Post-Moving Photo Dump

We made serious progress settling in during our 5 day holiday weekend (Peter and I both took off of work on Wednesday and Friday).  There's still plenty to do, but we're in great shape.  And obviously I felt like we got enough done that I could spend some time on other tasks:

If you haven't noticed, I'm semi-obsessed with my new license plates.  I think I'll continue working on the blog design (I'm not totally happy with all of the details), but for now it will work.  I wanted to showcase the license plates, but I also needed to re-work things since the monthly pictures are coming to an end.  (Sidenote: I was a little surprised at the number of people who contacted me to say that they are disappointed in this decision!  I never realized that so many people other than me actually cared about those monthly pictures!  Don't worry - you can revisit all of the monthly monkeys and monthly menageries anytime you want.)

Here's a dump of photos since the moving truck drove away on Wednesday afternoon ...

Morning coloring at Bubby and Grandpa's house after
our second night of sleepover.

Vince feeding his baby.  Ever since he received the baby
as a big brother gift in March 2011, the doll has been
named Baby.  But this week, Vince told Bubby and me
that his baby is now a girl named Beatrice.  Swoon! 

Happy Birthday, America!  In honor of our independence,
the boys watched 8 hours of movies.  Go ahead and judge,
but we got a ton of unpacking done!

Can't agree with your brother on what movie to watch?
No worries - Mommy will set up your own viewing
station for you.

It's been a long morning of unpacking when Mom
has a beer with lunch!

Dinner at Mom and Daddy's house ... and Vince managed
to find Emily's very favorite picture ever of us.  June 2003,
about to board a Carnival Cruise bound for Mexico.

Peter has been working like mad around the house, doing all kinds of
"boy" things that he is so good at doing (I married a very handy man, that
is for sure!)  He had no shortage of help.  I love the expression on Max's
face while he works the power drill (without a bit, of course) in this picture.

We put the boys' play kitchen just off the real kitchen in the new house.
While I made dinner the other night, Max did too.

I posted this picture on Facebook the other night with
the caption, "Happiness abounds in our new home."
So very true!

After all of our hard work the last several days, we were so excited to take a drive down to Long Beach to visit Anne, Brian, and Beatrice.  (Recall that Peter was away when she was born and hadn't yet met his niece!)

My 3 boys with Beatrice

Vince had a chance to hold Beatrice in the hospital and this time
Max wanted a turn too.

As I said, Peter has been working like crazy on various projects around the house.  Yesterday alone, he took every single thing out of the garage (the repository for everything that didn't have an immediately obvious place in the new house), sorted it all, and put it back in.  Then he worked on the front and back yards.  Then he built the new pantry that I just bought at IKEA.  He was spent and stressed.  But he took a shower and freshened up in anticipation for our visit to Long Beach, and when we got in the car to head home he said something to the effect of, "Seeing my sister as a mom and Brian as a dad and meeting Beatrice was the best way to end this day.  I don't feel tired or stressed or anything anymore.  Just happy."  Sigh.  Newborns are magical.

I can't end this blog without saying the biggest thank you ever to Mom and Daddy for everything they've done for us during this whole process the last week (and before).  They have supported us in every single way and have worked just as hard as we have getting this house settled.  I know this is just the sort of thing that they moved here for, and I still can't believe how lucky we are.

A new house, a new niece, surrounded by love and support.  Happiness abounds for sure.