Working hard.

We have been working hard around here.

 

Fun with Uncle Mark and Aunt EJ

We went and visited Uncle Mark and Aunt EJ this past Saturday.  They moved to Walnut Creek the week before.  It only takes us an hour and 1/2 to visit them.  We love it!

 We helped them take some old furniture to a second hand store in our van.  The kids got to ride in their new car.

 Then we went and had lunch and walked around Walnut Creek checking out the cute stores and town.  We finished up with a stop at the Yogurt Castle.  Lily would only hold Aunt EJ's hand when crossing streets.  Not Mommy's, not Daddy's, only Aunt EJ.  She found a new friend and we were glad she wasn't running into traffic.

It was a fun afternoon.  We will have to do it again soon.

The New House

We are all moved in and mostly unpacked.  We worked hard for a week solid after Christmas and got everything done.  We still have some projects, but the big stuff is done. My family has requested pictures.  :)   I better get on it.  So here they are.  Enjoy.

 Kitchen Area

 Famiy room looking out to backyard.  The roses are from our wild garden.

 Front room.

 Front room and piano.

 Looking out the front windows.

 Entry to the first hall.  I love the curved wall.

 Kids bathroom.  We need to put tile in the bathrooms still.

 Laundry room.  Still needs tile also.

 Looking down the bedrooms hall from the master to the kids rooms.

 Master bedroom.  Still needs some organizing and figuring out the furniture situation.

 Master bath.

 My new orchid.

 Sarah's room.

 Alex's room.

 Lily's room.  Each of the kids picked their colors with Mommy's approval.

 Backyard jungle.  It actually looks a lot better than when we first moved in.  I needs a lot of taming.

 The palm tree.

 Future garden area.

 The view from our front porch of the hills.

Christmas 2011

We had a wonderful and memorable Christmas!  We got the keys to our new house just 2 days before Christmas.  So the painting began.  We spent all 2 days painting with breaks for lunch and dinner.

 Christmas eve and day we took a break and rested.  We enjoyed opening presents and having a nice breakfast.  The kids had fun playing with their new toys.

We had Church at 9:00 am, so we took a break from the festivities and enjoyed Church services.  Sarah and Mommy sang in the choir.  Mommy also played a flute solo to Silent Night.  Sarah also sang in a musical number "Baby in a Manger" and Mom accompanied them on the flute. Daddy wrestled Lily for most of the meeting with her at one point pulling a table over in the foyer onto her.  It wasn't too relaxing for Daddy, but it was only one hour and he did get to hear some of it.

After Church we played with toys and then went up to the new house.  Christmas night we had a nice dinner and then early to bed for more painting.  Daddy woke up at 2:00 am to start painting again on the house to finish up before the flooring people came.