A New Adventure

We bought a house!!!! I’ve waited to post anything about it because wowza...what a process to buy a house. It’s nuts. But we did it, and we LOVE it!

It’s over double the space we had. 

There were a few projects we tackled on closing day. We closed at 8am so we could do the projects and decorate (finally! Because I refused to decorate at the old house and create more packing for myself.) for Christmas! The built in bed pictured above was torn out. 

The carpets and duct work were cleaned. The garage was also cleaned out...an unexpectedly big job, but it’s done and looks amazing!

This was the majority of our Advent. Packing and living among boxes, because when you’re using every inch of your small house, where do you put the packed boxes?! Everywhere. You put them everywhere. 

It felt SO GOOD to take that sign out of the yard!!! (And if you’re looking for a realtor, don’t call Jane (seller’s agent there on the photo) call ours (see first photo on this post)!!! Erika Bartles with Home Real Estate was unbelievable. We totally stumbled upon her (although we are convinced God knew exactly what He was doing) and she does amazing work. 

We got a good start decorating on closing day. The boys just LOVE the carpet. It’s hilarious!

Augustine got to skip school on moving day. He was so.excited about the truck. 

And since we only moved six blocks away, he got to ride in it too. 

We had so.many.helpers on moving day. 


Not all of them are pictures, but we were so grateful for all of them! 

Including the tree decorating committee. ;)

And the “everyone needs to take a break” committee. 

Our biggest project was getting a new back door. We knew from day one that this would have to happen. The sliding door didn’t lock, and you could see daylight around it. 

Voila! Can’t wait for nice weather!

We walked through this house back in August but we were planning to wait a few years before buying. Then we noticed two month later that it was still for sale. Long story short, God will not be outdone in generosity.

Fr. H came yesterday and blessed the house for us...the deluxe package. Blessed salt and everything! He put Lewis in charge of the salt (bold move, but Lewis did great!), and Augustine was in charge of Holy Water sprinkling (he also did great). 

Our last project was to make a temporary mud room book for the boys. We’ll fix it up fancy next summer before school starts, but for now it just needed a bench and some hooks. 
The unpacking is mostly done. Just wall hangings and the guest bedroom to work on. 

We’ve been thoroughly enjoying our new space, getting it organized, making it our own, and Christmas break. 
So now we pause to relax and take in Christmas Day. Moving and preparing a new home during Advent has taken on a lot of meaning, so maybe it’s not been a minimalist’s Advent after all...maybe it’s been our best one yet. 

Advent Around Here

It’s the last day of Advent so i better sneak a post in about it. It’s been a busy four weeks around here, so we didn’t get all of our usual traditions accomplished, but we did embark on quite the new adventure, which I’ll post about next. But first, Advent: Minimalist Style. 

We made our grinch cookies because they are so easy and so yummy. We watched the animated film about 200x, and we tried to watch the real-people one but turns out it’s still too scary. Maybe next year. 

We went to the St. T’s Christmas program and of course it was spectacular! Their music teacher is amazing and allows these students to experience music in the most creative ways. Plus, all the songs were about Mary because without her yes we wouldn’t have Christmas as we know it. So beautiful, so Catholic. 

Grandma Susan covered the cookie making for us. The boys love her ginger cookie recipe. 

Elias has enough play doh experience that he could participate too, although this dough is really yummy. He got lots of snitches. 

Baking With Kids

My mom: cool, calm, collected. 

Me: screaming on the inside. 

We finished up the rectory kitchen renovation and had a little ribbon cutting ceremony. 

Such a great bunch! It was so fun to meet new people in the parish and have a mission together. I’m looking forward to updating five rectory bathrooms in January with some of these people!

 The boys discovered “Snoofy” (PLEASE don’t correct them, it’s so dang funny) so we watched Charlie Brown Christmas this year. You know it’s bad when your 7 year old says, “Mom, I think Charlie Brown needs new friends.” #proudmom We were not impressed, but the tree makes us laugh and Fr. F had it in his office which made us laugh even harder! 

We decided I would stay home from the office Christmas party at Logan’s work this year, but as he was leaving I just really wanted to go sit down with him and have a good drink, so Grandma Kathleen kindly sat with the sleeping children. I surprised Logan by showing up at the party and turns out we played the Saran Wrap ball game. 

Guess who won?!

Grandma Kathleen covered the candy house making for us. It was so fun!

Candy House Making

Kathleen: calm, cool, collected. 

Me: screaming on the inside. 

I just hate food messes. 

So there you have it Advent 2017...that’s a wrap! 

Lewis at School

St. Nicholas Day

St Nick left us some goodies on his feast day! (Augustine made the awesome advent wreath!)

His class was in charge of readings and choir on St. Nick’s feast day. He got to read a petition! He was SO excited. He did a great job and loved every minute of it. 

We went to an event at Pius that was very fun that evening. A realistic St. Nick, color pages, blessing of the Baby Jesus from our nativity set, cookie decorating and hot chocoate. We took our friends with us because their mommy wasn’t feeling well, so we all hopped in the photo together. 

The high school choirs sang Christmas songs too! The kids loved watching the big kids sing. 

More Hats

 

Team Fun

It seems like I finally have time and energy to enjoy the team for the first time in 8.5 years. It’s a nice change!

We had the traditional end-of-semester toasts at our house. We’ve been hosting the last 3-4 years or so, and it’s a really great perspective on the team since I rarely see them work together. 

We also went bowling together this year. They boys had a blast!

Team babies

Elias couldn’t wait for his turns. 

Augustine has been bowling before, and did very well on his own! He even bowled for Katie who is 9 months pregnant and couldn’t bowl for very long. 

And Lewis was doing pretty darn well on his own too by the end of the afternoon!

We are not bowlers at heart, but it was fun!