The New House!!

Chad and I closed on our new house on August 20, 2014.  And we are beyond thrilled to be living on Lick River Lane in Gainesville, VA!!  We now have more than enough living space, a large yard, privacy and yet are still close to all of the stores and amenities we grew accustomed to in Fairfax.  Plus, the neighborhood is full of young families and there are always people out walking dogs, pushing strollers or kids playing up and down the street.  We even have two nice neighborhood playgrounds and Lauren LOVES to ride her tricycle to the "swings"!!

Our house is a 5 bedroom, 3.5 bath colonial home, with an extra main floor office.  We converted the living room into a nice sized playroom and still have a toy-free family room.  Also, upstairs, two of the bedrooms connect via a wooden door.  So Charlie got the bigger bedroom, but Lauren now has two bedrooms.  One of the rooms has her bed and the other has a pullout couch.  There is plenty of room for ALL of her stuffed animals and when she gets older, I am sure she will love having two separate rooms.

We moved in the weekend of August 23rd, but it took another week to completely move out of the Fairfax townhouse.  Thankfully, we had a lot of help during the move and I am glad that LONG week is behind us.

As of the middle of October, we are mostly unpacked.  Chad and I still have to finish getting our master bedroom decorated and we have put a few boxes with miscellaneous items in a basement closet under the stairs.  I am sure we will get to them some day!

For everyone who has asked about the house, here are some of our pics...

                     

                                                               

ENTRY

                               

OFFICE

           

PLAYROOM/LIVING ROOM

                                   

          

DINING ROOM

          

 KITCHEN/FAMILY ROOM

          

FAMILY ROOM

          

KITCHEN

                                   

           

UPSTAIRS HALLWAY

MASTER BEDROOM

MASTER BATHROOM

           

LAUREN'S 2 ROOMS

           

CHARLIE'S ROOM

 BASEMENT (MAIN ROOM)

           

 BASEMENT (ROOM #2)

          

 BASEMENT (GUEST ROOM)

          

 BASEMENT (CHAD'S WORKSHOP)

          

 GARAGE

                     

BACKYARD

NEIGHBORHOOD PLAYGROUND

                     

We are very happy to be settled and are looking forward to creating many family memories together in this home!  And hopefully we will be having everyone over soon!!  =)

Fall Fun 2014!

This year, we decided to take advantage of the fact that we live further west, and headed out to the mountainous areas of Virginia to create fall memories.

On October 5th, we visited Hollin Farms, again, with Grumpa and Grammy, to pick out our pumpkins.  This time around, the weather was much nicer and we happily strolled through the patch to pick out the perfect pumpkin.  Lauren wanted a small one, and most of them were HUGE, so we had to look a litter harder.  But we found some great ones!

                    

On October 12th, we visited the Corn Maze in The Plains with Grandpa and Mee-maw.  We picked out pumpkins for Mee-maw, watched Lauren go down some slides, and spent over an hour navigating a large corn maze.  Lauren loved consulting the map and enjoyed chasing after "her family".  After we got out of the maze, we hopped in the car and drove further west to look for potential retirement houses for Grandpa and Mee-maw.  It sure is pretty out there!!

           

We are lucky to have places like Hollin Farms and The Plains nearby, so that we can enjoy these fall outings.  Fall is definitely my favorite time of year and I hope we are able to continue making memories, like these, as the kids grow older.  And who knows...maybe one day (in the VERY far future), Chad and I will be taking grandchildren to the pumpkin patch and through the corn maze!  

Welcome To The Big 10 & Charlie's First Football Game!!

On October 4, 2014, we met up with our family and friends for the Maryland v. Ohio State football game.  This was the Terp's first Big 10 football game at home, and while we knew it was going to be pretty bad, we did not want to miss it!!

The tailgate began around 8 am, and we were joined by Grandpa, Mee-maw, Grumpa, Grammy, Aunt B, Kevin, Uncle Ryan, John Albers, Tunde Agbede and the Bloughs.  Thanks to great weather, delicious food, fun company and water puddles for the kids to jump through...everyone had a great time!

We made sure to stop and pose for photos with the Testudo statue, in front of the Comcast Center.  I plan on making this photo a yearly tradition for the kiddos.  Then we all squished into our seats for the game.

Lauren, Charlie and I left right before halftime.  Both of the kids were hungry, it was quite warm in the sun, and there was not much room for them to move around in the stands.  So we decided to head back to the tailgate and listen to the game on the radio.

Slowly, everyone turned back up at the tailgate and we fired up the grill again.  After round 2 of tailgating, we still made it back home around 6:30 pm...which was just in time to put our two exhausted kiddos to bed.  That night, I was not far behind them!!  =)

                               

                  

           

           

Unfortunately, this is the only football game the kids and I will see live this year, but hopefully we will be able to continue the tailgate tradition through the years.  It was certainly fun walking around the campus and pointing out certain landmarks to Lauren.  Before heading home, she made sure to say goodbye to "Mommy and Daddy's School"!  She really liked all of the buildings and said, multiple times, that this was going to be her school as well!  I certainly hope so!!

Until then, we will continue the tailgates and cheering on our Terps.  GO Spret!!

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