Progress 3

Since it is Monday I will do a quick post with this past weeks progress of the house! It is going well and looking so great!!


FRONT VIEW. All framed and ready for the next step - windows and roof shingles!

Cool view of our soon-to-be front porch

Stairs going down to the basement


Back staircase in the family room. The main stairs in the foyer are not up yet but we were so excited to see these stairs. WOW!! It was incredible to see the upstairs!

View from the top of the back stairs - looking into the family room.


And a view of our bathtub in our master bath!! YAY!!
Stay tuned for more and more updates!! Thanks for looking!

Today is a special day!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DADDY/MATT!!

Today is Matt's 35th birthday! We wanted to make a special post in tribute to the wonderful husband and Daddy that he is! He is the most amazing and thoughtful man in the world. He works so hard for us. He is always there for us when we need him. He is the BEST Daddy to Lily and always comes home to play with her and do special things with her.

So, Matt-Daddy ~ Thank you for everything that you do for us!

WE LOVE YOU SO MUCH!

Our day is rather busy with Matt working of course and a house showing this evening so I am busy cleaning once again. Needless to say there won't be too much celebrating today. We did celebrate last night though. Lily and I made a special "Lily safe" cake for him while he was at his basketball game. We had a little party and sang Happy Birthday after dinner. Lily LOVED it! She was running around hugging Daddy saying "It's your birthday Daddy!!" So cute. She was really excited over it!
Here are some pictures of last night.

Mixing up the cake


Taste test of the icing

Singing "Happy Birthday"!

Eating cake!! YUM!! This is Lily safe - for those who don't know, Lily has a milk allergy so it is hard to find yummy kinds of treats that are safe for her!!

And finally a kiss from the birthday boy!!

It was a fun night. Daddy - we hope you are having a happy birthday!! See you tonight!

Do YOU like spiral staircases?

Well, the second showing of our townhouse proved to be pretty successful. The woman interested has 16 homes she is looking at and ours is her #1! WOO HOO! The only drawback is that she is a 72 year old woman and she is unsure of the spiral staircase. It is definitely understandable but Matt and I just had to laugh. The spiral staircase was the one big thing we thought we had going for us!! It is really different and gives the place character.

Don't you think??

Anyway, she is contemplating having regular stairs put in. We are actually surprised that she loves our place so much. I mean it IS a really nice place but it doesn't seem like the type of home an older person would be looking for. We would be happy to have her buy it though even though it would be sad to think of the spiral stairs going bye, bye!! Oh well! She is also from out of town so fine with the fact that she wouldn't be able to move in until November.

It seems like things may just be falling into place for us. STILL - I am not getting my hopes up just yet! More updates to follow.

Hope everyone is enjoying the weekend.

Second showing everyone!!

OK everyone out there ----

Cross your fingers and toes and say some prayers!! Today there will be a second showing on our townhouse. A woman that came through the other day is VERY interested and wants to see it again! I am really excited. I am trying very hard not to get my hopes up for them to be shattered if it doesn't work out. But it is hard.

More updates to come on this BIG thing in our lives! I am off to clean and purchase a St. Joseph! (if you are confused by that check this out!! Bury a St. Joseph)

ONE of the reasons we need a bigger house....

In November we will be moving to our much bigger, brand new house. We have been in our current townhouse since April of 1999. It has been a great place to live. We started here as a newly married couple with one little gray kitty cat. Our first house together as a family. Then our family grew and we adopted 3 more cute kitty cats. Then in 2005 we had the introduction of our newest family member, Lily. Even before Lily was born we knew we soon needed to move to something bigger. We knew that we wouldn't be able to move to our dream house until Matt was completely finished his Fellowship and secure in a new job. So, that time has come and we are ready! Until this time we had to do what we could with the space that we had. I think we did a great job and we are all very happy in this small little townhouse but ready for some more space.

Here is an example
Yes!! That is our daughter getting a bath in a blow up tub in our shower stall. HA HA!!
You see we DO have two bathrooms but the other is used to house litter boxes for the 4 crazy cats we have in this house!! The bath tub in that bathroom is the only place for the litter boxes so they will be out of the way and not make too much of a mess.

Lily got a bath in the baby tub in the kitchen sink until she was about 18 months old. Then I came up with this genius idea and it has worked!! She really does fit and I think she will just be about ready to grow out of it by November!! We are super excited because Lily will have her very own bathroom attached to her bedroom at our new house! I have already started thinking about how I will decorate it!! I want it to be special for her. (You will see that in a future post! I hope to have many more decorating posts when I finally have a house to decorate!)

Here are a few more pictures of her in her bathtub! I couldn't resist because she posed and smiled so nicely.


And a final one of her playing in her bath! See...she really can play and have fun in this bath!


