And... we're back!

 

I feel a little bit like Jimmy Fallon's radio DJ character on SNL when I say "And... we're back!!!"  But seriously, I am back.  After not posting for a long time, I'm ready to get back in the groove and get this blog going.

I had every intention of blogging along the way as we built our house, sharing every gory detail with you.  The reality is that life got in the way.  There simply wasn't enough time to get in all of our regular life "stuff" with the addition of the stress of building your own house and writing about it at the same time.  So, I took lots of photos and notes and I'm planning on catching you up in the next month or so.  

It was a really fun, but really busy and stressful journey.  I'm happy to say that we are officially moved in.  There are still lots of little things to finish up and lots of not-so-little boxes to unpack, but we're here and we're really happy about it.  So, stay tuned for all the details that will be coming soon!

The Easiest Classroom Snacks Ever

When I signed up to bring in treats for my daughters' preschool class for their Pumpkin Patch Day, I was determined to NOT bring in something full of sugar.  Then, I started actually thinking about what to bring and I was stumped.  Cupcakes and cookies were everywhere and seemed to be the logical choice.  I also wanted to stick with the pumpkin theme of the day and several kids have food allergies, which made things a bit more challenging.

When I saw the giant boxes of fruit cups at Sam's Club, I knew they would work for my pumpkin theme.  Cups of mandarin oranges plus a black permanent marker made for an easy pumpkin treat that was a lot healthier than a sugar filled dessert snack.  I just freehanded a cute little smiley pumpkin face on the side.  I suppose you could also cut out some vinyl with your Silhouette and stick on the side of the cup.  Peaches would also work for an orangey pumpkin.

I added a green spoon and a pumpkin napkin and the kids seemed happy with their snack.  They didn't seem to miss the sugar and the other moms were appreciative.

Goodbye, House!

We closed on our house today, hence the absence of blog updating on my part.  Even though we were preparing for this move for a while, it was a long week of packing, moving, purging, and cleaning.

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Goodbye, house.  It's hard to leave the place you've called home for the past five years.

Goodbye front door that welcomed all three of my babies home from the hospital.

Goodbye toilets that I alternated between on the first weekend we lived here when I had severe food poisoning and workers were busy installing things.  I'll just go ahead and mention that we had been trying to conceive our first child for almost two years at that point and we knew that I was ovulating during that lovely food poisoning.  The twins were born 8 1/2 months later.

Goodbye dining room table where I was determined to make my first pieces of stamped jewelry.  (The new owners bought the table with the house.)  All future Three Scoops of Love jewelry up to this point has been lovingly crafted at that table.

Goodbye landscaping pavers around our little water feature.  The weekend we installed you, I felt strangely nauseous every time I bent over.  The next day, we got the biggest surprise of our lives when we found out we were expecting Lily.

Goodbye house numbers on the outside brick.  I was so proud of you when we moved in.  We had a real house with real address numbers built in to the house.

Goodbye sadness! Hello to a new chapter of life!

Hello to our dream house.

Hello to a fresh start.

Hello to living with just the essentials for the next three months.

Hello to family bending over backwards to help us out with moving, building a house, and having a place to live.

Hello to the opportunity to teach our kids that "home" doesn't mean the roof over your head, "home" means being with the people you love.