iPhone Offload: Moving Edition

Nolan working on his "I will die if you make me eat that face".

boxes boxes everywhere!

We spent a lot of time in the car driving back and forth from the old house to the new house. Miles' routine was all messed up from that and still is!

Moving day...finally!

One last lap in an empty house.

Sampling the garden tomatoes.

Funny hair day

Day 1 at the new house. We were all feeling a little out of sorts. 

Miles' playing while brother does OT.

Elevated ice cream!

View from the Port Townsend cabin.

I forgot to pack a bib, a very necessary item when it comes to Miles. So we improvised with a kitchen towel and some tongs.

Nolan is picky, even on vacation!

First day of school.

Miles got his very own booster seat so he could sit up at the breakfast bar with Nolan. 

Renton is CRAZY for the Seahawks. I mean Seattle is nuts but Renton is plastered in Seahawks stuff...everywhere! So when we found this giant poster of Pat's boyfriend on Nolan and my date night we had to get a pic with him.

In the movie theater.

This is the view from my commute to Nolan's school. It's only 4.5 miles from our house but somehow takes 20 minutes, no traffic. I have named this phenomenon "country miles".

Miles was eating a string cheese, stole my string cheese and drank his milk. And yes he finished all 3. 

And of course this happened, 1 week after moving. I begged him not to start walking until we moved, so I would only have to baby proof 1 house and he obliged. After this, he didn't walk at all until his party(almost 2 weeks later), where he was a walking machine. And now he is officially walking.

House Updates

Here's a progress report of where we are with the house 1 month in. I think we've made a lot of progress, although the to do list is till pretty long! The before pictures are not mine, they are from the listing or appraisal report. I never did find the time to take pictures before we got to work.

Outside before:

Outside After: We were hoping to paint the exterior this year but it got bumped. Luckily a good pressure washing made it look quite a bit better so we aren't in as much of a rush...which is good cause we are worn out on picking paint colors. (plus it gives me time to convince pat that we should go dark as in navy) We also swept up all the dog hair, years of cobwebs and fixed the screen door that I LOVE. I'll try to get a shot of the whole house once it stops raining but I love the little covered porch area transformation.

Playroom Before: I love that the room with all the guns became our playroom. The previous owners had adult children and therefore didn't need a play/family area so it became their dining room.

Playroom After: Now it's a crazy place just for the kids! We eventually want to move our big sectional and tv in here so its more of a family space and not JUST for the kids. Plus the acoustics in the living room where the tv currently sits are pretty bad. For now, having separate spaces works for us. And yes, this is as clean as it gets.

Bedroom #1 Before: Just a little outdated, but nothing too bad. The carpets are pretty sad and will need replacing.

Bedroom During:

Nolan's Bedroom After: He requested a green bedroom which haunted me for weeks. Green is so hard! Either it's too green or too yellow. I finally found this color (dill pickle by Benjamin Moore) and was pretty happy with it. The during picture is much more accurate to its real life color, I guess its not quite so bright. Nolan was happy too, although he also asked for a rainbow ceiling and was mad that we didn't deliver on that.

Master Bedroom Before: 

Master Bedroom During:

Master Bedroom After: This room makes me incredibly happy. As promised we worked on this room first because we usually leave it for last and it never gets done. Therefore our room is the closest to being done, minus some finishing touches. The color is Sparrow by Benjamin Moore and it came out perfect. I love deep colors for bedrooms as it makes it feel like a cozy cave, perfect for sleeping. I would like to add crown moulding and possibly paint the ceiling down the road but that would be way down the road. We took out all the lighting in the bedroom and bathroom as it was so terrible. I mean, I sure it was amazing in the 80s but pink glass lights just aren't for us so they were the first to go. I installed the light fixture that used to be in our old house's dining room bought a few new pieces like the lamps and curtains. Everything else was already ours. It came together so nicely...I regret not doing it sooner! Again, the during photo is more accurate to its real color, blasted rainy days ruining my pictures!

Master Bathroom Before: There are 2 pictures so you can really enjoy the lovely floral wall paper that was promptly removed.

Master Bathroom After: The color is called Smoke by Benjamin Moore and is a light but not baby blue. This room still has a ways to go, although I've hit the decorating equivalent of writers block...I'm uninspired I guess you can say. The pink counter top is in need of some love as well as the beige toilet and bath tub surround. But the vanity was painted white and I have hardware to install soon.

Side yard Before: This is Pat's baby. What originally we planned to use as extra parking quickly converted into a covered play area.

Side yard After: Pat threw this together on Friday night, I was pretty impressed! The kids have used this area a lot already so I am grateful to have a place for them to play even when the weather isn't so great. We want to paint the beams, shed that is next to this area and pressure wash the roof so it really shines but for now it looks pretty good for a former tractor shed. 

The rest of the house I will have to wait for a sunny day to get pictures as the ones I took came out all wrong. So this is half the house, 1 month in! :)

Feeling the Love

We celebrated Miles' 1st birthday (and unofficial housewarming) this weekend. We felt all warm and fuzzy inside that so many of our friends and family came out to party. I was not on top of my picture taking duties so there aren't a lot of during shots...I was having way to much fun chatting with everyone since it feels like we haven't left this house in a month! We've been busy getting it all ready and i got some pictures of it during the 10 minutes that it stayed clean. More on that in another post. This one's about my little man's big day.

We kept it simple with bbq foods since it's still kind of Summer-ish. Plus Miles' LOVES red meat, but serving steak to 30 people would be a bit much. Here's the spread.

 Jodi made Miles' cake this year just like she has done for Nolan's birthdays. Its so awesome to be able to just tell her the theme and let her run with it. She's far more creative than I could ever be when it comes to baking and it doesn't hurt that they are as delicious as they are beautiful. Miles' giraffe cake is in the front and the most amazing chocolate chip cookie dough frosted chocolate cupcakes are in the back...she know me so well! :)

A little photo montage of the nugget with his birthday banner. I made this on Friday night after I realized that the house was looking a little too housewarming and not enough birthday.

I also whipped up this "year in review" wall, I loved seeing how he really started to chunk up around 6 months. 

 Close up of the cake, because i loved it so much!

 Food table getting some action. Nolan was obsessed with those pita chips. I'm not sure that he ate anything else.

 The playroom was the perfect hang out spot for the babies.

  Miles getting some real food before we did the cake.

 He was so funny about the cake, he wasn't sure it if was something to play with or eat so he grabbed a handful of icing and smooshed it around a little, took a nibble and then dove into the cake with both hands.

Towards the end he fell into a bit of a sugar coma, so it was off to the bath.

I really should have taken the bath toys out before I put him in...oops! The highchair was pushed outside to be pressure washed with the hose.

Post bath, I love how he still has a tiny bit of cake up his nose. I also found some in the creases of his neck this morning. mmmm!

Handing off the camera, I had to get a pic of me and the big 1 year old!

And the "we're finally moved in!" pic. It's been a long year, looking tirelessly for a home, finding the house, fixing it up and FINALLY having everyone we love over to enjoy it with us.

Thank you to everyone who helped us reach this goal. Whether it was listening to me whine about the endless house search, watching the kids so we could pack/move/sleep, helping us tackle house projects and the many other incredibly generous things people stepped up to do to make this possible. We could not do this without you and will be forever grateful for your support.

Nolan demonstrating how I think we all felt on Sunday (after the Seahawks game of course). This from the boy who no longer naps and has fallen asleep on Pat or I maybe 4 times in his life! We're all excited to take a slower pace now as we get the rest of the house done (I laugh as I know it will never be done) and settle in.