Today I will leave you with two pictures of our cute little townhouse. It really has been home for us over these past several years. We have so many great memories here. The best memory being the second picture ~ the day we brought Lily home. We are ready though...to close this chapter and move on to bigger and better things!! :)

These are a few of My Favorite Things

So I am sitting here at my computer and trying to think of something clever, fun and creative to blog about. What DO you blog about when you can't think of anything?? I decided I would do a My Favorite Things segment when I am at a loss! I will tell you some things that I love and then you can comment back with your favorite things!! (hint, hint...can you see I am fishing for some comments from all of you who are reading and not commenting!???!)

Today will be some favorite foods.

I am definitely not a food connoisseur. Those who know me well know that I am a plain and simple kind of eater. I really do not care for fancy elegant dining or gourmet types of food. If I eat out it will most likely be something plain or many things on the side. No sauces (except barbecue) or cheese for me. I know - you are all probably saying "how boring!". But that is just how I am. I do however really love to eat and I have some fun, simple favorites that you can just never go wrong with!!

1st - chicken fingers or just plain old chicken



When I go out to a casual restaurant most likely I will order some type of chicken - either chicken fingers or a grilled chicken sandwich - plain!! (Can you please remove the lettuce and tomato on the one pictured above??)

But you have to have them with my next favorite....

FRENCH FRIES! Yum! They are the best any way you get them!

Another favorite is pizza!


Those are probably my top meal time foods - pretty exciting, huh? But, you can't have them without some dessert. I will take either CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES - (hot and fresh out of the oven are the best) or BROWNIES!! Who could go wrong with either of these??
(No nuts in either of these please, just plain!!)

So there you have it, my favorite foods. I know a lot of you are probably thinking I am the oddest, most boring person - really I'm not! These are just the things I love to eat. I really do TRY new things I just don't like them. I'm not really sure why. I just have simple taste buds I guess!!??

Thanks for reading my first installment of My Favorite Things.
So, what are some other favorite foods out there??!

How my day started off.....

Today I saw once again how very true the title to my blog is.

I woke up early to get showered and have a quiet breakfast. Lily woke up at about 8:15 and immediately started singing "Your face, your face, no one has your face" in her crib. (This is from her favorite "Bob" CD.) I went in to get her and told her we needed to take a little walk to mail a letter at the mailbox. (hey Caren - it was the check for our scrapbooking weekend! YAY!)

So, Lily was VERY excited to get dressed and take our walk. The mailboxes are just around the corner from our townhouse, it is about a 2 minute walk. We got her dressed and set out to go. Lily carried the letter. She held my hand the whole way. The whole time she was saying "this is fun walking to the mailbox Mommy". We got to the mailbox, she put the letter in the slot and we walked back. Walking back holding my hand she looked up at me and said "Mommy.....I love you". Could you just melt? I could, especially with that sweet face looking up at me. We got back to the house and she kept repeating how much fun she had walking to the mailbox...just the simplest, silliest thing was so important and FUN to her! I love it!

Later after breakfast we decided to go outside and water the flowers. Another simple everyday task that is so exciting for our little 2 1/2 year old. I watched her as she watered and marveled in the excitement of holding the watering can!!! :)



After our watering we headed back inside to eat lunch and head to the pool. I thought about what a great day it was so far and reminded myself that I have to remember these little things when I am having a not so great day. They are really what life is all about and I am taking in every precious moment with this little girl because she is oh so quickly becoming a BIG girl!!

Tonight we will be heading to Rita's to meet some very good friends for some water ice. Ahhhh water ice, another "little thing" that makes Lily so happy! We also worked on a little project to send to a very special Cousin/Nephew. Tomorrow we will have to make another trip to the mailbox to mail our letter!!

Progress 2

I figured I will try to do a weekly post on the house progress on Monday's. They work all week and on weekends also. They didn't work this weekend though because of the holiday. The pictures below are the progress as of Thursday, July 3rd. Matt will be taking a drive there on his way home from work today to see what they have done today. It is getting so exciting now that it is actually a real house on the lot and not just a dug out hole in the ground!!

FRONT
BACK
It looks like the framing should be complete by early this week and then the roof shingles will go on and the windows will go in! It is taking shape!!

We went out this weekend and starting looking at furniture to furnish this large house!! It was fun but overwhelming at the same time. We had great luck at Mealey's and Gamburg's in Hatboro. The new Mealey's in Warminster is VERY nice if anyone is in the need for new furniture. They had a very nice selection. While you are browsing/shopping they even have "cars" that the kids can ride in (like a car shaped stroller) and a play area! It was a hit with us. It looks like we will be going back there to order some things in the future!

Thanks for looking at the house progress!

