a move. lost dog. happy ending. ten months.

this is going to be a bit jumbled, it seems thats all I have time for these days.

We have been officially moved into our house for a week now. 

As a welcome home present, our refrigerator and dryer both decided to break within three days of each other. Kind of ridiculous, but luckily Will's mom was here for the fridge incident and generously bought us a new one. Our parents are bound to stop helping us out at some point, but until then, we are deeply grateful for all they have blessed us with. 

 

Aspen decided to wander out of our backyard the second day we moved in. We were also lucky in that instance because we found her a block down wandering into someone's apartment. 

She then decided to escape out our front door yesterday and was gone for eight hours. We really had our doubts that she would ever return. But as we lay on the couch sulking our neighbors came by asking if she was our dog. Turns out, she was playing in the yard three houses down, who knows where she spent the rest of the day, but we are thankful she came back to us, stinky gas and all. 

 

We have mowed the lawn two times with our electric mower. If mowing a lawn doesn't make you feel like genuine homeowner, I don't know what does.  Despite some minor setbacks, the house is really all we could have ever imagined. I already feel such a relief being able to escape to the front porch if Madison refuses her naps. I did not realize how trapped I felt in our apartment until we moved here. 

 

We also finally had our fancy front loader washing machine delivered today. Will keeps laughing at me because I just sit in front of it watching the laundry go round, amazed at how it actually is cleaning our clothes with hardly any detergent and no water. I just can not understand it.

We do not have a working guest room quite yet, but can not wait to have people come and visit us. So come please!

 

And some how during all this crazy moving stuff, Madison turned ten months old. Just in case you couldn't figure it out, that is TWO months away from being a year. Crazy stuff.

 These pictures get more and more difficult to take. She just ends up looking miserable because I am making her stay in one spot, what a horrible mother I am. 

 At ten months: 

*She only weighs 16.5 lbs. A wee little thing, barely hitting the tenth percentile.

*is a crawling machine. She still has the funniest crawl, where she keeps one leg bent and pushes off with her left leg. But she can move. 

* Has figured out how to climb stairs, pull up on furniture, and push boxes while she walks. 

*She understands nearly everything we say to her. That does not necessarily mean she listens to what we say, but she knows. 

* Has become pretty affectionate. This has been by far my favorite thing she has done this month. Having her shower us with kisses in the morning is probably one of my greatest pleasures. It is also adorable to watch her kiss all the children at play group. She gives them huge hugs and pulls them over.

*She is sleeping through the night. But unfortunately is up for the day around 5:30. Good gosh, its making for some long days. The days last forever when you are ready for lunch by 9 am.

* She is beginning to really dance. Whenever she hears music she starts moving her hips around, so cute. 

This month has been pretty wonderful. It seems a lot of things are getting much easier now that she is more independent. She can roam around the house and play with herself for hours. She has finally gotten the hint that she should sleep in her crib. She has this wonderfully entertaining personality that leaves us totally tickled inside. She is just really taking off and once again, I am so blessed to be able to watch it unfold. We have been with out internet for a week and I love what it does for my perspective. It encourages me to be more present with Madison and reminds me that she should not be fighting the computer screen for my attention. I want to really give her my attention and time so she knows that I value her over anything else. I can not wait to see what else she learns and is capable of doing this next month and a half before she turns one.

 

Today is the Day

Movers should be here shortly. Everything is in boxes. New floors are laid. House should be clean. and Will's mom is safely landed in Denver to give us a helping hand. 

I am so glad that this day is finally here. It seems it has been a very dragged out process, but tonight we will be sleeping in our new house. 

Between my camera eating sand in Hawaii and Will's camera cord magically being packed in my mom's back from when she was here two weeks ago, we do not have many pictures to show. Hopefully, soon though, very soon. 

Madison is keeping us on our toes still. She is a gooey sponge just soaking everything up. She is ten months old, TEN MONTHS. We will be having her smash her face in a cake the next time we blink.

Even though I spent a good amount of time stressing about this moving process, I feel I also spent a good amount of time trying to really enjoy the whole process. I am thankful Will and I even get to experience buying a home and making it our own together. I am thankful we will have a place to sit back and really enjoy being a family. 

So, yay to a new home, new memories, and new floors for Aspen to get hairy.

well, it turns out...

* that just because a house claims to be "move in" ready, does not necessarily means it is.

* that we are already pouring a lot of money into a house we thought did not need much.

* that hard wood floors can not always be redone, but gosh darn it, our brand new hard wood floors will look amazing.

* that we have the most generous family ever. thanks to a substantial amount of monetary gifts we are able to do what is necessary to make our home "move in" ready.

* i still struggle with that little personality quirk called perfectionism. i have to continually keep in check my wants and my needs. just because i want the entire house to be perfectly color coordinated, perfectly organized, key word, perfect, does not mean that is a need. i have to remind myself this should all be a glorious process. if i find myself stressing over which curtains to purchase, i might need to step away and get some perspective.

* i have to keep falling back on my past experience to remind myself that the act of moving always gets done. the boxes get packed, the pictures get hung, the furniture in place. this will be my fifth move in three years, i should have this down by now.

* that even if everything is not perfect, even if we are pouring more money into this house than we previously had thought, the memories we build in this house will far outweigh any of those glitches. there has already been sweet laughter exchanged in those walls. we are finding satisfaction that comes from putting hard work into something that we are building together.

I believe that our main goal in this home ownership journey is to use this house for good. We have always desired to have a home that is open to others. We want to have families, friends, neighbors, whoever, over to our house and feel welcomed. We have always been confined by space and this has limited our ability to these things. This house is a far cry from big, but it is bigger and will be wonderful for welcoming others into our home. We have already begun to form connections with our neighbors. The neighbor two houses down is "due any day now" and will be staying home with her baby girl. Our next door neighbor is a  war veteran and is loving the company he has found in Will. Another neighbor has already invited us over to show us their garden. I just keep praying that we will be continually reminded that a home is so much more than walls and a roof. 

I am sure we will be hit with many more home ownership lessons, but I pray we eager to learn. That we will know in the end this home is very temporary, the way in which we use this home is what will be everlasting.

Hopefully by next week we will be somewhat moved in. We have to wait on the floors to be installed, but we should be in the clear after that. I can not wait to reveal some of the projects we have been working on.