managed to take care of every little thing now that we are more than 1000 miles away. It's funny to think how I prayed all those months for the house to sell and just when least expected it, we received a full price offer 3 days before our departure. God is good all the time, and all the time God is good!