We're moving!

Our house finally sold! With only 12 days left in the contract, someone came along and surprised us. We'd really written it off and were thinking we'd be painting the new nursery over Thanksgiving, but that's not the case!

Soooo... we were able to negotiate a contract on our new house just down the road which we're really excited about. It's contingent on our current house closing, but we're not worried about that since we have buyers with good credit putting 20% down. We're really excited about our new neighborhood. The house is awesome and has a lot of features we were missing here like a screened in porch, front porch, bigger garage, etc. We're really moving for the amenities of the neighborhood though. They have a huge pool, club house, playground, and 9 acres of parks/walking paths. It is also a very active community with lots of social clubs (books, knitting, cooking, etc.) and a lot of kid friendly traditions (4th of July bike parade, Halloween party, Santa at Christmas, etc.) We just know our girls will love growing up here.

I'll try to post more pictures later. We're in a flurry of packing, hosting a moving sale (or two), preparing for our trip to Italy in 2 weeks (yikes!) and getting through our house inspection Monday and whatever might follow that! Wish us luck!

Here's the kitchen. You can't see it in the picture but there's a very large butler's pantry that connects to the formal dining room. I love it!

This is the master bedroom which is on the main floor. I love the beadboard on the ceiling! This continues throughout the master bath and on our screened in porch. Who would have thought to put beadboard on a ceiling?

This is the master bath. I look forward to the nice big shower!

Formal dining room. Why do they even make these anymore?

7 Springs

This weekend we took our annual trip to 7 Springs with Jim's family for Autumnfest. It is my favorite time of year to go up there. All the leaves are almost at peak color, the air is crisp and cool, and the festival is in full swing! It's a weekend of food, music, craft shows, and fun activities for the kiddies. Jim and I managed to sneak some golf in which is always fun.

Ava had so much fun with all her cousins. She loved playing with all of them non-stop. She fell in love with cousin Kayla's Disney princess dolls and had to bring at least two of them to bed every night and for every nap. Now both I and Maryann are on the hunt trying to find a set for her. She also had her first experience in a big girl bed which she loved. We loved it too because she slept until 7:30 every morning! We can't wait to move her to her own permanent big girl bed here at home.

This is the impossible shot - trying to get all five kids smiling at once. LOL


This is just a pretty picture from our hike on Saturday morning at the top of the mountain. To see all the landscape images, visit our family website. They're all posted there.


Ava's favorite part of the trip was her horse ride. For an entire day she thought she rode a cow, but now she knows it was a horse. She also loved getting her face painted; she chose the pink flower two days in a row.




Running up the ski slope chasing her cousins. So cute!


Ava and cousin Kayla who is almost 4.


The family.


All the grandkids at the condo. So cute!


I'm already looking forward to next year. I just love 7 Springs anytime of the year, but fall is by far my favorite!

When we returned home auntie had some new presents for Ava, one of which included a ballerina tutu. She put it on immediately and now wants to wear it every day. She calls it her "choo choo train" insted of "tutu". Oh well, she loves it; that's all that matters. Look at how proud she is in the pictures :)