Rosalie's first balloon

Mom, Rosalie, and I went out furniture shopping one day last week ... and the kind folks at the store gave her a balloon. She was so excited about this balloon! I am pretty sure that this is the first time she's ever had a balloon. She had a great time playing with that balloon and told everyone who would listen ... that "it's mine!"

We are home from our travels to Virginia

We went to Virginia to spend Thanksgiving with my Mom, Dad, sister and her family, and my aunt Sharon and cousin Stephen. We enjoyed our time in Virginia and had lots of fun! We also got to spend the day after Thanksgiving with our good friends in Yorktown, Virginia.
I'd love to share some pictures of our weekend - but some little hands went off with my picture reader. . . and I still haven't found the hiding place. Okay - so - I am assuming that little hands are the culprit, since I can't find it in any of my hiding places. So, until further notice ... pictures just aren't happening.
I could use my cord that came with my camera - but Rich put that away in a safe place. (and doesn't remember where)
I am excited that we are beginning the celebration of advent. I have pulled out the advent banner and have been working on actually getting it in a finished state. We all enjoyed celebrating advent last year with our advent banner. (I did actually sew squares on the banner this year ... but I still have to work on a more permanent solution for the stick and cording.
Hopefully the card reader or camera cord will be found soon ... until then ... thanks for reading!

Slow

There are two houses in our culdesac right now. Our neighbors have 3 children ... add that to our 4 ... and there are lots of children running around! It wasn't long after we moved in ... that we noticed these two signs up on the street right outside our culdesac.

Ramblings

We've been in our new house for going on two months. We seemed to have settled into a routine. There are so many things that I love about living out here. I love that we are out in the country! I have not found myself at all frustrated that we have a pretty long drive to go anywhere we need to go.
We are loving that our children (except for Rosalie) are free to go outside and run and play and get dirty every day! And they do get dirty, I must tell you! We have large hills of dirt almost directly in front of our house. You know ... my boys are in heaven playing on those hills! I love the we have woods directly behind our house with enormous boulders. Yes, they love playing back there too. They are free to play in the back yard ... the front yard... the neighbors back or front yard ... the culdesac ... the empty lot across the street. They can ride their bikes around our neigborhood, too!
We've gone from feeling cooped up most of the time ... to having a million fun things to do all the time! When I see my boys running through the little ravine at the end of our court . . . or running through the woods in the backyard chasing each other with large sticks ... yeah ... that makes my heart happy! I have thought a million times ... they are totally doing what boys should be doing!!
Rosalie loves the outdoors too, but she is limited to going outside when I can take her. So, she busies herself inside ... and sometimes watches out the window. She has also started waking again in the night. Sometimes 3 or 4 times. I will usually just go to her and hug and rock her and lay her back down. It's hard to get interrupted sleep like that, but I am hoping that she will go back to sleeping again soon.
After all, she does give some of the best hugs ever!

The Fall

Jonathan pulling out all his charm

Rosalie's cheesy grin that erupts anytime she sees a camera.

Now ... for the original intent of this post. I have always loved the Fall. I love the way it smells, the beautiful colors, the back and forth of cold and warm weather, and the start of a new school year. (many years ago ... it was me going to school both as a student and then as a teacher. Now, I love the start of a new school year with my children)

This year has been different for me, though. This fall has been even more beautiful than I can remember it being in years past. I am struck by the beauty every time I drive through the country side to get to town. (It's not a short drive)
This year the fall has brought me a sense of belonging. As I see the beauty that is right outside my doorway ... it feels as though it belongs to me. North Carolina is no longer just a place that we live. North Carolina is now home. I never dreamed that it would ever feel like home.
I love the North Carolina fall. This year ... it feels like it is mine.

Wall Hangings, rugs, and furniture ...

This is now one of the two things we have on the wall in our new house!
Most of our walls are still quite bare ... but we are working on that.

This washstand antique is sitting at the top of our stairs in a large niche area. Rich just hung the mirror last week.

I found this area rug a couple weeks ago while out and about, and Rich went and bought it a couple days ago. It contains all the colors in our living room color scheme. We have ideas about what we are going to put on the walls, but haven't found anything yet. We are working on getting curtains as well for this room.

We had new bedroom furniture delivered a couple weeks ago. This may not seem exciting ... but we've never had real nightstands before. We are loving our new nightstands!

Here is another view. Notice the bare walls. It's really going to take a while to make things the way we want them. We have now developed a plan to finish one room at a time. Now that we actually have bedroom furniture, we have moved on to working on completing the living room. Once we have the living room completed, I'll post pictures of before and after.

7 Pointer

Can you tell he's excited?
I am excited too because my freezer is about to be full!

Jonathan's birthday cake ...

It was a pitiful attempt at a police car. That's what he wanted, and that is what I attempted to give him. Thankfully, he thought it was amazing. I decided not to tell him that it wasn't.

Learning the crossbow ...

Rich spent some time this weekend teaching Martin all about the crossbow. I can hardly find the words to express how incredibly excited Martin is about this. He hasn't actually shot it yet ... but the training has begun.

Jonathan's new bike!

seeing it for the first time ...

getting a little closer to it ...

taking off ...

see ya later!

If Mommy isn't available ...

she finds someone who is. It's very common to find Rosalie curled up in someone's lap.
This particular day...it was Aaron!