Home. Sweet. Home.

After 3 months of house-hunting, more open houses than we can count and 5 offers that were rejected, we got the keys to our first house on Friday, September 20th!  Looking back, we are SO thankful we ended up with this house.  Funny how it all works out :)

Front of the house!

Family room 

Backyard - so nice to have some space for the kids to be able to run around!

Upstairs loft area

Sydney's room - this was an addition the previous owners put in and used as an office

Cole's room

Guest bedroom

Kitchen

Playroom!!  Previous owners used this as their family room but we don't need a family room and living room so decided to make this a kids playroom. 

I know I've mentioned it before but we are SO thankful for my parents allowing us to be their roomies while we house-hunted.  I don't think we would have been able to wait 3 months to find our house if we were living in a hotel or a furnished monthly rental.  They made it SO easy and we are SO grateful!

Now, here's hoping the Navy doesn't make us move in 3 years :) 

Random pics

Pictures from my phone over the last week:

Swinging at the park down the street from our house

Helping make cupcakes

Making sure they are o.k. to eat :) 

Cole loves the swings!

Backyard swinging

Playing in the morning

Lounging in her jammies with her new fun spider headband

She found the box of Halloween stuff and insisted on trying on this costume she wore when she was 3 months!!  Such a petite girl - can't believe it still zips up!!

Reading with Poppas glasses

Cole hanging out

Playing the tambourine and marching at music class at the library

Driving in Home Depot

Mommy & Me day at the zoo

The zoo has mommy (and/or daddy) morning out at the zoo a few times a month so we checked it out in early October.  You meet with the group before the zoo opens, are escorted through the exit and then are taken to a chosen exhibit to walk around.  This month was the elephants!! 

 

We got to ride on this bus around the zoo which was the highlight!  Sydney was SO excited and now everytime we go to the zoo she asks to ride the bus. 

Happy girl on her first bus ride

Checking out the animals before we got to the elephants

There were two guides who talked to the boys & girls and told them facts about the elephants.  Sydney wasn't too interested in listening - was more excited about seeing the animals and finding puddles to splash in :) 

Sydney in front of the California Condor

Had to get our picture in front of the these before leaving. 

On our way out there was a cheetah talk going on.  Crazy how close we were to this animal.  Sydney kept saying kitty cat and she wanted to pet her!

8 months

Our little buddy turned 8 months on October 17th!  

Rarely sitting still these days.  If he's on the floor he's either scooting around, sitting, or chewing on something!  He isn't officially crawling but gets up on all 4's all the time now and will just rock back and forth.  I think it will be any day... 

He's eating meals 3xs a day.  Still mostly doing pureed foods with an occasional small piece of fruit or vegetable or a puff. 

He is usually happy and content unless he is hungry or tired.  He continues to love duck duck (bath) and goes to bed with no problem right after.  It's the sleeping through the night we still have issues with :) 

Sydney LOVES him!!  SHe refers to him as baby brother, little brother, or little buddy most of the time.  She is so gentle with him and is usually really good at playing with him/including him in what she is doing. 

He loves to know what is going on around him.  Doesn't want to miss anything!! 

He's in 12 month clothing and size 4 diapers.  I'm guessing he is about 22-23 pounds now... almost caught up to his 25 pound BIG sister :) 

Picture above is him on all 4's rocking back and forth!

Happy 8 months, little buddy.  Love you. 

Mimi's visit!

Mimi came out to San Diego for a week to see the kids and to help us get moved into our new house.  Without her help, we would still have a ton of boxes to unpack!  I don't think this was much of a vacation for her as she headed back to Florida more exhausted than when she arrived! 

Mimi and Nani watched the kids at my parents house for 3 days while we met the moving truck and unloaded most of our boxes.  They were both exhausted and had poured themselves big glasses of wine by the time we were done each day :)  The kiddos were so happy and loved on so we couldn't have asked for anything else!

Playing at the playground

Happy boy!

Waiting for her pedicure

So many toys to choose from

And... once dinner was done and they thought they were off-duty, we had them putting together chairs!  

We did manage to squeeze in a little fun while she was here and headed up to the Safari Park. 

Daddy and Syd ready to go in

Mimi, Syd and Daddy

Riding the tram

Checking out the zebras

Having fun!

She had to pose by this statue

Rhino picture

Gorillas!

Cole and I were there too!

Such a big girl!

Petting zoo

Checking out the iguana

Reading the Target ad just like Mommy

Uncle Mark was able to come up several times during the week!

More playground fun

We ate dinner outside a few times and it gets chilly at night so we bundled Sydney up!

She LOVED Mimi's ipad

So cute!

Thanks for coming out, Mimi!  We love you!