New Home

Here are a few pictures of our new house in Crofton. We are so excited to have so much space and several of our neighbors have already come by to welcome us (with bottles of wine!) to the neighborhood! The pictures are what I took when we were looking at homes and narrowing our choices down, so the furniture and colors are not ours:) I will post updated pictures after we finish all our painting and also the yard is already looking a TON better since my parents sent a landscaper over as a housewarming present to trim, weed, mulch, and just make it look awesome!! The house had been empty for almost a year and there are a lot of great bushes and trees, but they just needed a little bit of help to get them back under control! So, I'll get the updated photos up soon, but just wanted you to see the "before" pictures...

This is Don our realtor with Owen:)

Foyer

Kitchen (looking from the family room)

Family room (looking from the kitchen) there are french doors that lead to the living room

"purple" living room (we are changing this color!)

Dining Room

Master Bedroom

Master Bathroom -dual sinks, my favorite!

Master Bathroom has a tub and shower stall

MBR closet (this was about the size of Owen's room in our DC house!)

Hall Bathroom

Violet's Bedroom (we are painting this lavender of course!)

Owen's Room (yes! It is neon green, and yes, we have already changed this color!)

Violet when she saw her pink/purple room... She asked me to cover her eyes so she could be surprised:) I still have paint all over me, but we did the kids rooms first so we could get them moved in asap!

Basement (it has 1 finished bedroom and we are finishing the other room to be used by Havilah)

Basement Bathroom (looks like there might be room to eventually add a shower down here)

Leaving the Hill

We have been in the midst of moving around here... We went thru some crazy stuff in the beginning, but after we changed realtors we had a contract within 2 weeks. So, we scrambled to put an offer on a house we liked out in Crofton, MD and after lots of back and forth had a ratified contract. We are now in our new home, but it was really hard on our hearts to leave the home we brought our babies home to, the community around the Hill that is like family to us, and extending Brandon's commute from 10 minutes to 45 min to an hour. But, we both felt like it was time for more space, better school options, and a different environment to raise our family in. The kids have gone with the flow very well and are adjusting great. Only a few times when Violet was mad at us about something did she throw out a "I want to go back to my house by the Capitol!". She does occasionally ask if when we are done at our new house if we can go back to the old. And the first few days Owen kept putting on his shoes and saying "Go" which in Owen language means ummm, I'm ready to go back to my real house. But one other exciting bit of news that has been a very easy adjustment for the kids and us was having my sister, Chase, and Gabriel move in with us. They have the whole basement to themselves with bedrooms for each of them and a little living room and bathroom as well. So really all we share is the kitchen. The kids LOVE having them their and it has been awesome getting to watch Gabriel grow everyday since small babies grow so quickly. Plus my sister is great with my kids and they adore her and Chase! The ultimate plus we joke about is the fact that I have a sister-wife (no we are not mormon), but really someone to share the household chores, do the grocery shopping, plus Havilah loves to cook. And we discovered that when B and I are losing our patience it is nice to have a 3rd adult to "help" calm things down...ie...bedtime with Violet is always a losing battle for us:)

Here are a few pictures from our home on the Hill:

Our realtor had us paint the outside to update and make it feel fresh. They chose the color and it felt drastic at first, but they clearly are the pro's around here! This is pre-paint...

Post paint: (it did look pretty awesome-amazing what a coat of paint can do!)

dual fireplacees

dining room

MBR

MBR bath

Kids saying goodbye (note the SOLD sign)

Mary Poppins

So, one of the main reasons I always wanted to have a little girl, (well maybe not the main reason, but definetly a high-up there reason) was to do fun things like go to the theater. We (my mom, Havilah, and I) took Violet to see Mary Poppins at the Kennedy Center. We even went early to have a pre-show dinner. It was a great show and we had been watching the movie a ton so we would know all the songs. (she is still singing them even a month later!) The show was a bit different from the movie, but we still loved it anyways. I mean come on, what's not to love?! Mary Poppins flies across the whole opera house! Violet was mesmerized and I'm already planning out when I can take her to NYC to see the Rockettes at Christmas and maybe throw in a broadway show!

4th of July

We spent a great 4th of July at Ocean City with our friends the Borja's this year! The kids swam like fish and Violet discovered that she can go under water!! We could barely get her out of the ocean or the pool. Hopefully the kids made some great memories with each other because I know we all did! After the main fireworks the kids all ran around on the beach while people set off fireworks. They thought they were in heaven with getting to stay up so late and play on the beach in the dark!

Owen's favorite thing to do on the beach was eat all the snacks...

...and covering his sister with sand was a close second

Violet, Cali, & Owen

Violet had to be forced out of the water for little breaks from the waves (more for daddy's sake)

Best Friends:)

Looking for seashells one morning in our pajamas

At the boardwalk:

Dairo, Cali, Christina, Giovanni

lots of games and rides!

smooching in the car... (my all time favorite shot!)

Fireworks!!!!

Dancing while waiting for fireworks:)

Violet aka The Little Mermaid:

Summer Fun

We have been crazy busy this summer with our house on the market and keeping these kids entertained. Here are some pictures from what we've been up to....

Violet and Halle at this awesome water park at The Plaza in Silver Spring, MD (Halle hung out with us for a few weeks this summer while she was visiting her dad from Florida. This is our 3rd summer with Halle and she is the sweetest little girl and the girls are the best of friends while she is here!)

Owen getting a little drink


"big mouth" Violet, Aliyah, & Halle


lunch break...

Violet watching Daddy play a little Navy softball. She has had such a great time going with him to his practices and games and has become the little team mascott/cheerleader! GO NAVY!!

Happy Father's Day! We made these "tie" t-shirts for Pop-Pop and Daddy

Visit with Vi's school, Little Learners, to Oxen Hill Farm where the kids got to feed chickens, collect eggs, and milk the cows!

Owen won't let us cut up his hotdog anymore...

ahhh, this is much easier

Violet, Giovanni, & Owen are taking swim lessons with Ms Lisa this summer.

After baths one night the kids were hanging on our bed really absorbed into their leapfrog games. It was really cute!

This is how we found Owen one night when we checked on him before we went to bed. I knew he could crawl in and out of his crib, but I guess he was just having too much fun playing to worry about crawling back in when he was tired...

Mommy learns how to french braid Vi's hair

On our good friends, Doug, Kate, & Joshua's boat on the Potomac. What a fun day this was! We had a picnic and saw all the DC sites from the river...can't beat that!

The kids got these t-shirts when the police pulled us over to check our safety equipment on the boat. Owen insisted on wearing his! He looks like a linebacker in this picture!