Settling in

There's not much to show for moving in but at least there aren't boxes everywhere. It will take us a while to get furniture appropriate for our space...not to mention enough seating for more than two people (and that's only if we can chase Maggie out of her chair). But I've got my eye on Craigslist. And carpet is great for the kiddos! Notice Parker getting some tummy time in the middle of the room.

I believe

Dear Santa,

All I want for Christmas are hugs, kisses, and lots of smiles.

Love,

Parker

One expensive kitty

Culprit:

Not including her adoption fee, spaying, food and litter, this little kitty has cost us $75. And that's just for the "damage fee" from our last rental. The landlord had a hissy fit over some carpet that she scratched and he's charging us $75 for it to be patched. I can't really blame him because they're trying to sell the house and we're partially to blame because we didn't clip her claws (her clippers got misplaced during packing); nevertheless, I'm not happy. At least she doesn't urinate all over the house like my parents' cat did (before she became an outdoor cat). Depending on her behavior, Oreo may have a similar future ahead of her.

Thanksgiving catch-up

We've finally moved into our new house. It took ALL weekend and then some but it's finally finished. I've managed to shuffle boxes into their respective rooms and begin the unpacking process. Madeleine and Parker have transitioned beautifully. Maggie was pretty nervous until she was able to hop onto our bed last night to sleep (we slept on the air mattress the first two nights as some skanky water leaked onto our mattress in the moving truck but it dried out by yesterday). Oreo is in heaven. She loves chaos, especially when it means boxes to play in.

We spent our Thanksgiving waiting for Justin to come home from hunting all morning. He didn't manage to get anything which is both good and bad: good because we wouldn't have had any time or energy to deal with it but bad because I'm running out of meat from last year's bounty and I'm too cheap to buy meat at the grocery store. To entertain ourselves while he was out, Parker, Madeleine, Maggie and I went for a Thanksgiving day walk. Madeleine picked out her own outfit:

She is in love with a bear Justin's mom brought out for her. I dressed it up in Parker's to-be Christmas outfit. Madeleine uses Mr. Bear to mimic the way I take care of Parker. She'll swaddle the bear, lay him in the boppy, burp the bear, put him in the bouncer and car seat, etc. Yesterday for the first time she told me Mr. Bear went poo-poo and she wiped his bottom with a diaper wipe. Getting a potty-seat for her is next on the to-do list.

I have tons more I could share but seeing as I just got the computer hooked up and I'm still surrounded by boxes in the kitchen I'll leave it at that. Hopefully I'll get some pictures of the house up soon. Thanks for all of your prayers over the weekend. We are so thankful for all of you supporting us and caring for us. Give us a few weekends to get things settled and we'll start taking reservations for the 2009 vacation season!

We have the keys!

With keys in hand, we are now homeowners! We closed on the house this morning by going to the title company and pinky-promising that we'll pay back the $161,000 we're borrowing. After signing on about 400 dotted lines, we left the building just waiting to hear that the money from the lender had arrived at the title company. This afternoon our realtor showed up at Justin's office with keys in hand! Now we just have to change the locks, install fire detectors and a garage door opener, clean the gutters, add insulation to the attic, spray for spiders, etc....and move in! It looks like we have a full but thankful week ahead of us!

All smiles

Parker is growing so fast that we're having a hard time capturing all of his stages. I have a hard time remembering Madeleine going through each of these. By far, his desire to smile and respond to our smiles is my favorite stage to date (besides sleeping longer chunks at night!).

Sing it Bing!

"I'll be home for Christmas..."

The word "home" is taking on so many different meanings right now but in this case "home" means Virginia and Pennsylvania. It is official: we are flying back East for the holidays. Justin requested his vacation last week so we took a big gulp of air and bought tickets tonight. Of course we missed out on some of the best prices by waiting so long but we honestly didn't know if we could afford to make the trip. We still don't know for certain how it will all work out but we couldn't pass up this chance to see family and friends.

While family will always draw us back for visits, the prospect of seeing our best friends (and a few new babies) who will also be in town was irresistible. So here we come Areys, Clines, Johnsons, Whalens, Tippens, and Gabels! And if there's anyone else out there who wants their Christmas wish of seeing the Clines to come true, let me know because we're starting to schedule our time as I speak. The last time we went back East was Christmas two years ago and it will probably be another two before we come again. My hope will be that everyone will want to fly and stay in our NEW house next year!