No Soul Left Behind

Smiles is 3! 

She’s adorable, and she knows it!  In fact, recently I was reading her a book, and the book contained the word “adorable”. When she heard the word, Smiles got all excited and shouted, “Adorable!  I’m adorable!” 

Here are a few pictures of Smiles on her birthday.

Where do you take a horse lover on her birthday?  To Heritage Days at Malabar Farm, of course!  This is our second year in a row attending the event, and it is fabulous.  Pony rides and horse-drawn wagon rides are the big favorites for Smiles.

Of course, Dad’s favorite are the Civil War demonstrations and historical reenactors. 

Smiles, you are adorable!  Happy birthday!

Here are a few cute pictures of our first days in the new house.

First, a picture of Smiles eating – or sleeping  -  through her second dinner at the new house.  Moving can sure make a toddler tired!

Also, another picture from Day 2:  I caught The Dancer alone reading on the back porch.  One of the things we loved about the new house was the huge, screened-in back porch that runs the entire length of the house.  What a great place to read a book!

Another plus:  we have a huge, wooded backyard.  Our lot is 1.1 acres, and it is filled with nature!  This is our first glimpse of deer, discovered standing where our driveway meets the road.  There are five of them, but unfortunately I don’t have a zoom on my cheap camera, so they look far away (but they actually aren’t).

Last but not least, my hero:  My cousin Greg.  He and my Aunt Sue drove all the way out here to do three days of hard labor.  Aunt Sue helped me remove some ugly wallpaper in the living room, and Greg mostly removed overgrown bushes and hauled trash to the curb.  Here is Greg with an overgrown shrub that died.  He removed the roots manually (he had no choice, they were right by the water line), and the roots/stump was about 250 lbs!  Greg, you are my hero!

Forgive me for my long lapse in posting.  We’ve moved to a new house!  We got a great deal selling our old house, and an even better deal buying our new house.  We live in a very expensive neighborhood now, something we could have never afforded without the housing market tanking (and also a little bit of divine intervention).

I can’t believe how smoothly everything went.  Our old house got an incredible offer after only 26 days on the market.  In fact, we only had five showings.  Then we got an even more amazing deal on the house we bought!  Then, everything else fell into place too – even moving day went well!  And, it just seems to be meant for us to be here.  It is all amazing.  In fact, when I told my husband’s colleague the entire story of our move, he said he found it “hard to believe.”  St. Joseph, thank you for your prayers on our behalf!

The above picture is The Naturalist amidst boxes at our old house.  The kids actually enjoyed packing and unpacking, and even Smiles transitioned easily to the new house.  Funniest of all was the kids playing “Moving Day” with the Barbies.  For weeks on end, they would tell their Barbies it was Moving Day, then put all the Barbie furniture in the Barbie Corvette, drive around the house, then unpack.  Luckily Barbie didn’t complain!