Bubbles of fun with Pop-pop

On the 4th of July we spent some time at Pop-pop's house. It was a little bit of a dreary and humid day but as Pop-pop said, it was the perfect weather for blowing bubbles. Lily loves bubbles and had a good time blowing them with Pop-pop. Here are a couple of pictures of the fun!

Photography

Recently Matt and I decided to buy ourselves a new camera. We both have been wanting to get more into photography. We are always taking pictures of Lily and found that it was so hard to get a good shot of her because she is always on the move. We looked into Digital SLR cameras and decided that was a great way to go. We bought the Nikon D40. It is a great camera and has been exactly what we were looking for. I have been trying to read a little more and do some serious photography research but I haven't gotten too far. On the other hand, Matt has been doing awesome. He of course didn't have to read much of anything - he is just a natural!! He was inspired to get out and take a bunch of scenic photos when he volunteered to do the new website for his practice. He went out many early mornings and later afternoons when the lighting was just perfect and got some really wonderful shots. I have to say I am highly impressed with his work! We are hoping to blow some up and frame them for our new house. All of the pictures were taken in Bucks County, most of them near our new neighborhood. It is just beautiful in this whole area.

Here are some of my favorites.






You can also see some of these pictures and others on the Bucks County GI website that he was in charge of getting together. It looks great. There are some "stock" photos also that he did not take (all of the ones with the generic people in them) but he took all of the other ones.

So I am sure there will be many future endeavors for both of us in the world of photography. I am hoping to get better and better also. Until then I will keep my SLR camera set on Auto and just keep shooting! :)

Happy 4th of July!

Had to do a quick post to wish everyone a Happy 4th of July. Hope everyone is enjoying some summer fun.  Swimming, beach, parks, hot dogs, hamburgers and of course fireworks!! (Not for us though since Lily is deathly afraid!) We are spending a nice day at Pop-pop's and plan to have some hot dogs and hamburgers later for dinner. Matt is having his first official weekend on call at the new job and so far - fingers crossed -- it is going well!

Enjoy your weekend everyone!

Progress

Not too much progress on the selling of our current house but A LOT of progress on the building of our new one! We are super excited and have been going everyday to get pictures. They started framing on June 21st and since then they have been working just about everyday. We have gotten some really good pictures. I think we have been a little naughty with the fact that we have been walking through it (especially with our 2 year old) but it has been so much fun! Lily has been an angel when we have been there, holding our hand and listening well. We haven't gotten caught yet! The house is looking amazing and as we are walking through it we are just saying to each other "I can't believe this is going to be ours!". We are super excited and so happy!!
Here are some pictures of the progress so far.

Front of the house


Back

Lily in her construction boots. I bought these at K Mart for $5 at the end of the winter just for this reason!

Lily in the fireplace - I know bad, but the memories are so precious and the scrapbook will be sooo good!! hee hee


In the pantry

In the living room with Daddy

In the family room


Since these were taken they have finished the second floor and started putting the roof on. I will probably update the blog about once a week with photos of the progress.
We can't wait for it to be done! We especially can't wait to have all of our family and friends over and actually be able to be the hosts for once!!

Thanks for looking!

Summer Water fun!

As I said in a previous post Lily loves the water this summer. We have been to Sesame Place, the pool, the park with the fountain, and the water table at Pop-pop's house. I wanted to post some pictures of Lily at play in the water. WE LOVE SUMMER!


At Sesame Place watching the Big Bird show where they spray you with water!


At the pool on vacation - With Cousin Andrew and Uncle Rob!


Jumping in!



At the fountain. This fountain is at the park near our new house. These are not the best pictures but at least you get an idea. She loves filling the bucket and then coming to pour it on my feet and then fills it again. This is really the life I tell ya!

Tomorrow we are going to visit Aunt Caren and Cousin Alden to go swimming at their pool at the YMCA! We can't wait. I am sure it will be a good time.

I hope everyone is enjoying the sun and summer fun!

House showing!!

OK, so most of you know that we recently put our house on the market. Well today at 5:30 will be the first official showing other than the Open House we had while on vacation. I can't believe how much work it is to get a house ready to show. Of course I want it to look immaculate and I am cleaning every nook and cranny. What makes it the hardest is the "4 cat issue" we have in this house. I can't even go into all of the detail about how I am cleaning and getting 4 cats out of the house to show it. I will take a picture of the crates I have in my car in another post. I have to clean up the litter boxes, put them in storage, put the cats one at a time into the car and drive around for an hour with 4 crying cats in my trunk and a toddler!! HA HA! Sounds like fun, huh?
Well, hopefully it will all be worth it at some point sooner than later. Our realtor doesn't think it is necessary to get the cats out but I really don't want someone walking through with them here.

I will keep the blog updated as the showings continue! We want this place SOLD so we can move on to bigger and better things!