August 2010

August was such a big month for our little family. It marked the end of our first summer together--8 weeks of snuggles, play time, swim lessons, walks, swings, and all of the mommy time a little girl could wish for-- as well as moving into our very first home of our own. There are a lot of pictures in this post because, well, I think Lorelei is absolutely adorable!

Sitting in the rocking chair for her official 11 month photo shoot.

Lorelei has a strong independent streak and loves to try and feed herself. Here she is enjoying some carrots.

My little adventurer very much enjoys getting in things and climbing on objects and creating all sorts of fun obstacle courses for herself. In this instance she is playing "zoo baby" where she puts the laundry basket on top of her and I tickle her through the holes in her "cage".

My zoo baby escaped!

The shortest route to mommy is a straight line! Why crawl around the coffee table when you can go under it (but over the low shelf)?

The other side of this adventure. (She did get caught though and needed help out of her predicament---she was trying to sit up underneath rather than just slithering across on her belly).

Lorelei helping Mommy pack the house. She is a much better unpacker than packer. I put things in a box, she takes them out. Repeat.

Steve spent every spare moment of summer making our fixer upper (which we closed on in June) ready for his girls. Finally it was moving weekend and Steve gets a little creative with moving Lorelei's crib out of the rental.

Kathy was a superstar and came down frequently and did all kinds of work to help Steve in his quest to get the house liveable before the end of summer. Here she is in the kitchen at the new house.

Here is Steve doing some essential moving work: checking his email and updating his facebook status(well we have to make sure the inter-dork works at the new place). But seriously, Steve worked and worked and worked (and is still working).

Bob must have come down every weekend and more to help Steve. So amazing!

I was not involved in the grunt work of fixing the house (although Steve and I spent lots of time making all kinds of decisions--paint for the rooms, light fixtures, what to spend our limited budget on, the many different types and sizes of bathtubs to choose from, etc), my summer job was to take care of Lorelei and keep Steve fed. But on moving day my mom watched Lorelei and I ran a bunch of loads back and forth in the 4-runner.

Here is another pic of the kitchen (don't worry, I'll do a more formal house tour at some point). I took this picture to document what my kitchen looked like the day before school started. Yes, moving weekend coincided with back to work weekend...do you think I was stressed out?

Fortunately the kitchen does not look like that anymore and we have settled into our little home. It was the most stressful, second biggest decision we have made as a couple. And we will probably be improving our home until the day we move out. But you know what I am looking forward to most about next summer? Not moving. Seriously. Steve and I married the summer of 2006 and moved into the Ward St. garage-house where we lived for 2 years. Summer 2008 we moved to Scenic and then summer 2009 out to the Overlook house which leads us to this summer 2010 move to Cottage. That is a lot of moving, and I am happy to finally settle down and am looking forward to swing sets, tricycle riding on our long driveway, eventually finishing the baseboards and crown molding and a host of other small things.

As for unpacking the house...well it couldn't have happened without this amazing bead table. Here is Lorelei thinking, "Someday I'll be able to reach all the way up there!"