Is It Really 2011?

Well, I haven't posted in awhile. A LONG while. So, here I am. For those of you who see me often, you know why I haven't posted. Life has been NUTS!! Three days before we left for Disney (last summer - see previous post), we put our house on the market. Our first house. The one Jeremy and I bought together. And the one that Cooper came home to from the hospital. Seven weeks after we listed it, we sold it. We were so happy to be moving closer to downtown (and, thus, closer to work), but very sentimental about leaving Inglenook Drive. I hope Jorge is enjoying that house as much as we did. We trick or treated in our old neighborhood and he appeared to be taking good care of the place.

We didn't find a house nearly as quickly as ours sold. Fortunately, our great friends, the Hoods (see previous post again) let us move in with them. And their two kiddos. That's right, 7 of us in one house! It was awesome. I cried when we moved out. That's right. I cried. Ridiculous. But that's how much fun it was. So thankful for their friendship and that they love us enough to let us live with them. And they are even still our friends!

Fast forward to October 22nd - the day we closed on our new house. The neighborhood is better than I could have ever imagined. I have lots of things that I've always wanted in a house. It is a 1960s ranch, with lots of trees and a huge yard. It has a fully finished basement that includes a bedroom, a full bath, and a rec room. We have great neighbors, with kids around Cooper's age, and we couldn't be happier about our 12 minute commute to work and 15 minute ride to church.

We gutted the "vintage" kitchen with Derrick's help, and we are making it our own from top to bottom. All we (I'm using the term "we" loosely; I really mean, Derrick) have left to do is doors and drawers for the cabinets. That's right...he built those from scratch. He lets us move in his house for 3 months. And he builds us cabinets. Now you know what I mean about good friends.

Needless to say, we have been busy the last several months. We still have quite a bit of work to do on the house, with finishing the kitchen and new front yard landscaping being the most immediate things on the to-do list. Here's a few pics of our goings on the last few months. I will post more "after" pics soon, but here are a few to get us started.

Cooper saying goodbye













Hello new house!!








Kitchen before. Ouch.










Kitchen during demo.










Kitchen today, minus cabinet fronts.











Christmas in our new house.











My favorite room in the new house. We call it our reading room. Tiny peek at the awesome desk that Jeremy's dad built for us.