Tuesday, July 29, 2014

Tunes for Tuesday?

Can't seem to get these songs out of my head the past few days so i'm spreading the wealth :)



Monday, July 28, 2014

Outside (the hardest work that nobody notices)

Before I start my outside update, here's a little update from the last post


The jersey is now hanging over the chair.  I know he no longer plays for the Patriots, but it was my first Patriots jersey so it seemed fitting to hang it up :)

Anyways, onto the outside.
Landscaping is a lot more work than I thought it was.  People are pretty serious about it down here and it goes beyond keeping your lawn mowed.  We've bought over 20 bags of mulch so far and still have spots that aren't finished. 

Here's our new fence I keep forgetting to put up pictures of



We love it!  And now I can't really remember the yard without it.  The last picture is behind our garage.  It's really shaded and grass doesn't grow well there so we've turned it into our little fire pit area.  We bought this fire pit from Lowes.  It's covered because we've been getting rain, but I will try to get a picture when the area is all set up.  We're also hoping to get a picnic table soon to put back there.


We've also put in lots of hours trimming all the pretty plants and trees in our yard.  The owner of this house (before the renovators bought it to flip it) was an elderly man so a lot of stuff outside was neglected for a long time.

 And we remulched all our front lawn trees. (something i've never really seen before but everyone down here seems to do it and it was already done to our trees, just need some refreshing from the winter)
 And the front of our house got some pretty additions.  We trimmed back the plants, re-mulched everything, and laid the marble rock to have a little bit of a barrier.

Here's what it looked like right before we moved in
And after



That's it for now.  We are officially in party planning mode :)

Saturday, July 26, 2014

Family Room

This week has been filled with lots of house changes.  The outside has gained over 10 bags of mulch and 5 bags of marble rocks and the inside is getting pretty too :)

I've been waiting not so patiently to finish the family room.  Unfortunately decorating and furniture buying are expensive and we have a big house to fill.  We bought our couches and haven't done much since.  We still have more to go.  I'd like to get the little things that tie it all together like pillows and little odds and ends, but it already feels a million times better to me and I can sit in the room without thinking about all the things i'd like to change about it :)

Before


Most of you have seen a more recent before that I really wish I would've thought to take pictures of.

After

Caleb got a new recliner that is massages and has a cooler for his beer in the arm rest :)  
It's a polished microfiber.  The light makes it looks shiny for some reason, but it's not.
We'll also be hanging something above the recliner.  We think a framed jersey but aren't positive yet.







Our newest addition.  Gillette Stadium :)

Sunday, July 20, 2014

Family Visit

Caleb's uncle rented a house on the lake about an hour north of us so this weekend we packed up the kids and headed there for the day.  It was such a beautiful home.  I wish I would've taken a picture of the actual house.  It was fun to connect since we hadn't seen them since I was 20 weeks pregnant with Arya.  Casen had a blast and it's always nice for me to meet family i've never met before :)

the view from the front porch

the water was surprisingly really warm

Arya loved hanging out with her great aunt and uncle :)



We had such a fun busy weekend!

Three Lakes Park

I've been on the search for more local things to do since we're going to be in this area long term.  After some searching I stumbled across Three Lakes Park.  It's less than ten minutes from us.  It's got lots of hiking trails, picnic areas, fishing, and a really fun nature center/aquarium.  We did the nature center, walked some trails, went back to the nature center, and walked a trail again.  We will definitely be going back because the biggest bonus of all, everything is free :)














Today we get to go visit some of Caleb's family a bit north from us here vacationing.  Happy weekending everyone!

Friday, July 18, 2014

5 on Friday

/one/


Seriously, this kid.  I'm not sure if I should be more worried that she loves them this young or how well she walks around the house in them.

/two/
This week has been filled with a ton more yard work.  Morgan has come over a few days to help me get it all picked up.  In this corner sat a bush that we like to call the devil plant.
I'm pretty sure it was a type of holly plant.  It looked like this
the spikes on the end dug into your skin and you had to pull them out.  It attracted massive amounts of bees and other lovely bugs and it seemed impossible to get it out since it was well armored.  Anyways, we finally got it all dug out and now i'm not sure what to do with the corner.  We're left with sandy dry soil.  It's a really well shaded area and there's obviously no grass.  What do I do from this point?  Lay soil and hope to plant grass on top next year?  Lay mulch down and turn it into some sort of flower bed?  People with some lawn/plant experience please chime in.


/three/
I think I may have found possibly the coolest tshirt design ever.  Perfect for a husband's graduation party, right? :)
/four/
I posted it on facebook, but i'm going to put it on here too as a reminder.  I'm making a family picture table for the kids to be able to look at since we don't live near anyone.  This is the last update I have from everyone.  Please send me some new ones :)  I wouldn't even mind if you emailed it to me and i'll get it printed.


/five/
Perfectly fitting for number five.  In less than a month Caleb and I will be celebrating 5 years of being married.  Holy smokes where did the time go?  But I also can't really remember a time when we weren't together, the best of both worlds :)  Every year we go to The Melting Pot for our anniversary.  We both love it and it's a fun romantic thing to do.  Does anyone have some other ideas of what we could do on top of that?  5 years is one of the milestone years and I'm horrible with these sorts of things.

Thursday, July 17, 2014

(besides our wedding)


I don't think i've ever been more excited to send out invitations.



3 weeks til his graduation :)






Thursday, July 10, 2014

I actually don't have a 5 this Friday.  So pictures of my kiddos it is :)

Monki and Bompa stopped in to see us on their way back home and we finally got some pictures!  Casen didn't fully cooperate, but we tried our best :)



We'll get to see them again in 3 weeks for Caleb's graduation, yay!

Sunday, July 6, 2014

Happy Weekending

Friday my brother and sister in law were able to make it down for the weekend to celebrate Casen's birthday with us.  Since he doesn't go to school yet and we're newly planted here in the Henrico area, Casen doesn't know many kids, so Mac was at the top of his list when you asked who he wanted at his birthday party.  He had a fun time and wants to know when his next birthday is.
We also went to a 4th of July festival which I somehow ended up getting no pictures of, but Casen went on his first horse ride, played games, and got to check out some big military vehicles.