Lucy

Well I am proud to say that our little family of 4 just became a family of 5. Now don't jump to conclusions, I did not have a baby in during my blog haitus. Instead we decided to get a puppy! Am I crazy? Possibly. But my girls love her, and that is all the justification I need.

She is a Golden Retriever puppy and although she is small now that won't last long. We got her a week ago and although the first week has been rough we are making progress. And by progress I mean she doesn't wail in her crate keeping us up All. Night. Long. Now it is only when we first put her in and in the morning when she hears us get up. So without further ado... meet Miss Lucy!

Yes, we will have lots of fun potty training, leash training, you know the whole kit and kaboodle. And for those of you know me, probably think we are crazy. Why? Because I have allergies. As in nose running, sneezing, eye watering allergies. Not fun! But I have to say that I am taking my vitamins, a Claratin every once in a while, and so far, I have been fine.  That's a mini miracle if you ask me.  That is proof that she was meant to be ours! 

A Year in Review {Part 2}

As promised, I am back with the second half of our whirlwind of a year in PA. You can check out the first half here.  I think that when we left off, it was February and we had just closed on our house. So on to March.

After painting a few rooms, moving in, and beginning to make the house into a home, I was feeling a little homesick. I hadn't seen my family since we moved (with the exception of my mom's visit in October) and a trip back home was just what the doctor ordered. And boy was he right! The hubby was busy planning the lenten season and was not able to come so the girls and I boarded a plane (all by ourselves!) and headed back home to see my parents.

Only it wasn't exactly home. You see my father is a state legislator and they were in session at the time.  So instead of flying home, we booked our tickets to fly into the capital to see my parents. And it just happened that my sister was there visiting at the same time so it was a double bonus to see them as well.

(sadly, this was the best picture I could get with all the girls)

Our trip was short, only a few days but it was jam packed.  We visited family...

and the girls got see my dad in action and visit him on the floor of the legislature!

We visited the top of the capitol... 

..and had lots of snuggles!

(sorry for the blurry iphone pic)

The trip was much too short and before we knew it we were back on the plane to come home and see daddy.  Just in time for Easter!

And fast forward a few more months and Addy celebrated her first friends birthday party. My baby girl is growing up so fast and in order to celebrate we threw her a Pancakes and Pajamas party for her and a bunch of her 6 year old friends. I originally found the idea here. What a blast! The girls all showed up in their pj's. They made cereal necklaces and decorated goodie bags for the pinata.

(that's me, helping tie on Addy's cereal necklace that she made)

We ate awesome pancakes... and had an all around good time. And I survived the milestone to tell the story. 

More importantly Addy had fun and that was what it was all about!

Fast forward to July and our house was turned into Grand Central Station. But I wouldn't have it any other way. My family came out to visit and we had good friends from back home drive out to spend a few days with us also. It was a good month. 

August brought more visitors as my mother-in-law came out to visit for a week with a good friend of hers. I would post pics from their trip but unfortunately I have been threatened to be disowned if I ever showed anyone those pictures. So in proper honor your mother-in-law fashion, I will have to refrain from posting them for the entire world to see. Just know that they had a great time and we loved having them. In fact the girls can't wait for them to come back. They have been practicing up on their drama skills and are anxious to put on another show for them.

So that about sums it up! One year in its entirety. I can't say it enough but it seems like the time has flown by. I am excited for what the next year will bring. I have faith that the next year will be just as good as the last. Maybe even better. Who knows? I guess you will need to stay tuned to find out!

A Year in Review

Its hard to believe that we have been out on the east coast for a year already. Seriously, where does the time go? A lot has happened in that year so I thought I would put together this little recap of what the past year has been like for us. So here we go...  Are you ready? It is a wild ride!

We started out the year by packing up all our stuff and loading it onto a really big moving truck. Yes, that thing was huuuuuge!

And we proceeded to drive across country with my in-laws to arrive at our temporary housing which looked a little something like this...

I am not even sure why I have this picture, but our apartment was on the first floor in the corner of this picture. You can even see the red of the moving van parked out front on the day it arrived.

It was here that I also sent my baby off to kindergarden. I won't go into details about how I sobbed like a baby kept my cool when I dropped her off the first day or putting her on the bus for the first time. But she was more than ready and couldn't wait to get on that big yellow bus.

(this picture was taken on her actual first day of kindergarden... which meant that I dropped her off at school. I was too much of a wimp to put her on the bus the first day. Don't ask me why Reese was so upset, I have no clue)

(and here she is all ready to go on the second day!)

It was also here that I cooked my very first Thanksgiving turkey. Just for the four of us. To be honest, I am not even sure how I was able to avoid this feat in the past, probably because we were always on the road for Thanksgiving, at least that is the excuse I am going with. That turkey weighed approximately 10lbs. Just a baby and delicious non-the-less, at least for my first turkey.

We had several visitors in the short time that we were there including my mom and uncle, and the in-laws came back out again for Christmas. Although Christmas was pretty low key since all of our decorations were in storage. In fact we didn't even have a tree. That was until our wonderful friends from back home took pitty on us and ordered us a mini tree that you can see in the background.

(The glass of wine on the counter was mine. I needed it after spending a week with my in-laws in such close quarters... Ha! Only kidding... Seriously, I have the best in-laws)

Fast forward to February when we purchased our home.  What a feeling to finally be out of that apartment and to have some space to spread out. 

This is what the house looked like on the day we closed. Apparently out here this is a lot of snow. Its more of a dusting if you ask me. But nobody does...  And it disappeared two days later. Anyways, the girls finally have their own bedrooms and of course they picked the ones farthest away from each other. Go figure! I honestly thought that they would have a hard time but they did great. After going through so much change they never cease to amaze me. 

So I think I will end it here as we are only half way through the year and this post is long enough for one day.  So stay tuned for the next half!

To be continued....