Winter Wonderland

This weekend started off by getting an early release at work because of the snow coming down. I was really excited, but I do get very anxious driving in snow. I attribute it to the fact that the first time I ever drove in snow/winter conditions was when I got a car in college (I think it would've been winter 2006?); so less than 5 years. Not to mention driving in college shouldn't really count because I'm sure I avoided driving at all costs. I am getting more comfortable as time goes on, but its more the anticipation of having to drive in it that gets me! Long story short on the winter storm, we got a FOOT of snow! Now, I know that may not be a lot for many areas of the country, but in under 24 hours that happened fast in my opinion!

We're so lucky to have gotten the house we did... our neighbor used his snow blower over our driveway, sidewalk & front porch 2 or 3 times Friday when it was coming down so fast, and again Saturday! I am so grateful and want to bake something to take over because we're so thankful. Now don't get me wrong, Matt was out there shoveling too, but of course using the snow blower it went MUCH faster. As Matt said "He's gotten more done in 10 minutes then I did for 30 minutes of shoveling!". Here's a picture of Matt shoveling (I think he secretly enjoys it because we're new homeowners):

It looks kind of blurry because I was taking it through the screened window on our storm door. Our driveway is really wide back by the garage, wide enough for the 2 1/2 car garage at least! Matt did most of that, while our neighbor got the skinnier part of our driveway (we have a shared driveway), I'd say they did the same amount... just took way less time for our neighbor!

Here are a few pictures of Jack in the snow:

That's him Friday afternoon when I was home early from work... he was very perturbed because he couldn't move in his snowsuit!

This is a picture on Saturday after the snow had pretty much stopped... his legs are straight down in the snow! I know he's not that "tall", but I also doubt his legs were all the way to the grass.

So, in other exciting news... we got our stimulus check for our first time homebuyer incentive! (We had amended our 2008 taxes for the 2009 purchase as allowed by the credit)... Can't wait to use it to pay off what is left on our washer, dryer, stove & new carpet (we got those great deals of 12 months, same as cash). Then put the rest in savings! :-)

Jack's First Christmas!

We had an amazing day and got to spend it at home in our PJs. We all got lots of goodies and are feeling very lucky! Here are a few pictures of Jack's first Christmas!

Here is Jack and Matt... its probably the best picture I have of him in his Christmas outfit.

A view of the bottom of our Christmas tree after Santa came... my favorite thing Santa brought Jack would be his chair from Pottery Barn Kids! (Excuse the exersaucer in the background, he already had that... haha)

Jack under the Christmas tree on Christmas morning... I couldn't get him to smile, I think he was so distracted by the presents behind him. He's even grabbing them already in this picture.

We even got some goodies from our new neighbors, whom we haven't even seen much since we've moved in due to the holidays. They gave us some edible goodies (Chex Mix, Puppy Chow, etc.) as well as two Hallmark ornaments. One is a "New Home" ornament for the family and the other is a Classic Pooh "Baby's First Christmas" ornament. This was such a beautiful reminder of the fact that we got the right house for us!

In other news, I bought a new vacuum after ours crapped out right before Christmas. We desperately needed one after wrapping paper, food, and guests were in our house. I couldn't really shop around as much as I usually want to do when making a major purchase. I asked for suggestions from Facebook friends and everyone said Dyson. Well, I simply couldn't justify spending upwards of $350 for under 800 sq. ft. of carpet and ended up going with the suggestion of the Eureka Boss Smart Vac after reading some more reviews. I'll be sure to post a review after using it for a while but so far so good!

Happy Homeowners and Lots of Other Happenings!

Well, we're all moved in (and with internet access no less!) and loving our little home! We officially moved last Saturday, but it was such a busy day. We had carpet being put in that morning throughout the living room, bedrooms & hallway... then the guys (our amazing friends) showed up with a full truck at 11:30 a.m., had it all unloaded by 1:30 p.m. (after they had to wait for the carpet guys to finish up).

That afternoon we had the dryer hooked-up to remedy a fiasco from Friday. Friday was a busy day as well, we had multiple contractors at the house to do work.. including delivery & set-up of appliances. My mom was coming by to help me finish painting and just to help out with Jack, but wasn't there yet when the guys came to deliver the washer/dryer & range. Needless to say, my first experience with these delivery guys was miserable! I had my fussy 5 month old in one arm as I let them in. The older gentleman immediately started into how things were wrong, not going to work, etc. First "problem" was that the washer & dryer hook-ups were on the opposite side, which I suggested we simply put them on the side of the hook-ups. It appeared as though he did not like my ability to problem solve so quickly, but heck, we'd paid for them already & knew they'd fit (measuring tapes are very handy)! Well, the dryer vent that was left from the previous owners was a stiff material (not like the flexible kind I am most familiar with). It was simple enough to untape from the point where it was attached to the vent going outside. All this one-handed because Jack was in my other arm. Then he talks about how he can't bring the range in through the back door.... well, fancy that we've got a front door! That was a very small issue and again, easily solved. The washer was brought in and set-up to be working just fine. Then, the first part where we made a mistake came in... we didn't measure the baseboard molding when we measured for the washer & dryer. Okay, well its a tiny bit of molding only needed to be popped off to solve this problem. Well, that's something I couldn't do one-handed... I tried to hand a guy a crowbar and a flat-head screwdriver from Matt's toolbox. Nope, wasn't gonna help us out. I was trying to figure out what he was going to do... he decided all he could do for us was to put the dryer in the garage. So he did... and then he left. It took me a while, but after much "firing-up" by Matt & my parents, I called our sales guy and told him what had happened and explained that (after my mom was there to hold Jack) I went ahead and took the baseboard off. Long story short, he was able to get someone to come out the next day (moving day) to bring it in and set it up for us. I requested that it not be the same guy who came Friday, I simply didn't want to deal with such a debbie-downer. Needless to say, it was EXTREMELY frustrating, but it worked out okay.

I'll be posting some pictures of the house soon, I promise! It is just getting so dark by time I get home from work, that the pictures aren't that great... not to mention interior pictures would show more of boxes then of the actual house!

Other things happening on our busy front include: getting ready for Jack's first road-trip (18 hours to Texas!) next week for Thanksgiving and Tiffany & Steven's wedding, as well as Christmas being right around the corner! We're so excited for Jack's first Christmas (in fact we've already bought his first gift) and decided to spend his first Christmas at home, just us! I am so excited to start our own family traditions for our children... things like getting to open gifts from Santa in our pjs sound so relaxing and wonderful!