October

Our October started out pretty great.  My parents were able to make it down and were our first official guests in the new house.  My mom came down to help us move in, but this time we just got to enjoy having company instead of being busy moving.  They were such a huge help.  We got to put in a toilet (super exciting house owner stuff.) Mom helped stock up my cellar with lots of apple sauce and maple syrup.  We got to be with my mom on her birthday for the first time in a really long time, which included yummy food and antique shopping.  We love hosting and I'm so thankful they were able to make the trip down.

Really wish this wouldn't have come out blurry!

Jo really loved playing football with papa

After they left both kids were hit with some sort of virus.  We got the call from school for Arya first.  She was out for almost a week.  Shortly after Casen caught it and Caleb not too long after that.  It was a long few weeks so we're really hoping we saw the end of it.

Once everyone was feeling better, the kids got to participate in school spirit week and we also got to finally decorate some pumpkins.  We did mini ones this year so they could do lots of different designs.

And last but not least, we of course celebrated Halloween.  It's a favorite in our house.  We got to go to our first trunk or treat in this county at the fair grounds.  The kids got tons of candy!  We got to finish the night at one of our favorite restaurants and I think we may make it a new Halloween tradition

It was 80 degrees on Halloween....just like my childhood :p

But we were right ahead of a big storm so it got super windy.  The kids took full advantage and wanted a photo.

We're looking forward to November.  We've been thoroughly enjoying football and now that it's cooled down a bit we've been having some family game nights on our new porch.

September

We are now in the full swing of school things.  It's a pretty big change for us.  The kids don't leave until around 830 and aren't home until 4...quite different from our previous school years.

I still haven't taken the full house of pictures.  I think i'll be able to do it in October, just waiting on some last minute art pieces to come in.  Thanks to my husbands big muscles I was finally able to get a barrel in my kitchen though :)  It worked out perfectly that i'd been on the hunt for one and one of our favorite local breweries had some they were getting rid of, as they'd just finished up the ageing process of some beer.

We wrapped up September with a super fun surprise for the kids...and it may have also been super fun for the parents.  Caleb got us tickets to see Bastille while they were in Richmond.  Arya's favorite song on the radio right now is Happier.  She still doesn't quite understand how a concert works because on our way home she said, "he sounded exactly like the guy on the radio."  Casen had a blast dancing and clapping and we just had one of our best evenings as a family.  If they're ever in an area near you, we highly recommend!

when she realized Happier started playing

I was sitting farthest away from the kids so my view wasn't the best, plus the crazy lights, but hopefully you can see both kids

And we woke up yesterday to quite a few visitors in our front yard.  I never got them all in one picture, but their were 7 total.  Not quite the same as our Henrico views :p

Flat Rock 2019

Obligatory first day of school pictures!

August

We finished up our summer and the kiddos start their new school on Tuesday.  Where in the world did the summer go?

We, of course got them all registered and got a tour of the new building.  They will now be the Flat Rock Warriors wearing black and orange.  They're really excited to start the new year.

We explored our neighborhood.  It's much much quieter than our old streets.

We made a trip to the movies.  The boys went to see Spiderman and Arya and I finally watched Toy Story.

We made an end of summer trip to none other than Williamsburg. 

The kids thoroughly enjoyed their first trip to Five Guys.

And, as always, pool time.

And we've been making some major progress on the house. I have a saint of a husband.  He's been putting up with my many requests to hang things and crazy things like running to a local brewery to snag a beer barrel for our kitchen :)  I think I may actually get pictures of it up this month!  But for now i'll just post some pretty flowers he brought me.

10

Thankful for 10 years with the best.

And he for real keeps getting better looking the more years that go on...what the heck

I'm thankful we got our mini getaway but i'm also probably even more thankful for all the times we've spent together here in our new home. 
Thanks for continuing to date me for a whole ten years.
What a crazy story we have.  I think it makes it a whole lot easier for us to appreciate all these little dates and getting to celebrate the big ones together under the same roof.

Also
thank you for my new vacuum that I love probably too much

<3 p="">

July

July was the month of our annual trip to New York.

We started out with a week in my brothers neck of the woods.  This whole trip we didn't really get many pictures.  We officially vacation without phones. The pictures I did manage to get were basically of food.
Tyler and Katie are amazing hosts!  They had so many fun activities planned and we all had a blast.
We also thankfully got to see the other Ticonderoga family :)  I'm so thankful the kids are now the age to have a blast together every time they see each other.

After our week there the kids went off to spend some time camping at Grandma and Papas while Caleb and I did a mini getaway for our 10 year anniversary.
Jo's favorite part was definitely the fishing.  Arya tells me hers was the smores.

Caleb and I enjoyed some time in Burlington.  We realized a few things on the trip...Vermont may not quite be for us, the more time we spend away from home we realize how much we love living here in Virginia, and lastly, we do a really really good job of continuing to date each other here at our own home.
The fancy dinners were nice and getting to walk around places without worry about the kids was pretty good too, but our favorite times together our the weekly dates we have here at home picking up our favorite snacks and staying up late playing our favorite games.
We had a 10 year anniversary trip and literally got zero pictures of us together, typical us.

After the quick trip to Burlington we headed to pick up the kids.  We had a really nice night with my parents.

Then we made our final stop at Caleb's parents.  Arya unfortunately got sick and puked almost every day so the first day we just kind of stayed low and hung out playing games.  The kids got to go kayaking for the first time with them the second day.  Caleb and I were back up at camp so I wasn't able to grab any pics.

Caleb and I spent another day up at Blake while kids enjoyed the kayaking.  We had a blast at camp...even got to enjoy the icecream truck ourselves.  Again, didn't have my phone, but thankfully Katie snapped this pic.

And then after over two weeks, we headed back to our new home.

I still don't have any pictures of it.  When we moved into our last home in Henrico, I jumped the gun just trying to get the whole place decorated and after it was finished I realized I didn't love a lot of it.  So, this time, we've been slowly searching for pieces we want to look at for a long time.

So far...it's just some wooden ducks :p  Tony, Fred, and Daisy fit pretty perfectly into our home.

So....maybe sometime in the next 10 years when I get it all done, you'll be able to see our new favorite place to be :)