Let's Backpedal.

Hello blog!  I'll spare you the details about my whereabouts over the past few months (i hate that it's been that long).  I know you have been enjoying adventures in Australia and Japan vicariously through Casey, but through me you can enjoy "adventures" in new home ownership and parenthood! what's more fun?!  ha.

July and August were great but BUSY!  We mainly spent time with friends & family, moved, and worked on house projects.  Every spare moment was spent unpacking or working on a project (i.e. our "garden").

We took our annual family vacation down to Sunset Beach, NC in early July and had a great week.  It was VERY different from last year though. To be honest it's not too much like a "vacation" anymore.  Well it really depends on your definition, but there wasn't that much relaxation which is my idea of a vacation.  There was a lot of chasing around a crawling baby, trying to prevent her from eating TOO much sand (impossible), and dealing with naps and bedtime.  I didn't even bring a book to the beach because I didn't have a moment and at night when I did, we were playing games or putt putt or I was falling asleep.

I loved watching Waverly on the beach though.  She LOVED it.  She is fearless and would crawl right along the surf and into the water.  She splashed in the wading pool and her little pool, put fistfuls of sand in her mouth over and over...she had a blast.  Luckily she took her afternoon nap on the beach which was great.  Waverly and my niece Caroline played a lot together and we took wagon rides to walk "Coley" or "Dog!"  Nick and I had a double date with my brother and Shannon and it was nice to get out for dinner.  Cole turned 4 and had a nice swim and romp on the beach with Nick and we had great weather for most of the week.  We were sad to go...but tired! haha.

playing in the wading pool...good way to corral Waverly

she REALLY loved the beach

beach bums

Nick got some golf and beer time in

4 years old...and feeling it

story time with Uncle Nick/Daddy 

pretty awesome board game - Ticket to Ride

pillow forts

Nana and Granddaddy

putt putt extraordinaire 

Annual Smith family putt putt

4th of July!

The rest of July was spent closing on the house, getting ready to move, and MOVING!  Our favorite pastime. Closing was easy...you just sign paper after paper, absolutely no reading involved! just kidding. But it actually did seem pretty painless. We felt really adult and it was fun to have access to the house...because it was ours!  Such an amazing feeling.

We had some painters come in to paint part of the inside of the house that week and then we packed up and moved the following weekend. We moved in at least 100 degree heat.  It couldn't have been a more humid, hot summer weekend.  Luckily we had the help of Nick's co-workers (they all help each other move when someone new joins the engineering department...how nice is that??) and they lift weights for fun and thought this was a good day's work out. Really. I also did my fair share of heavy lifting.  We were so dirty and sweaty by the end of the day...so gross.  Waverly's room was still in the process of getting it's THIRD coat of yellow paint by yours truly. Who knew that cotton candy pink couldn't be easily concealed?  So we spent 2 more nights at my parents, took a few more loads of our things over to the house...I finished some late night painting and then we finally had our first night in the house!

we went with shortbread

love the soft but still colorful yellow

what your fridge looks like post move in - domestic beer brands for our moving helpers.

these gems arrived prior to moving in!

"you're packing me up again?!"

And so for the past month and a half we have been unpacking, organizing, and doing a lot of house projects.  It didn't take long to unpack because we have so many closets, storage nooks, an attic and garage, and lots of space by our standards.  Things are still not where I want them long term, but that's ok. Our "to do" list is long. At the top are some not so fun things like taking care of the yard (more on that later), buying all new window screens, and controlling pests around our house.

In between we have been enjoying seeing my parents on a regular basis (our "ad-hoc babysitters"), our local friends, and going to the neighborhood pool which is behind our house!  Nothing like walking back and forth to the pool within 5 mins through your own backyard!  Love it.  Just wish they allowed cocktails and the baby monitor signal would reach that far...

we loved our pool days and evenings :)

my wild garden

holy overgrown yard.

like a lion in the tall grass

baby proofing our cabinets

"hey...what happened here?  these used to bang so loud!"

testing out the new baby gate

Remember the dishes story...well I bought new dishes and love them! We got 2 sets of dishes, serving platters and accent plates from Pottery Barn all for under $200!!  Coupons, store credit, and shopping the sales plus having a cashier give you a discount on everything instead of just 1 item didn't hurt!

accent plate - comes in 4 colors..blues, yellow and reds. love!

Nick and I really celebrated our house about 2 weeks in when we finally ordered sushi and drank a bottle of wine we had been saving for our first house.  We brought it back from Maui and thought we would drink it on a special occasion...I thought that would be our 1st anniversary but we were in Richmond and didn't bring it. Then I thought it would be after our first child, but I was breast feeding and not feeling up for wine yet.  So it became our first house.  It's been our tradition to order sushi soon after moving into a new place.  So we ordered sushi and opened the bottle that has followed us from the Maui winery to NYC to New Jersey to Alexandria and finally to Richmond. Delicious :)

Now we are settling in and it feels good!  Love from Richmond!