Our New Home

Well, here it is. We can hardly believe our own eyes. This is our dream property and we are so amazingly grateful to call this home. With great anticipation we look forward to moving in at the end of this month and making this house in the beautiful Hudson Valley our home. Thank you Lord!

Waiting

Well, this is a picture of me waiting to hear about whether or not we got the house, only to find out that we did, and then we lost it, and then we got it back, and then . . .
WE GOT IT! Jeff was so excited he kissed me (as you can see).

The Beach House in MA

Last week we went to our friend's beach house on Salisbury Beach in Mass. just 45 minutes from our house. We love this place! The kids had a blast playing in the cold ocean water, transporting wet sand to dry sand (that's hard work, yo!), building sandcastles & making sand pies while the adults kicked back (Tom & Jeff later hung back at the house to catch a little live World Cup Soccer with the baby while Lisa & I watched the older ones). We enjoyed delicious grilled dinner & dessert together, followed by some good old fashioned sparklers. What an awesome time!

Splash Park Fun (June)

Did I mention that we're packing? Did I mention that I often feel bad that the kids are couped up inside lately while I pack away (they seriously have a blast playing together in cardboard city!)? Did I mention that Ella looked outside one day and said, "Mommy it's a sunny day! I wonder what it's like outside?" Well, with a comment like that (like a dagger to the heart), why not jump in the car and go to the splash park?! This is seriously an awesome park . . . and it's free! And it's only 15 minutes from home! Ella has become quite the water child. Ella was in all her glory at the splash park. She actually wedged herself into a pack of bigger kids so she could get soaked by the bucket soaker! Gavin & Gray loved splashing in the water too, but not as much as the little mermaid.

Good Times in June

We love kayaking, and we especially love kayaking with friends. Last month we had dinner by the lake with our dear, dear friends the Woodrows and then ventured off in the boats with the kids (the babies stayed ashore, of course). It is seriously so much fun. Ella & Gray are older now and enjoy it so much more (they love to paddle by themselves)! We are excited to be moving to an area that has plenty of lakes to go kayaking in!

Summer in New England, You Will Be Missed

Though most of my days are spend packing and taking care of the sweet little munchkins & an incredibly amazing & handsome hubby, we've managed to go on some of our favorite New England summer adventures, including kayaking, going to the ocean & playing outside @ parks. One of our favorite places to go is Portsmouth. We had a blast (late May) going to New Castle Beach to play and then Portsmouth to walk around and enjoy lunch. We love these places! And we will miss them!

Farewell New England

Wow. Where has the time gone? I realize that I haven't posted in over 2 months! So much has happened over the rest of May & June and now July. After having our house on the market for 6 weeks, we sold (which is incredibly fast in this market, seeing that the average time it takes to sell a house here is 6 months!). We are so grateful to God for blessing us with a quick sale. And we are also grateful for my folks who were able to come up for Memorial Day to watch Ella & Gray while we took Gavin to NY to look for our new home. And WE FOUND ONE! It's actually our dream property! What a miracle! Time is flying by! We will truly miss our dear friends in NH, but we are excited that they will come visit often. We'll close on this house next week; just 2 years ago to the day we moved in this house and now we're leaving. We feel confident that God is moving us and we are incredibly excited to see what's in store. Goodbye sweet house, and sweet beautiful granite state, and thank you for the wonderful memories!